The long winter hadn’t quite finished with us at Croft circuit in North Yorkshire where we ran the first round of the 2010 season for the PCGB Speed Championship. A cold, bitter wind cut across this former airfield but, luckily, it did not affect a day of very strong competition too much and some excitingly close times were produced over the day. As this Easter Monday was the first outing of the season the drivers were raring to go and gave it everything over three timed runs in the afternoon, despite a cold and slippery track surface.

We welcomed a local driver to the Speed Championship in Class P1 with Thomas Robinson making his competition debut in a 996 GT3 to very good effect. His second afternoon run produced a time of 99.62 for second place in P1. Driving a nicely prepared 944 with a supercharged engine was Karl Lupton who was one of the few drivers on the day to produce a fastest time in his final, third timed run. Taking class honours for P1 Karl finished with a time of 94.86 seconds – an impressive 4.76 second winning margin. Three drivers competed at Croft in Class P2 with John Biddulph (3.2 Carrera) consistently cutting his times down over the day to finish with a time of 94.41 seconds for third place. Driving the 1975 3.2litre 911 that they share, Geraint and Ben Evans entertained us all with a closely fought battle over the day. In the end, despite being quicker in the first run, Geraint had to settle for second place and second fastest on the day with a time of 93.33 seconds. It was a superb performance by Ben in his second run that secured the class win and fastest time on the day with a winning time of 92.83 seconds.

It was a case of déjà vu in Class P3 at Croft with the same drivers in P3 as last year producing a very similar outcome. David Strange (1973 911S Sport Rep’) reliably cut his times down over the day to produce a final time of 96.62 seconds for second place while Ian Wadsworth drove his 3.0 litre 911 Carrera to a class win in 94.19 seconds and produced the third fastest time on the day. It was a great turnout at Croft for Class P4 with seven drivers entered and finishing the day. Stuart Maclean used his experience and nicely prepared 924 to great effect to achieve a very impressive time for a 2 litre car over this circuit. Stuart’s fastest time of 98.94 seconds won him third place in P4. The current PCGB Speed Champion Graham Rose (924S) put in some impressive times over the day after a cautious start and achieved second place in P4 with a fastest time of 96.75 seconds. It was long time Speed competitor Simon Butterworth who achieved some of the most consistently imposing times on the day. Driving the 924S he shares with son Ben, Simon created a margin of 1.09 seconds over Graham’s time to finish his final, fastest time in 95.66 seconds for first place in P4.