CORSHAM’S Will Di Claudio took a fine pair of wins in his his Peugeot 106 Gti at the Castle Combe circuit’s Saloon Car championship race at the Wessex Chambers race weekend, writes JOHN MOON.

The reigning champion and current championship leader made the most of tricky conditions to beat not only his own C class rivals but those from the bigger and more powerful classes.

Saturday’s race saw damp conditions at the start, prompting most of the drivers to start on wet tyres.

Bristol’s Mark Wyatt, in the class A Astra, closed to within 1.3 seconds by the finish, followed by a hard-charging Rob Ballard in the SEAT Leon Cupra.

Di Claudio received the extra accolade of ‘Driver of the Day’.

In Sunday’s wet conditions, Wyatt had no choice but to start with dry tyres on the front of his Astra, as his wet tyres would have made his car underweight.

On pole alongside him was Di Claudio, his wet tyres worn after Saturday’s race, but he drove away from the rest of the field, finishing 51 seconds ahead of Ballard and lapping everyone up to the seventh-placed Martin Chivers, from Chippenham, his C class rival in the T.G. Cooper MG ZR.

Adrian Slade, from Devizes, the man who has been closer to Di Claudio’s class pace than anyone else, took a fine fourth in the first race in his Peugeot 106 Gti, but dropped down to the tail of the field after stalling at the start of race two, fighting back to sixth and third in class.

James Winter, from Chippenham, took third in class C in race one in his Peugeot 106 Gti, but retired in race two.

Yatton Keynell’s Luke Cooper finally showed his true speed in the Startline Formula Ford 1600 championship.

Having won various races and a championship at other tracks, a victory on his doorstep had eluded him. Driving his family’s class B Swift SC92, Cooper began the weekend well with second fastest in qualifying behind championship leader Steven Jensen, from Bath.

A dry race saw him slip to fifth, but in the wetter race two, Cooper made a great start from fourth, slipping by leader Ed Moore, from Melksham, at the Esses on the opening lap.

Cooper won by 11 seconds from Jensen, who had taken Saturday’s win and dedicated his victory to his father Alan, who builds and runs the Swift Cooper cars from a workshop adjoining the circuit.

Moore slipped down the field to finish seventh, Langford’s Roger Orgee taking third after a bad start which saw him drop to sixth in the Kevin Mills Van Diemen RF00.

Adam Higgins, from Chippenham, was a close runner up to Jensen in Saturday’s race in his Van Diemen JL12, but its worn out tyres dropped him to fifth in race two.

Brother, Richard, from Burnham on Sea, was third in class B on both days.

Their father – former Castle Combe FF1600 quadruple champion Bob Higgins – claimed sixth place in race two in the Japanese Sports Car races.

Mere’s Ben Short took the overall win, having finished fifth in race one.

The Sports and GT championship races saw Simon Tilling dominate race one to the extent he elected not to start race two as he felt there was inadequate competition.

This left the Radical of Wrington’s Josh Smith to take an easy Sunday win, having trailed Tilling by 22 seconds the day before.

Westbury on Trym’sTim Woodman grabbed two second places in class D in his Caterham 7 behind Perry Waddams in the monstrous Chevrolet engined TVR Tuscan.

A race for the ‘Dave Allan Trophy’, commemorated the death of the Honda test driver from Swindon, a varied field of diverse machinery competing against each other in the 45-minute enduro, involving a mandatory pit stop.

Fastest in qualifying was Perry Waddams, from the Sports & GT championship, with Woodman alongside him on the front row of the grid.

Waddams took the lead on lap three, only to retire with mechanical problems on lap nine, leaving Woodman to take an unchallenged win.

Kelly and Dan Williams from Brinkworth were eighth in the former’s Fiesta ST.

REACTION & PICTURES FROM THE WEEKEND MEETING AT COMBE IN THURSDAY'S GAZETTE & HERALD AND FRIDAY'S WILTSHIRE TIMES