WILTSHIRE’S Ben Norton returned to the Castle Combe podium at the weekend’s Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) meeting, in a Formula Ford 1600 race, which was halted due to a terrifying accident involving Chippenham’s Pete Diccox and Michael Moyers.

The race began under sunny skies with Moyers on pole from last year’s Castle Combe Formula Ford champion, Roger Orgee, followed by Josh Fisher, Chippenham’s Luke Cooper and Norton down in sixth.

At the start it was Moyers from Orgee with Cooper jumping up to third in his new Swift SC16 and Norton climbing up to fifth.

Norton, driving the Wiltshire College entry, began to make inroads on the leading two after passing Fisher on lap four and Cooper two laps later along Avon Rise.

But as the leaders came on to the start/finish straight to complete lap eight, there was contact between race leader Moyers and 79-year-old backmarker Diccox.

Their wheels interlocked and both cars were sent spinning to the inside of the circuit with Moyers being launched into the air and miraculously not overturning.

The race was immediately red-flagged with both Moyers and Diccox able to walk away from their wrecked cars unaided.

With no time to restart the race Orgee was awarded the win, followed by Norton and Cooper who had set the fastest lap.

“Second is great but it would have been nice to have had a few more laps to try and win,” said Norton.

“The car felt really good but I did feel a bit rusty and we didn’t have our new tyres for this race.

“There’s a bit more still to come definitely.

“Hopefully next race we will start nearer the front.

“I could see the backmarker and I was hoping I could get a good run on the front two but then they collided, that was when it all went in slow motion.

“The circuit made the right decision to stop the race and I’m glad they’re both okay.”

In the saloon race, Chippenham’s James Winter took his first outright win in his Renault Megane in the restarted race, after leaders Gary Prebble, Charles Hyde-Andrew-Bird and Tony Hutchings came together on the second lap.

Reigning champion Mark Wyatt took second and Calne’s Simon Norris third, with Chippenham’s William Di Claudio taking Class D honours having started from the pit lane on the restart after borrowing a pair of gloves.

Perhaps the greatest sight all weekend was the recreation of the original grid for the Griffiths Formula race in 1966, which instigated the formation of the HSCC which celebrated its 50th anniversary at the weekend.

In the 70’s Road Sports championship race, Malmesbury’s Matt Nichols, the chairman of the Bristol Motor Club, took his TVR 3000M to seventh on its debut while the race was won by Julian Barter in his Lotus Elan.

Elsewhere, TV presenter Tiff Needell was the centre of attention in the Historic Formula Ford 1600 race, bringing the Lotus 69 with which he started his racing career, to seventh.