Round 2: Bayford Meadows: 6th November 2004

Things were relatively quiet at Bayford for round two of the Southern Promax Winter Championship. Twelve teams competed of which four chose to use the tried and tested Prokart chassis’ while the other eight have now moved to sprint versions and these included Trulli and Gillard chassis. Even the weather was fairly non-descript. Grey, still and with a touch of drizzle, it was a typical early November day.

Titan topped the order in qualifying and took pole by a tenth from SRP. Zero put in a good performance to secure the inside line of the second row which they shared with the similarly paced Misfits. Times were fairly well spread across the rest of the field as teams struggled to find the best set up in the limited time available.

Titan and SRP had the edge from the start and this duo slowly began to creep away from the rest of the pack. Auto 1 decided to pit early for the first of the three compulsory fuel stops and perhaps in the light of what was to follow, early is better than late especially when they were struggling at the back of the field. Dogz were having an equally torrid time, at or near the back right up to the first stop. Misfits misjudged the capacity of their fuel tank and ran out. This would have dropped them from a good midfield position to stone cold last had it not been for Xtreme who lost even more time fixing a recalcitrant exhaust manifold.

Slickness in the pit lane is the key to success in endurance racing and Titan are the masters in this regard. A brilliant fuel stop by the team saw them emerge as race leaders and six seconds clear. From this auspicious position they extended the margin by another four seconds as the race clock hit half time. With three compulsory fuel stops to do and having run out of petrol once already, it seems strange to report that Misfits managed to do it a second time. Perhaps I am misjudging their tactical ability and that they had a fuel leak, but whatever; it was push back time again for the team and another drop back down the order.

With the lead pair now comfortably circulating clear of the rest it was to the midfield that one needed to look for any good race action. Here, Auto 1 battled it out with PDQ and K1 for third place while RSM, Zero and Dogz steadfastly battled to complete the top five. SRP were steadily narrowing the gap to Titan but the final flag was to appear before they maximise the speed advantage found in the closing half hour of the race.

At the flag it was another victory for the mighty Titan team with SRP taking silver some seventeen seconds later. Two laps down but home for bronze were Auto 1 who snatched the trophy from K1 by just three seconds while PDQ swept over the line five seconds later for fifth. A quick look at the leader board after two rounds sees SPR on top by three points over Titan who started the winter campaign with mechanical bad luck at Ellough Park. One point behind are Auto 1 who need to consolidate their position to avoid seeing it go to K1.

Report by Alan Wood