JEC XJS Championship -
This was the final race of the season and what a
finish it was to be, with everything to play for all the Classes needed
winners. So, with qualifying finished we had Gary Davis, in his Jaguar World
Monthly sponsored XJS, on pole, Steve Davis 2nd and Derek Pearce 3rd. However,
when the cars lined up for the race the grid of 28 beautifully turned out cats
had a gaping hole and of all the places it was the pole man Gary Davis. It
turned out that his clutch had gone and that was the end of his race. How gutted
was he!
Meanwhile back to the race and when the red lights went out it was 4th place
man Kevin Doyle who shot to the front at break-neck speed, Pearce running in
2nd and Steve 3rd. Back on the grid poor Robin North's cat died on him and
couldn't be restarted. His race was over! Coming out of Devils Elbow Dave
Balls' XJS also gave up and he pulled up on the side of the track. Another
gone, what else could this race throw at us?
On lap 7 Alun Fowler in his yellow XJS and his first race with the cats was 'black
flagged' for losing fuel onto the circuit, later revealing that he had over
filled his tank, an unlucky debut. Lap 8 saw Adam Ashmore in his lovely purple
XJS spin and his race was over.
Back to the race and Doyle was getting out of shape all over the track as he
was being put under pressure from Davis, only a cats whisker separating them.
The crowd loving every moment of this race as they cheered and clapped, even
when Kevin lost his rear bumper at the hair-pin, but even his luck couldn't
last forever as on lap 17 the back markers at Gerrards
were to be his downfall and he spun off into the grass and it was race over.
You could say the Cannibal 'overcooked' it! This gave Steve Davis the race and
Class G win but not before blowing his head-gasket on the last lap, the relief
on his face was obvious. Derek Pearce came 2nd and took Class E and Martin
Sutherland took a well earned and hard fought 3rd.
We also lost the rookie driver Stewart Lyddell on lap 14 where he was having
another fine race in 6th place till his engine blew and he retired to the pits.
Gail Hill, who improves with each race, was 5th and Class D winner from Zoë
North who came 6th and had a mis-firing engine. Class
D drivers John Griffin and Lawrence Ball had a real 'hum-dinger' with only 0.3
of a second between then to finish 12th and 13th. The Class F winner was Gordon
Bobic.
The points will have to be added up to get the final standings for the
Championship and Class winners, so we wait in bated breath for the final
results. What a race and season. Roll on next year.
Report by Steve Gorey (JEC)