Chris Knott Intermarque & Tigers - Snetterton 18th October 2009 |
For their second visit of the year to Snetterton, the Intermarque regulars were joined by the Tiger brigade. On a day which was a bit chilly but thankfully dry a reasonable size crowd turned up to watch the action. With Steve Hall absent due to ill health it meant that his closest pursuers would eat into his points lead. From the outset Chris Brockhurst (silhouette Peugeot 206) threw down the gauntlet and took pole position by over 3 seconds from Nick Starkey (Caterham Superlight). Another Caterham driven by Graham Booth lined up third followed by Jonathon Hoggarth in his mighty Pontiac. The first Tiger, driven by Mark Steward, secured fifth spot from Paul Dudley and Mark Withey. Chris Ayling (VW Corrado) completed the outside of row four, whilst the next spot was vacant after Tom Griffiths had engine problems with his Tiger. Local man Mike Thurley completed the top ten in his Peugeot silhouette. A very well controlled rolling start saw Brockhurst lead into the first corner. Hoggarth powered down the Revett straight to move into second, whilst Starkey and Ayling embarked on a race long duel for third. Steward and Dudley battled to be top Tiger, followed by an interesting scrap between Thurley and Whithey. In fact there were several two and three car scraps throughout the field. An early casualty was Graham Booth whose Caterham mysteriously cut out and he retired. Graham Bahr also pulled into the pits when his gear linkage broke, joining Derek Parker who trickled in after the first lap. At the front Brockhurst maintained a ten second advantage, lapping close to the class record. This would be his first win of the year. Hoggarth started power sliding around Coram to entertain the crowd as he claimed second position. Starkey out fumbled Ayling on the last lap for third place, although Chris did win the driver of the race award. Dudley spun at Russell corner on the final tour which meant Steward was lonely in fifth. Thurley just got the measure of Whithey for sixth, but Mark claimed the best prepared car prize. Dudley nipped in eighth, with Paul Clarke and Andy Slaney Smith completing the top ten in their Tigers. The other class winners were Michael Pearce (Tiger; group B), David Smitheram (Caterham in class D) and John Chasey (Caterham in class C).
The second race was run at the end of the day with the light fading rapidly. Again Brockhurst led all the way but Hoggarth clung on gamely and finished only four seconds adrift. Starkey just kept Ayling at arms length (or half a second) to complete the podium, whilst Dudley took fifth and top Tiger in the absence of Steward. Withey was fifth for the first few laps until Thurley got into his stride, and then they were both passed by Dudley. Derek Parker climbed from the rear of the grid to take eighth spot, as Clive Seer and Stewart Fenton rounded out the first ten positions. Booth again had problems with his Caterham, although Bahr fixed his BMW to take class C honours and driver of the race award from Chasey. The other classes went to Brigham (Tiger; group B) and Smitheram. |