TREMAYNE STARS BUT FELL AND REUBEN WIN. By our Special Correspondant
The entry was down to just eight cars after the hectic recent double-header races at Cadwell Park and Anglesey. But quality is what matters and the wheel-to-wheel battle between Tremayne, Fell and Andy Roberts on Saturday, and another scrap between Tremayne and Fell on Sunday, made Formula Zip look tame and kept the enthusiastic crowd on their toes while further enhancing the formula�s status as the perfect breeding ground for future stars.
Race One
Qualifying on Saturday morning was sunny but cold and saw Reuben carry on his form from the previous day�s testing to take pole position with 1m 25.89s, three-tenths away from Stefan Hodgetts� 1m 25.45s lap record. Once again, the series leader was in great form, and made the absolute most of his car�s uniquely high level of grip. Fell sliced down to 1m 26.95s for the other front row slot but the fastest �low-nose� man from Friday, Tremayne, was in trouble with an intermittent fuel feed problem. His one clear lap left him third on 1m 27.33s from Scotland�s David Roper on 1m 27.44s. Just to show how closely matched the low-nose cars are, David Scott put his silver and red example fifth on 1m 27.48s ahead of Andy Roberts� F.A.S. car on 1m 27.70s and Adam Saward rounded out the 1m 27s bracket with 1m 27.83s in his ArriMedia version which had been rebuilt since his collision with Roper at Anglesey the previous week. The final runner was Louis Hamilton-Smith who didn�t test on Friday and managed 1m 29.22s, but better things were to come from the Evesham driver in the races. Luke Kidsley should have run too, but damaged his car after an argument with a tyre wall on Friday and focused instead on finishing second in each of the weekend�s 1200 Monoposto races.
GRID
Fell Reuben
1m 26.95s 1m 25.89s
Roper Tremayne
1m 27.44s 1m 27.33s
Roberts Scott
1m 27.70s 1m 27.48s
Hamilton-Smith Saward
1m 29.22s 1m 27.83s
Reuben led Fell and Tremayne off the line and soon opened a lead, but towards the end of the second lap the three-time 2002 race winner began to drop back with audible engine problems. By Tower on lap three Fell and Tremayne had both passed his stricken Jedi, Tremayne�s car now working properly after the fuel system had been cleaned out fully following the dusty previous weekend at Anglesey.
These two young stars then indulged in some fabulous wheel-to-wheel and nose-to-tail dicing, rarely more than inches apart. It was a superb endorsement of the Formula Honda series and its attraction for serious upcoming racers. As Tremayne applied more and more pressure, trying to push his rival into a mistake by coming alongside on the outside at Clervaux, Fell had to begin driving defensively. They slowed themselves up slightly as a result and Roberts was soon threatening to join in as well. Roper and Scott, meanwhile, were just out of the picture fighting for fourth place.
After several feints going down to Clervaux, Tremayne finally passed Fell on the pit straight on lap eight. He got a better exit from the hairpin and outdragged him across the start/finish line, and then eased cleanly over for the inside line into the first corner. This was the first time the former TKM karter had led a Honda race, for though he had taken pole position at Mallory last August he had fluffed his start.
He stayed in front until the end of lap 10, but Fell and Roberts were giving him no breathing space at all. Then Fell summoned everything for a bold dive into a gap on the inside entry to the hairpin that was just Jedi sized. It was a nice bit of judgement, and Tremayne avoided any temptation to cut back across in a belated effort to block and instead focused on maintaining his momentum on the wider outside line ready to launch an immediate counter-attack. But then Fell thwarted that possibility by chopping ruthlessly to the right on the exit. His right rear wheel wasn�t clear of the orange and blue car, and as he squeezed his rival the result was a bent left-hand front wing and misaligned suspension for Tremayne and sufficient loss of momentum to let the close-following Roberts jump into second place. Indeed, the 22 year-old from Tamworth was actually alongside Fell as they approached Clervaux, but the former kart champion had the inside line and stayed ahead. The three leaders then ran nose-to-tail for the final lap of the 11, with Fell finishing 0.31s ahead of Roberts to win for the second time this year, and 0.6s ahead of an unimpressed Tremayne.
Sportsmanship still prevails at this level of racing, however, and Tremayne offered congratulations to Fell afterwards. The latter replied: �Sorry about what happened out there.� Later Tremayne said, �It was a pretty stupid move because Mark didn�t need all the road that he used and because he was so intent on blocking me Andy so nearly got by him. If Mark had given me another half inch we�d both have been close but we�d have been all right and I could have had another go. I guess he didn�t want that.� Tremayne�s consolation was fastest lap of 1m 26.19s.
Scott is the only runner to use the latest-spec Honda CBR 600 engine, and though it is more powerful it has to carry more ballast which makes it tricky to get off the line as his car has to weigh at least 388 kg to everyone else�s 370. He made another mediocre start and lost further ground as the race progressed, but did have the satisfaction of passing Roper, who nevertheless maintained his second place in the series� points table with fifth. Hamilton-Smith cut his times to a very competitive 1m 26.43s best on his way to sixth place ahead of Saward, who was still sorting out his rebuilt car. Reuben kept plugging on even though his motor sounded awful, and garnered another three
points for eighth place to add to his series lead.
Race Two
The grid for Sunday�s race was based on the finishing order from Saturday�s. In glorious sunshine it was lined up in staggered format, rather than having the rows side-by-side rows as had been the case the previous day.
Roberts Fell +
Scott Tremayne
Hamilton-Smith Roper
Reuben Saward
+ Denotes pole
Overnight Reuben and his helpers had worked long hours to fit a new engine, but when he was denied permission to run it briefly with the Monopostos on Sunday morning he had to start from the back with his fingers crossed. He needn�t have worried. Fell, Roberts and Tremayne left the grid together, with Roper pulling ahead of Scott by Clervaux to slot into fourth right behind them.
In the early laps Roberts pushed Fell very hard, but Tremayne was the man on the move as he outbraked Roberts into Tower on lap five. He had scant time to savour second place, however, for Reuben had caught them all and quickly zipped by Tremayne on the back straight on the run to Tower on lap six and then immediately passed Fell on the straight after Sunny as if the Cumbrian was tied to the fence. As far as the lead was concerned, then, that was all she wrote. Downforce told its tale and Reuben sped smoothly away to his fourth win in six races. His domination is almost Schumacher like, except that Nigel doesn�t need team-mates to hand him race wins. He knows how to get them the hard way.
Behind him, however, Tremayne had a psychological score to settle with Fell and began hunting him down. By lap six they were nose-to-tail again, and Tremayne went back to feinting at Clervaux and making concerted efforts at Tower. Time and again he nearly pulled it off, but each time Fell just maintained enough momentum to frustrate his efforts. Fell always found just enough extra grip on the outside to stay ahead. On lap 10, however, the Harrow driver braked very, very late down the inside of Tower and successfully slipped ahead. But it wasn�t quite a done deal, for Fell was able to pull back alongside him to the right on the exit. But the first section of the following Jim Clark Esses is a left-hander and Tremayne already had better exit speed and the right line for it, so second place finally became his. This time there were no dramas, and the two of them put on another brilliant display of just what clean, close racing should be. Fell counter-attacked all the way to the flag, but this time Tremayne didn�t leave him even a hint of a gap and they finished a couple of tenths of a second apart.
Roberts didn�t feature so strongly in this one after his opening spurt and was just under three seconds further back, but Roper was kicking himself after spinning off on lap 10 and failing to finish. The quick Scot had newer tyres for this race and actually squeaked past Fell the same lap that Tremayne did after setting the race�s second fastest lap. But then he dumped his blue car in the gravel at Clervaux at the start of the 11th lap to stage his first non-finish of the year. �I just outbraked myself,� he admitted, losing his second place in the points standings as a result. Behind Roberts, Hamilton-Smith took a relatively quiet fifth from a slightly subdued Saward who battled car problems
most of the weekend. Scott was very unhappy with seventh after sustaining some suspension damage. The Heathfield engineering student was again slow off the line and went off at Clervaux just after mid-distance. He was fortunate to escape the gravel bed that later snared Roper, but then spun exiting the hairpin on the last lap as gravel in his car�s footbox was interfering with the throttle and clutch operation. So a delighted Nigel Reuben finished the 12 laps 2.68s ahead of Tremayne, benefiting again from his irresistible blend of super-efficient high-nose aerodynamics and his own very quick and precise driving. Tremayne, though disappointed not to win on Saturday when Reuben was hors de combat, was nevertheless delighted with his best-ever series performances and also to confirm that the new set-up direction figured out for the second race at Anglesey the previous week had finally rid his car of the persistent understeer that had dogged it since he smashed the lap record at Mallory Park last year. With Reuben�s engine problem on Saturday, this weekend�s big points scorers were Fell (20), Tremayne (19) and that man Roberts again (17).
RESULTS
(All drivers in 600cc Jedi Formula Hondas)
DRIVER DEFICIT CLASS GRID POSITION
RACE ONE
1 Mark Fell 0.00s 600 2
2 Andy Roberts 0.31s 600 6
3 Tom Tremayne 0.60s 600 3
4 David Scott 3.31s 600 5
5 David Roper 4.90s 600 4
6 L Hamilton-Smith 6.76s 600 8
7 Adam Saward 22.60s 600 7
8 Nigel Reuben 65.18s 600 Pole
DNS
Luke Kidsley, testing accident Friday
FASTEST LAP
Tremayne, 1m 26.19s on lap 7, 88.55mph
RACE TWO
1 Nigel Reuben 0.00s 600 8
2 Tom Tremayne 2.68s 600 3
3 Mark Fell 2.93s 600 Pole
4 Andy Roberts 5.65s 600 2
5 L Hamilton-Smith 10.08s 600 6
6 Adam Saward 12.26s 600 7
7 David Scott 19.72s 600 4
RETIRED
David Roper, lap 11, spun off 5
FASTEST LAP
Reuben, 1m 25.35s on lap 7, 89.42mph, new class record
POINTS STANDINGS
After rounds 5 and 6, Croft May 11/12
POS DRIVER RACE POINTS TOTAL
1 Nigel Reuben 03+13 90
2 Andy Roberts 10+07 58
3= David Roper 06+00 56
3= Mark Fell 12+08 56
5 David Scott 07+04 50
6 Tom Tremayne 09+10 41
7 Adam Saward 04+05 34
8= Luke Kidsley DNS 21
8= Hamilton-Smith 05+06 21
10= Scott Mansell DNE 10
10= Mark Hosken DNE 10
10= James Baker DNE 10
13 Jodie Hemming DNE 06
14 Philip Churchman DNE 05
15 Rob Hedley DNE 03
16 Dean Kidsley DNE 01
17 Robin Pritchett DNE 01