Mallory Park 5th June 2005
Race Report by David Price
Qualifying proved to be an interesting twenty minutes for more than a couple of the drivers. Tim Storer brought out the red flag after 7 laps when a broken half shaft caused the wheel to part company with the car, bringing his qualifying session to a premature halt, although some hard work after practice would see Tim line up on the 2nd row of the grid.
This incident caused a short interlude in the qualifying session, time for the drivers to have a brief reflection on their performance thus far.
Ed Reeve's car seemed to be losing power, a fault that he put down to over heating but he still managed to qualify 4th on the grid.
David Weston was the pace setter, posting the fastest time of the session and claimed pole position, though a coming together at the entry to Gerrads with fellow Class A driver John Helme brought his qualifying to an end.
Meanwhile, William Smallridge charged to a class pole leaving the other Class B competitors in his dust. William’s car was really dialled in, the flying Chasestead backed car snatched a front row starting position as well. Dominic Mooney’s practice session saw an uncharacteristic performance from the classic restoration specialist from Worcestershire. A fuelling problem, which would continue throughout the day and fox everyone, was the cause. Tim Rhodes took the Class C pole in the Classic Cars of Kent hire car, taking advantage of words of wisdom from his father's wealth of experience. John Rhodes had many great victories in similar machinery, as well as anything else he drove.
Last years champion, Peter Digan, made his Class A début having moved up from Class C. He spent the qualifying session getting used to his new car around the tight Leicestershire circuit.
The Midgets eventually lined up after a very long delay because the preceding Radical race had to be restarted three times.
Weston and Smallridge on the front row, Storer and Reeves on the second and Hutchens and Turner on the next. The lights went green and the pack charged off to Gerards with Weston taking the early lead with Storer and Smallridge in close proximity. Paul Hutchens, who was left stranded on the grid got pushed to safety, broken transmission stopping the Worcester Businessman taking part in the 20 minute race.
The leaders completed their first lap, Weston was ahead of Storer and Reeve followed by a chasing Smallridge. Turner stayed ahead of Helme by a narrow margin and last year’s champion, Peter Digan, received serious pressure from the series sponsor, Andrew Actman, as the train of cars went over the line. Tim Rhoodes was holding off the Class B car of Peter Blanchet. David Pymm and Peter Collinson were fighting for Class C honours just a few seconds behind. The order of the rest of the pack was Berni Baxter, Ian Staines, Dominic Mooney, Ian Woodbridge, Carl Edmonson and John Collinson.
Weston started to extend his lead over Storer and Reeves, who in turn pulled away from Smallridge; the rest of the pack settling down to their own battles for class positions. Lap five saw Weston disappear, allowing Storer to take up a commanding lead as Reeve dropping back. Smallridge had opened up a large gap over Helme and Turner, the Class A driver from Merseyside passing the Jaguar Engineer for 4th. Andrew Actman made a successful move on Digan to move the Sebring driver into 6th position overall and 3rd in class.
Mooney and Stains battled all the way through the race with a small amount of paint being exchanged between them, Mooney coming out the better in the end, taking 4th in Class C as they crossed the line for the last time. Lap 14 saw the departure of Storer who pulled off at the entry to Gerards, his engine letting go and leaving the Gloucestershire driver standing on the sidelines only to spectate the rest of the race. Reeves now took up the lead, only to suffer a reoccurrence of his earlier problem, the sudden drop in power from the ex Sibley car, allowing Smallridge to reel him in and pass for the lead. The battle continued between Turner and Helme, the latter taking 3rd place overall from Turner. Next across the line was the ex-champion Peter Digan, taking a while to get to grips with the new car but looking good to progress through the season. Andrew Actman followed Digan home taking 6th overall and 3rd in Class B.
Tim Rhoodes was the class act of the Class C field, pushing Peter Blanchett all the way through the race. Peter’s power enabled him to pass Tim on lap 7, a position he kept for the rest of the race. David Pymm and Peter Collison pushed each other for second in class C. Pymm’s experience gave him the edge in the end and the High Wycombe driver extended his Class Championship lead. A great race from new comer Ian Woodbridge with Carl Edmondson saw a last lap error allow Woodbridge to pass, proving yet again that you don’t need to be at the front for furious battles to rage. Peter Collinson had a reoccurrence of a problem he encountered at Donington Park the round before. The Cornish driver limped around at the back to gain his first finish of the season, a number of teething problems are still hampering his season, hopefully these can be rectified before the next round. Another car to retire was that of Berni Baxter, suffering with a timing problem, despite Berni receiving a great deal of help from several Midget drivers who managed to get him out for the race, but to no avail; Berni's car only completed four laps.
Smallridge took his first ever win in a race of attrition, which saw four leaders during the twenty minute race. Brands Hatch is the next round and it will be interesting to see whether William can continue his winning streak.