JEC XJS Championship - Oulton Park 10^th May 2003:

Watching XJS's race is like watching 18 Bart Simpson's. You don't know what they'll get up to next and when they do all you hear them say is "It wasn't me!" When 18 XJS's sat on the grid the rain decided to intervene and from previous experience we know XJS's and rain can become an explosive combination. Bring um on!

Richard Masters put in an excellent practice session to earn a rare pole, but when the race was off so were 2nd and 3rd place Pearce and Doyle, leaving Richard in their wake. All was well with everybody jockeying for position then 7 minutes into the race, Calamity! David Weaver lost it at Cascades and demolished the tyre wall so badly that the race was stopped for it to be repaired.

When the race was finally restarted Richard Masters some-how managed to spin his car on the warm-up lap. The race eventually got off and again Pearce and Doyle 1st and 2nd left the rest. With only 8 minutes left to race there was only a Rizla paper separating these two, until the last lap and last bend when Derek Pearce could no longer keep the attacking Kevin Doyle at bay and went into the gravel pit. Kevin then took the spoils and Class G win. An outstanding drive netted 2nd on the line for William Lynch by a bumper from Masters.

The ever-improving Nicola Duncan got stuck in to achieve a great 4th, as did Gail Hill who had a tremendous fight to keep off James Shea and get 2nd in Class D. Richard Masters took a fine 3rd and Class E win. Other Class winners were Sean Collin, in only his second race (D) and Steve Davis (F). A good run by Adam Ashmore in Class D having just returned from 3 hours racing at Spa & with 118,000 miles on the clock. Pretty robust these Jaguars!

Report by STEVE GOREY (JEC)