Moderator's Report
SUMMARY
A dominant flag-to-flag victory for Robert Fleurke on a deceptively demanding circuit. Jethro put in a very impressive performance to claim second spot and a stunning fastest lap. The final step on the podium was taken by Tim Muttram who recovered well from a difficult first lap.
A special mention must go to Col Bentley in his first league race with UKGPL, he finished fourth in a Cooper despite losing a lot of time on lap 1. On that showing it won't be long before he is challenging for a race win should he decide to become a regular competitor.
Dean Logan was very unlucky, his Repco engine developed a serious miss fire as the start flag dropped and his Brabham crawled off the line. He realised there was a problem and he stayed right to avoid any possibility of being rear ended. Very considerate and commendable driving, thank you Dean.
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Lap 1 - Turn 1 - Ronnie Peterson, Tim Muttram and Doni Yourth
Ronnie makes a good start from the left hand side of the grid and sensibly takes the wide line through Turn 1. Unfortunately he was slightly too wide and his nearside rear tyre strayed onto the grass. This caused him to lose control and slowly pirouette across the track into the path of Tim Muttram. Tim couldn't avoid contact and Ronnie was punted back across the track into the path of Doni Yourth. Fortunately everyone was able to continue, apparently unscathed.
Ronnie was driving well and was unfortunate to be caught out by the very slippery white lines on this circuit.
Tim and Doni did their best to avoid the spinning Eagle but there was nothing more they could have done.
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Lap 1 - Straight between Turns 5 and 6 - Doni Yourth and Andrew Livingston
Having lost time in Turn 1, Doni and Andrew find themselves at the back of the field, even behind Dean in his very sick Brabham. As he exits Turn 5 and races down to Turn 6, Andrew closes on Dean and prepares to make a pass on the left. Doni has made a much better exit out of Turn 5 and is alongside Andrew as they approach Dean but unfortunately Doni is in Andrew's blind spot. As Andrew moves left to drive by Dean he moves over into Doni and contact is made. They are both out of the race.
Andrew caught a brief glimpse of Doni in his mirrors as they exited Turn 5 but along the straight there was no sign of him. Andrew didn't expect Doni to have got along side by the time they came to overtake Dean. Whilst this does not absolve Andrew of any blame it was clearly an error of judgement rather than a complete lack of awareness. Andrew simply didn't expect Doni to have made up the gap in such a short period of time. Normally the engine noise of an opponent's car would be a clue to where they are, but given that both Doni and Dean were in Brabhams, the engine noise was of little assistance to Andrew. A caution rather than a penalty is appropriate in this case.
Doni did nothing wrong and was very unlucky to be involved in a second incident in half a lap in which he was totally innocent.
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Lap 1 - Fox Corner - Andreas Gebhardt and Ivan Djjodjjo
Andreas takes a slightly tighter line as he follows Ivan into Fox Corner. This causes him to close up on the apex and he clips Ivan's gearbox sending the Cooper into a spin. Both drivers recover without any apparent damage.
Andreas wasn't trying to overtake, he simply misjudged the line Ivan was taking and ended up making contact. It is important to leave a little extra room on lap 1 to account for cold tyres and to learn the lines the opposition is taking. Only close up when you are ready to mount a serious attack having studied the opposition and picked an opportune place.
Ivan did nothing wrong.
