JEC Racing - Vredestein Jaguar XK Championship
The morning heavy rain had stopped by the time the XKs qualified, but the track was still wet and extremely slippery, water combined with oil put down in previous sessions extending lap times by around 20 seconds and creating conditions which perhaps favoured more nimble cars. John Burton was the fastest qualifier although Barrie Williams, Jarrah Venables, Rob Newall and Nigel Webb were all within a second of Burton. The Chase-Gardener/Allen class A car (3.4 litre road going) put in a quite exceptional performance just three seconds off the best and ahead of many more powerful cars.

Sunshine and dry track ensured plenty of early action in the race as performance took over, and there were a whole succession of competitions between pairs of cars throughout the field in the initial laps. John Burton and Barrie Williams, Jarrah Venables and Rob Newall (which was ended prematurely when Rob emulated Lewis Hamilton and picked up a puncture), Michael O'Shea and Andy Moore, David Allen and Mel Floyd (another later casualty with broken half-shaft), Graham Love and Claire Keith-Lucas. Then Robin Batt, Geoff Ottley and Mel Floyd, with Nigel Webb and Grahame Bull racing wheel to wheel until Grahame's brakes gave out.

Great confusion through the compulsory pit stops for the spectators trying to follow the race order, followed by a fairly extended field once all the changes had been made and the race settled. Steve Skipworth chased down Graham Love but the real deal was seen as Barrie Williams, now in John Roberts' car, caught John Burton and these two had an intense battle for the last few laps.

Race winner was Nigel Webb, with Michael O'Shea second and the Roberts/Williams partnership in third place. Swapping cars and drivers mid-race clearly makes for great fun, but it may be significant that the first two drivers stayed with their cars though the race.

Class Positions

	Class A	Class B	Class C	Class D
1	Chase-Gardener/Allen	Ottley	O'Shea	Webb
2	.	.	Roberts / Williams	Skipworth R / Williams
3	.	.	Burton	Batt / Skipworth S

Race 1

Andy Moore, John Burton - RG

Andy Moore 2 - RG

Batt_Ottley - CG

Bull_Webb - CG

Burton, Bull, Webb - RG

Burton_Webb_Bull - CG

Burton_Willaims - CG

ChaseGardener_CKL - CG

CKL_OShea - CG

Grahame Bull, Nigel Webb - RG

KeithLucas_Williams - CG

Love_Batt - CG

Mel Floyd, Graham Love - RG

Mike O'Shea - RG

Race 2

O'Shea nearly makes it at Bobbies - RG

Newal's puncture - CG

Ottley_Floyd - CG

Power oversteer - RG

Roberts_spins - CG

Rob Newall - firsty lap - CG

Side by side - RG

Skipworth_Burton - CG

Steve Skipworth - RG

Study of concentration - RG

Three into the chicane at Bobbies - RG

Venables_Newall - CG

Webb - CG

Williams up the inside of Burton - RG

Pictures by Chris and Roger Gage

Report by Roger Gage