JEC XJS Championship - Brands Hatch 5th May 2007:
Just as a siren lured unwary sailors onto the rocks, so the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap proved a modern-day attraction to the Jaguar XJS contenders.
Saturday's race was halted with four cars off there, and Sunday's by half that number. The outcome was still the same both times, with the undefeated-in-2007 Steve Davis leading home Derek Pearce.
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Twenty-five lovely cats lined up on the grid with the only exception of rookie Michael Jobson of Sussex who failed scrutineering with an incorrectly installed 'role cage', very harsh but safety and rules must be respected.
Double winner at Snetterton, Steve Davis was on pole with Thornton Heath's ace Derek Pearce 2nd and great to see Gary Davis in Gail Hill's old 4.0 litre 3rd.Red lights out and blistering starts for Steve Davis ahead at turn 1, Pearce 2nd Gail Hill up to 3rd, Steve 'sideways' Avery (also great to see him take part) 4th and Gary Davis 5th. Lap 2 and Gary gets ahead of Avery and Hill.
We also get our first spinner of the race when Philip Comer of Exford loses it at Paddick Hill bend and gets stuck in the kitty litter.
Lap 4 and Stuart Lyddall was ahead of Avery and another spinner, Stephen Bantleman gets caught at Paddock Hill. I love this bend!
Lap 6 and the front runners remained in the same positions but once again two more cars got stuck in the gravel at Paddock, these were Jaguar World Monthly's editor Matt Skelton (naughty) and Simon Seath who was trying to avoid Matt's spin. The marshals waved the red flags as Padddick Hill was starting to look like an NCP car park, so the race was stopped and the marshals did a brilliant and quick job of removing the stranded cars. With that done they still had 6 minutes of racing left and on the restart Steve Davis, Derek Pearce and Gail Hill shot away. Steve had 'the bit between the teeth' and 8 laps later took Class G and his third win. Pearce was 2nd just 1.5 seconds adrift and Gary Davis took a brilliant 3rd.
Gary Hastings had a fantastic race with his new sparring partner John Locke until lap 6 of the restart, John passed Gary coming up to Druids to take Class D win and 7th, Gary was 8th.
Outstanding racing from a couple of the new boys, Jim Quirke of Croydon in a 4.0litre and Mark Russell in a 6.0 litre who finished 10th and 11th respectively and 0.031of a second the gap, how close is that? Other Class winners were Steve Avery (E) and Mike Sharman (F).
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