Following on from the success at Oulton Park the performance of the Moore Racing Viper of Mike Gardiner was reduced at the request of the organisers. The return of a standard inlet manifold leading to a significant reduction in performance.

Qualifying was the highlight of the Saturday programme with Mike working hard to keep ahead of the Aston Martin DBRS9 and Porsche horde that made up most of Class 1. Unfortunately the main competition from Outlon in the shape of the C5R Corvette recorded the fastest laps by some 1.5 seconds, clearly more work was required on the equalisation front by the organisers.

The first race saw early pressure from Mike Gardiner pay off at the hairpin on the Melbourne loop where Mitch Millet spun the C5R Corvette into a position that required the use of reverse gear. Mike took advantage to build a solid lead, though never comfortable with the Aston of Barrie Whight clearly capable of very similar lap times to the Viper. The lead at the end was sufficient and led to an unexpected victory for the Milton Keynes based team and Tring based driver.

The second race saw an early lunge by the experienced Mike Gardiner past the relatively less experienced Corvette driver. This was to be the highpoint of the race from the Moore Racing perspective as the Corvette was clearly materially quicker and once established and settled used it's superior power to weight ratio to drive past into the lead. From there all Mike could do was to try to keep up and pressure a mistake, this however was not to pay off for a second time this weekend. With the Aston withdrawn from the second race and the BMW of Peter Seldon retired hurt, this left Mike to claim a lonely second place ahead of the third placed Porsche.

All photos by Mick Herring