22 cars, more Classic than K, turned out to support the Winter Series F3 race. We qualified in damp conditions, but the rain held off. Jim Lindley and Tim Covill thought they saw a dry line round the track and went out on slicks. The rest of us made the better choice and I enjoyed myself a lot; semi dry set up and grooved wet tyres. 5th fastest in 2'09.608. The only perilous part was accelarating onto the banking of the motor speedway; given the slippery conditions and the solid looking concrete wall on the outside, I did not have the bottle to floor the throttle until almost dead straight on the pits straight coming up for the start-finish line gantry. The thought of a spin there was enough for hesitation (and rebuild economy) being the better part of valour.

Mike Evans in his A class Classic Mallock Mk16 was fastest, the extra power being usable enough in the damp conditions. The Classic A Sports cars can get up to 175 HP out of their Ford engines, while the K Sports engines are limited by the standardised, and sealed, tune to about 125HP. Adrian Brown was 2nd, followed by Chris Hart (who didn't race because of his Spa shoulder injury), Paul Freeman and me.

Race

It was clearly drizzling when we went out to race, so the tyre choice was evident. That turned out to be lucky as half way through the race the heavens opened. I got a good start, unlike Mike Evans ahead of me whose extra power just spun the wheels, and I was third into the first corner behind Tim who had started 6th alongside me and Adrian. Things looked rosy until I spun in the fast left-hander before the hairpin at the back pits. Luckily I rotated quietly into the inside of the corner and the followers missed me. I remember Jim Lindley going through then, with Mike Evans and Paul Freeman I would think. By the time I got up to speed on the tippy-toey skating rink which was the track, Stuart McNally was on my back from 12th on the grid. Yeeks. He got by a couple of laps later. As the rain came down hard I could not see his car 20 feet in front of me through the spray. I slipped back into the clutches of Glenn Cantello, on a blinder (literally) who got me at the end of the banking another 2 laps later. I managed to find a rhythm and got back at him on about lap 8 but he upped the pace and kept ahead. I think we were all grateful for the chequered flag at 10 laps; open sports cars are designed so that water off the bonnet is channelled neatly into the cockpit and into a river which flows between the legs and into the seat of the pants. Yuk.

Anyway, Adrian had got past Tim Covill on lap 2 and had won the race. Karen Hart had been seen earlier with wonderful looking cups for the Haggis memorial and Adrian got his on the proper Rockingham podium. The photo above shows Adrian Brown in red celebrating with class winners Haggis's sister-in-law Cilla, Mike Evans (Helix) and Tom Bellamy (right). Much cheering from everyone for a popular character.

The Autosport report by Peter Scherer reads "A storming start from Tim Covill's Mallock in the Haggispeed Memorial Trophy race took him past Adrian Brown and Marcus Bicknell through Turn 1. As the lead duo made a break, Bicknell's challenge fell away and Mike Evans, James Lindley and Paul Freeman contested third place. Brown had the lead again out of Deene on lap 3, although Covill tried to squeeze back ahead at Yentwood. Brown gradually eased away to a comfortable win, with Lindley pipping Evans for third on the last lap".
 

1    S    Adrian Brown                                        2 minutes plus a puddle
2    S    Tim Covill                                             2 minutes plus an aquaplane
3    S    James Lindley                                      would have liked to have been up there
4    A    Mike Evans                                          wins the power boat class
5    S    Paul Freeman        Ardmore FR95B
6    S    Stuart McNally       Phantom P94
7    S    Glenn Cantello
8    S    Marcus Bicknell
9    A    Mike Hickson
10  S    Jamie Champkin
11  S    Chris Karn
12  B    Tom Bellamy
13  A    David Childs            Phantom P79
14  B    Richard Marshall
15  A    Colum McCabe        Ellova

All cars Mallocks unless stated. 2nd column shows the car's class, S meaning K Sports.

Statistics: Qualifying
 

Circuit	Rockingham International	Fastest test lap	no testing
Conditions	Damp 15°	Previous personal best	1'57.194 in Ian Megson's Mallock 18BW May 2001
Fastest qualifying lap	2'09.608 (71.1 mph)	Qualified in position	5th out of 22

Statistics: Race
 

Finishing position	8	Number of cars at start	21
Average speed		Number of cars finished	15
Conditions	Very wet 14°	Fastest race lap
Number of laps behind	same lap		One spin but otherwise kept out of trouble

Paddock chat

Richard Hypher shared a garage with us. His left rear halfshaft rubber doughnut gave way at high speed and savaged some of the back end, including his battery. He was more pissed of by the organisers mis-spelling his name again. It's Hypher not Hyper!