2005 Stock Hatch Round 3, Brands Hatch
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Despite weather forecasts to the contrary, a fine if somewhat hazy day greeted the massive 90 strong entries for round 3 at Brands Hatch. No less than 3 full race grids were required, and top of the timesheets (briefly) was Darren Wilson - although it was later decided that his recorded time was a glitch, and his second fastest time was used, handing pole to Terry Roughton. In the first heat race, a massive battle developed at the front between Fincham, Alden and Wilson, with Fincham eventually breaking away and leaving the other two to battle for second. Mark Aldens car eventually cried enough and seemed to lose much of its radiator water to a developing head gasket fault and retired. The win went to Fincham The second heat had a similarly hard fought battle as Damien Cottrell initially took the lead before a hard charging Lanik came through the ranks to challenge. Ulimately, Cottrell ran wide at Graham Hill, allowing Lanik up alongside, but as Cottrell rejoined there was contact that threw Lanik into the barriers, and left Cottrell with a 10 second penalty for failing to stop at the scene of an accident (or something like that), so despite being a whisker ahead at the line, Cottrell was demoted to allow Thorpe to take the honours. The final was a cracker too. Darren Wilson got himself back in the lead by the first corner from Roughton, with Gordon Macmillan up to third from 6th by the first corner. Wilson held the lead until a couple of croners later when he got it sideways at Graham Hill causing a scattering of cars. Roughton took to the grass, Macmillan and Blumson went the other side, and Gareth Wright was collected. After all the confusion, it was Roughton from Blumson with Hemming and Drewery having got the jump on Macmillan. The race was red flagged a couple of laps later after Horsey visited the barriers along the cooper straight after some contact. At the restart it was Hemming who led, but Blumson who had originally started 5th continued to be handed places until he eventually led to the finish, to make it 3 out of 3. |
