A Brief Recap of Sunday’s Group S Action at the Spring Festival

Colin Wilson-Brown, Group S Racing Association past president, has kindly reached out with a recap of Sunday’s Group S action at the 2017 Spring Festival. Read on, and enjoy!

Thanks to Colin Wilson-Brown

I didn’t compete this weekend, but went down to watch two great Group S races at Wakefield on Sunday the 3rd of September.

Sure Geoff Morgan won both, but he really had his work cut out for him, battling with Richard Watts in race 2. Unfortunately, Richard had a family commitment that prevented him contesting race 3, but Doug Barbour picked up where he left off and kept Geoff honest.

Damien Meyer and Michael Byrne had great runs through the field from rear of grid to finish 3rd and 5th in race 3. Geoff Byrne did battle with the Porsches of Taylor and son and there was a massive battle of MGs behind them. Impressive performer young Andrew Sebesfi was chased by Simon Meyer, Brett McManus, Brian Weston, Kent Brown and Don Bartley.

Group S Action at the Spring Festival

Commiserations in the paddock, with brakes still smoking.

Unfortunately, Sebesfi’s rear brakes caught fire – I believe the same thing happened to Damien Meyer on Saturday. Fire extinguishers were needed on both occasions.

Group S Action at the Spring Festival

John Bowe hard at work in the Calleja Corvette.

Joe Calleja handed his Corvette over to none other than John Bowe for the last race. JB came from rear of grid to pass 19 cars and finish 4th, taking 9 secs off Joe’s lap time. Very generous of Joe – I’m not sure I want to lend my car to someone that good. The spectators certainly enjoyed the show.

Two new lap records were set. Geoff Byrne broke his own lap record with 1:10.8 on 3rd September (actually 1:10.7574) and Michael Byrne broke his own record with 1:08.4 (1:08.4296) on 2nd September.

Cheers,
CWB

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