With the Glastonbury festival appearing on TV and featuring some pretty awful weather, you'd expect Bristol's Mendips Raceway to have experienced the same kind of weather front which may go some way to explain the poor turnout from an original 22 cars booked in. In reality it remained dry amazingly. Glastonbury was only a few miles away and thick black clouds circulated around the raceway but not a drop fell. It has been a bit heavy fixture wise and the lads have done brilliantly to turn up week in week out. Thankfully the racing was good but if only we'd have had just a couple more cars it might have been better than good.
 

News filtered through that team Boswell had broken down en route. Carl's car had made it to Bristol on the back of the Cottrill bus but Carl had travelled with uncle Michael so we were two cars down on the Saturday.

Heat 1

Making their debuts were 279 Lee Arrowsmith in the spare Jamie Marson car and 417 Eric Aldridge in the spare Rob Scriven car. 159 Carl Radforth made a return to the raceways at the wheel of the 179 Richard Arrowsmith car. Huge thanks to the drivers that loaned their cars out to bolster numbers. A fairly incident less race apart from Rocket Reg Smith spinning out a couple of times and Eric Aldridge becoming a mobile chicane circulating with flat tyres. 72 Kevin Thornton also suffered punctures, 3 of them !. 131 Kevin Stuchbury won comparatively easily from 575 Cottrill and 149 Marc Radforth.

Heat 2

The racing improved for heat 2 with the drivers getting used to the tight turns and long straights as well as the dip into turns 3 and 4. 117 Scriven led this one for quite some way before being overhauled by Stuch  and 575 Cottrill by flag fall. A last bend cannon on the reds in front of him nearly paid off for 42 Rob Barber as he dislodged 210 Matt Smith but didn't quite do enough to shift Radforth.

The Final

575 Cottrill made an early move on Stuchbury in an endeavour to spice things up and grab the win. The hit rendered Stuchbury lifeless as his car coasted onto the centre with an ignition wire becoming dislodged to end his race early. Scriven led with 315 Rob Shackleton and 42 Rob Barber giving chase. Barber was soon joined by a fast moving Radforth with Smith not far behind as Shackleton blew his diff. Cottrill caught and passed Scriven as did Radforth, Smith and Barber. The racing was getting better with plenty of bumper work going in. Cottrill was particularly pleased with the win which was his first with his tarmac car.

The darkness drew in ( no not Justin Hawkins and his band) and everyone retired into vans / trucks and tents. The rain did hammer down during the night and a wet morning greeted the early birds. 315 Rob Shackleton and 72 Kev Thornton were both casualties and did not reappear for the Sunday session. Both had diff problems. 314 Steve Bowman and 184 Carl Boswell made it but unbelievably Bowman did his diff in practice and took no further part. We were now down to 13 cars.

Heat 1

The European Championship lined up in points within grades formation with non points scorers at the back of the closed grid. The race got underway after a slow roller and Cottrill and Radforth tangled which gave Stuchbury a trouble free run to the front. 117 Scriven went extremely well but was little match for the flying 131 machine who went on to take the win fairly easily. Further back some good scraps were taking place with 159 Radforth beating cousin Marc (149) to thrid spot behind Scriven. Stuchbury was pretty chuffed with his win and in a rare moment of emotion climbed atop his aerofoil for a wing dance. I think Kevin heaps pressure on himself as he is so determined to win the points. I wish he'd enjoy himself a bit more like this. He deserved to take the crown as he was head and shoulders above the rest.

Heat 2

Stuchbury again made short work of the field and breezed to another win. This race was a bit uneventful but never the less Kevin showed his class again.

Final

Something just clicked in this race. Scriven built up a decent lead as bothe the Radforths, Cottrill, Smith and Stuchbury swapped places on each turn for what seemed like half the race. Eventually something had to give and it was Cottrill who was turned into the backstraight inner armaco by Smith who pushed 575 in backwards. Cottrill recovered after slithering back across the track into the fence. Stuchbury snuck away from the rest of the reds and left them to fight it out as he pursued Scriven. It took Kevin a fair few laps to reel the leader in and Scriven sensibly moved over to let Stuchbury through. Carl Radforth put in his best performance of the weekend as he finished a strong third ahead of cousin Marc with 42 Barber rounding out the top 5.

This race was the best of the weekend and left us all thinking what could have been with a few more cars. The promotion were pleased and the crowd were appreciative. Special mention must go to Lee Arrowsmith who scored a decent points haul from the back in his first race meeting and likewise 417 Eric Aldridge who entertained with his own brand of racing. Well done to all those who made it.