The eighth round of the Max5 Championship was originally planned as a 30 minute race but was changed at the last minute to two 14 lap races, the first one being for the championship.
This round also saw the return of Brett Walter and Wayne Le Montais together with newcomers Rod Gretton and Adam Robinson.
Qualifying: Conditions dry0
Sixteen cars came out for qualifying on a dry circuit with Jonathan Halliwell, Brett Walter, Charles Plumley and Tom Roche pushing hard for pole position with less than 0.3 seconds separating the four of them on the grid.
Jonathan Halliwell gaining his first pole position of the season.
Qualifying was evenly matched throughout the session with the whole field being separated by 2.3 seconds; this promised to be a very close run championship race.
Grid:
1 Jonathan Halliwell 57.641 Average speed 135.69 kph
2 Brett Walter 57.704 Average speed 135.54 kph
3 Charles Plumley 57.768 Average speed 135.39 kph
Championship Race: Conditions dry
From the start Jonathan Halliwell and Brett Walter were away quickly and led into the first corner, with the remainder of the field closely bunched in hot pursuit.
At the end of a closely fought first lap it was Brett, Jonathan and Paul Sheard in the first three places.
On Lap two there was contact between Paul Sheard and Tom Roche as Tom attempted to move up quickly through the field, leaving both cars damaged but able to continue with Richard Breland and Charles Plumley taking advantage of the incident and moved up to third and fourth respectively.
The gap between the first two cars and the rest of the field was beginning to grow but the remainder of the field was well bunched together.
At the end of lap four Paul Sheard and Tom Roche had regained some of the lost ground and were closing quickly on third placed Richard Breland. Lower down the field on the exit of Gerrards Paula Sheard spun relegating her from twelfth to last position.
The race was now starting to breakdown into groups of cars with the front two pulling away and 6 cars challenging for third place and a third battle with 5 cars going on at the tail of the race making this one of the most exciting races of the championship so far.
On lap nine Brett was able to establish a comfortable lead over Jonathan which continued to be extended over the remainder of the race with Paul Sheard and Tom Roche closely matched for third and fourth place.
At the chequered flag Brett came home triumphant with a well deserved second place for Jonathan Halliwell and Paul Sheard winning the rights to third place.
Result:
1 Brett Walter 13:39.793 Average speed 82.99 mph
2 Jonathan Halliwell 13:40.544 Average speed 82.92 mph
3 Paul Sheard 13:47.505 Average speed 82.22 mph
Fastest lap went to Joachim Ritter on lap seven in a time of 57.753 average speed 84.15 mph.
Race two (non championship): Conditions dry
The grid for the second race was determined by finishing position in the Championship race earlier in the day.
Whilst this was a non championship race Jonathan Halliwell was determined to better his second place in the earlier race and was away quickly, leading into Gerrards but by the end of the lap was in third position behind winner Brett Walter and Paul Sheard with Tom Roche a very close fourth.
This race was proving to be much closer at the front than the previous race with less than two seconds between first and sixth place at the end of lap three and another close race for the minor places with 0.6 seconds between eighth and eleventh position.
Joachim Ritter moved purposely through the field to be in fourth place at the end of lap eight pushing Tom Roche all the way for third place.
The hard work that Tom Roche had done throughout the race came to an end on lap eleven when he pulled out of the race with an overheating engine, meanwhile the race for first place was getting tighter with Jonathan Halliwell and Paul Sheard now well away from third placed Brett Walter.
As the cars entered the final lap the race was led by Paul Sheard with Jonathan Halliwell in second and Brett Walter third.
Heading up towards the hairpin Jonathan Halliwell nipped past Paul Sheard and held the lead to the chequered flag to give him his first win of the season, Paul was second and Richard Breland third.
The win gave Jonathan his best weekend’s results of the season.
Result:
1 Jonathan Halliwell 13:46.849 Average speed 82.28 mph
2 Paul Sheard 13:47.570 Average speed 82.21 mph
3 Richard Breland 13:47.837 Average speed 82.18 mph
To round off the weekend Jonathan Halliwell had the fastest lap of 57.632 with an average speed of 84.32 mph on lap 5.
The next two rounds of the championship will be at Anglesey on August 2/3.
B. Marsh