After a lot of fretting beforehand, a lovely morning welcomed 51 entries to the club’s traditional Dimanche Sprint at Rushmoor, Aldershot. This was the first round of the ACSMC Sprint Championship once again sponsored by Hamilton Classics.
Yet more smiling faces from the orange army then arrived having volunteered for a full day’s marshalling, many only able to commit with minimum notice.
The processing of scrutineering, noise check and signing on carried on whilst friendships were renewed and tales told.
Drivers briefings confirmed one practice run and two timed runs in the morning with three timed runs in the afternoon – 6 runs in total. This unusual number of runs was given a big thumbs up.
The efficiency of the timing crew and the paddock and start marshals saw action commence just after the intended 9.00am. Straight away, it was clear that this was a day of differences of one hundredth of a second.
Then the timed runs started and it became serious with class leads alternating between rivals. Amongst the ding dongs for the class wins were Adam Quinn and Shane Parry in class A2 separated by 0.18 sec, Simon Jones and Mike Taylor in A3 by 0.25 sec, Alex Thornton and Drew Leppard in A4 by 0.08 sec, Dimitris Vaxevanakis and Ben Packham in A5 by 0.14 sec, father and son, Alan and Paul Brown in B9 by 1.04 sec, Ian Billett and Jon Hunt in B10 by 0.14 sec, Alan Holly and John Peck in B11 by 0.29 sec and finally beating the 50 second barrier Will Nicholls and Mark Sraker in C15 by 0.5 sec with an event winning time by Will of 49.16sec.
Again showing what a slick day it had been, results were declared final at 4.30pm whilst yet more tales of the day were recounted.
Special mention and thanks should go to Ian Rogers, time keeping, Iain Morris, chief marshal and Steve Castle, clerk of the course and especially the set up crews led by Simon May.
Another event for us to be proud of adding to FDMC reputation of holding efficient, economic and enjoyable events.
