ON A DAY that was sunny but with a cold breeze, there was a mixture of regulars, returnees, and several newcomers having their first races.
The first few rows had a familiar look with Keith White and his BMW Z4 Silhouette on Pole with a time of 62.011. Jason Davies was only 7/10ths behind with his Class CS Ford Sierra Cossie. Jason was hoping to make a real charge for the 2016 title and his car had a few aero tweeks and a new stronger engine, but more of that later!
The first of the Class CS West Wales Fresh Air Brigade (WW Fab) was Damian Logotano in 3rd place in his Westfield on 63.542.
Damian, a former grass-tracker, has come a long way since his race debut in 2014, which must be an inspiration to those drivers making their debuts now! Neil Watts was 4th with his Westfield. Ken James and his Locost was the 3rd member of the WW FAB in 5th place. In 6th place were Fabio Lufferelli and his Moto-Mini.
The first of the returnees in 7th place was Chris Everill in a Ginetta, but this was a new G50, and Chris was just getting used to it. Rhodri Jenkins and his turbo Civic joined Chris on row 4, with Jim Lyons next up.
Jim, another returnee, had been burning the midnight oil getting his car ready, and his turbo Mini had a new nice paint job and a big rear wing! Roger Dowden joined Jim on row 5 and was the first of the Class AS runners. On Row 6 was Bradley John, the first newcomer with his nice black Mitsubishi Evo.
Bradley had done some quad bike racing and was moving up from track days to actual racing. ‘On some track-days there isn’t anybody to play with’ 11th fastest on your debut is a promising start. Leading Class BT was Daryl Radford whose Honda Civic was looking nice in it new paint job.
On Row 7 Dave Scarmanga had changed tyres on his VW Vento and was now on his own in Class CT! Alongside was Paul Flinders who was running the turbo on his MR2 in low boost mode.
On row 8 Susanne Jones was trying to co-ordinate her ensemble with the colour of the Originia Lotus Elise. Susanne no longer needs to have a yellow and black cross on her car, and was 2nd in Class BT, just ahead of the 2nd newcomer Colin Lewis in his Class BT Clio who was also having his first race. Colin is a former Grass-tracker.
On row 9 were Endaf Owens and his Mini Miglia alongside Colin Dunn and his Williams Clio.
Behind them on row 10 was the 3rd and final newcomer Richard Francis. Richard has a long history associated with Pembrey, and has done some karting, but this was his first time to race on the track. Richard was driving a Citroën Saxo and was obviously finding his feet, but there was a lot of sage advice on offer in the paddock. Alongside him was Andrew Williams and his MG ZR.
On Row 11 it was the walking wounded of Tyrone Lufferelli and Peter Hills. Peter found his engine overheating, and having already changed the head gasket, he feared another more serious engine problem was brewing and so he elected to miss the race and went to help his fellow Vale resident Jim Lyons.
On the final rows were Graham Welch (Rover 200) Alan Smith and his Ford KA who was ahead of Holly Welch who now had her own car, a Vauxhall Nova.
There was a lot of head scratching among the ranks of the turbo cars, with almost everyone suffering from some sort of woe or another.
No one was immune, with Jason finding a loss of oil and some water, and thought that may have been due to the improved breathing rather than actual turbo boost. Rhodri, with Alvin on hand, was trying to figure out how and where his oil was going under pressure.
Paul Flinders was trying to run with as little boost as possible but Jim Lyons, who was in an intense hard working post practice session, to try and fix his windscreen and other things, had found he had no boost due to software fault!
A great start to the year’s racing at Pembrey, with many more high quality events still to come.
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