Kieran Vernon won the opening Ginetta race of the weekend in the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship after a nail-biting battle, lap after lap with Spencer McCarthy.

The pair swapped positions throughout with Clervaux and Tower Bend siting the action. Whoever was in the leader’s slipstream set themselves up for their clean and frequently successful passing manoeuvre.

Impressive driving on both counts was exemplified eighth time around with the two side by side into the complex and remained so all the way around the hairpin and onto the start/finish straight. Just 0.033 seconds separated themselves on the timing screen.

Meanwhile, Julian Barrett was right on the tail of the battle sitting in third place, but McCarthy ran wide at the complex on the last lap whilst in the lead. Vernon and Barrett were right there to demote McCarthy two places and make it a Vernon, Barrett, McCarthy podium.

“It was so close and a really tough race” said Vernon. “It came down to the second to last corner when Spencer ran wide but it was really good fun.”

“I have to blame myself for that one” admitted McCarthy. “I overcooked it going in and got the back end a bit wild and third place is the result.”

“I was lucky today” Barrett commented. “I was waiting for these two to have an accident in front of me and it looked like it was pretty close on occasions so I was lucky Spencer made the mistake and I was able to nip up the inside.”

All this unfolded after an initial safety car period to clear up cars stranded on turn one – Clervaux after one of the opening lap incidents.

Off the line, Michael Ralph and Tom Jones collected each other and went bouncing onto the grass, but rejoined. However, Ralph’s exhaust became detached from his car in the process and had to retire to the pit lane.

Gary Simms and Dave Jackson came together into the first bend, which took Jackson into the gravel into retirement. The concertina effect down the grid also eliminated Steve Rigby and Edd Straw from the race. Paul Morgan too made it into the gravel but was able to rejoin with the aid of marshals pushing him free. Simms went on to take fourth place.

Russell McCarthy initially ran in third for the opening laps but ran wide fifth time into Tower and lost two places to Barrett and Phil Sykes. As Barrett tagged onto the leaders, Sykes, McCarthy and Simms kept each other honest, but a clutch problem in the closing laps for Sykes only had him running in third gear and losing ground to those behind him including Simms and Pistonhead’s Peter Dignan.

An alternator bracket failed on Russel McCarthy’s car two laps from home, which sparked off a spin for him at the complex and down to 7th at the flag. Dignan came through ahead of Sykes and McCarthy in 5th.

Eighth place man Paul Marsh had to work through the field for his Championship points having started at the back of the grid. An opening lap incident into a barrier during qualifying damaged the front end of the car and his chances of being on the front row as he was at Oulton Park.

Martin Jones in his Hepworth International–ran CoolBlue Ginetta G20 (right) had his first finish inside the top ten from a 13th place start but his team-mates were not so fortunate. Andrew Long had an opening lap spin and Paul Mancey retired on lap 6 with a damaged steering column after contact.

Andy Smith started from the pit lane due to a clutch problem manifesting itself during qualifying. Despite the efforts of his privateer setup, time did not allow for adjustment to the new clutch and so was stuck in third gear throughout.