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News: Thruxton Rounds 5&6 2010 Race Report
Tester secures dominant Thruxton win
Colin Tester secured victory in the single Toyo Tyres Racing Saloons race at Thruxton Hampshire after starting third on the grid.
The weekend should have consisted of two races; a serious accident earlier in the day meant that the timetable was put back thus leaving the TTRS with a single, 12 minute race. Due to the uncertainty of whether the race would go ahead, a number of the drivers withdrew including the dominant pole position sitter Stephen Markey. Markey had been around 2.5s faster in qualifying compared to Tim Sweet.
Class Pole Positions:
Class A: Stephen Markey – BMW M3
Class B: Lawrence Bell – Jaguar XJS
Class C: Leigh Franklin – Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
Class D: Dave Hickton – Opel Ascona
Class E: James Christie – Hillman Avenger
Class F: Mike Tovey – BMW E30 320i
As the race got underway, Tim Sweet who started second on the grid dropped back and gave the lead to Tester and was passed also by the BMW M5 of Roger Kneebone – who had started fifth on the grid. Tester was flying during all eight laps of the race and was able to pull away from the chasing pack lap after lap – by lap five; Tester had built up a gap of over six seconds. Being quick through the Club Chicane helped Tester pull away.
Photo: www.snappyracers.com
During the early laps, Sweet was keeping the flying Kneebone busy with his pace through the corners. As well as Sweet keeping Kneebone busy, he was involved in an crowd pleasing battle with the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of Leigh Franklin – Franklin being the only Class C competitor and receiving praise from Tester for the pace shown.
The other crowd pleasing battle came between Julian Newman (BMW M5), Brian Jordan (BMW M635Csi) and Lawrie Dunster (BMW E36 M3), once the three of them were together they couldn’t be separated – a five lap battle between them which saw the #70 car of Newman come out on top.
The Class F battle between leader Mike Tovey, Richard Thomas and PBMWC regular Ravi Ramyead came to a head on the sixth lap when there was contact out on the fast section of the flowing Hampshire track – The Toyota Corolla of James Carpenter and Mike Tovey came together, putting both cars into retirement, Tovey suffered damaged suspension and steering.
The giant killing performance of the race came from the Class D Toyota Celica of Eliot Dunmore. Having started in eighth place, he finished ahead of a number of faster class A competitors – and as part of a Class D train, with Hickton, Stephen Primett, Robert Sadler and Will McAteer ahead of him at the end. Sadler had a busy race as part of the Class D train. Having started forth in class and twelfth overall, he spent a few laps battling with the Class A Ford Cosworth Sierra of Tom Murphy.
Murphy was involved in the Class D battle at the start, having defended from the Escort of Primett at Allard. A couple of corners later saw him drop back after being hit from behind and thus losing time and positions. A lack of grip then meant that he fell further back, and was passed at Club by Sadler, before the same move was pulled off by Dunmore in his Toyota. Murphy finished just behind the Class D battle.
The final couple of laps saw the dominant race leader Tester back off to claim victory from Kneebone and Sweet, while class victories went the way of Frankin (Class C), Hickton (Class D), Matt Knight (Class E), Lawrence Bell (Class B) and Ramyead (Class F).
Race Report by Matt Auger (matt_macau_bmw320si@hotmail.com)
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