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Kevin Wendt takes first LMA overall win
Class wins for David Pierce, Yaser Almaghribi and Robin Deaney
Round eight of the 2009 LMA Euro Saloon and Sports Car Championship took place at Lydden Hill.
Qualifying:
An early morning start for the LMA drivers, and a morning shower
before qualifying meant uncertainty over tyre choice. Some chose slicks (which proved to be the optimum choice), some wets and some even mixed them. It was slick-shod Nick Hayes (Seat Cupra) who came out on pole
from Class C competitor Kevin Wendt (BMW M3). About 3 seconds back came the Class E pole sitter Jason Tarling (Renault Clio) who narrowly eclipsed Class D pole Yaser Almaghribi (Daihatsu Charade). David Pierce
(Renault Clio) was next up on his return from a cycling accident followed closely by the Class B pole Robin Deaney (Ford Sierra).
Race:
Nick Hayes got away first from the start closely followed by
Kevin Wendt and Jason Tarling. David Pierce and Robin Deaney touched sending Pierce's Clio into a spin which then resulted in a bigger collision between the pair. They were able to resume racing a long way back with
Deaney's Sierra suffering steering damage. Deaney would limp around slowly to the finish to take his first class win in Class B.
Two seconds down after 2 laps, Wendt started to pull back on Hayes at the
front. Third place Tarling was losing ground at around 2 seconds a lap to the leading pair and while Almaghribi was lapping at Tarling's pace, he too had been delayed in the first lap incident. Pierce was charging
hard and caught up with Almaghribi on lap 6 while Wendt now had the gap to Hayes down to ¾ second. Two laps later, Wendt and Hayes crossed the start-finish line side by side, Wendt just shading Hayes to take the
lead. Wendt was now in control and slowly edging away from Hayes, going on to win the race by 3 seconds and take his first LMA overall win.
Pierce was on a charge chasing down Tarling in their Renault Clios.
A 10 second gap on lap 6 became 6 seconds by lap 10, 3 seconds by lap 12 and Pierce passed Tarling for 3rd place overall and the Class E lead on lap 14 before slowly pulling away to beat Tarling by 16 seconds.
Almaghribi was a few seconds further back as he took his second class win of the season to confirm his Class D champion titile.
The 2009 LMA Euro Saloon and Sports Car championship, Class E and the Mark
Fish Motorsport Clio Cup Challenge have already fallen to Brett Walter. Andy Harvey is the Class A champion, Peter Challis the Class B and the DKMLabour.com Touring Car Challenge champion. Class C is still to be
decided between Wendt and Hayes at the final round later this month. Renault extended their lead n the MSE-Performance.com cup for manufacturers with 860 points while the battle for second place is between Ford
(446) and Seat (430).
Race Result:
Winner: 1st Kevin Wendt (BMW M3), 2nd Nick Hayes (Seat Cupra), 3rd David Pierce (Renault Clio), 4th Jason Tarling (Renault Clio), 5th Yaser Almaghribi
(Daihatsu Charade), 6th Robin Deaney (Ford Sierra XR4i)
Class Winners: Class B Deaney, Class C Hayes, Class D Almaghribi, Class E Pierce
Fastest lap: Kevin Wendt (BMW M3) 45.800 (78.60mph)
Next race: Snetterton 25-6 October 2009
With support from :
Mark Fish Motorsport, MSE-Performance.com & LMA Perfomance
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 ( www.nyssaracing.com )
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