Round three, Cadwell Park, May 28, 2006

Robert Pritchard’s Caterham Vauxhall had a fairly easy time of things at the challenging Lincolnshire Parkland circuit. Taking pole and a comfortable race win, as the main feature was again a sad lack of numbers.

Although 13 cars were at the circuit, John Garnett was on his way home before qualifying had started. “We had the oil pressure drop very low in testing and rather than risk another engine, we are going home. If it went that would be it for me for the year,” said the BMW driver.

Pritchard expected to be about fourth on the grid after admitting to “not giving his all,” during qualifying. But he was still the polesitter by 0.212secs over Mark Primett’s Banks Europa. “I just cruised really, but just disappointed that I probably won’t have anyone to race against,” he explained.

Primett had problems of his own though as he explained, “I had third, fourth and fifth gears only, but that was better than being the other way around. It probably cost me about half a second on my best lap.”

On his first visit to Cadwell Kevin Cryer was third quickest in his Caterham. “It went very well, I had to change a cracked wishbone I found before the session, but no dramas,” he said.

Completing the second row was Banks Europa boss Richard Winter, “the car was wonderful, but I have a chest infection. It’s OK but just not enough cars to race against,” he commented. “I even had time for a bit of ornithology while I was out there, and I thought I saw a nesting magpie,” he added.

Chris Maries had his new rear engined Mini with a 2 litre Honda Civic Type R engine in the back. But he elected to save the Mini for another day and stick with his Locost Ninja. “The clutch started slipping, so it’s a change in the lunchbreak. I came in early as there was no point in wearing it out,” he said after qualifying fifth.

Graham Taylor’s Westfield was next up, “I really enjoyed that, it was a good session for me,” he confirmed. Graeme Smith had a busy day as he was also contesting the Caterham Graduate race, but headed row four from Peter Wann’s Westfield. “I wasn’t really ready when I went out. I think I got airborne at the Mountain so I must have been going reasonably quick,” he reckoned.

Shane Crumpler had dramas before the session started and had to borrow a set of seatbelts from Peugeot 205 racer Beccy Holland, who was racing at the circuit the following day. “I nearly had a spin at the top of the Mountain on cold tyres on my second lap. There are some handling issues still but I am starting to understand the car more and making progress,” said the Nissan Sunny Gti_R driver.

A rather subdued Phil Hall was alongside Crumpler with his Banks Europa. “It was alright I think,” he said.

Nick Pakes found his session restricted to only two laps after a front upright broke. Completing the grid was Ralph Underwood’s TR7V8, just pleased to be out there. “It was surprisingly good actually. It got round and was Ok it a bit warm,” he concluded.

GRID é

There were no further casualties from qualifying, so all 12 cars lined up on the grid. As the lights went out Primett led the charge into Coppice, from Cryer, while Pritchard had Maries on his tail for third. Into Park Maries was third, while Taylor, Winter, Hall, Smith, Underwood, Pakes and the ailing Crumpler followed on.

Pritchard recovered third on the second lap, while Taylor vacated fifth with an off at the top of the Mountain. He damaged a front upright and his oil cooler. Smith had also taken Hall who fell further back after losing seventh to Pakes past the pits. Primett had a reasonably comfortable lead by the end of lap three, while Cryer was shadowed by Pritchard. Maries was till close enough too to play a part, with Winter and Smith filling the rest of the top six places, from the closing Pakes,

On the next lap Pritchard had second and was straight onto Primett’s tail. The rest began to spread out but Underwood started to catch Hall for eighth, while himself being caught by Wann.

The expected move came from Pritchard on lap six, shooting down the inside of Primett into Coppice to take charge. “I knew it was coming, I was willing him to just get on with it,” said Primett.

With the top four almost settled, Pakes started to make inroads on Smith’s sixth place. Behind them Hall, Underwood and Wann all close up, with Underwood finally going by into Coppice on the seventh lead. Wann followed a lap later and spent the rest of the race chasing Underwood. “Ralph just had too much grunt for me. It was good fun but I went grass cutting a bit at the Gooseneck,” he said.

Pritchard eased his way to a five second plus victory, but had his own problems to deal with en route. “Well we made a race of it I thought. But I got gearbox problems from midrace and was struggling to change gear,” he explained.

Primett retained a comfortable second after seeing off a brief threat from Cryer. “The gear knob came off though on lap three and apart of it was trapped under the clutch pedal,” he said. Cryer was happy to retain a comfortable third, “I got held up and lost sight of Mark, so couldn’t get back to him,” he explained.

Maries was a lonely fourth, “it was fine we stiffened the shockers and had a quiet race. The stiffer set up rattled my fillings a bit though,” he said after settling in fourth. “I stayed in touch for the first laps, but after that my little 1600 was gasping for breath like the driver,” said fifth placed Winter. Smith recovered from a poor start to settle for sixth. “I got done off the start but made some good manoeuvres getting back to my starting place,” he explained.

With Pakes retiring with a broken throttle cable. Underwood kept Wann at bay for eighth, leaving Hall ninth and the struggling Crumpler 10th. “I really enjoyed that and was determined that Peter’s Westfield wasn’t coming by,” said Underwood.

Crumpler managed to tour round to take the flag. “It started on the green flag lap, missing and popping. I thought it would clear, but it didn’t, so we just continued for points,” he explained.

Results

1 Robert Pritchard (Caterham Vauxhall) 13 laps in 21m26.265s (79.06mph);
2 Mark Primett (Banks Europa) 21m31.482s;
3 Kevin Cryer (Caterham Seven);
4 Chris Maries (Locost Ninja);
5 Richard Winter (Banks Europa);
6 Graeme Smith (Caterham Graduate);
7 Ralph Underwood (Triumph TR7V8);
8 Peter Wann (Westfield SEi);
19 Phil Hall (Banks Europa);
10 Shane Crumpler (Nissan Sunny GTI-R).
Fastest lap: Pritchard 1m32.740s (84.35mph).

Class A: no starters.
Class B: 1 Pritchard; 2 Cryer; 3 Wann; no other finishers.
Class C: 1 Maries; 2 Smith; no other starters.
Class D: 1 Underwood; 2 Crumpler; no other starters.
Class E: 1 Primett; no other finishers.
Class F: 1 Winter; 2 Hall; no other starters.

Next round Oulton Park, June 17th