A fast track this evening produced some very close races, Paul Galbraith was the fastest qualifier in the club mardave class with a photo finish in round 3 winning by 1/100th of a second from Mike Simpson.
In the GT12 class Gavin Maciver was the top qualifier followed by Darren Ford with a superb performance to take second overall, Chelle Snowden being third and Nick Wallace fourth.
Daniel Lacey continued his good run by being the best in division 3.

The mardave final was very close with Paul Galbraith starting from pole position on the grid only to find himself in last place by the end of the first lap. Jordan Galbraith took the lead with Mike Simpson and Joshua Galbraith trying to catch him. After four minutes it was Mike who was leading but Jordan was lapping faster but just could not quite catch and overtake Mike – it was very close though with just 0.14 seconds separating them at the end with Joshua finishing third also on the same lap.

David Snowden had an excellent race in the GT12 C final to win, Courtney Orme in his new Ore car was two laps down.

The GT12 B final was fast and furious, Matt Popejoy was the fastest but Bob Harley took the win with a great drive, Matt was second, Dave Tomlinson third and Daniel Lacey fourth to give him yet another maximum points in division 3.

An excellent GT12 A final to complete the evenings racing in which Darren Ford gave Gavin Maciver a good run for his money with some sparkling driving. Gavin drove an almost faultless race to win, Darren was second and Chelle Snowden took third place. Good stuff!

Gavin Maciver retains his unbeaten run in the Summer League
Matt Popejoy finishes third in the A Final ahead of Nick Wallace
Daniel Lacey is the top division 3 driver, also scoring maximum points
Jordan Galbraith sweeps the board in the Mardave class to move up into second position in the league

Qualifying
A problem with a damaged AMB loop cable meant that there were no scores recorded in the first mardave race, Chelle Snowden did an excellent job manually counting for the remaining races in round 1 before repairs were carried out prior to the next round.

Gavin Maciver won all three rounds of the GT12 class, it was close for second and third, especially in round 3 where Chelle Snowden, Matt Popejoy and Nick Wallace all finished on the same lap.
Daniel Lacey also drove well to win all the heat 2 rounds, qualifying only 1 lap down on Chelle – a great performance.
In the mardave class there was a different winner each round with Paul Galbraith setting the initial pace only to see Jordan Galbraith put in a very strong performance in round 3 to take pole position in the final with Mike Simpson second.

Finals
Jordan made an great start in the mardave final and proved to be too quick for anyone else to catch after first Paul Galbraith and then Mike Simpson tried to chase him down. Visiting driver Nathan Marshall was also going well after experimenting with his gearing in the earlier rounds. A fine win for Jordan who was first across the finishing line with Mike Second and Paul third.

In the GT12 B final it was Daniel Lacey who dominated the race being over two seconds a lap faster than the rest of the drivers, a super win for Daniel with Courtney Orme in second place.

The A final was good to watch, Gavin was the winner setting the fastest lap and also despite losing about 10 seconds in a racing incident on lap 16. Chelle was second and Matt Popejoy third and being the only division 2 driver racing this week earned him maximum league points.

A depleted number of drivers this week due to racing on a Friday evening as the hall was not available on the normal Tuesday just for this week only.
Nevertheless it was a great evening with four qualifying rounds and a final.

Some very close racing in the Mardave V12 class with Paul Galbraith being both fastest qualifier and winning the final ahead of Mike Simpson and Jordan Galbraith.

In the GT12 class Gavin Maciver was two laps ahead of his nearest rival Darren Ford in the qualifying and then went on to win the final by three laps, setting the fastest lap of the evening along the way, Darren finished in second place.

It was good to see visiting driver Paul Liston who had an excellent drive to win the B final.

Many thanks to everyone present for helping to put away the track equipment after the racing.

Back to the normal Tuesday evening next week with round 2 of the current league.

Qualifying

The start of a brand new league this week saw Gavin Maciver take the top spot in qualifying followed by Matt Popejoy who continued his great run of form after his second place in the A final last week. Chelle Snowden was in third place and Dave Tomlinson fourth.
It was good to see Darren Ford racing again after several months break and he put in a good performance to secure fifth place overall.
In division 3 it was another new member Daniel Lacey who was fastest ahead of Courtney Orme.

The V12 mardave class Mike Simpson who took first place very closely followed by Paul Galbraith on equal best lap times with Jordan Galbraith third and setting the fastest lap. Roy Matthews was also going well to take fourth position.

Finals
The mardave final was first where Mike Simpson made a terrible start from pole position on the grid, dropping down to last place, Paul Galbraith was quick to take advantage and took the lead. Mike fought his way back through the field and on lap 21 regained the lead, it was very close though with Paul fighting back until lap 26 when Joshua Galbraith overtook him and went on to take second place along with setting the fastest lap, Paul finishing third and Roy Matthews fourth.

In the GT12 C final it was a good battle between Courtney Orme and David Snowden who were evenly matched, it was Courtney who won the day, David was second and some very quick driving by McKensie Wallace earned him third place.

The GT12 B final was the most exciting race of the evening with Darren Ford, Bob Harley and Nick Wallace maintaining a very fast pace. Nick and Bob eventually pulled away a few seconds from Darren, Nick seemed to have the race won put a small error on the penultimate lap let Bob through to win a fine race, Nick was second and Darren third. Good stuff!

The last race of the evening was the GT12 A final where Gavin Maciver was on pole followed by Matt Popejoy, Chelle Snowden and Dave Tomlinson. Gavin drove superbly to take a comfortable win with Chelle and Dave fighting it out for second place, a close run finish with Chelle just over half a second ahead of Dave.

A good evenings racing.

DON’T FORGET CLUBNIGHT IS ON FRIDAY FOR NEXT WEEK ONLY (20th May) AS THE HALL IS UNAVAILABLE ON THE TUESDAY,

Anticlockwise racing this week for a change, still cannot get used to going round the other way!

Don’t forget the new league starts next week.

It was the final round of what has been a very competitive league – congratulations to all the winning drivers.

V12 Mardave Class
Winner Mike Simpson
Second Jordan galbraith
Third Paul Galbraith

GT12 Division 1
Winner Gavin Maciver
Second David Simpson
Third Chelle Snowden

GT12 Division 2
Winner Nick Wallace
Second Matt Popejoy
Third Rob Hambridge

GT12 Division 3
Winner Courtney Orme
Second Alwyn Hodges
Third Mike Simpson

Can the current holders of the main league trophies please remember bring them back by clubnight on Tuesday 3rd April in order to get them engraved with the new league champions names.

The next league commences on Tuesday 10th April.

Louis Parker is fastest qualifier and wins the A Final
A great performance from Matt Popejoy to make the A Final
David Snowden gets another maximum points in division 3
Jordan Galbraith was the fastest qualifier and won the final in the club mardave class

Track

Qualifying
Some excellent racing on a testing track design, David Simpson was best qualifier after the first and second rounds but Louis Parker came good in round three to take pole in the A final. David was second overall and Gavin Maciver third. Matt Popejoy had his car set up well and with some great driving took fourth overall to make the A final.
Bob Harley was second in division 2 and Nick Wallace sporting a fine new bodyshell was third.
David Snowden carried on his good run of form from last week to be best in division 3 ahead of Courtney Orme and Alwyn Hodges.
In the mardave class Jordan Galbraith won two of the three qualifying heats and set the best time to be assured of pole position in the final, Mike Simpson was second just ahead of Joshua Galbraith who pushed his dad Paul down into fourth spot.

Finals
There was no stopping Jordan Galbraith in the mardave final, a super drive to lap everyone in the race and take an easy win. Behind Jordan Mike Simpson and Paul Galbraith had their own race for second place with positions changing several times. It was Mike who took second by just 0.98 seconds – a very close finish!

Rob Hambridge had a good drive in the GT12 C final to win, David Snowden was second just two laps down and visiting driver Max Crossland third a further lap behind.

The GT12 B final was a very close throughout with all the drivers being evenly matched. It was Nick Wallace with his sparkling new bodyshell who won the day being 2.9 seconds ahead of second place driver Bob Harley who narrowly beat Chelle Snowden by 4.5 seconds – an exciting race!

The GT12 A final was also a great race with Louis Parker, David Simpson and Gavin Maciver all driving very quickly and accurately round a very twisty track. David set the fastest lap but it was Louis with a very consistent performance who won, Gavin snatching second place from David on the last bend.

Just one round remains in the league which will be held next week.

An exciting evenings racing with maximum points being scored for the first time in all four league divisions by the winning drivers

Louis Parker after having problems with his car in round 1 recovered to be fastest in qualifying and take pole position in the GT12 A final, another good performance from Chelle Snowden to take second place ahead of David Simpson.
Matt Popejoy was the quickest in division 2 and new member David Snowden qualified in top position in division 3 with Courtney Orme second.
In the Club Mardave class the racing was very close as usual with Paul Galbraith winning round 1, Jordan Galbraith winning round 2 and Mike Simpson taking round 3 with the best time to take pole in the final.

In the Mardave final Mike Simpson got a good start with Jordan Galbraith in hot pursuit, with some incredibly close driving these two had lapped everyone else in the field by lap 11. On lap 14 Mike made an error and Jordan took the lead and it was now Jordan who was being pursued by Mike. Unfortunately on lap 21 Jordan’s car had a mechanical failure with the suspension coming adrift which enabled Mike to take a comfortable win with Paul Galbraith making a last minute charge to un-lap himself and take second place with Roy Matthews finishing a fine third.

The GT12 B final saw a great performance from new member David Snowden who had been improving his times all evening. He had a very convincing win being 5 laps ahead of Courtney Orme with Mark Perkin taking third place on the same lap as Courtney. Well done David! – Could Chelle make it two wins for the Snowden family in the A final?

Louis Parker made a great start in the A final and soon pulled out a good lead, behind him Chelle Snowden and David Simpson were having their own race for second place. David moved into second on lap 2 only for Chelle to get past on lap 7, the race remained very close and David moved back into second spot on lap 10, the positions remained the same for a while and by lap 20 Chelle was only 2/10th second behind David. Unfortunately a racing incident on lap 23 put David out of contention and Chelle was able to cruise to a well deserved second place behind the winner and fastest car on the track Louis Parker. A great race to watch!

Louis Parker is fastest qualifier and wins the GT12 A Final
Bob Harley takes maximum points in division 2
Mark Perkin is best qualifier in division 3 but Courtney Orme wins the GT12 C Final
Jordan Galbraith shows all the drivers the way in the mardave class with maximum points

One practice round, two qualifying rounds and a final this week.

Qualifying
Louis Parker was quickest with 31 laps followed by Gavin Maciver on 30 and David Simpson 29 laps.
In division 2 Bob Harley completed 28 laps and Nick Wallace 26.
Mark Perkin was best in division 3 with 21 laps followed by Alwyn Hodges on 18.
In the club mardave class Jordan Galbraith lapped everyone in the race to take pole position with 25 laps, Paul Galbraith was second on 24 laps.

Finals
First up was the mardave final where Jordan Galbraith made a great start from pole position on the grid to establish an early lead and with some very fast and consistent driving went on to record yet another great win. Behind him Paul Galbraith was challenging during the early stages of the race until mechanical problems on lap 6 dropped him down the field. At the finish it was Mike Simpson who took second place with Paul third. Roy Matthews also had a good race taking fourth place and pushing Joshua Galbraith down into fifth position. The top “Team Wray” driver this week was Wes who finished ahead of Jensen – will the tables be turned next week?

Courtney Orme had a comfortable win in the GT12 C final with David Snowden taking second place on his return to racing and Mark Perkin was third.

The GT12 B final developed into a good high speed and close race between Bob Harley, Nick Wallace and Dave Tomlinson, it was Bob who came out on top with some quick and accurate driving, Nick pushed him but could not quite match Bob’s pace and had to settle for second place.

Louis Parker set the fastest lap time in the GT12 A final but was challenged all the way through the race by a in-form Gavin Maciver, it was close at the finish with Louis winning and Gavin taking second place just under three and a half seconds behind. Another good result also for Chelle Snowden who finished third.

So after three rounds things are very competitive in all the league divisions.
In the GT12 class Gavin Maciver leads with a 7 point advantage over Chelle Snowden, watch out for Louis Parker though as he has only raced in one round.
Bob Harley has just a single point advantage over Nick Wallace in division 2, I am sure things will be close at the end of the year.
Courtney Orme has a commanding lead in division 3 but new member Mark Perkin could still win with some more good results.
In the mardave class Jordan Galbraith and Mike Simpson are now tied for the lead with Paul Gabraith just four points adrift – this has the makings of a very close final result.

Louis Parker wins the A Final with David Simpson second
Chelle Snowden is the B Final winner ahead of Matt Popejoy
Nick Wallace has an easy win in the C Final, Courtney Orme took second place
Jordan Galbraith storms to victory in the V12 Mardave Final with Paul Galbraith second

Qualifying
Louis Parker made a great start to the evening with an almost faultless drive in round 1 setting what turned out to be the best qualifying time to assure him of pole position in the A Final. Gavin Maciver was in second place after round 1 followed by David Simpson and Matt Popejoy. In round 2 Chelle Snowden moved up into fourth position ahead of Matt. David Simpson had a good drive in round 3 to claim second place on the A Final grid by just 0.64 seconds from Gavin in third spot.

In the Club Mardave class Mike Simpson was quickest in round 1 followed by Paul Galbraith and Jordan Galbraith. In round 2 Team Galbraith stepped up the pace with Paul winning and Jordan in second place just 2 seconds slower. Neither driver improved their time in round 3 so Paul took pole in the final, Jordan second place, Mike third and Joshua Galbraith fourth.

Finals
In the mardave final Jordan Galbraith made a tremendous start getting ahead of his dad Paul on the first lap and proved uncatchable setting a fast pace recording the fastest lap time along the way to a fine victory. Behind him Paul Galbraith and Mike Simpson were fighting it out for second place right to the end of the race, Paul taking second just 0.63 seconds ahead. To complete an excellent evening Joshua Galbraith took fourth place. Looks like “Team Galbraith” are back on a winning streak – can they maintain momentum next week?

The GT12 C Final was next with Nick Wallace winning by 4 laps from Courtney Orme, Alwyn Hodges being a further 2 laps adrift.

The GT12 B Final was keenly contested between Chelle Snowden and Matt Popejoy, Matt set some faster lap times but Chelle was consistently quick to take the win with Matt Second and Scott Lewis third.

The GT12 A Final had the makings of a great race and we were not to be disappointed. Louis Parker made a good start from pole and put in some exceptionally quick laps including the fastest of the evening to take a well deserved win. Behind him David Simpson and Gavin Maciver were having their own contest for second and third places, exciting to watch there was little to separate them with David eventually being first across the finishing line ahead of Gavin.

After the racing the trophies were presented by the club vice chairman Chelle Snowden.

A good evenings racing.