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GARA SUPERBA
 The final round of the Le Mans Auto Italia championship, run at Donington in the best
sunshine seen all season, turned out to be a gripping race and a fitting end to an enjoyable and successful season, with Brian Thorp putting the lid on a perfect season's score by taking his
class once again. Oh, and Enzo didn't win as he was sadly eliminated in a coming together at the chicane on the first lap.
Adding spice to the qualifying results were not only two Ferraris but Enzo had brought along a new project for this end of term race in the form of a fearsome turbocharged Alfa GTV6.
When the dust had settled it was Tony Soper's multi-discipline Stratos that topped the list - just - from the Ferrari 355C of Robin Ward. These two were well clear of the
Buscaglia missile which was some 2.5 seconds behind, completing the top three in Class A. Drummond Bone was down in 21st overall due to 'no circuit knowledge, slippery track and I knocked off
the ignition - again!'. Julian Birley has taken over Class C recently and was fifth overall two seconds clear of returnee John Avery's Ferrari 308 GTB. Ian Connell was thus relegated to third and was fretting about
keeping his class lead as he had a low-end misfire to contend with. Mike Watson was the man at the head of Class B in his latest acquisition, an Alfa 33, ahead of Terry Davies and Jim Price. Brian Thorp's 1 min 26.6
compared quite well to John Elbra's 1 min 30.6 in Class D! John was two seconds clear of Bernard Pranic. The key men in Class E were Graham Warner, Lee Penn and Steven Pahlke.
 At the start of the race the sun came out - first time this year I've written that - and the spectators were treated to a great battle for
the lead once the first lap melee at the chicane had been sorted and Tony Soper had recovered from a wheels locked 'straight-on' at the same point. A very slippery track meant lap speeds
were not up to the morning's times but Robin Ward and Tony passed and repassed, once around both sides of another dicing group. Julian Birley took the Class C lead ahead of a
happy Ian Connell who came second to take the overall Class win.  Martin Parsons dusted off his 164 to take third. Mike Watson and Jim Price were very close on the line in Class B, despite a long understeering
slide at the chicane by Jim. Brian Thorp romped home to annex Class D over half a minute ahead of John Elbra who was involved in a frantic scrap with Lee 'I really enjoyed that' Penn and
Bernard Pranic. In fact, Graham Warner, who took Class E, was only 1.8 seconds ahead of this trio at the flag. Ted Riddick was also having a good scrap with Russ Yates and heading for a
top ten finish when his electrics died.
So the 2000 Le Mans Auto Italia finished on the best possible note to tie up a good season's racing. Thank you, Le Mans Motorsport, Auto Italia, Hennessy
Racing and CS Oils for all your support.
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