JEC RACING 2008

Castle Combe - 4th October 2008

TOYO TIRES JAGUAR XJS CHAMPIONSHIP
Welcome everyone to the 11th and penultimate round of the Jaguar Saloon and XJS championships here at a wet Castle Combe circuit. The relatively flat 1.8 mile track was to be more testing on engines rather than brakes but there were still a couple of corners that proved to be very testing as we shall see!

In the morning qualifying session, fifteen Cats had a dry run, with Chris Palmer on pole, the returning 'dark knight' Derek Pearce, 2nd and Stewart Lyddall 3rd. Everyone had a good session with the possible exception of Alex Harrison who had more spins than a washing machine, notably at Quarry Corner and The Esses.

When it came to the race in the afternoon the rain had soaked the track and the race was reduced from 15 minutes to 12 but with 2 green flag laps. When the race was off, Chris Palmer had a good start with Pearce 2nd and Andrew Harrison up from 4th to 3rd after passing Lyddall at Folly, although a little later a spin dropped him back to 4th.

Chris opened a lead while the three behind had a race of their own. Just behind these was another 3-way battle between big Gary Hastings, Philip Comer and Alex Harrison, that was soon to end as on lap 3 Ian Drage spun at Quarry Corner into the path of Roger Webster and their races were over. Both cars were stranded and the safety car was deployed for recovery.

When the safety car pulled off there were only two and a half minutes remaining. Again Palmer made good use of his 4.0 litre car, which was better suited to these conditions than the big V12's that had much more power but less grip, to take Class E and race win.

Pearce was Class G winner and 2nd saying 'It was safer to stay back and collect the points'. Something Lyddall might have taken on board. He tried desperately to pass Derek on the last lap but spun at Bobbies in the attempt, which dropped him back from 3rd to 5th place. Andrew Harrison capitalised to take 3rd and Class D win.

1. Chris Palmer - RG

2. Derek Pearce, Andrew Harrison - RG

3. Derek Pearce, Stuart Lydall - RG

4. Four head for the Esses - RG

5. Gary Hastings, Philip Comer - RG

6. Lead trio exit Quarry - RG

7. R. Macvicar, L. Coppock - RG

8. Robert Macvicar, Loz Ball - RG

9. R. Bowman, L. Coppock - RG

JAGUAR CLASSIC PARTS / JAGUAR SALOON CHAMPIONSHIP - Race 1
The Saloons turn-out of 20 cars went down to19 in qualifying after Peter Dorlin, in his lovely dark blue MK II, matched son Richard for pace but then retired with low oil pressure. Richard once again was on pole with Simon Lewis 2nd and Tim Morrant 3rd.

The track was damp and greasy from drizzle for the afternoon race and Richard Dorlin got an excellent start. The rest of the pack were close behind until Tim Morrant, lying second, spun at Quarry, leaving Chris Boon nowhere to go. Their races were over after just a third of a lap.

Richard went on to dominate and took Class B and race win by nearly 10 seconds from Simon Lewis who was second, although these two matched and swapped fastest lap times. Nick Gwinnutt in his X-300 took Class B and third coming from eighth place on the grid with a remarkable display of driving, as did Colin McKay in his Mk II and Robert Drewery in his XJ40 who from lap 4 both had an almighty tussle and passed the chequered flag with only 0.3 of a second separated them.

There was another great battle between Class A winner Philip Woods, Howard Kirkham and Ken Angell, who were all in XJ40's, starting to prove a very popular and competitive racing car. From lap 6 they had their own fierce race and the crowd cheered when this posse came around at each lap. Phil took the honours with a 4th place overall, Howard 5th and Ken 6th.