JEC XJS Championship - Silverstone 10^th April 2004:

With the first XJS race of the season there was a brilliant turn out of 28 cats. However, qualifying had its ups and downs on the wet and slippery 1.6-mile track, as the twitchy rear ends of these powerful cars had trouble gripping the tarmac. Thankfully the circuit would be dry by race time.

Cliff Ryan of Oxhey had pole with last years overall winner Steve Davis 2nd, Derek Pearce 3rd. 4th place went to new rookie Stuart Lyddall, even after completing only 6 laps in qualifying when he ended up beached in the gravel pit at Luffield.

When the red lights went out there was a mad dash for the first bend at Copse, everyone got through cleanly with Derek Pearce in his Millennium powered XJRS was now in the lead and Steve Davis 2nd. This was to be the battle of this race with nothing between them as they pulled away from the rest of the field.

Davis finally ground down Pearce by passing him on lap 10, not before a hair-raising moment when the lap before Steve overtook Derek at Luffield but a back marker spun in front of him at Woodcote. Davis took evasive manoeuvres and Derek was ahead again. Davis took race win and Class G with Pearce 2nd and Class E win.

Stuart Lyddell debuting in his first XJS race achieved a creditable 6th. Watch this young man! Zoë North, from the Saloon racing, was also having her first XJS race and had a blinder when she qualified 22nd and finished a great 9th.

A top ding-dong ensued between Gary Hastings and Simon Currell both from Coventry, having only 0.4 seconds separating them.

Dave Ball also raced out of his skin, qualifying 23 and finishing 13th. Lucky for some! Other class winners were Sean Collins (D) and Paul Jocelyn-Brown (F).

Report by STEVE GOREY (JEC)