Reports > Howard's Day - Castle Combe April 6th 2015
Class win and record for Josh Fisher plus a 2nd for Guy Parr
With warm and sunny conditions together with a new track surface around half the circuit, conditions were ideal for an excellent day's racing. For the first event of the year, Wayne Poole Racing were out in force with three cars in Class C of the Formula Ford race with Josh Fisher in Richard Hudson-Evan's Reynard 89FF and Steve Bracegirdle and Pete Diccox in their Van Diemen RF89s. Steve was also out in the Sports Racing car race with his Nemesis GT and Guy Parr returned with his Fiesta in the Saloon race.
Helped by a strong Neil Barnett engine, Josh had shown early form by recording a 1m 10.9s in Thursday pre-race testing and although practice was run in slightly cooler conditions, almost matched this time to take a stunning fifth on the grid ahead of a number of fancied Class A and B runners. Steve qualified fourth of the Class C runners but with a 1m 15.5s and very close to the two ahead of him on the grid and Pete was a little further back but still got into the 1m 16s.
Josh made an outstanding start to slot into second place at Quarry and he held this for five laps ahead of a swarming pack of Class A cars. However, some the faster cars eventually found their way past although didn't really break clear leaving Josh to finish 5th overall, win Class C and take a new Class C record at 1m 10.76s (breaking Matt Rivett's 14 year old mark) to go with his Class A record (set in the WPR Mygale) which remained unbroken.
As is usual Pete Diccox made an excellent start to run third in Class C in the opening laps until a couple of other Class C runners, including Steve Bracegirdle, got past. Steve closed up on the cars in front of him but a quick spin on Lap 8 undid all the good work but he was able to climb back up to fourth in Class and 16th overall by the end with Pete making the finish in 20th place.
In the Sports Racing practice Steve got the Nemesis running well and, despite a brake problem - later fixed, qualified in the top half of the field with a 1m 8.1s. In the race Steve held position, lost a place got it back and then set off after the runners ahead. Some quick laps saw the gap close but then Steve suspected a recurrence of the brake issues encountered in the morning so backed off a little to come home seventh. In the second race Steve's start wasn't as good but he was able to pick off some of the cars ahead to come home seventh again.
In the Saloons Guy Parr put in a good practice performance to qualify fourth in Class C close to those in front. A good start saw Guy move up a place and, following a retirement, this became second in Class C, 10th overall and fastest Class lap.
