The Cadwell Park meeting signalled the belated start of the CMMC season. A varied entry of tin tops, intermarque silhouettes and modified Fords (sadly no super saloons) assembled to contest two 15 minute races… writes Adam Grant.
Qualifying saw track expert Andy Robinson (Mo.100. right) secure pole position in his mighty Ford Falcon V8, before the red flags appeared. Apparently someone had dropped some oil and Richard Smith slid off in his Mercedes SLK. The remaining 5 minutes saw Dave Cockell move up to second spot in his Ford Escort Cosworth. Ford runners took the next 4 places with David Matthias, Terry Davies, Scott 
Matthias and Olly Allen. Simon Sheridan was quickest tin top, with Ray Harris the best intermarque silhouette. In all 17 cars made up the mixed grid.
Qualifying results – click here
The rolling start saw Robinson head away with Cockell stuck to his boot lid. By lap 4 the four wheel drive Escort squeezed by and quickly established a two second lead, which extended to 6.5 seconds by the chequered flag. Initially David Matthias was third until Ray Harris (No.5, photo right) came charging through in his Ginetta G40 silhouette on lap 4. David then had a fairly lonely race, whilst his brother got embroiled in a close scrap with Olly 
Allen. The Fiesta driver claimed fifth spot on lap 8, which he held to the end. Malcolm Wise and Richard Smith fought over 7th, until the Mercedes made an unscheduled pit stop. Into 8th came Paul Nevill, his usually immaculate Mk.2 Ford Escort RS2000 bearing the scars of a steering breakage the day before during a track day. Most of the damage was caused by the recovery truck, which resulted in a late night for Paul. Daniel Smith brought his more standard Ginetta home 9th, in front of an entertaining battle for tin top honours between Warren Johnson and Simon Sheridan (blue No.79, photo right). Simon led for most of the race, only for Warren to nip by on the 9th lap. Paul Waterhouse, Kevin Hadfield, Jimmy Neophytou and Dave 
Barrett completed the finishers.
Sadly the second race was without Robinson, as the Falcon was slightly injured during a northern sports/saloon race. This meant that Dave Cockell (white No.95, photo right) had a fairly easy run, although Harris kept him honest initially until his gearbox broke. This left the Matthias brothers second and third, until Richard Smith came up from the back of the grid to split them. David managed to fend off Richard and took second place, with Richard completing the podium. Scott dropped back towards Olly Allen, but still had enough in hand at the end. Nevill upped his pace and got past Wise, although Terry Davies started to close in on Paul as the race progressed. Daniel 
Smith was the next one to challenge the yellow Escort Cosworth and he gained 8th place at the expense of Malcolm. Yet again the two tin tops put on a good display, as they fought for class honours. As before Sheridan led for the most part, but Warren Johnson (black No.12, bottom photo) made his move on lap 8, to take the class win in his Peugeot 205. Chris Baker was the first lapped runner in 12th, followed by Hadfield and Waterhouse, after Neophytou retired.
Next up is Snetterton on August 8th where a bumper grid is expected to contest the 300 circuit.
With thanks to Rafal Biniszewski www.facebook.com/fastandfocus for the photos which he put on our CMMCS Facebook page. www.biniszewski.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rafalbiniszewskiphotography and rafal@fastandfocus.com