Round 3 - Castle Combe 11th June 2016 - recap
The third round of this year’s Pace Ward MLR Sprint Series at Castle Combe on Saturday 11th June witnessed a battle for the fastest time of the day between two competitors. Whilst that may not be a surprising fact in itself, when it involves a highly modified Class D car and a mildly modified Class A car, its proves that the one-marque series for Mitsubishis truly inspires competition and the opportunity to score a top result whatever the category and specification of the car.
It was Moore - who is usually seen campaigning his Class B Evo VI - that eventually achieved the accolade of setting FTD in his Class D Evo VI. However, it was the on-form Alex Bones who raised eyebrows, when he finished just 0.13s behind in his relatively standard specification Class A Evo V.
It was a wet Wilshire welcome for the drivers and teams when they arrived at Castle Combe for the third in this year’s six round series. So much so, standing water could be seen at various points on the course that comprised almost a lap of the 1.85-mile circuit. Unsurprisingly, this made the going extremely slippery, a factor that led towards some spectacular sideways action during the three practice runs that kicked off the day’s proceedings.
Whilst Moore had posted the fastest time before the competitive runs began, there appeared to be little point in reading too much into the drivers’ performances in the practice runs because of the more-than-moist conditions. However, the rain had now stopped and, after the first few cars had made their initial competitive outings, a dry line slowly began to emerge.
But for Moore, the first series of runs posed less of an issue, as Class D regulations allow the use of racing slicks and wet tyres, the difference in grip between these and road-based rubber that has to be used in the other classes being clear to see from the timesheets. But as the track surface began to dry out, the margin between the classes began to drastically reduce and, at the halfway point after four runs, the front-runners in each of the categories began to emerge.
Not only that, the increased traction that was now available saw drivers starting to push and it was obvious that the final outcome was likely to be settled in the last few runs of the day. Driving his Evo VI, Gavin Batty secured first place in Class B on the eighth and final stage by setting a time that was good enough to secure him the third-fastest time overall. It also enabled him to edge ahead of Alan Rochelle by just 0.10s, who claimed the Class C honours in his Evo VI and in-turn snatched the category victory from Robert Loftus and his Evo VII by 0.16s - again, on the final run.
Elsewhere on the timesheets, there was an interesting development between Simon Griffiths in his Evo VI and 2016 Class C champion Paul Allin, who had swapped his distinctive green and grey Evo V for an equally distinctive Evo 9 Wagon - a rare sight on the road and an even rarer sight in a sprint competition. They ended the day just 0.23s apart, the advantage eventually falling to Griffiths who clamed second place in Class A.
But the story of the day belonged to Bones, who set his fastest time on run seven. His 1.10.71 not only staked his claim on Class A by over three seconds, it was over a second faster than any Class B or C car. Perhaps more impressively, it was only 0.13s slower than Class D winner Moore, who was delighted to be credited with the FTD.
Drivers and teams now take a two-month summer break before resuming competition on 13th August at Hethel in Norfolk.Increasing the series’ profile this year is the addition of live commentary and video filming at every round that will be broadcast throughout the season on social media.The six-round 2016 Pace Ward MLR Sprint Series is sponsored by: Pace Ward performance insurance, SuperPro suspension parts, AP Tuning, Ross Sport, Turbosmart and HKS Europe.
Round 3 Class WinnersClass Class sponsor Driver Car TimeA SuperPro Alex Bones Evo V 1:10.71B AP Tuning Gavin Batty Evo VI 1:11.85C Ross Sport Alan Rochelle Evo VI 1:11.95D Turbosmart Stephen Moore Evo VI 1:10.58
Classes The Pace Ward MLR Sprint Series features four classes:
Class A: Fast Road - sponsored by SuperProClass B: Track - sponsored by AP TuningClass C: Super-Track - sponsored by Ross SportClass D: Unlimited - sponsored by TurbosmartAll cars must be road legal.
