RACE PREVIEW
The track was wetter for the second race and starting on wet pattern tyres made the hardcharging Thwaites the quickest of all early on after first lap leader Nick Sleep , now in the Lola T70 Mk3B , was edged back . However , as the track dried the slicks of Burton and Schryver came good and Thwaites was pushed back to third as his tyres faded .
The season then switched to Donington Park and a very wet opening race . Mark Richardson had to make up ground in his Lola T290 after an early moment and worked his way ahead of the mighty McLaren M8E of Warren Briggs . The soaking conditions made life difficult for the big McLaren and Richardson was able to push his two-litre Lola ahead for a classy win as Simon Watts rounded out the podium in his Chevron B26 .
With Richardson missing Sunday ’ s race as he readied the car for the Le Mans Classic , Briggs set a brisk pace early on in the McLaren but was destined not to finish when it lost drive on the exit of Redgate after transmission failure . Frank Bradley had battled the stunning March 717 , another 8-litre Can-Am car , up to second but then toured into the pits with clutch failure . That left Watts with a clear lead for a handy victory from Gary Furst ( Lola T212 ) and Robert Parker ( Osella PA5 ).
Friday 15:57 - 16:24 RACE 18 Sunday 16:15 - 16:55
Burton and Briggs shared the wins last time out at Brands Hatch . Briggs retired his McLaren from the opener after the throttle linkage broke , but Burton missed Sunday after a bout of food poisoning . Briggs powered the mighty McLaren through from the back of the grid to win the second race .
Veteran racer Burton was mighty on Saturday in his Chevron B26 and had to work hard to defend from his team mate Briggs . Watts made it a B26 one-two on Saturday once Briggs parked the McLaren but had John
Spiers ( Osella PA3 ) on his tail at the flag . On Sunday it was Robert Parker in his Osella PA3 who chased Briggs and closed to within two seconds at the flag .
All of the leading contenders will be on the grid at Silverstone as Forward makes a welcome return to the series . His team mate Thwaites is another contender in the supercompetitive 2-litre pack , which is further boosted by Kevin Cooke ( March 75S ) and Gwyn Pollard ( Royale RP17 ), but the car that could just upset the current form book is the magnificent Cosworth DFV-engined Lola T280 of Nick Pink and Chris Fox . It should be quite a spectacle !
PAUL LAWRENCE
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