Anglesey Race Report, Reprise IT TTC Rounds 5 & 6

The final two rounds of the Reprise IT Tiedeman Trophy took place at Anglesey on the Coastal circuit. The club last visited Anglesey in 2010 and lots of competitors were excited to return after such a long time. We also had four drivers join us from Ireland as it’s only a short hop away on the ferry. Noel Roddy joined us for his only meeting of the season with Monoposto in his F3 Dallara, Robbie Allen entered the invitation class with his 1800cc Formula Sheane and Leastone racing brought their two Leastone 1000s over. Joe Power drove Mark Reade’s championship winning car and Luke O Faolain drove the other Leastone car as his prize for winning the ‘Star of Tomorrow’ in Ireland.

Qualifying got underway early in the morning, just as the sun was rising over the sea. It was a chilly day, but it was lovely and sunny. The cold weather caught a few drivers out early on as many drivers spun in the first lap of qualifying. Chris Lord and Nigel Davers made contact, which saw Nigel pull into the pits with a broken front wing. He later joined qualifying again to get his three laps in. In the end Neil Harrison qualified on pole ahead of Noel Roddy and Joe Power qualified third.

We were given two green flag laps for the races, due to the difficulty getting tyres warm that some drivers had suffered in qualifying. This still didn’t stop a couple of drivers spinning on the green flag laps and start of the race! Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke pulled into the pits and retired at the end of the green flag laps with an electrical misfire. Neil Harrison pulled a lead straight away off the start, Joe Power had a good start and took second place away from Noel Roddy. Luke O Faolain had a great start getting past Ewen Sergison and Robbie Allen to take fifth place and Ewen followed him through to take sixth. At the end of the first lap, Adrian Heath got a bit too excited in his new ‘97 Swift and had a spin on the last corner, coming to a halt on the grid. He couldn’t get the car going again so the safety car was deployed. The safety car was out for one lap whilst Adrian was pushed off the circuit and then the race was underway again. Noel Roddy got past Joe Power on the restart and despite some close racing the top three kept position for the rest of the race.

Myles Castaldini who joined us for the first time in the Moto 1000 class in his Kawasaki engine Van Diemen RF94 came fourth overall and second in class. He was followed by Luke O Faolain. Sixth overall was Ewen Sergison who came first in class, he raced hard all race to keep Robbie Allen behind him. Chris Lord came eighth overall and second in the 1800 class ahead of Phil Davis.  Matt Walters came fourth in the 1800 class, but finished last in the race. He was complaining in Parc Ferme that the car had been terrible and he couldn’t get the power down, it didn’t take long to notice though that he’d managed to put a rear tyre on the front of the car whilst changing his tyres before the race. Strangely enough, the car was much better behaved for him in the second race. The 1600 class saw Geoff dominating again after troubles in the first two meetings of the championship, he finished the race first in class and seventh overall.  Eddie Guest came second in class, with Will Cox close behind him in third. They were fifteenth and sixteenth overall on the grid respectively.

Championship wise it was all to play for at Anglesey between the top four. Ewen Sergison went into the weekend in fourth place, 5 points behind Terry Clark, but with the biggest class. James Gordon-Colebrooke had one point over Terry Clark and had two in class, whereas Terry was the only one in the Classic class. Therefore, it mixed all the positions up when Mark Smith beat James in class. Terry did a good job of keeping James behind him in the race but the three of them were all very close together at the end of the race. From the results at the end of the first race, Neil Harrison had almost secured his championship win, just needing to finish the second race. Terry moved up into second place with James and Ewen equal on points for third.

Race two got underway after lunch, again starting with two green flag laps. Joe Power pulled into the pits and retired on the green flag lap and Andrew Gordon-Colebrooke put his hands up on the grid, still suffering electrical problems. He was pushed off the track whilst the rest of the grid was sent round for a third green flag lap. Unfortunately, due to the delayed start, Myles Castaldini started overheating on the grid; these problems followed him into the race with him having to retire on lap ten from second place. Neil Harrison had another good start from pole and Noel Roddy got away well but spun on the first corner, dropping him down to twelfth. Luke O Faolain and Chris Lord both had a fantastic start, climbing up from eighth and tenth on the grid to third and fourth respectively. Ewen Sergison had a poor start, suffering a lot of wheel spin and dropped in behind Chris Lord. By the end of lap one, Ewen had gained the position back from Chris, over taking him on the long back straight as they started to climb the hill.

After the spin on the first lap, Noel Roddy gradually climbed his way up the grid. Eventually getting back up to third place on lap nine and taking second place away from Luke O Faolain on the penultimate lap of the race. He had a thirteen second deficit to Neil Harrison though who took the overall win for the second time that day. Nigel Davers had a good second race of the day, managing to get up to sixth place overall and second in class from the back of the grid, which earned him the driver of the day award. The 1600 class saw Geoff Fern take the win again, but this time Will Cox managed to best Eddie Guest for second in class, beating him by just 0.3 seconds across the line. Mark Smith again beat James Gordon-Colebrooke for honours in the 2000 class, which sealed James’ fate in championship terms.

At the end of the day all of the drivers and teams were invited to the Monoposto Hub for a glass of prosecco and the prizegiving. There was a toast to the end of the season and a festive atmosphere as over fifty people crowded into the garage. The trophies for first, second and third in each race were awarded along with the driver of the day caps, followed by the champions of the day. Ewen Sergison won Champion of Anglesey, having won his class in both races and taken both fastest laps, in the biggest class of the day. Geoff Fern came second overall having done the same in the second biggest class and Neil Harrison came third overall. The Championship was also celebrated, with Neil Harrison winning the championship ahead of Ewen Sergison in second and Terry Clark in third. Each of them received a bottle of prosecco and Nick Harrison was also given a bottle of prosecco and round of applause for his work as Team Boss/Mechanic, taking Neil to victory in the championship.