The CTCRC’s first trip to Pembrey for a decade proved a smash with drivers and spectators alike. Played out under glorious sunshine in front of a large crowd, the racing at the fast and challenging south Wales venue was top notch.
Being a triple-header weekend, and with double points on offer in all races, the results could play a crucial role in each 2025 championship battle.
Among those celebrating triple successes were Will Davison (Pre-’93), AJ Owen (Pre-’03) and local hero Endaf Owens (Pre-’66).
But the pick of the action might just have come in Pre-’83 Touring Cars where some real slugfests between Nic Grindrod and Jonathan Corker point towards what looks set to be a season-long scrap for the title.
Pre-’81 Group 1 Touring Cars
The passage of time since the CTCRC’s last Pembrey visit meant that few competitors had previously raced at the 1.46-mile circuit. So it perhaps wasn’t surprising that one of the drivers with more recent experience, Nic Grindrod, was immediately setting the pace. Grindrod won Saturday’s two contests before Jonathan Corker hit back on Sunday to deny the West Midlander a hat-trick.
Grindrod put his Ford Escort Mk1 on pole position by a sizeable 1.3-second margin from Corker’s Datsun 510. Tom Harvey (Escort Mk1) was third quickest, another 0.4s back, just ahead of Class B pacesetter Nick Williamson’s Rover SD1. Graham Smith made it three Mk1 Escorts in the top five, while Jared Knight finally enjoyed some better fortune aboard his Mk2 version, qualifying sixth fastest.
A tardy getaway from Grindrod dropped him to fourth at the start of the opening race, as Corker led the way from Harvey and Williamson. But it took Grindrod only until the second lap to retake the lead when he passed Corker at the Brooklands tight right-hander. He then pulled clear with a series of fastest laps en route to a comfortable 5s victory.
“I knew I had more pace than them but when I messed up the start I thought it was going to be hard work,” admitted Grindrod, contesting only his second CTCRC event.
Still learning the challenging circuit – as well as discovering how abrasive it was, particularly in the high temperatures – Corker was satisfied with second. Harvey and class winner Williamson were similar margins further back, well clear of Smith.
After hitting turbo trouble in qualifying, Neil Philpotts’s Mitsubishi Lancer had better pace in the race. He finished sixth overall, second in class, ahead of Knight and George Osborne, who joined the field in Chris Snowdon’s Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT.
Ninth overall was BOSS regular Sam Daffin, making his first Pre-’83 appearance at the wheel of his newly acquired ex-Richard Ibrahim Alfa Romeo Alfasud. Jake Margalies (Alfa GTV6) completed the top 10 as Carl Shreeve was hampered by a chronic misfire aboard Tony Crudgington’s Triumph Dolomite.
Corker got the jump at the start of race two but again his lead lasted only until the second lap. Faced with a dashboard full of alarms, he pulled over through the second corner at Spitfires and Grindrod roared past.
But, having checked the oil gauge, Corker hoped it was a false alarm and decided to press on. With new tyres offering better grip, Corker latched back on to Grindrod and spent the rest of the race trying to find a way past the Escort.
The Yorkshireman set the fastest lap, only marginally shy of Grindrod’s new Class C lap record from earlier, but could not breach Grindrod’s defences as the Escort held on to win by just 0.175s.
Behind the lead pair, Harvey was slightly delayed as Corker regained his composure on the second lap. He then became embroiled in a race-long scrap with Williamson and Smith. As Harvey battled with a set-up change that hadn’t worked, Williamson got a run and snatched third in the Hatchetts hairpin mid-race before Harvey hit back at Brooklands a lap later.
The pair both got all crossed up at Dibeni on the next tour. Having clipped the kerb and taken a trip across the grass, it was Williamson who lost more ground, letting Smith take fourth. The trio were covered by less than a second at the flag, Harvey ahead of Smith and Williamson.
Taking sixth place on his first start of the season was Mark Osborne in his Triumph Dolomite Sprint. The Welshman, who had been waiting for an engine rebuild, hit brake trouble in qualifying and was unable to replace the master cylinder in time for the first race. Starting from the back of the grid, he worked his way forward and edged his namesake George to sixth overall but had lost too much ground to challenge the group in front.
Philpotts was hit by a misfire, caused by water leaking onto the Lancer’s distributor, which let Knight pass him for eighth, while Margalies got the better of Daffin for tenth.
Corker finally got the better of Grindrod in the weekend finale. Again he made the better start to take the lead, and this time he managed to hold onto it. In a reversal of roles from their previous encounter, Grindrod exerted relentless pressure on the Datsun but was unable to find a way past.
Corker eventually eked out a lead of around half a second before Grindrod lost a little ground on the final lap, leaving Corker’s margin of victory at 1.3s. A better illustration of how closely matched the pair were came from their best laps – Corker’s was the quicker by just 0.01s!
“I’m finally getting to learn the place,” smiled the victor. “It’s hard to defend – every time I made a slight mistake he was on me.”
Some 10s further adrift, Graham Smith secured his maiden podium in the series. It had been another three-way scrap for the final podium place with Harvey and Williamson.
Harvey held the position until mid-race when he was caught out by a backmarker and ended up grass-tracking down half the home straight. That let Williamson slip past into the hairpin before a slight mistake through the fast right-hander at Honda a couple of tours later also allowed Smith to get a run.
Smith finally dispatched Williamson at Brooklands to secure third a couple of laps from home. In the meantime, Harvey was getting increasingly ragged with some huge sideways moments through right-handers as he slid on his own oil. He was caught and passed by Mark Osborne’s Triumph for fifth position on the final lap.
Knight, George Osborne and Philpotts were next while this time it was Daffin who beat Margalies to 10th in the battle of their Alfas.
Class A honours in all three races went to the big Jaguar XJ6 of Mike Broadway, despite a spin in the second. Phil Waller was set for a similar Class D hat-trick until his Chrysler Sunbeam (Hillman Avenger), now with uprated rear brakes, pulled in to retire in the third race.
Pre-’66 Touring Cars
Despite all the machinery being virtually 60 years old or more, the Pre-’66 Classic Saloons and Historic Touring Cars again raised the weekend’s biggest entry with 26 cars making the trip to Pembrey. Some had less distance to travel than others, and it was local man Endaf Owens – from only a few miles north of the circuit – who dominated the on-track action, sweeping to an imperious hat-trick.
Mini specialist Owens was fastest in qualifying by nearly 0.5s from reigning champion Ian Thompson’s Lotus Cortina. Thompson himself was nearly 1.5s clear of Jake Swann’s Ford Anglia, which just pipped Barry Sime (Mini) and the giant-killing Hillman Imp of James Ibbotson to third fastest time.
The Minis of Mike Davies and Welshman Mark Uka were next, ahead of Pat Kenneally who appeared to be finally enjoying some better fortune aboard his Lotus Cortina.
Green-flag running in the opening race was severely restricted by an early safety car to retrieve Simon Knight’s stranded Imp. When racing resumed with five minutes to go, Owens left everyone else for dead as he charged to a 13s win.
Thompson was second and Class F winner. Kenneally’s similar car ran third under the safety car but he went wide at Senna under pressure from Swann and also lost out to Ibbotson before the flag. So Swann claimed a maiden podium in third overall while Ibbotson also impressed to win Class E in fourth overall.
Kenneally was fifth ahead of Ed Gibbs (Anglia), Davies, Uka and Class A winner Piers Grange (Ford Mustang).
The second Pre-’66 race of the weekend took place on Sunday morning. After a slightly messy start procedure, it was Thompson who got the jump to lead Owens – but the champion’s day was about to take a turn for the worse. The Cortina spun exiting Brooklands and dropped to the back of the field.
Owens, who was hampered by a failed clutch in the opener after a fluid leak, was never threatened again. He streaked into the distance in both the second and third races, winning by incredible margins of 24s and 27s seconds in races of just 19 miles.
“I just love driving this track,” reflected Owens. “It’s a very good club – thank you for the welcome.”
Sime made a much better start to race two, jumping into second. He did his best to keep Evans honest before deciding to save his tyres for the finale.
In contrast, Swann slipped behind the Morris Mini as well as Ibbotson. He took a while to clear the Imp, trading places a couple of times before making the move stick. That left the East Anglian some distance behind his Scottish rival but he reduced the gap over the closing stages enough to mount a last-ditch challenge at the final corner.
Swann went to the outside through Honda but as the pair tried different lines they made side-to-side contact and Sime was able to hold onto the position.
Ibbotson again impressed on his way to a class-winning fourth overall, a couple of seconds ahead of the Class A winner, which this time was Grant Williams in his venerable Jaguar Mk2. The Welshman, from near Newport, pitted with a misfire during Saturday’s race but was back on song as he charged from 14th the grid to fifth.
Gibbs had crossed the line fifth but dropped to sixth with a 5s track-limits penalty, just ahead of Thompson, who did well to climb back through to seventh overall. With Keith Wright a non-starter and Pat Kenneally hitting trouble, Thompson had no difficulty in winning Class F. Bullen, Uka and Grange completed the top 10, the latter slipping back from class rival Williams as his tyres wilted.
Behind Owens, there were fast starts from Ibbotson, Williams and Gibbs in race three. Williams’s went unrewarded as he ran out of road and took to the grass, but Gibbs shot through into second, with Ibbotson third ahead of Sime.
It took Sime a couple of laps before he was able to dive past Gibbs at the hairpin, by which time Owens was away and gone. So Sime then drove a relatively lonely race to second, happy with his second podium finish of the day on a circuit he hadn’t raced at for over 20 years.
As Gibbs was forced into rearguard action, Williams, Swann and Thompson joined him for a four-way squabble with plenty of place-changing among them. Williams eventually got a run and dispatched Gibbs into the hairpin in the second half of the race before consolidating an impressive third overall.
Thompson followed a lap later, but when he tried to pass the Jaguar for third the Cortina went straight on at the hairpin in a cloud of tyre smoke, losing out to both Anglias in the process.
So Williams won Class A in third, ahead of Swann, Gibbs and Class F winner Thompson. Ibbotson was shuffled back to seventh, still a long way clear of his Class E rivals headed by Adrian Oliver, with Grange eighth, and Mini men Martyn Armstrong and Mike Davies completing the top 10.
Further down the order, Brian Bedford’s Austin A40 beat Patrick Harris to Class D honours in all three races.
Pre-’93 Touring Cars
The Pre-’93 Touring Car entry was combined with Pre-’03 Touring Cars, Classic & Historic Thunder and BOSS for their three races. For this round, the usual field of Class B BMW M3 E36s was supplemented by the welcome addition of Luca Nardone in the Cardiff-based family’s Class C BMW 325 E30.
After being hot on the heels of regular benchmark Ian Bower all season, Will Davison finally scored his first ever win in Pre-’93. And having achieved that, he decided he rather liked winning, and did it twice more across the weekend.
Bower had set the pace in qualifying with a time 0.27s faster than Davison could manage. Oliver Owen and Kevin Willis were third and fourth in their similar M3s.
The polesitter led the opening third of the first race before Davison’s pressure paid off as he slipped past at Brooklands to take the lead. Davison, who was making his first appearance at the track since his Junior Saloons days (or SaxMax as it was known then), then managed to build a small gap as the pair negotiated traffic.
Bower kept the leader honest by pumping in the fastest lap mid-race, but Davison did enough to secure the maiden win that he had been knocking on the door for. “It was coming!” he reckoned. “It was a really hard race – Ian didn’t give me a moment’s peace. You’re playing chicken trying to get through the pack and not lose time.”
Davison just held off Bower at the crucial first hairpin at the start of the rematch later that afternoon. The Salisbury racer then managed to shake off the sister car and motor to a 5s win. “He just drove really well,” admitted Bower. “I just couldn’t find any front-end bite.”
That lack of front grip prompted the two-time champion to soften his set-up overnight but the change failed to paid dividends in Sunday’s race. In a slightly messy rolling start, Davison planted the power a little early before backing off, just as Bower decided to respond.
So Bower powered ahead but soon found his set-up wasn’t working. Davison was all over him and dived ahead at the end of the second lap. The younger driver then pulled away to take the flag as Bower dropped behind Historic Thunder driver Colin Voyce.
However, the rolling start shenanigans would lead to post-race penalties of 10s for both Davison and Bower. Davison’s advantage was enough that he kept victory in Pre-’93 but Bower slipped to fifth.
It was Willis who inherited second, having finished third in each of Saturday’s races. While he didn’t quite have the pace to match the lead pair, he did just about keep Bower in sight and also held off Voyce for the third on the road in the combined classification in race two.
Shaun Morris pipped Owen to what became third by just 0.12s. The duo also enjoyed scrapping with a pair of nippy Hondas from other categories across the weekend. Morris had edged Owen by an almost identically small margin for fourth in race two as well, but Owen was further forward in the opener, snapping at Willis’s heels for third.
Daniel Gandesha drove consistently to three sixth places across the weekend, ahead of Graham Myers who was given a thorough workout by Nardone’s well-handling E30.
Classic Thunder & Historic Thunder
A much smaller than usual Classic & Historic Thunder entry included four of the Pre-’93 cars, which were scoring points in both championships.
It was Ian Bower’s Pre-’93 BMW that was fastest in qualifying but Ross Craig impressed as he went second quickest in his Class D Honda Civic. Pre-’93 men Oliver Owen, Kevin Willis and Daniel Gandesha were next as top dog in Historic Thunder Colin Voyce struggled to get his turbocharged Ford Escort Mk1 adapted to the challenging circuit.
Come race time, the Voycetune car was much nearer the mark. The monstrous Escort picked its way forward before settling in behind Willis who was running second to Bower in Thunder.
Voyce had the performance to demote Willis too but later admitted he was following the BMW man’s lines to better learn the track – at least until the last lap board was shown anyway!
“I thought ‘I’ve got to go for it’,” said the veteran Essex racer. “I feel bad because he drove his heart out!”
As Voyce’s car competes in Historic Thunder, it didn’t affect Willis’s position in the Classic classification. He was still second to Bower, who comfortably took his fifth consecutive class win in the category. Oliver Owen was next, just ahead of Craig’s Honda.
For the Thunder runners, the sequel played out similarly. Bower had just too much pace for Willis, who this time did manage to hold off Voyce after passing him at the start. Shaun Morris and Oliver Owen were next home, as Craig slowed in the closing stages with threadbare tyres. The little Civic still took the laurels in Class D though.
The jump-start penalty that Bower earned alongside fellow Pre-’93 man Will Davison in race three proved costly, denying him a Classic Thunder hat-trick. He had already been beaten on the road by Historic man Voyce who charged past through the kink at Carters on lap four, just as he had done to Willis a lap earlier.
Davison’s penalty promoted Voyce to overall victory as well as Historic spoils, while Bower slipped to sixth in Thunder, albeit fourth in class. It was Willis who inherited Classic Thunder victory, just ahead of the impressive Craig in his two-litre machine.
The Aligned Concept Engineering racer took a whack in the rear from Oliver Owen for his troubles, just as he had done from his former Pre-’03 sparring partner AJ Owen (unrelated) a day earlier, but survived to complete a very strong weekend.
Morris and Oliver Owen were the other two to benefit from Bower’s penalty. A little further back, there were clean sweeps of class wins for Neil Wade’s Honda-powered Mini (CT B) and Rikki Cann’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage (HT 1).
Cann had to take it easy in the Aston on Sunday after damaging the car’s front spoiler the day before. Struggling for grip, he locked up and ran wide at the hairpin, collecting the unfortunate AJ Owen as he rejoined.
Blue Oval Saloon Series
The BOSS field was also a little depleted, with only Piers Grange’s Smith & Jones-powered Escort Mk2 in the premier slicks class. He duly took two wins, despite mechanical dramas in all three contests which let in Sam Daffin’s Fiesta for victory in the second race.
Grange was fastest in qualifying by over 3s from Daffin’s unique rear-wheel-drive Mk5. That was another second quicker than Tim Mizen’s Fiesta Mk3.5, with Cliff Pellin’s Mk7 another second or so back.
Grange should have been untroubled by his BOSS rivals in the races, instead involved in the battle at the very front of the combined race alongside the likes of Will Davison and Ian Bower. But the Cheshire racer was slowed by a misfire from well before half-distance.
Having slipped well back and been passed by Daffin, Grange managed to up his pace to stem the losses. He then closed back in to Daffin and snatched BOSS victory by just 0.4s on the final lap.
Grange was less fortunate in the sequel. The misfire struck again immediately and he was forced to retire after just one lap. That meant a scrap between Pellin, Mizen and Daffin became a battle for the lead in BOSS.
Daffin managed to demote Mizen who then dropped away from the pair as their fight continued. They ran side by side through several corners before Daffin eventually broke away to a clear win. Pellin’s pace dropped as his tyres wore out and he eventually decided to park it. That promoted Class D winner Mizen to second in BOSS having been third in the opening race.
Ahead of Sunday’s race, Grange’s team traced his issue to his Escort’s paddleshift. They effected a temporary stick-shift to bypass the issue, allowing Grange to take up his place at the back of the grid. From there he charged forwards, passing Daffin for the lead in BOSS within five laps.
Grange continued to pick off cars from the other categories and was closing in on the Pre-’93 BMWs of Ian Bower and Kevin Willis on the penultimate lap.
As he lined them up on the back straight, Grange accidentally flicked the gearstick the wrong way – the temporary fix had required it to work in the opposite direction from usual. The broke the linkage and left Grange stuck in gear. He limped home, having built enough of an advantage to keep Daffin behind.
Mizen was again a class-winning third in BOSS, just ahead of Pellin.
Pre-’03 Touring Cars
A change in regulations to allow slick tyres back into Pre-’03 Touring Cars had the desired effect of bringing some more cars out to play. Chief among them was three-time champion AJ Owen in his Honda Civic, which has more recently seen action in Classic Thunder.
Owen was straight back to winning ways, taking the Pre-’03 laurels in all three races.
The ORT Civic EP3 was quickest in qualifying by some margin over Dave Cave’s BMW 328 E36 as Don Hughes – also running slicks on his Peugeot 306 XSi – struggled to get dialled in.
Owen was untroubled by the other Pre-’03 cars in the opening race, instead engaging in battles with some of the Pre-’93 and Classic Thunder entries, including the similar car of Ross Craig. While Owen headed to victory, Hughes worked his way forward to finish second in Pre-’03, some 12 seconds back.
The sequel produced the same top two but this time it was much closer. Hughes managed to step up his pace such that his own fastest lap was just 0.05s slower than Owen’s. Combined with Owen’s delay when he tangled with Rikki Cann’s Historic Thunder car, it meant that the pair were separated by just 0.165s at the flag.
Any hope that Hughes had of overhauling Owen in the finale was dashed almost immediately when the Pug’s gear-linkage failed. Hughes managed to get the car into pit exit where he effected a fix and rejoined the fray. But several laps down, he was not classified.
So Owen took his third Pre-’03 win of the weekend and Cave came through to second, completing his own hat-trick of Class A successes.
On his first appearance of the season, John Hillyer completed the top three, second in Class A. Hillyer was also second in class in the opener but retired from the middle race, not willing to risk the new larger engine in his E36 Touring when it began to misfire.
Full results are available via the TSL website.
All images courtesy of CTCRC official photographer Steve Jackman/Eat My Pixels
