Official Race Report from Paul Lawrence

Eggington and Williams win at Croft

Chris Eggington and John Williams shared the spoils as the Michelin Porsche Club Championship opened at Croft over the weekend (17/18 April). One dry race and one wet race ensured plenty of close racing and action as the championship contenders set out on their bid for glory in the 17-race season.

Race one

Starting fourth on the grid, Williams (3.2 Carrera) made a storming start to lead into Clervaux in Saturday's dry race. "That was the first time I'd done a start in the car and the first time I'd driven it in the dry," said Williams, who had borrowed the car from Chris Berry for the weekend. Rod Carman (3.2 Carrera) edged ahead of the similar car of poleman Ian White to take second, which became the lead when Williams uncharacteristically spun at Sunny. "I had a nice lead and just went too hot into Sunny," admitted Williams.

Carman now led, but the drama continued when White dived for the inside at Tower and both cars spun after contact. Right behind them, Peter Morris (968CS) had to take to the grass in avoidance, so his team mate Eggington (968CS) steered through the drama to take the lead. "There was this big gap in the road," said Eggington as he set off on his way to victory.

Meanwhile, Carman and White got going again but more drama came as White challenged at Clervaux and Carman spun into the gravel after contact. White steered through to second from Morris, who had lost a lot of time on the grass at Tower, while Richard Lambert (Carrera 3) was a clear class two winner in fourth overall from Williams. Had he not suffered so badly at Tower, Morris would have been the likely victor.

Adam Egar (911SC) claimed second in class two after a long tussle with David Botterill (924 Carrera GT), which took them both ahead of Mark Rogers (911SC).

Heavy rain on Sunday morning left the track very wet and slippery for the second race, which is just what 'rain-meister' Williams wanted.

White got the jump on the front-engined cars off the line and led clearly into the first corner, with Lambert a mighty second from Williams and Morris. Williams quickly moved into second and sat on White's tail to weigh up his options for a lap or two. By lap four Williams had moved cleanly ahead and was able to build his lead comfortably to win by over 12 seconds. "I love the wet, but it was extremely slippery and there was a lot of standing water," explained Williams.

White accepted that Williams was quicker in the conditions and concentrated on maintaining second place. "It was better to let him go than have a DNF trying to chase him in these conditions," said White.

However, White could certainly not relax as Lambert, Morris and Eggington sat in his wheel tracks in the early laps. Morris then lost time with a quick spin at Sunny, as Eggington moved ahead of Lambert to take up the assault on White. Lambert then had a half-spin at Hawthorns, but didn't lose his class two lead while Eggington finally edged ahead of White only to spear off the track a lap later at the Jim Clark Esses and end his race in the field. "I didn’t know which way he was going to go, but he was making crop circles," said White.

Still White had no chance to rest as Morris had stormed back into contention and bravely out-braked White on the outside on the dash into Clervaux at the start of the final lap. But White grabbed second back again under braking for Tower and was finally secure when Morris had another spin at Sunny on the last lap. All of that allowed Lambert to take a class-winning third from Morris and Botterill, who set the seal on his result with a cracking start in the 924 Carrera GT. Mark Lillington starred by taking eighth from the back of the grid in the ex-Tony Brown 968CS, but Carman only managed 11th after a couple of spins.

In class three, Robertson kept it all together for a clear victory over Stewart.

Richard Lambert's story...

As usual it's always a big rush to get everything ready for the first race of the season. Its ridiculous really, we have 5 months to get the car prepared and it's always the same, rushing around trying to get things finished at the last minute. Note to self, get organised so it doesn't happen next season. Anyway, I'm racing the same car, a 1976 Carrera 3.0, but for this year it has been treated to a session on the jig and a respray in blood orange. I wanted to get noticed and no one else would choose the same colour would they ? Steve checked the car over and did a pukka set-up and we were ready.

I decided to break the car in during testing on Friday. To my amazement several other people had decided to get noticed and there were loads of orange cars, blumin heck ! Testing was wet and miserable, the kind of weather to really put you off racing as you can't push the car and get a proper feel for how it handles. Never mind, at least it didn't break down and nothing fell off.

A night in Darlington preceded Saturday's events. Qualifying was on a damp track, I had fitted a new set of dry tyres the previous day and was happy they would be fine for the conditions. Qualifying went well with a drying track and other than locking the brakes and flat spotting one of my new front tyres I was able to set the third fastest time and was quickest in my class by 2.1 seconds!

Race 1 was on a dry track, I was expecting the Class 1 cars to come past me during the race but other than the GVR 968's it was all a bit quiet. John Williams had taken an early lead but got overly excited and went spinning off onto the grass and then Rod Carmen deposited his 3.2 Carrera in the gravel, at least there was someone to provide some excitement in Craig rapps absence!! In the early laps Mark Rogers was keeping up but then his fire extinguisher worked lose and somewhat hampered his driving, after that I just tried to concentrate on setting good times and finished first in class and fourth overall setting the fastest lap in the process. What made it especially rewarding was that I had played my joker and for the first time had scored maximum points.

Another night out in Darling preceded Sunday's events. Luckily race 2 was at 12:15 so I managed to enjoy a bit of a lie in. Sunday was wet, very wet, urgh. I don't mind driving in the wet other than the spray, which can make things very dangerous so I was pleased to be on the second row of the grid. I was also running my dry tyres and noticed everyone else had switched to the more heavily grooved wets." I don't need wet tires I joked, they are for girls", but secretly wished I had some to. Sitting on the grid I knew the 968's would have a difficult time and sure enough into the first corner I was second behind Ian White in his 3.2 Carrera. After a lap John Williams came past and stormed away to win Class 1. On lap two the drivers side windscreen wiper decided to work loose, thank goodness the passenger wiper on a 911 does most of the screen. I ended up having a good battle with the 968 of Peter Morris and Chris Eggington. I was losing out on braking as they have ABS but won again on traction and cornering speed. Eventually I went wide onto the grass and lost the place and then I managed to spin all on my own. Luckily I didn't lose any more places but could see David Botterill looming large. In the end I managed to win my class, once again setting the fastest lap and finished third overall after Chris went off into a field and Peter spun on the last lap.
Other than the weather, oh and a 7 hour drive home it was a most excellent weekend. With 80 points I am now leading the championship and all bodes well for the season. Next race Silverstone, not a circuit I usually do well at but then who knows what will happen.