Paul Sheard wins hard fought race at Cadwell Park.

Qualifying: Conditions Dry

This was the second of this seasons 30 minute races which unfortunately had a very small turn out.

With only 9 cars coming out for qualifying it was difficult to establish who was setting the early pace,

Tom Roche, following an engine exchange during testing the previous day, was keen to keep as close to Paul Sheard’s qualifying time as possible. This was not helped by this being Tom’s first race at Cadwell.

There was another good qualifying session from Matt Robinson who surely will soon be challenging for his first race win.

Grid Positions:

1          Paul Sheard           1:50.202            Average speed 70.986 mph
2          Tom Roche            1:51.034            Average speed 70.454 mph
3          Matt Robinson       1:51.154            Average speed 70.378 mph

Race: Conditions Dry

From the start Tom Roche was the fastest away closely followed by Paul Sheard and Andy Burge .

As they climbed the hill to Charlies there was little between them and at the end of the first lap Andy was in the lead followed by Tom and Paul closely followed by Richard Breland.

By lap 4 there were three distinct groups battling for positions, the leaders, a mid field group of Joachim Ritter, Jon Halliwell and Andy Coombes and the third group of Paula Sheard and Mark Pierrpoint.

As the mid race point was reached it was Paul Sheard in the lead closely followed by Tom Roche who was only a maximum, of 2 car lengths behind.

Matt Robinson had closed the gap on Richard Breland and Andy Burge, the early leader had dropped back to a very lonely fifth place.

The middle group were constantly changing places but on lap twelve Jochim Ritter missed a gear change and lost ground on Jon Halliwell and Andy Coombes.

Paula Sheard, in her first Max5 race of the season, continued to keep ahead of Mark Pierpoint in a close fought race.

The front two continued to keep a close watch on each other and coming into Hall Bends Tom tried again to pass Paul but just could not get by.

The unfortunate Jochim Ritter had regained the ground lost and by lap 16 was back with the group.

The final lap started with the leaders continuing to battle away with only a cars length between them and Matt Robinson and Richard Breland in close contention for third place.

At the chequered flag Paul Sheard was the winner by just over half a second from Tom Roche and Matt Robinson his third podium finish of the season in third place.

On lap 11 Paul Sheard broke his own Max5 lap record with a time of 1:49.347.

Result

1          Paul Sheard             31:31.813       
2          Tom Roche              31:32.381
3          Matt Robinson         31:37.721

Fastest Lap: Paul Sheard 1:49.347 Average speed 71.541

The next round will be at Rockingham on 12 July.

B. Marsh