JEC XJS Championship - Donington Park 31^st July 2004:

28 cats lined up on the grid with exception of Kevin (hannibal the cannibal) Doyle who qualified 3rd but due to a burst cylinder- head gasket he couldn't race and was "livered". So the new line up had last years winner Derek Pearce in his Millenium powered XJS on pole, Steve Davis 2nd and Stewart Lyddall 3rd.

When the start lights went out the rear wheel spins lit up the 1.9 mile track and 28 cats made a dash for the first bend at Redgate. Pearce came out in front with Davis snapping at his exhaust, Martin Sutherland also got a fantastic start and shot up to 4th from 8th and went on to finish 3rd. On lap 3 Wayne Ulph and John Griffin were both caught out at McLeans, both got snared up in the kitty litter and their race was over.

A spin by David Ball at Redgate caused a heart-stopping moment but he adopted the correct procedure & sat in the middle of the track, pointing in the wrong direction as cars cascaded past on both sides. On Lap 7 Steve Davis of Beaconsfield finally passed Derek Pearce and went on to take Class G and race win while Derek never gave up, he had to be content with a well deserved 2nd and Class E win.

Further down the field there were some awesome battles as Ray Hill held off Chris Boon to finish 10th and 11th with only 0.8 seconds the gap and Class F winner Paul Jocelyn-Brown kept at bay David Ball and Phil Taylor (not the darts player, or is he!) where they finished 17th, 18th and 19th respectively and just over 1 second gap. Gail Hill was having a brilliant race in 10th place till disaster struk on the last lap and she spun off at Coppice, race over. The other Class winner was Sean Collin (D).

Report by Steve Gorey (JEC)