The 2014 Championship got under way with tremendous gusto, with many new cars and drivers taking to the circuit in dry and sunny conditions.
Both races provided the commentator and spectators with plenty of action thanks to re-starts in both races owing to numerous crashes, spins and breakdowns maybe a reflection of over exuberance, rustiness and minimal testing.
The overall Champion Matt Higginson in his Spire GT3 had stalled in his pole position from race one allowing John Cutmore to take the lead followed by Alastair Boulton. Stationary cars around the track prompted the red flags around half way through the race which saw Matt now in 5th position for the re-start. Poor luck for Alastair and Paul Rogers who couldn’t fire their engines so John C and John Thackray lead the re-start for the last 4 laps.
Oil at the esses hampered many drivers but seemingly Matt had closed the gap significantly to the leader for the penultimate hairpins. Now on the last corner of the race, John drifted wide and allowed Matt to sneak up the inside to draw level in the dash for the line and to snatch the victory by only 0.04s. What an amazing come back from almost last place, a strong race from John for 2nd and a great drive by David Wale for 3rd. Paul Rickers won the class F battle ahead of James Walker and Richard Wise.
Race two would line up similarly with Matt, John, Alastair and Paul in the first 4 grid slots ahead of what would be another fractured couple of sprints. Matt got a great start this time, making a mends for race 1, leading John and Paul round the first 3 laps. However a major incident involving Wale, Wise and Tony Gaunt at the esses brought out the red flags again. After a long delay the grid lined up again with Matt, John, Paul vying for victory but Matt appeared to have another issue, waving his arms frantically as the lights went out, eventually getting going again a lap down however.
John lead the remainder of the race for his first win of the season and rounding off a strong weekend in the class R championship followed by Rogers and Boulton who were also pleased after issues is race one.
Class F was won again by Rickers giving him a perfect start to the season followed by Colin Spicer and Walker again on the podium. Matt managed a new lap record on lap 2 with a 1.37.90s improving 0.5s on 2013’s time.
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