Castle Combe Racing Club, Summer Spectacular.
Club Motorsport in 2020
Report and Images by Chris Pearson of CPe FOTO
1st August 2020
Upon receiving acceptance of my Media Accreditation for Castle Combe’s 2nd race meeting of the season, you’d forgive me for beginning to think that the grip of 2020 was starting to loosen up. How wrong was I!
I set my alarm for 6:30am to get myself up and ready for a typical day of shooting at Castle Combe and headed out the door after double checking all my kit and paperwork.
Jumped in the car in a typical fashion and set the satnav to direct me to the circuit. Everything was going well so far.
Fast forward around 40 minutes and I’m cruising down the M5 at 70mph, somewhere between Junction 14 and 15. All of a sudden, my oil light comes on and a few seconds later, I’ve lost engine power and I’m coasting my way onto the hard shoulder! NIGHTMARE!
It turns out that my engine has chosen now as a good time to dump all of its oil over the motorway and leave me wondering what the hell to do.
“No problem, call the recovery service” I hear you say… I recently changed my car insurance policy from one that had breakdown cover included and the new policy does not!
Over the next few hours and multiple phone calls, Google searches and pleas for help on social media, I had a call from a friend of a friend who said they were available to recover me from the M5! Wahoo! Saved! Well almost…
I still really didn’t want to let the circuit down after all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes just to get racing going again. Fortunately, my wife had ‘Ivan’. A little black Peugeot 107!
My better half pulled some strings and rearranged her day to allow me to borrow Ivan while I got recovered home by the absolute hero Connor from CPS Performance (Find them on Facebook).
As soon as we got my car off the truck and I apologised profusely for covering the bed in oil, I quickly loaded all my photography gear into Ivan and started the journey all over again.
This time, all went well and the cheeky little character got me to Castle Combe unscathed!
Due to a few issues in the first rounds of the Summer Spectacular double header, the racing schedule was running about 45 minutes behind. As much as I empathise with the drivers that were affected in the delays, this meant that I would still be able to shoot all the different series’ second races along with the annual Dave Allen Trophy.
Back to business then…
My afternoon started at around 3pm with the GT Cup cars lining up. A few cars were missing from the grid following the first race incidents. Steve Putt was in the paddock desperately trying to get his monstrous 7000cc Mazda RX7 (Elite Marine Services) back into action but unfortunately, the same could not be said for Keith Butcher (Audi R8 LMS Ultra) or Reuben Taylor (Peugeot 206) as both cars were out of commission.
Oliver Bull lined up on pole in his Vauxhall Tigra Silhouette (Fleurtations Florest) for what turned out to be a very dominant lights to flag victory. Throughout the GT Cup grid were some seriously impressive race cars including an Audi Supertourer GT driven by Dominic Sheppard, a Mitsubishi Evo 9 (Riverside Industrial/Norris Design) driven by Bradley John and an incredible looking Audi RS3 (Control Ltd) driven by Sacha Kakad.
Next up was the Hot Hatch Challenge, the most affordable class in the local Castle Combe categories. Josh Harvey had Pole honours in his beast of a Honda Civic (Harveys Auto-Tech). In the same fashion as the GT’s, Harvey romped to the flag for an impressive P1 to add to his trophy cabinet.
Lots of returning drivers and new racers were welcomed into the Combe Family with open arms for a great race with load s of class battles throughout. Mike Bland had a cracking battle in his Lime Green Peugeot 306 GTI eventually getting the upper hand and took 5th in class on his first raceday.
Once the car casualties of this race were cleared by the support staff, it was time for the Saloon Car Championship to get underway.
Adam Prebble was at the front of the grid in his Vauxhall Astra (wewheelfixit.com) which has been a superbly dominant drive for quite a few seasons. He was meant to be alongside his brother Gary (Seat Leon Cupra 20v T) but unfortunately reliability issues put a stop to his entry.
As the lights went out, Adam lead the way with Chris Rawlings (in the South West Motor Sales VW Golf GTI) taking an early 2nd while Simon Thornton-Norris held 3rd in his Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart.
Simon overtook Chris and made a push to catch Adam who had now gained a significant lead.
The chequered flag was greeted by Adam at the end of the race with another win for the Combe veteran closely followed by Simon’s Colt.
The last of the normal races on the schedule was the Formula Ford 1600’s with a good, healthy grid size lead by Felix Fisher in his TM Racing Ray GR06.
Due to a pre-race issue, Luke Cooper (Swift Cooper Swift SC18) who was meant to be next to Fisher on the grid, was starting from the back but a delayed start meant Luke was granted permission to rejoin the grid in the second place where he was supposed to start.
This turned out to be the making of his race where a close fought battle for the top three positions went to the flag with Cooper taking P1, Fisher in P2 and Bryce Aron (Low Dempsey Racing Ray GR) completing the podium in P3.
The final race of the day, The Dave Allen Trophy, is a once a year, 45 minute Enduro race in memory of Dave Allen who was a former Honda Test and Race Driver. The race, with awards provided by Honda of the UK Manufacturing Ltd, is quite a spectacle to see.
Multiple classes which are determined by qualifying times, line up on the grid for a rolling start race. During the 45 minutes, there is an enforced pit stop where a driver change can occur if desired.
Steve Putt managed to get his RX7 fixed in time for the race so lead the way with a variety of different cars following on. These ranged from Honda Synchro Civics, to MX5s, Mini Cooper S 1600s all the way down to 2 Citroen C1s.
The 45 minute race took some prisoners with 5 DNFs. The chequered flag ended up being waved to the BMW M3 E92 of Jeremy Cook and Charles Hyde-Andews-Bird.
In a change to proceedings, the first GT race that was abandoned on the first lap, was to be re-run at the climax of the Dave Allen Trophy meaning an extra race for me to shoot!
It was much the same as the first race with Oliver Ball tearing round the circuit in his Tigra Silhouette. Lapping a solid 3 seconds faster than anyone else with a time of 1:06:744 being his best.
As the paddock thinned with everyone exhausted after a very challenging raceday, I made my way back to the car (Ivan) to get packed away for the drive home. While I was taking on a quick drink and a bite to eat before leaving I reflected on how different yet similar my time at the circuit was.
There were significant changes to the layout and signs everywhere to enable social distancing and Covid safety measures but at the same time, the happy friendly atmosphere that I remember so well from any raceday at Castle Combe was still prevalent. Masks were worn as necessary, indoor areas were spaced correctly yet all were still able to enjoy a cracking day of racing in the Wiltshire Countryside.
There is no getting around the fact that not having spectators at the track was eerie and bizarre. Fans were able to catch the action from home though, thanks to live footage set up by the legend that is now known as ‘King Kev’ and superb commentary from Chris Dawes and Clive Woodward. (All available on Castle Combe’s Facebook and Youtube channels)
Plans are in place to hopefully be able to allow spectators to the circuit at the end of the month but like with anything in 2020, this will be dependant on the government and Motorsport UK decisions at the time of the event.
I am quietly optimistic that we will be back to the circuit, with spectators, for the 31st August raceday. There is so much work that has been done (and still being done) by all of the staff and volunteers at Castle Combe. I sincerely hope for their sake that we can get a new normal in place as soon as possible.
If you have made it this far, I thank you for your time!
The only thing left to do is thank Castle Combe, their staff, their volunteers and of course the Orange Army and Green Brigade for all their efforts to keep CCRC racing alive!
Long Live British Motorsport!
(Better try and figure out what is wrong with my car now then!)
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