There was a diminished contingent of BARC Connaught Speed Championship competitors at Harewood, compared to the bumper amount last time out a Curborough. Despite the weather being dreadful on Sunday, all our competitors managed to take their cars home in one piece. If only we had come a day earlier, the weather would have been glorious, with competitors able to get eight timed runs in.
The day started with hopes that the rain wouldn’t fall until midday. Alas, these thoughts were dashed part way through our first practice runs, as the rain started to fall and continued for the rest of the day.
Class 1A – Road Going Modified Saloon & Sports Cars up to & Including 1400cc had Andrew Rollason take the beautifully sounding Ford KA to a sixth in class securing 19.8 championship points in a time of 85.49 seconds. Not surprisingly, and causing some jealousy on this fellow competitor’s behalf, he packed up early and went home to avoid getting any wetter!
Class 1B – Road Going Modified Saloon & Sports Cars 1401cc up to & Including 2000cc saw the Martorana Brothers, Adriano and Leo, in close battle in a large and very close field of twenty-six (third place to seventh place were all within half a second of each other). Anyhow, the brothers made a very leisurely start to the morning, being the last competitors to sign on despite only living a mere fifteen minutes down the road! After the first timed run it was looking like a Leo whitewash, leading his brother by 3.76 seconds. But T2 saw Adriano take seventeenth place with 79.52 seconds, making use of the local knowledge to nudge into the lead and push Leo, who could only secure a 79.78 seconds, into twentieth place by a mere few tenths.
