And Then There Were Twelve.

There weren’t many changes of position during this week’s Sideways Group 5 race. Tom overtook Martin and Steve in Heat 2 to avoid the indignity of finishing last, Heat 3 saw Terry climb one place ahead of Graham before losing it again in Heat 4, but that was it as far as the on-track excitement went. It wasn’t the whole story, though.

The evening had started well with an excellent attendance of 14 drivers, the best for a long time. Will Stemman was back for another go at racing one of Team Bryant’s arrive-and-drive cars, the team’s second car was to be raced by Simon, and both drivers looked good during pre-race practice, their lap times suggesting that they’d be on the pace come the race itself. Sadly that’s when everything went wrong. Team Bryant’s cars failed scrutineering.

The sponge tyre inserts fitted to their rear wheels weren’t specifically allowed by the class rules and therefore made the cars ineligible to race. With no race-ready replacement wheels and tyres available, there was no alternative but to withdraw the cars, so Josh and Will headed home early. It was a sad end to their evening. It also left Simon without a car for the race, so he quickly arranged a car-share with Lee and the pair drove Lee’s car for the rest of the night.*

The scrutineering drama had delayed the start of racing, but when it did eventually get underway, Julian dominated to take a comfortable win, Lee couldn’t match Julian’s pace but was untroubled in second position, Simon took the final podium spot.

It wasn’t a classic evening’s racing, but sometimes these things happen. Sideways Group 5 are out again next week too, so let’s hope for another good turnout and a little less controversy.

* Don’t be confused by the cars in the podium photo. One of the BMWs is Graham’s, pretending badly to be the almost identical BMW that Lee and Simon shared.