Spencer McCarthy moved ahead of pole sitter Kieran Vernon on the sixth lap during the second Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship race at Croft, to win for the second time this season.

Julian Barrett got the better start and lead into the first corner, but Vernon was soon in command at the front. It took until the third time into Sunny for McCarthy to climb ahead of Barrett into 2nd and hunt down the leader.

Demoting Vernon at Tower, McCarthy, Vernon and Barrett were nose to tail and broke away from the rest of the field appearing to be in a class of their own.

It looked as though Debbie Bennett might hold the last chance key for Vernon to get to the front again when coming to lap her, but more great, clean racing by all of them still had McCarthy ahead.

The drama continued through to the final corner; Vernon tried a last-chance-saloon attempt around the outside at the hairpin, the two absolutely side by side again in a drag race to the flag. McCarthy crossed the line with just a half a second advantage. Barrett soon followed Vernon taking his second third place of the weekend.

“He’s all over the place is Kieran!” commented McCarthy. “Every corner he can be, he’s there. You just have to stay with it, one eye in the mirror – but not too much, drive my own line and in the end there just being neat and tidy and cover anything he might do. It’s a great feeling to win”.

“Coming out of this round I’ve extended my lead in the Championship so that’s all good” explained Vernon “Spencer drove well, he defended – I tried to go around the outside on the last corner there but he didn’t run wide this time.”

“It’s been every step but the top one so far this year” said Barrett “but I’m getting used to it, but we go to Snetterton in five weeks time to hopefully I can do it there.”

Due to the unpredictability of Sunday’s weather, some drivers opted for wet tyres despite a track being mostly dry for the start. However, large dark clouds looming above threatened imminently so could have been a gamble that paid off.

This included Peter Dignan. Starting in 9th, he was already up to 6th at the end of the opening lap. No such progress for Steve Rigby who spun on the pit straight after slight contact with Neil Houston.

Off onto the grass, Rigby re-joined last, but climbed up six places. A second spin at the hairpin lost him ground again on lap 7.

Rain didn’t fall in the end, and so the wet tyres began to struggle, but a broken half-shaft for Dignan proved his fate on lap 6.

A great battle for the last place in the top 10 between Paul Morgan, Martin Jones, Paul Marsh and Edd Straw developed. Neil Merry looked secure in 9th place behind Tom Jones, but the scrap over 10th place was very close-knit.

Edd Straw had the place on lap 6, but down three places a lap later losing out at Tower and squeezed onto the grass at the hairpin. Morgan eventually claimed the 10th closely followed by Jones, Marsh and Straw.

Richard Sykes and his team mate Phil Sykes kept out of trouble to score solid points for 4th and 5th respectively ahead of Simms and Andy Smith who was struggling on wet tyres.

Russell McCarthy’s problems from race one continued into the second. His earlier overheating engine hadn’t done the 1.8 litre Zetec any good, but McCarthy was still able to come home in 17th with his head gasket problem.

The Championship has a well-earned five week break before Snetterton on 7th / 8th June.

• Paul Sheard chose not to take part in the weekend’s races. He and Richard Sykes have been excluded from race two results at Knockhill due to a technical infringement. The result is being appealed by his Speedworks Motorsport team and so the results remain provisional. Amended results here.