Donington, the scene of our last race in 2008, played host to our first meeting of 2009, and an encouraging twenty-one cars arrived under sunny skies. Ours was the last race of the day, so many drivers took the opportunity to do the race without bothering to stay overnight. This, together with the much-publicised problems with the Donington track licence, gave the meeting a slightly unusual feel. For anyone who hasn’t heard about the licence problems, here is a brief description. The building work necessary for the 2010 GP involved digging a tunnel in the section of track between McLeans and Coppice. The trench for the tunnel ended very close to the circuit, and the temporary Recticell barriers erected to protect the tunnel works were deemed unsafe by the MSA. The result was that the MSA granted a temporary licence at the eleventh hour, on condition that the McLeans-Coppice section was under a permanent yellow flag for the whole meeting.

So, at the late hour of 12:25, the Historic FF2000 qualifying session began. It was to be a session of two halves, unfortunately, as poor Derek Watling’s engine put a rod through the side, and dumped a lot of oil on the approach to the chicane, resulting in an immediate red flag. With one or two exceptions, most people did their best time immediately before the interruption. On pole, as he was at Oulton, was Neil Fowler, nearly two seconds clear of veteran Wil Arif. Neil’s 1:15.746 was set on only his second flying lap. A further 0.9s behind Wil, was Colin Wright who was feeling a bit under the weather.

In a superb fourth place was Jan Langdon, with a brake-troubled Peter Denham next up. Andrew Storer’s very smart RP27 now proudly shows off its Pukka Pies sponsorship, and Andrew lined up sixth. The fourth row comprised Derek Wild (in the sister car to Neil Fowlers), and the sole Class B representative, Antony Raine, again showing that the oldest car in the race can run at the front. Stuart Boyer’s Spax Reynard, and Steve Gardiner’s SF80 were next up – Stuart hoping for a less troublesome season in 2009, and Steve suffering with tyres that were past their best. Scott Temple was enduring carburettor problems in both the CF3, and HFF2K sessions, and Fowler Motorsport were to come to the rescue later with the loan of a new carb. It was good to see Mark Pierce get the unusual Sparton SF80 up to twelfth place in his first race with us, and it was also good to see Seamus Doyle continue the improved form he showed at the end of last season.

Alan Gape returned to the series, and lined up fourteenth, just ahead of two of the most immaculate cars we’ve had – John Wilson’s Royale RP26/27, and Derek Smiths Delta T80 (unusually, the only Delta in the race). Association Treasurer, John Taylor was seventeenth in the RP27, ahead of the first Supervee, the Royale RP9 of John Bowles. The second Supervee, the Lola of Jon Randall, suffered from a deflating rear tyre. Subsequent investigation by BMTR showed that it had been damaged by the firm who fitted it, and the other rear had the same problem. There was no choice but to buy two new tyres – an expensive start to the season! Martyn Donn’s Supernova kept cutting out with an ignition problem, and he brought up the rear.

Qualifying ended with Wil Arif pulling off opposite the pits with his right front wheel at a very drunken angle, but the Fowlers came to the rescue again, and managed to repair the damaged upright in time for the race.

Just nineteen cars lined up for the start, as we had also lost Peter Denham, whose troubled day ended when a core plug blew out of his engine in the CF3 race, accompanied by an ominous rattle. At the start, Colin Wright made his customary sharp getaway, and the field streamed round Redgate without major incident. At the end of the first lap, though, it was Neil in the lead by two seconds from Colin, with Wil third, and Andrew Storer fourth.

At the front, Neil pulled steadily away to a twelve second win, and the lap charts show that Colin held second throughout. There was a point just after half distance, where Wil was in a position to challenge Colin, but the strict yellow flag rules meant that he got stuck behind a slower car at the critical moment. Wil had actually lost his third place to Andrew Storer for a few laps, but managed to reassert himself. Behind the leaders there was a very close battle between Antony Raine, Jan Langdon David Wild and the charging Scott Temple. Scott was one of the stars of the race, now that his carb problems had been cured. From eleventh on the grid, he worked his way onto the back of the Raine/Langdon/Wild battle, and eventually got past them all to finish fourth.

Behind this lot, things were a little more spread out, with John Taylor’s pass on Seamus into Redgate on lap eight one of the few pieces of action. The race ran out, with just two retirements – Martyn Donn, with the Supernova running very weak, and Mark Pierce (sorry – I can’t remember the reason).

So, Neil showed us again that he is the class of the Historic FF2000 field – his controlled speed was a joy to watch, and his best lap would have put him at the very front of FF2000 races in 1979. The encouraging thing is that Scott’s fastest lap was just 0.5s slower than Neil’s, and I am pretty sure that there are a number of drivers who will be right up there soon as well. Roll on Cadwell!