Branded as the Mallory Mix meeting, the Classic Sports Car Club’s (CSCC) early season visit to the Leicestershire circuit would, as the name suggests, feature a bit of everything; Turbo Tintops and their normally aspirated siblings providing more of a modern feel with grids for the Midget and Sprite Challenge, Special Saloons and Modsports as well as the very well represented Swinging 60’s catering nicely for the historic enthusiast.

With local noise restrictions limiting races to 30 minutes the CSCC had come up with the ingenious idea of 15 minute pitstops to ensure the longer format races would still feature 40 minutes of track time. This unfortunately would all go out the window after a nasty crash in Turbo Tintop qualifying however.

Indeed, following an accidental clash at the exit of Devil’s Elbow the Audi TT of Wayne Shorney and Ford Puma of Thomas Reid would end up heavily entangled in the pit entry tyre Wall. With so little time and space to decelerate the impact was enormous, entirely flattening the first row of catch fencing and rendering the pits completely inaccessible! Thankfully both drivers were able to walk away but there was real concern as to whether we would see any racing action with a strict 6pm curfew also in force.

Some 3 hours later however the tyre wall and catch fencing were back in place (arguably more substantially than before) after great work by a small maintenance team with very limited resources; and miraculously we were set for a full race schedule in the 3 hours that remained, albeit with slightly shorter events planned.

First up were the extravagant machines that formed the R-Werks Special Saloons & Modsports grid where Thomas Carey would dominate the 12 minute first encounter aboard his space-framed CRX. The Honda man was in a class of his own (literally) and it showed as he also claimed victory in race 2 despite starting towards the back of the grid. Behind, Darren Owen claimed double second place finishes aboard his immaculate 2.4 litre Ford Escort MK1 whilst Robert Frost rounded out the podium positions on both occasions aboard his Dax Tojiero (Cobra) after great battles with the Jaguar XJS of Melvin Hooker.

The Lackford Engineering Midget & Sprite Challenge events proved highly attritional with 4 cars, including both provisional front row starters, failing to make race 1 after qualifying. Furthermore just 7 of the remaining 13 machines would take the chequered flag. As it was Hugh Simpson would dominate both races aboard his MG Midget with leading Sprite challenger, Robin Lackford, second on both occasions. Behind, Ian Burgin (MG Midget MK3) would be penalised for false starts in both races but still claim the final step of the podium in race 1 after 3rd place finisher in race 2, Gordon Elwell (Frogeye Sprite) was also adjudged to have been too eager off the line!

The Adam’s and Page Swinging 60s competitors were a very welcome addition to the Mallory Park schedule, rounding out the day’s proceedings with the largest grid of the day (22). Not able to qualify following the earlier accident the grid was formed based on anticipated performance and Stephen Pickering, aboard his Sunbeam Tiger, took full advantage to claim a lights to flag victory with a winning margin of almost 1 lap. Claire Norman and Charles Tippet meanwhile would put in a solid performance to claim class SD victory with second aboard their BMW 2002 Ti, with class SA victor John Moon keeping them honest throughout to round out the podium positions aboard his Austin Healey Lenham GT.

The Fox Transport Turbo Tin tops would form the penultimate grid of the day where another nasty collision in the early stages between the Fiesta of Ian and Bradley Horton and Mini of Sean Wortley would cause the latter to roll and the red flag to be thrown. Thankfully again neither crew were seriously injured leaving Matthew Jackson (Ford Fiesta ST180) to claim victory after pole sitter and early leader Nigel Tongue (VW Scirocco) hit trouble. Sam Haywood (Renault Megane RS) and Clive Seagers / Andrew Grimm (Mini Cooper S R56) would complete the podium as Michael Wheeler would top the Puma Cup runners in fifth.

Earlier, the Co-ordsport Tin Tops produced possibly the best racing of the day as an enthralling battle between the Ford Fiesta of Adam Brown and Honda Civic of Alfie Jones ensued following the mandatory pitstops. Brown would however eventually manage to break free in traffic and go on to claim victory by just over 5 seconds. Jon and Tom Dee meanwhile would round out the podium positions aboard their Honda Integra.

FULL RESULTS

GALLERY