Reports > Castle Combe October 7th 2012

Class wins & podiums at Combe finale

The Wayne Poole Racing team were faced with another busy time at the final race meeting of the year at Castle Combe with cars entered in 4 separate races.

The day kicked off with the final round of the Combe Formula Ford Championship and Steve Bracegirdle was hoping to wrap up third place in Class C in his Van Diemen RF89. Things began well with Steve taking the Class C pole and 16th place on the grid. Ray Smith was also out in his Swift SC93 and qualified just behind in 20th. The race turned out to be quite eventful with Glen Finn taking the Class C lead at the start of the race ahead of Steve and Ray on the road. These three then proceeded to run in close company for most of the race (to be repeated later in the day in the FF Carnival race). Ray, in his Class B car, managed to get ahead of both while Steve was locked in a mighty battle with the Class C leader. Despite getting alongside a couple of times Steve wasn't able to complete the pass and then on Lap 11 Ray flicked up a marker board at the Esses hitting Finn and resulting in him pushing Steve wide. The Van Diemen's nose dug into the soft ground almost tearing off the nose box, battery and master cylinders - but not quite. In this damaged state Steve crept round the remaining laps desperately trying to stay in 2nd place and hold on to third in the Championship. It was nail biting stuff but he just held on to take second place by 2 seconds! Fastest lap in Class C was the final consolation. Ray finished his good drive in 13th place.

Next up were the saloons where Guy Parr qualified his Fiesta an excellent 9th overall and 3rd in Class B. A good start saw Guy up to seventh in the early running and leading Class B after champion elect, Di Claudio was held up. A fast and consistent drive, with a couple of the leaders dropping out saw Guy take good 5th overall and second in Class B behind Di Claudio after a storming come back drive.

The GTs followed and Guy Parr was out again, this time in his Nemesis GT, qualifying an encouraging 3rd amongst a pack of Radicals. Des Andrews was having another run in his Megahart and qualified ninth. Unfortunately Des' race never even started as he pulled of at the start of the warm up lap. Guy, however, drove a pacy race to finish 5th behind 4 Radicals but ahead of a couple more.

Finally the Combe Formula Ford Carnival saw Steve Bracegirdle and Ray Smith joined by Olly Bull having a rare (these days) outing in his Swift SC92.Olly duly delivered, qualifying ninth and taking the Class B pole with Steve 20th (2nd in Class C) and Ray 21st. In the race Olly maintained station pretty much throughout, coming home eighth and winning Class B while Ray and Steve resumed their battle with Glen Finn with Ray following Glen home and Steve just behind but with fastest Class C lap to his credit.