WITH the Castle Combe circuit celebrating 50 years since the inception of Formula Ford 1600, it was not surprising the seemingly ever-lasting single seaters were at the heart of its BRSCC Race Weekend.

As well as a round of the circuit’s own Formula Ford championship, the visiting Britcover National Formula Ford championship was scheduled to entertain with three races over the two days, though in the event, this was cut short by a third after a number of incidents, one of which involved the scrambling of the Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

The first FF1600 race of the weekend was the circuit’s own and saw a typically close dice between Bridgwater’s Josh Fisher and Wellingborough’s Michael Moyers who eventually finished in that order, Moyers having led the first half of the race, Fisher taking over from lap eight onwards.

Suffering from chicken pox was Yatton Keynell’s Luke Cooper, who drove brilliantly in the circumstances to take third place in the family Swift, hopeful of his chances in the national championship, where he is a contender for the title.

Michael Eastwell, teammate to Moyers in the ‘Kevin Mills’ squad, was fourth, ahead of Coventry’s Nathan Ward, who had initially led from second on the grid.

As well as Cooper, the ‘National Formula Ford’ races featured some of the other aces from the circuit’s local championship.

In the first race, Cooper initially held third behind Moyers, until a race stoppage on lap five. At the restart, Cooper slipped to fourth, with Moyers taking third in the four-lap sprint to the flag. Cooper made his point though with fastest lap.

Race two on Sunday saw a similar curtailment of the action when a number of accidents caused the race to be declared after three laps, with Moyers classified third and Cooper fourth.

Jordan Dempsey and Luke Williams shared the outright wins.

The final Formula Ford race of the day was abandoned due to lack of time, as racing had been delayed for over half an hour.

It was the drivers in the HRDC Allstars race who had to sit in their cars in sweltering heat during this period, with circuit PR man John Moon, from Bath, on the front row of the grid in his Lenham GT.

Once the race finally started, Moon got away well, heading pole man Steve Jones, from Wells, in the Mini and the rest of the pack for the next lap and a half.

Moon kept the nimble Mini in sight for the next 20 minutes but after his alternator warning light came on he backed off, initially dropping to third but recovering to take second.

Brian Johnson, the frontman from rockers AC/DC, in a Mini similar to that of Jones, claimed 10th overall, while another rocker, Chris Rea was 17th in his Minor Minor, liveried to resemble a police car.

In the HRDC's Coy's Trophy race which featured pit stops and driver changes, it was British Touring car driver Andrew Jordan who dominated, taking a clear win in the Lotus Cortina shared with his father Mike.

Bristol driver Michael Squire eventually finished second in his Mustang, with fellow Bristolians David Hathaway and Dan Cox in eighth having qualified third.

The circuit’s sole GT championship race, run in broadly dry but deceptively slippery conditions on Saturday, brought a second win this year for Bradley John, from Cowbridge, in his Mitsubishi Evo, after the similar car of pole man Barry Squibb retired with a gearbox problem.

Portishead’s Oliver Bull took his Ford-engined Vauxhall Tigra Silhouette from second on the grid to the same place at the flag, with another silhouette, the Audi TT of Gillingham’s Steve Hall, almost half a minute behind.

Calne’s Tony Hutchings, the championship leader, suffered an engine fire on lap two, eliminating him from both this and the Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship race a little later.

In his absence, Calne’s Simon Norris took an outright win in his class B Mitsubishi Colt, the little 1500cc class B car some 15 seconds ahead of the class C 106 GTi of Sturminster Newton’s Geoff Ryall.

Among many other retirements was Southampton’s Gary Prebble, his equal points lead with Norris instantly destroyed along with the gearbox of his SEAT Leon Cupra.

Another notable retirement at the head of the championship points was Corsham’s Will Di Claudio, his 106 GTi only lasting three laps after he suffered gearbox issues.

Ditcheat’s Kevin Bird had his best race result with third overall in his powerful but previously-troublesome Nissan 200SX, with Dave Scaramanga, from Bath, fourth and second in class A, having held second for a while.

Chippenham’s James Winter took fifth in his Renault Megane, with Weston Super Mare’s Kieran Simmons bringing his Fiesta to second in class B and sixth overall.

Shepton Mallet’s Mike Ritchie had his best result with second in class C and seventh overall in his Honda Integra Type R, with Bristol’s James Blake third in class C.

Dursley’s Alex Kite recovered from a last-minute engine rebuild of his Saxo to take second in class D, somewhat distant from his championship rival, Mike Good.

Chippenham’s Jonathan Loader retired with drive shaft failure whilst leading the ‘Historic Pinto’ section of the SRCC Sports 2000 championship race.

There was some consolation for his ‘Loaded Gunn’ team which took an outright win with the Gunn TS11 driven by Tom Stoten.

Bristol’s James Colbourne was a winner of the Production Golf Gt1 Mk5 series race on Saturday, Sunday’s race placing him third.