Breakthroughs.

Although this week’s Group 5 event didn’t boast the full grid that last week’s did, the seven intrepid souls who did turn up enjoyed an excellent evening’s racing.

Even before the race had begun we’d had a breakthrough which had brought a smile to Simon’s face; he’d managed to rebuild his Schnitzer BMW M1 so that is was no slower than before he’d started messing about with it. By his own admission he has a way to go before he’s mastered the dark art of car prep, but his determination to succeed is admirable. Other drivers just make admiring glances at Team Bryant’s pit area hoping to be the night’s chosen one. This week the Tomster got lucky.

Now old enough to legally engage in mischief with pretty members of the opposite sex, the Tomster was, for the first time, entrusted with one of Team Bryant’s stable of cars, a pretty Ferrari 512 BB LM. It was a brave move by Josh, because it wasn’t long into the race before Tom had engaged so vigorously with it that it had somersaulted over the barriers and onto the floor, where it crouched in pain wondering what the hell the Tomster had tried to shove up its now broken exhaust. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t consensual.

Simon’s breakthrough seemed contagious, because amazingly there was another too: everyone was ready to race well before the scheduled start time. So, at 8:30pm prompt, the guy in the computer shouted “Squeeze ’em” and the Tomster in Team Bryant’s Ferrari immediately pulled out a small lead over his Group 1 competitors Neil and Graham.

Josh had spent the practice period letting other drivers drive Team Bryant’s fleet of cars and had then magnanimously chosen to race the slowest one, a rather nice Lancia Beta Montecarlo. He finished Heat 1 just 0.28 ahead of Simon, with Alex in third place and again looking as though he might bag his first podium.

Heat 3 saw Alex crash and drop to fifth, promoting David to third and the Tomster to fourth, just 2.6 seconds shy of third place. Meanwhile, Neil and Graham were trying to out crash each other, Neil taking the lead in that competition to grab last place overall, four tenths behind Graham.

With everyone enjoying the racing and eager to keep going, the mid-race tea break was scrapped and battle continued in earnest, which had two benefits: Simon didn’t have time to dismantle his car and make it slower, and everyone would get home nice and early.

In Heat 4 David tripped over Alex, lost a lap and dropped to fifth, but it was in Heat 5 when things became properly interesting: Simon took the lead by 1.25 seconds from Josh. David fought back from his Heat 4 delay to climb to third, Tom dropped to fifth with Alex in the middle, the trio now separated by 1.1 seconds and set for a three-way fight for the podium’s bottom step. Alex had been close before, but this was a first for the Tomster. Both had it all to lose.

So to Heat 6. Simon came out flying and produced his best heat of the night, but Josh raced his best too, clawing back his deficit to take the overall win by a scant 0.29 seconds. In the battle for third, the Tomster got over-excited, crashed Team Bryant’s Ferrari and ruined his podium challenge, while Alex struggled in green lane, his best lap way off his best in the previous heats, his podium chance gone too, lost to David.

It may not have been the biggest grid seen at Molesey this year, but it was definitely one of the best evenings and a great way to end 2022’s Group 5 racing. Group 5 is the only class that continues unchanged for 2023, but if it produces more nights like this one, we have a lot to look forward to.