Brilliant Battles At Brands
Lap one of the first race was interesting as by the end of it Ken Lark had leap-frogged from 16th on the grid to ninth, whilst Dean Hamilton had a great start and passed Richard, getting into 10th from 14th on the grid. Jonathan Griffin slotted in next on 11th (up from 13th) leaving Richard Merrell a somewhat displaced 12th, just ahead of Dave Messenger.
Five Alfas running line astern, covered by just over three seconds. Big loser was Ian Daltrey who dropped from 11th on the grid to 17th at the end of the lap while the Sud of Peter Smart (running in the Group One Championship rather than our series) dropped from 19th to 21st and last. But they did better than three non-Alfa competitors who had qualified but did not start the race.
Lap two saw Ken move up to eighth, while Richard got past Jonathan, and on lap three got back past Dean, as Dave similarly passed Jonathan. The fun continued on lap four, with Dave powering the 75 past Dean’s 33, who also found Jonathan slipping past! Maybe Dean was starting to experience the issue that would cause his demise, as he slipped another place on lap five.
The next few laps saw everyone hold station, with lap-times slowly dropping, until lap nine when Dave managed to depose Richard as they caught Peter Smart’s Sud to lap him.
At this point Richard and Dean departed the fray, as the leading cars continued to lap the rest of the field. By lap 12 Ken was the only Alfa still on the same lap as the leader, David Howard’s XJ12 Jaguar. On this lap he got under the one minute lap for the first time. By lap 15 he was the last of six cars still on the same lap as the leader, thus taking seventh overall and first Alfa award, from Dave Messenger in ninth overall, and then Jonathan Griffin shown as 11th.
Will Dick brought his TS-engined GT Bertie into 12th just over a second further back, with the two Suds coming in 16th (Ian) and 18th and last finisher, two laps down.
The grid order for race two was based on finishing order from race one, and we had another interesting first lap, as at the end of it, Dave Messenger had the 75 in fifth and first Alfa, with Ken in sixth, while Will Dick had another
good start moving up to ninth, Jonathan held station in 11th, followed by Ian’s Sud, up from 16th. Richard’s comeback saw him in 15th, with Peter’s Sud in 18th. Lap two saw something of a disaster for Will Dick. Conversely Ian’s Sud continued to move up the order a couple of spots to 10th, though Jonathan slipped to 13th,
one place ahead of a charging Richard.
Lap three quietened down a bit, but Jonathan gained a place, passing a Rover P6 V8, and then Will Dick gained a couple of places with Richard losing 10 seconds or so, and dropping back to 18th and last Alfa.
Lap four continued to be fairly uneventful, although Ian moved up another place to ninth, and on lap five Richard put in his best lap to date to pass Peter’s Sud.
There were few changes for the next few laps, as Dave, currently running seventh, continued to ease away from Ken at about 0.5 seconds a lap, and Ian’s Sud set a few fast laps to ease closer to Ken, reducing the gap to six seconds by lap eight, during which Richard passed Will – I wonder if he took advantage as the lead pair passed both of them?
By lap 10 Ian had got right on Ken’s tail, less than a second behind, and was obviously enjoying the conditions, setting consistent 66 second lap times, which enabled him to pass Ken on lap 11, by which time Ken was the last unlapped Alfa.
Someone obviously gave Dave a “hurry-up” message, as he sped up to roughly match Ian’s pace for the last few laps, ending the race about 1.5 seconds clear of him. Ian achieved the fastest lap of any of the Alfas, although the conditions can be judged by the fact that this fastest time was more than four seconds slower than his lap-times from the first race.
Results – http://www.tsl-timing.com/barc/2012/122221pht.pdf
Forthcoming Events
Jul 29 Mallory Park
Autoglym Classic Festival
A (d), B (d), C (d)
Aug 18/19 Thruxton BARC
A (d), B (d), C (d)
Sep 8/9 Cadwell Park BARC
B (s), C (d)
Sep 22 Oulton Park BARC
B (s), C (s)
Oct 13/14 Pembrey BARC
B (d), C (d)
(s) = single race event (d) = double race event
Category A – Classic Alfa Romeo
Category B – Post Classic Alfa
Romeo
Category C – Alfa Romeo Thunder
Regulations
Approved AROC Racing Series Regulations are available on the
BARC website – www.barc.net
AROC Contact: Nick Wright
manager@aroc-uk.com
07753 857029
Entry details: Sally Langley
sally147@catlover.com
07905 445249
Regulation details: Mike Bedwell
m.bedwell257@btinternet.com
07932 164839
CTCRC Contact: Peter Edwards
peter.edwards@classictouringcars.com
