| 2009 race 2 - Silverstone |
 |
 |
 |
|
 This time at the start it was front row starter Wilkinson who bogged down, who despite having the desired amount of revs, did not have the desired gear, having selected 3rd instead of 1st. By the time he got going he was down to 7th behind Hindley, Panas, Fritchley, Hollis, Thompson and Graham, who had also not got away too well. At least it was a bit better than Martin Fox, who having started from the pitlane eventually retired on lap 4 with a suspected sick engine. By this stage the three cars of Panas, who took first place on the second lap, Hindley and Fritchley had pulled out a gap to Hollis, who was being inched up on by the recovering Wilkinson. Alec Graham was next, followed by Thompson, Turner, Robinson and Proietti.Frank Barnard was going better than he had in the first race, battling for 11th with Riley, Baker and Deeley. On lap 8 Barnard turned in to Brooklands as Baker tried to overtake on the inside. The resulting 180 degree spin by Barnard looked innocuous enough, but the momentum tipped the car onto it's roof, before ending up back on all four wheels. Fortunately Frank was ok apart from a sore neck, but the car would go no further. With marshals on the track and the car in the middle of the tarmac, the resulting yellow flags delayed the leaders a bit, which allowed Wilkinson and Hollis to close the gap somewhat, and for a time it looked as though we would again have a five car battle for the lead. However, Panas, Hindley and Fritchley managed to extend the gap to nearly 4 seconds once more with just 3 laps remaining.  Neil Thompson was in a solitary 6th having dropped Alec Graham, who was beginning to suffer from a misfire and was in danger of being caught by Proietti, Robinson and Turner. Up at the front, the 3 leaders started squabbling which was the opportunity that Hollis (now back up to 4th) and Wilkinson needed. In the space of half a lap, Hollis had wiped out what was now a 2.5 second gap thanks to the leaders' battling, and promptly overtook all 3 down the back straight, despite frantic gesturing from Panas to warn the others that he was getting a tow off all 3 of them! Into the last lap, it was anybody's race as just 1.3 seconds covered Hollis, Panas, Hindley, Fritchley and Wilkinson. In the end it was Hindley who proved successful, having towed past Hollis and Panas down the back straight. Steve clung onto 2nd around the outside of Luffield ahead of Hollis, a somewhat peeved Fritchley, who had held a podium place all race until the last 2 laps, and Wilkinson. In fact, John-Paul was lucky to finish at all as his car developed a good impression of a steam engine when the oil started pouring out with a couple of laps left (unless it was all part of a Dick Dastardly style plan). Neil Thompson claimed 6th, ahead of Proietti, Turner and Robinson, who had all passed Graham in the last two laps. Riley came home 11th, strangely not on the pace that he had shown here in previous years, followed closely by Baker. Deeley was a few seconds further back together with a rear wing that was making a determined bid for freedom. Williams was the last unlapped runner, although 15th placed Davies may not have been lapped had he avoided going off as the leaders bore down on him. The Simons of Crook and Bowrey took the final two places. So it would appear that there is not one dominant car at this stage of the season, with the slipstreaming nature of Silverstone giving numerous drivers the chance of victory. Next up is Mallory Park, on the 20th anniversary of 2CV racing. More of the same then!
Report by the Hollis family.
|
Crook's braking issue was soon discovered to be quite serious, as having used the wrong brake fluid when he built his car, what was left that hadn't been destroyed did not offer much in the way of substantially slowing the car. Cue a lot of hasty work to replace much of the braking system the next day, in time for the second round of the 2009 2CVParts.com Championship. Qualifying had been held the day before, and it again found Martin Hindley at the top of the timesheets, although since then he had suffered significant damage in the first race, so it remained to be seen whether or not this would affect his performance (the few hundred metres to cross the line at the end of the race was not really enough distance to judge). Joining him on the front row would be John-Paul Wilkinson, followed by Steve Panas (driving Wayne Cowling's car), Alec Graham and Matthew Hollis.