A return to decent weather greeted 12 competitors at Curborough last weekend. Dry and sunny and neither too hot nor too cold, the conditions were perfect for fast times across all classes. There was one practice run followed by three timed runs.
In Class 1 the time differences narrowed over the day between David Hilton and Tim Barber in their shared 996 GT3. By the third run, the gap had closed to just over two seconds with David taking second place in 62.60.
Tim was on blistering form, with three quick times including the FTD and class winning 60.52. Although not a recorded element in our Championship, it is worth noting that Tim joined the ‘ton-up boys’ at Curborough with a speed of 102mph going past the speed trap – the sort of velocity usually only achieved by a small number of open-wheel race cars!
Karl Lupton always puts on a good show at Curborough in his supercharged 968-engined 944. Despite being the only competitor in Class 3 he still put in a hugely competitive time for his final, and fastest time of 64.12.
Seven drivers entered Class 4 with two sharing a fastest time for third place. Geraint Evans (911 Carrera 3.3) equalled Justin Mather’s (Supercharged 2.7 924 S) final, fastest time of 65.44 for joint third.
Driving his slick-shod Boxster, Wayne Eason put in a very impressive second timed run to finish in second place with 63.96.
Improving on that by just four-hundredths of a second, Andy Fagan took his Boxster S by the scruff of its neck and sliced his times each successive run to finish with a class winning 64.92.
An exciting battle developed in Class 5 between two determined competitors with Martin Leach (3.0 911E) at one point ending up with four wheels off and a ‘fail’ – clearly a sign he was trying really hard. In the end, Martin finished with a time of 66.71.
Taking the class win, Stephen Jory (944) has been consistently quick all season and his final run was yet another example of his skills in this Championship with a finishing time of 65.72.