Reports > Combe May Day Madness 1st May 2023
Close racing at May Day Combe
With some of the team's regular drivers absent for this race WPR turned up with Ben Mitchell's Class A Classic Auction Review
backed Van Diemen
JL16 for the pair of Castle Combe championship Formula Ford races, Graham Cox's Renault Clio for the Saloon car race and Dave Allan Trophy race where he was joined by Steve Bracegirdle in his Mini Cooper.
Ben qualified fourth for both races just a couple of tenths adrift of the top three. In Race 1 the four leaders ran nose to tail for the entire race (disrupted by a red flag and a safety car) and covered by about a second but there was little opportunity to make any move forward so a fourth place was the result. Encouragingly Ben only missed out on fastest lap by 0.005s so his pace was good.
Race 2 followed much the same pattern as Race 1. Ben got away well to take third place and there was little to separate the four leaders in the opening laps. A run into Tower on Lap 5 saw Ben make a move on the outside but it didn't come off and by dropping back a little he lost the tow from the two leaders. He slowly fell back into the clutches of Lucas Romanek who got past on Lap 8.
Graham had a good CCRC Saloon Car Championship race in the Clio finishing 18th and taking third in Class B.
In the Dave Allan Trophy race Steve and Graham finished in 9th and 10th, just 30secs apart after more than 40 minutes of racing.
