Phew – What a Scorcher!
Aston Martin Owners Club Race Meeting Mallory Park 19th April 2009
Mallory was the venue for the first race of the season and the weather was fine and sunny for our return to this testing circuit. We had a fantastic entry of 23 – the third largest grid of the day – for this AMOC meeting.
 Practice should have given our Championship new boys and racers new to Mallory a good opportunity to become familiar with the track. Many drivers were running in engines, scrubbing in tyres etc. and had not reached top speed when a short excursion into the kitty litter by one of our drivers led to a premature red flag situation after only 4 laps. Some drivers had not completed the required 3 laps but all were allowed to race by the Clerk of the Course. This short practice session led to a somewhat unusual grid. As our racers were back in the paddock before our official practice was actually scheduled to start we requested some additional time on track – timed or untimed – but without success. However Dave Heasman was allowed to do his practice laps out of session following a problem on the first lap of the timed session.
The race itself provided great entertainment throughout. Tony Howe had qualified on the front row and he set off at a rate of knots, only to have his day brought to a close by mechanical problems. Richard Garrard, Tony Dowler, Michael Harris, Dave Heasman, Neil Gardiner, Richard Stone and Wayne Parker all suffered a similar fate during the course of the race and unfortunately didn’t finish.
Up at the front Mark Bellamy had taken the lead from Jon Flanigan and Dick Trevett. Paul Ashton was fourth in class C and Iain Patterson led class B in front of new boys Andrew Ashton and Adam Palmer - both taking to racing like ducks to water. They had a race long dice which ended with Adam 2nd and Andrew 3rd in class. Geoff McNamara, the third novice was also going well on his first outing.
Jonathan Agar took the class A lead and held it to the flag without any opposition as Adam Key had developed a mechanical problem early in the race.
 Mark and Jon provided great excitement for several laps, Mark managing to overtake Jon early on and hold the lead until the end. Dick Trevett was on a charge and also managed to pass Jon to finish 2nd.
Colin Bryan, Managing Director of Drayton Manor Park was on hand to present the trophies and we hope to see much more of him this season.
Mark Bellamy, race winner
 Jonathan Agar, Class A winner
 Iain Patterson, Class B winner
In closing, after a great first race – just a couple of reminders:-
You, as drivers, are entirely responsible for ensuring that your cars comply with all the regulations, and
This is a NON-contact sport – watch the flags and your mirrors – have a good race but keep it clean and let faster cars overtake.
Jean Ellis 22/4/09
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