2003 Stock Hatch Round 3, Brands Hatch
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The hot news on arrival at Brands was the absence of defending champion Tony Scarlett having won the last round in a borrowed car. Paul Taylor's 106 Rallye had been stripped and inspected by the scrutineers since the last race, and there were several other cars to be inspected after the race at Brands. Qualifying got off to an entertaining start as one car left the pit lane, and spun out at the very first corner, PaddockHill bend. The action did not stop there either - Paul Mcmillan was clearly not satisfied with his first tyre smoking spin, so he did it again a couple of laps later, this time he did at least manage to lay a trail of gravel on the track for the following cars. The 106 seemed to be the car to have, as several of them broke the one minute mark, but then it got complicated. The slowest 60 runners were split alternately into two 'B' races. From these races, the fastest 14 lap times would secure the driver a position on the grid for the final later in the afternoon - regardless of their finishing position! What is more, the championship points awarded to the B race runners would be awarded on the basis of their lap times, NOT their overall finishing position! Darren Blumson romped home to an easy victory in the first of the B races, after an incident at Paddock Hill bend had caused the race to be restarted. After securing the fastest lap on the way he would start the highest of all the B race runners in the final, and Tony Taylor won the second B race, but with a lap time that was 14th fastest overall, he would have to start the A race in last place, behind all those he had beaten in the B race. The A race got off to a cracking start, and Paul Taylor led the way in his 106 Rallye, followed by Peter Felix in his. Gordon Macmillan managed to leap up the grid to hold third, whilst the rest of the pack began to drop back. Paul Taylor came under mounting pressure from Peter Felix throughout the race, but held the lead to win. Gordon Macmillan capitalised on the lead battle to home in on the pair of them but was never close enough to challenge. Paul Macmillan tried to re-enact his crowd pleasing spin, but this time at Clearways rather than Paddock Hill bend. Post race scrutineering saw several cars being stripped, and there will be more details announced to the drivers in due course as to the findings. |
