Over winter, a new section of circuit has been added to Mallory before the Esses, on raceday we found the old layout was being used. Those people who had arrived on Saturday and spent time in the evening studying the new section had done so in vain. Practice was a fairly quiet affair. It was good to see the return of Phil Thompson in the Panda complete with replacement 1242cc engine after the previous one holed its block back at Brands Hatch. The engine had only been installed this week so this event was to be viewed as a shakedown run with the chance of a few points along the way. Another surprise was Lindsay Ward in the Thema making a return to the series. From my vantage point inside Devil's Elbow, it was evident that Tim Lewis seemed much faster than anyone else, and that the Panda was running but not very quickly (Phil was keeping the revs down to 6000). Tony Soper was also making a rare appearance in the Le Mans Auto-Italia championship as the ARCA series were not competing here - the Alfa GTV now has the engine from the old 164 as used last year so should (and was) a lot quicker. The only real excitement in practice was Ian Stapleton running wide at Gerrards late in the session and parking up out of harm's way in the gravel.

Despite what the commentator thought, the grid lined up for the first race in the standard Le Mans Auto-Italia reverse grid format - I do wish someone would inform the commentator in advance of how we run. Aside from the fact that the crowd might be confused by seeing the grid differently to how the commentator is describing it, when they hear that the whole thing about the series is that the faster cars start at the back, so they have to race through the pack, maybe a few more spectators might come over to watch - maybe some of them might even want to come and join in! To be fair, by the second race later in the afternoon, the commentator had been brought up to speed.

An interesting first corner saw Neil Smith get boxed in behind girlfriend Emma Karwacki, and worse still, he clipped her wheel arch demoting her to almost last place as the pack exited Gerrards for the first time. Westley Evans made a cracking start to emerge from the pack from that first corner and maintain his lead through the first lap. Tim Lewis was racing through the crowd much to the amazement of the crowd standing nearby who were more than impressed as he blitzed past 3 cars down the straigh on the first lap as if they weren't there. His Alfasud Sprint sounds a good deal louder than the rest of the field which only serves to heighten the impression of speed, not that it needed any heightening. By the end of lap two it seemed the race was all but over, Tim Lewis had raced clear. Andy Thompson in the Minari had struggled to get through the pack and was distance back, Tony Soper worked his way up to second gradually before Andy got past him, and Lindsay Ward seemed a lot slower than expected, making very hard work of the slower guys. Turns out he had changed the rear tyres to old ones after having worn his first pair out while racing in another race, the Thema lost its handling balance as a result. Neil Smith back in 4th place was having a very hard time keeping in front of Westley Evans in the similar looking but slick shod Alfa Romeo 156.

On lap seven, it all went wrong for Phil in the Panda as he noticeably slowed coming down the back straight and came in to the pits through the rear. Unbelievably the problem was diagnosed as a broken crankshaft, one end of the engine turning, the other not doing so. Its got to be a close run thing between Phil and myself to see who is having the worst run of luck. The race was hotting up, although still a few seconds behind, Andy Thompson seemed to be noticeably gaining on Tim Lewis - whether because Tim had slowed or Andy was going for it was not so easy to tell. The gap came down to two or three seconds when suddenly the Minari slowed up and drove into the pits - the throttle cable had broken. This promoted everyone bar Tim Lewis up one position so now Tony Soper was second with Neil and Westley battling for third place. Further down the field Roger Donnan and Stephen Ousely were battling hard for Class E honours in a manner which belied Roger's 3 seconds advantage in qualifying - Stephen had found the extra pace and finally managed to get past Roger. On the final lap, a late lunge down the inside coming into the hairpin caused Roger to lock up and hit Stephen on his outside. As they rounded the Hairpin, Stephen's Alfa 33 slewed across the track but got in front of Roger and held the lead to the finish line. But the race had gone to Tim Lewis with Tony Soper second and Neil Smith holding off Westley Evans for the final podium position. Unfortunately for Westley, he was the only Class D entrant for this double header and so only gets half points which do his overall championship chances no favours at all.

Race two was later in the afternoon. Phil had packed up the Panda and gone home, a broken crankshaft being irrepairable on site. We also lost Stephen Ousely, presumably damage from his last lap contact with Roger Donnan was to blame. Roger had been frantically searching for tracking gauges as his front nearside wheel had been knocked askew in the same incident. He was successful in his quest and made race 2 although he would prove to be slower than in race 1.

With Stephen Ousely missing from the front row, Westley Evans would surely be able to rocket to the front, and this he did, but not before Emma Karwacki surprised everyone by leading the pack into Gerrards. Andy Thompson had fixed the throttle cable on the Minari and in a reversal of race one, he got a great start while Tim Lewis got bogged down in traffic. This promised a more interesting race, could Andy hold off Tim? Further back, Lindsay got past the slower cars more easily and soon got on the tail of Neil Smith providing much entertainment as these two battled. Lindsay had already provided much entertainment in hunting down Ian Stapleton, invariably he would draw alongside going into Gerrards, but the lighter Alfetta would then gain 2 or 3 cars lengths by the exit. Finally Lindsay got the inside line and the two cars went round together with the Alfetta leading by inches rather than car lengths. This was enough for turbo power to prove decisive down the back straight. Once Lindsay got past Westley to chase down Neil, we wer then treated to another close battle between Westley and Ian Stapleton - this must have been one of the more entertaining races for a while.

At the front Tim did catch and pass Andy, and then slowly pull away to add a second race win to his first. Coupled with Andy's DNF in the first race, this was enough for Class B to swing back in Tim's favour - but there are still 3 races to go. Tony Soper gamely tried to keep up with the lighter cars but finished in third place.

An entertaining day's racing spoilt only by single car entries for Class A and D which did Lindsay and Westley no favours. Phil's misfortune with the Panda was compounded when I realised he had played his joker for race 1 (double points) only to DNF - he still moves from 4th to 3rd in Class B although with only 10 points for the season, that could easily be passed by another entrant. Roger Donnan continues to lead the championship and looks fairly safe now barring an unforeseen mishap - but nothing is over until it is over - there are still 3 races to run and anything could happen in that time.

Visit the Le Mans Motorsport site for details of the Le Mans Auto-Italia championship and standings so far.

Check out the current points standing.