Pictures by Richard Field

This report is in two sections; for more pictures, and results, click 'Page 2', below.

Too close to call !

Held on Sunday May 1st, just after that famous extra Bank Holiday, the second of our 2011 Solos was again held in sunny weather, and with the usual wide variety of cars among the entry. The format included three runs through the first course, and then four runs through the remaining three, with the best two times on each course to count. Course 4, in certain sections, also gave the drivers some choices of which route to take.

We're used to seeing close finishes in Solos.... but this event gave us our first ever dead-heat for Fastest Time of Day, with the 'Caterham twins', Barry McClure in his orange car, and Andrew Thompson in his silver one, both finishing on the same total of 439.8 seconds. James Llewellyn, driving his heavier Mazda MX5, was threatening these two leaders all day, setting the fastest times on the last course, and finishing third overall, just 0.8 seconds behind them, and first in Class E.

Fourth overall position went to Ben Griffin in his Peugeot 106 Rallye, on 443.2 seconds, winning the Index award, while Russell Smith shared Richard Aldcroft's Honda CRX to take fifth overall, and the first place award in Class C. And a new face in this class, Tomasz Marciniak, was immediately on the pace with his high revving Saxo VTS, finishing seventh overall.

In Class E for production sports cars, with James Llewellyn out in front chasing the Caterhams, Brett Lawrence led the rest of the pack, driving his green supercharged Mazda MX5, to finish second in this class, and the third place award went to Colin Robinson, who started competing in Solos with his red MX5 just 6 weeks ago, at our March Solo.

The larger engined saloons, hatchbacks, etc, over 1800cc's, make up Class D, where Shaun Finch was the winner with his Mitsubishi Evo, while George Wall, with his 'showroom stock' Mazda 323, took second place in this class, with a characteristically smooth drive. Kevin Lower, continuing his '50 events' charity campaign in the RS2000, took third place, and unusually, in this picture, the Escort is travelling in a fairly straight line ! (see Page 2, for another perspective)

This report continues, on PAGE 2

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