Barbon Manor showed its windswept face as the unrelenting gale swept across the Westmorland hillside. Despite the weather the track conditions and occasional sunny spells led to a plethora of Personal Best (PB) Times. After just one practice run we moved seamlessly into the competition runs.
Jessica Harris kicked off proceedings in the Junior Class. She blitzed the class record on her first run in the family Suzuki Swift then lowered it on her two successive runs. With three other members of the Harris clan tackling the hill it was very much a family affair.
In the Standard classes there were wins for Ben Briggs in his Nissan Micra, Emilia Wood in the family Suzuki Swift, David Goodlad in his Clio and Peter Messer in his MX5.
Into the Series Production classes where Ian Blenkinsop took the Class 1A win in his VW Up; in the eight-way battle in 1B Jonathan Baines led throughout in his Clio; in 1C Reece Meakin took the win in his GR Yaris; in 1D Nigel Trundle took the win in his Mk 4 MX5 ahead of Kevin Hamilton’s earlier version; in 1E David Taylor got to within a second of the class record with his ‘new’ Cayman GTS; Steve Wilson cruised to victory in 1F with his S2 Elise before we moved into Locaterfield territory. In 2A it was a Bramall 1-2 as Matt led home Chris in their Caterham Super 7 with Phil Hallington third in his Westfield. In 2d David Everett took the win in his Plus 8 before we moved into Mod Prods.
Barbon debutante Richard Brookes took 3C in his ex-rally MG ZS180 whilst another Barbon newbie, Peter Baker in the Ginetta G15, took 3F. Tony Middleton again got close to the class record in 3G in his Westfield before Chris Thomas took the Sports libre win in his Vauxhall engined Talbot Sunbeam.
In the Racing Car classes the 1100s had the numerical advantage. The 5A class battle raged between the brothers Wood in their Force PT. Anthony would end up second behind Robin with Chris Fraser-Clark third in his Jedi Mk 4. Eve Whitehead took fourth despite a spin over the finishing line on her last run. Graham Curwen took the FF1600 laurels in his 1991 Van Diemen; in 5C local driver Jim MacDiarmid took the win in his Force PC with Ian Butcher second in his OMS PR. In 5D mark Hemingway was electrifying in his Force TA as he clipped 0.16 off his own record and annexed FTD.
The Classic Road-going class brought out the largest class entry with 16 drivers battling for the win. Terry Deere in his rapid Talbot Sunbeam Lotus took a dominant win with Sam Billington second in his 205 and Richard Derrick third in his Mini. Just a handful of the Bert Hadley Championship contenders took to the track with Alistair Reynolds taking the win in his Special single seater, Peter Allport was second in the Milford Special and Paul Harris third in his Ulster Replica. In 6D Graham Curwen snatched the win in his immaculate Buckler Mk 5 with Keith Thomas second in his Buckler Mk 5 and David Straube, all the way from Inverness, third.
The final act saw just three cars battle for top spot in the Rally Car class. Class Record holder John Stone took the win with a second run blitz that saw him get to within .07 secs of his record in the Polo R5. Gareth Frank was second in his DTV liveried Firenza SL2300 and Darren Keiller third in his Honda Civic Sport.
Despite the best efforts of the organising team, marshals and officials there were several delays which ate into the time. However there were some cracking class battles, the 28 Newbies had an educational day with 13 getting faster run after run and crushing their initial personal bests. There were two Class Records broken and this was all witnessed by a great crowd of spectators. Fingers crossed for even better weather next month when once again Barbon Manor with echo to the sounds of speed.
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