CADWELL CHAOS!

4 class wins from 6 starts, 1 race win, three damaged cars. It must be Cadwell!

The usual mixed bag of results for Kutuka from Cadwell Park. You know the score by now, it’s a narrow, difficult track that rewards a committed attack, it’s only just wide enough for two Jaguars to race, and there is usually a whole mess of incidents that cause Terry a month of paperwork.

Kutuka love it here, but we have a pretty patchy record. Stewert has won the race the last 4 times of asking despite hating it here. Andrew has a 50% DNF rate, always caused by collision damage from other vehicles, and Bear either goes like a missile here or crashes into the Armco. There is never a safe and sensible middle ground for a Kutukan.

A wet qualifying saw the Northern contingent comfortably annex the front row, Bear taking pole by 8/10 from Andrew, but p3 was a clear 3 seconds adrift, Palmer crashing into the barriers at Park. Going one better was Ian Drage, who showed 2009’s reigning XJS leaper Philip Comer how to do it with style, parking his XJS on top of the tyre wall. Driver unhurt, and the car would make the race!

Race 1 saw Bear streak away to an easy win, 20 seconds clear of Andrew in p2. Whilst both Palmer and Lyddall dropped Andrew to p4 off the startline, he overtook both on the opening tour to regain second. Palmer briefly stole that position back before immediately spinning off the road, and a later collision and further spin as he drove into Lyddall effectively ruled him out of the running in race 1.

Race 2 saw Andrew an early retirement with a collapsing rear wheel bearing, and controversial collision between Bear and Palmer at the Mountain span the race leader off the track, dropping a dozen seconds and gifting Palmer the win. A spirited recovery saw the gap cut to just 3 seconds at race end, and a new outright fastest lap for the XJS.

With Andrew’s DNF the championship fight goes to Snetterton to decide the overall title, and the class E battle goes to the wire there too.

Class D has ostensibly now been decided in Andrew’s favour, and only a handful of points for Lyddall will secure the class G title once again. If we have learned anything this year, however, it is that there is no such thing as a foregone conclusion, and Kutuka retire to repair their damage, upgrade, improve, and prepare for Snetterton.