Timed qualifying caused an upset with Evans, Tony Bardy (Citroen C4) and Brian Jukes missing their scheduled slots, sending them to the back of the grid for round one of the knockout. Stein Egil Jenssen’s event was over before it started with engine failure in the Open Championship preventing the Norwegian from taking any further part in the Superprix.
Kevin Procter (Ford Focus) won race one round one in the knockout format, ahead of Christopher Evans, while in race two, David Binks powered through the pack to take an emphatic race victory, ahead of Mike Manning (Ford Puma) and Bardy. In round two race one Procter continued his winning ways taking victory, with Evans doing likewise in race two ahead of Bardy and Tony Bell (Toyota Corolla).
A mechanical problem left back to back Rallycross Open Champion, ’Mad Mark’ (Citroen Xsara) down in the repechage, where he would start on the back row of the grid, but as the lights turned to green contact was made with the second row of the grid, turning the Xsara left into the barriers and out of the action. The defending Champion was however given a lifeline as he was given one of the two wildcards to go onto the back row of the Superprix final. Chris Langley (Ford Escort RS2000) went onto win the repechage ahead of Simon Horton (Subaru Impreza), Kevin McCann (Subaru Impreza) and Polish duo – Witek Starobrat (Ford Focus) and Lukasz Kabacinski (Subaru Impreza).
A fantastic start by the flying Finn – Silvo Viitanen saw the Ford Focus driver slot into second place in Semi Final one behind Procter, before gearbox failure cruelly deprived Viitanen a shot at the Superprix crown. This left Procter clear to take the win and pole position for the Superprix final. Evans emerged victorious in the second semi final which placed him on the outside of the front row.
Ollie O’Donovan lined up on the inside of the second row with his Peugeot 306, followed by Bardy, Manning, Bell, Derrick Jobb (Ford Escort RS2000), David Binks (Mitsubishi Lancer EV0 7) and the two wildcards – ’Mad Mark’ and Steve Mundy (Ford Focus) who was the third fastest loser in the semi final.
As the lights turned to green, contact was made between O’Donovan and Manning, which turned both cars into Bell, sending Bell and Manning spinning across the track. At the front Evans made the best start leading the now spread out pack through the first turn ahead of Procter with a large gap to O’Donovan, Jobb, ’Mad Mark’, Bardy, Manning, Bell, Mundy and Binks. In the second corner Procter hit the tyres very hard launching the Focus onto two wheels and nearly into a roll as he set off after Evans.
It was to stay this way for the first three laps with Procter trying to get close enough to have a go out Evans. Behind there was plenty of contact between Bardy and Mad Mark in the battle for fifth place, which was sufficient enough to give the Open Champions Xsara a left rear puncture sending the hotelier into the gravel trap at the first corner. Bardy joined Mark in retirement on the following lap with the C4 pulling off the circuit into the parc ferme area.
At the front Procter had closed right up onto the tail of Evans by the end of lap and made slight contact into the final hairpin. This put Procter out of shape and he ran wide onto the grass allowing Evans to make the break with a five car length advantage. Evans knew what he had to do and now controlled the margin to perfection to romp home to his second Superprix title ahead of Procter, O’Donovan, Jobb, Manning and the recovering Bell who had been sent across the track in a spin at the start. Steve Mundy completed the list of finishers following the retirement of David Binks.
Dave Bellerby took full advantage of an incident between Jamie Bird (Renault Clio) and Jamie Lea (Toyota MR2) to take the Super National Superprix title at the wheel of his Lotus Exige. Newly crowned Open Champion – Ben Power (Ford KA) also got caught up in the incident after he took avoiding action by driving into the infield, but Power stormed back through the field to take second place overall ahead of Gary Dixon (Vauxhall Astra). Dixon had a race long dual with Dean Jones (Ford Escort MK2), but came out on top to secure the final podium position. Bruce Bamber (Honda Civic) finished fifth overall, edging out Stuart Coldron at the finish line. Michael Boak was a non finisher after running in second place for the first two laps of the A Final. Norwegian Ola Froshaug had started as the pre event favourite, but the engine in the Volvo S40 expired in spectacular fashion as he crossed the finish line to win heat number one.
Ashley Simpson narrowly lost out on victory in the Procar 2000 category in the PSM Motorsport Renault Megane, when Irishman and European Rallycross race winner – Derek Tohill managed to find a way through into the lead with two laps remaining. Simpson had started on the outside of the front row but soon found himself at the head of the field after a fantastic start to the final. David Ewin came home in third place with his Ford Fiesta to complete the podium ahead of Ian Horn in the second PSM Motorsport Renault Megane, Tony Lynch (Peugeot 309) and Stuart Emery (Peugeot 306).
In the Minicross category Neil Wade stormed to his first win of the year, ahead of David Bell, Mark Griffin, Brian Wade, Martin Knowles, Samantha O’Flanagan, Chris Cairns, Ian Clark, Richard Wakeling and Ian Thorndyke completed the top ten. Bell’s result was enough for the Ferryhill based driver to claim second place in the Minicross Championship ahead of Neil Wade.
Matthew Thompson made up for the disapointment of losing the Open Championship title to Conor Flynn with the Junior Superprix title. Jess Gwynne, Bradley Bailey, Kelly Bird and George Edwardes rounded out the top five.
Dutchman Willem Veltman (Citroen C2) cruised to victory in Division 1A ahead of Joe Cunningham (Peugeot 106). Russell Simpson (Peugeot 205 GTi) snatched third place in the Procar 1600 category with an emphatic win ahead of newly crowned Champion Kenny Hall (Peugeot 205 GTi).
