The undulations of Cadwell Park are perfectly suited to Historic FF2000 cars, and the race has become a real favourite amongst the drivers. The initial entry of twenty-one was reduced to eighteen on the day. Supervee driver Martyn Donn, and Peter Meyrick were unable to make it, and Jan Langdon became unwell at the end of the week, and was also forced to scratch. The weather forecast predicted a pleasant weekend, but the Saturday evening barbecue had to be held in breezy and very chilly conditions. The barbie was well attended despite that, and the new drivers who have joined us this year had a good opportunity to meet everyone in a social environment for the first time. During the evening, Colin Wright, spending his last hours a fifty-something was presented with a framed photo commemorating his impending 60th

The weather continued to be chilly and overcast on Sunday morning, only brightening up around lunchtime, and the remaining eighteen drivers set out for qualifying just before eleven. The session did not last long for Neil Fowler, who suffered a broken rear damper at the dauntingly fast Coppice corner at the start of his third lap. Luckily, he brought the car to a grassy halt without any further damage. Less fortunate was David Wild in the sister car to Neil’s. David went off heavily at the foot of the Mountain, and bent a front corner, putting an end to his day, and resulting in the session being interrupted by a red flag.

At the resumption, Wil Arif headed the timesheets in the RP30, with a string of fast laps, despite a spin at the hairpin. Scott Temple continued the form he showed in the Donington race in second, ahead of series debutant James Murray in the ex Rod Stead Reynard SF77. Colin Wright was next up, with Antony Raine in fifth, delighted to be going a lot quicker than he was on the Merlyn’s first outing last year. Steve Gardiner used his annual purchase of new tyres to good effect in sixth, with Andrew Storer’s immaculate Royale next up.

In eighth, having his first outing since August last year, was Jonny Dimsdale. Jonny had hoped to test on Friday, but his plans were thwarted by a water leak. Mark Pierce continued to find his feet in the Sparton SF80, with Stuart Boyer’s Spax-liveried Reynard next. James Ledamun was eleventh, feeling that at last the Crosslé was beginning to work properly. Neil Fowler ended up twelfth in the list, ahead of the unfortunate David Wild. John Taylor suffered a migraine on Sunday morning, but fortunately recovered just in time for practice.

Derek Smith was experiencing a lack of grip in his smart Delta, and put it down to using very old tyres. John Bowles had a good run in the only Supervee, and ended up ahead of two other runners who were having a trying time. David Clark, after encountering all sorts of problems in getting his licence (hence his Donington non-appearance), had a mystery oil leak, and then a collapsed rear wheel bearing after only three laps. Bringing up the rear was John Wilson who had a mystery oil problem of his own – the engine continually pumping its oil out. Happily, John was able to sort his problem, but poor David was a non-starter.

Then there were sixteen…

With Cadwell now bathed in warm sunshine, the grid formed up, with knowledgeable spectators eagerly anticipating Neil Fowler’s expected charge through the field. When the lights went out, Wil Arif shot into the lead with Scott Temple hot on his heels, and Neil already making up a number of places. Wil lead through Coppice, Charlies and Park. It all went wrong at Chris Curve, however, when, under pressure from Scott, Wil went off. He managed to continue, apparently undamaged, and emerged at the end of the first lap in thirteenth place. So, it was Scott leading at the end of lap one, with the intention of getting his head down and attempting to establish a big enough lead to hold Neil at bay. In second came James Murray, with a bit of a gap to Steve Gardiner who was reproducing his Spa form, having moved up from sixth. Ominously, though, Neil Fowler was already up to sixth – it was only a matter of time before he would be up with Scott. Neil was third on lap two and second on lap three. Scott fought gamely, though, despite an emerging fuel system problem, which left him having to bump-start the engine out of some corners. Neil wasn’t going to be stopped, though, and by the end of lap five was firmly into a lead he was never to lose. He increased his lead every lap over the ailing Scott, before backing off, mindful of the unexplained damper breakage in qualifying. The gap at the flag was 3.5s, having been over 6s at one point.

It all sounds rather tame so far, but nothing could be further from the truth! Behind the leading pair, a furious battle raged between James Murray, Steve Gardiner, Andy Storer, Colin Wright and Antony Raine. These five kept the crowd entertained with a wonderful display of close, clean racing. Place changes and passing attempts were many, and the fact that we ended up with six drivers with fastest laps within 0.1s of each other shows just how tight it was. Unfortunately, in what was described by the marshals on the scene as a “racing incident”, Steve Gardiner and James Murray tangled on the last lap at Park, Steve with minor bodywork and steering damage, and James with a deranged rear wheel.

So, of the three who remained from the battling five. the order was Andy Storer, Antony Raine (a fantastic performance again in by far the oldest car in the race) and Colin Wright. Wil Arif fought his way up to sixth, but took several laps to get past Jonny Dimsdale, who had earlier squeezed past Stuart Boyer. In the end Jonny, mistakenly thinking he was being lapped, let Wil by, but nevertheless emerged in seventh place overall, and earned himself the Driver of the Day award.

Mark Pierce continued to get to grips with the attractive Sparton, and finished ahead of James Ledamun who was actually able to enjoy a race with the Crosslé for the first time. Derek Smith had a good dice with John Bowles (showing that FF2000s and Supervees are a good match), before pulling away as he became more confident in the car. The other finisher, John Wilson, probably surprised himself by finishing the race apparently without oil-related dramas.

The only retirement, apart from Steve and James, was John Taylor, who retired the RP27 with a fuel starvation problem.

So… Despite the disappointingly low number of starters, we had an excellent race. From what I’ve gleaned on the jungle telegraph, there are a lot of drivers who are making Silverstone their first race of the season – with a bit of luck it will be our biggest grid yet!