Round 3 - Mallory Park 5th May 2002


SMALL BUT WELL FORMED

(Report By Peter Collins) 

The deceptively fast circuit of Mallory Park welcomed the Le Mans AutoItalia competitors in reduced numbers with conflicting events the main culprit. Even so this didn't lower the quality of the action on the circuit where Graham Scott took another, more dominant, win but behind were two intriguing battles that kept the spectators on their toes.

Graham was clearly the quickest of the field with 49.89 seconds ahead of Drummond Bone's Maserati mounted 52.95, but as an indicator of the race to come, Mark Pollard's harmless looking Minari was only 0.5 seconds behind to take B pole. Only one second covered first and second fastest in Classes D and E and Simon Griffiths from Class B. Andy Thompson's Class D pole was only 0.3 seconds quicker than Neil Smith for Class E. Keith Fawdington's absence meant there were no Class C runners. Marc Connell was grappling with a recalcitrant second gear - not something you need at Mallory where acceleration from the hairpin is so important. Trevor Nicosia's turbo Y10 made a brief appearance but lost it's coolant. Andy Thompson was unable to make the race, his car was badly damaged in the previous Alfa race. 

Neil Smith led first time round with Graham Scot taking a little longer than usual to hit the front. Once he had he made the race his own heading for an unchallenged win. Behind, we had two battles to watch as Mark Pollard's fleet little Minari held off Drummond's Maserati for a number of laps until power took the turbo car past. As usual at Mallory the hairpin was providing Drummond with much hard work. Meanwhile, Marc Connell was doing a great job of holding of the advances of John Griffiths' Alfa 156 even when hobbled with second gear problems. For most laps John would almost pull alongside out of the hairpin before Marc put some daylight between them.

So Graham won in the Stratos with Mark Pollard Class B winner, Marc Connell leading the 156 over the line and taking Class D whilst Neil Smith sped to Class E spoils. Ooh la la - France next.