The second qualifying session had taken place in much the same conditions as the first session, so it was advantage to the single drivers, who had already experienced the track. For those drivers that were sharing, this was unknown territory. However, that didn’t seem to bother Simon Clarke, who having taken over from Cowling, matched his teammate’s efforts and took pole position. Robinson joined him on the front row, with Fritchley and Hollis making up row 2. Nick Roads had gone even better than in the first session, starting 5th alongside his race 1 rival Storey. Paton was in 7th, so was in with a shout of a podium place if he could repeat his race 1 performance. Martin Fox was in a career best 8th place, with Johnson and Panas rounding out the top 10.

This doesn’t happen too often in 2CV racing thankfully, but the battle for the lead is easily told. There wasn’t one. Clarke simply got his head down and charged away from the field. Actually, it wasn’t that easy, as at the first corner he was surrounded by Robinson, Fritchley and Hollis, with none giving way. Hollis was the one on the outside and he duly slithered across the wet grass (the track having dried in all but a few places), rejoining in 5th behind a very fast starting Fox. By the end of the first lap, Clarke was 2.2 seconds clear, which became 5.5, 9.2, 12.5 and 15.4 seconds by lap 5!

2nd place wasn’t so clear cut though, as Fritchley and Robinson were less than a second apart. Hollis was 4th, and behind him was his brother Richard (replacing Martin Riman), who had come up from 11th. They had Storey for company, with Fox a bit further back. On lap 4, another car joined in the battle in the form of Alec Graham. Having started 15th, he had spent laps 2 and 3 in the pits, so was desperate to make up for lost ground, although Richard Hollis and Martin Fox weren’t too happy with this idea! At least Graham was still in the race, poor Steve Panas hadn’t even managed a lap. It was hard to see how this could be classified as the good performance Steve needed after race 1!

Where was Nick Paton? Back in 12th on lap 1 was the answer, having been delayed by the spinning Roads, who had dropped to 13th. Time for another charge through the field! By lap 5 he was up to 8th, having passed Crook, Johnson, Davies and Rundle. Rundle had actually started from the back, as it was his dad Mervyn who qualified, but Peter took over for the race, albeit for only 5 laps before he retired.

Halfway through the race light rain started to fall, so now it was a case of hoping the corner had the same level of grip that it had the previous lap. Having briefly got up to 4th, Storey now found himself in a Hollis sandwich, which he duly ejected himself from with a spin into the tyres on the exit of the first corner. Richard Hollis also spun in avoidance, but he managed not to hit anything, rejoining behind Fox. Storey also got going again, with a remodelled rear end (the car, not the driver) but then he really topped it off by spinning off at the same corner on the next lap, this time on the outside! Amazingly he got going yet again, but was now down to 11th.

On the penultimate lap, Fritchley spun at the same corner, but managed to keep the engine running. It assured Robinson of 2nd, but Sammie was now under pressure from Matthew Hollis. Despite getting alongside, Hollis was not able to get past, and so it was Fritchley who finished 3rd, behind Robinson and the victorious Clarke, whose winning margin in the end was over 25 seconds! Paton had once again come through the field to claim 5th ahead of Fox (an excellent result) and Richard Hollis. Roads just snatched 7th from Johnson on the last lap, whilst Davies and Storey completed the top 10. Chris Cardell had taken over from Lucy, but carb problems had ruined his race and 11th was the best he could manage, although he still succeeded in beating Jaques and Graham, who despite his efforts, had perhaps unsurprisingly failed to make up the 2 laps he needed!

With their double win, Cowling and Clarke propelled themselves to the top of the championship table, but Fritchley was still in contention. It looked as though it would be between these 3 for the title, as Hollis needed a miracle result at Croft to catch up. Then again, he hadn’t expected to win at Cadwell, so it certainly wasn’t all over just yet!                                                                                                                                                                                            .

Qualifying:

1st: Simon Clarke
2nd: Anthony Robinson
3rd: Sammie Fritchley

Race:

1st: Simon Clarke
2nd: Anthony Robinson
3rd: Sammie Fritchley