Well it's that time of the year again for DTCC Winter Trophy Meeting, and the club didn't fail to impress with a great track layout featuring several long fast sweepers with many of the top drivers opting for 10.5t motors. Several new drivers turned up for this years final with some old faces like Lee Carter and Micheal Ball from MB making an appearance. 

Heat 1 got off to a good start with Andrew Sparrow just taking the win ahead of Scott Wilson both on 15 laps leaving a very close battle with Wayne Szymczyk just scrapping in 3rd on 14 laps within 1 second of 4th and 5th place. With the grip improving in round 2 Scott  took charge and stormed to victory on 18 laps with his best lap nearly 1 second faster than the rest of the field. Wayne finished in 2nd with a respectable 16 laps followed by Steve Walker too on 16 laps. Round 3 got underway with Scott taking the win slightly improving his time which allowed him to qualify 9th in the C Final, Harry Fox cruised in to take 2nd leaving 3rd for Steven Walker.

Heat 2 round 1 saw veteran Paul Rhodes take a comfortable win with his Xray machine and finished on 17 laps followed by Joe Milnes and Thomas Fox also on 17 laps. Round 2 made way for improved lap times with Joe taking the win on 19 laps with David Bonsall trailing 3 seconds behind closely followed by the veteran Paul, 1 second after David. After receiving setup advice from the Captain, Chris Chapman took an easy win in round 3 to finish on 19 laps @ 304.62 with veteran keeping his nose in to finish 2nd on 19 laps @ 317.08 and Joe taking 3rd on 18 laps.

Heat 3 saw the return of Neil Hargraves setting the pace on 20 laps despite not finishing his final lap, the very consistent Paul Wilson followed in 2nd on 19 laps with Simon Farrow taking 3rd also on 19 laps. Round 2 produced a close battle with the top 5 all finishing on 20 laps however Brad Chapman who took the win didn't complete his final lap so missed out of a slow 21 laps. Simon was to fend off Paul to take 2nd and 3rd with just 1 second separating them. Neil made his mark in round 3 to finish on a very impressive 22 laps lapping the rest of the field, Paul finished 2nd putting in his FTQ making the A Final with Simon in 3rd.

Heat 4 always had hopes of some close clean racing and it didn't disappoint, James Rowney just pipped Chris Swallow by 3 hundredths of a second to both finish on 22 laps with the same average lap time of 14.19 seconds. Brad Sellars took 3rd place trailing only by a couple of seconds on 21 laps. James took an easy victory in round 2 setting the FTQ and also set the fastest lap time of the night of 12.35 finishing on 23 laps, Micheal Ball was pushing hard and put in a clean 23 laps 7 seconds behind James  leaving Brad to take 3rd also on 23 laps. The 13.5t powered car of James' kept the 10.5t at bay to take the 3rd win of the night on 23 laps closely followed by Micheal in 2nd with Lee Carter in 3rd also on 23 laps despite having a few track problems with the carpet/tape. 

D final saw Andrew Sparrow qualify on pole with Tony Lewis on 2nd and Daniel Hudson-Giddings on 3rd. Tony took the lead in lap 2 but only giving it back to Andrew a few laps later, Daniel did manage to slip into 2nd for a short time which is a good effect for only his 4th meeting. There was some good clean racing throughout the final but the top 3 finished how they started

Paul Rhodes took pole postion in the C final with Thomas Fox on 2nd and bookies favourite Paul Hindmarsh on 3rd. Unfortunately Thomas didn't make the start of the final so leaving way for Scott Wilson and Paul H to apply pressure on the pole man. A scrappy opening lap soon turned out to be a great final to watch. Paul Rhodes taking the victory on 19 laps, Scott had dropped out leaving a present for Neil Nutter also on 19 laps to take 2nd from 6th on the grid, Paul H finished in 3rd on 17 laps.

Onto the B Final saw a surprise, Dan Brown knocked out of his usual A final standing to qualify on pole (some people do anything for a trophy!) with Brad Chapman on 2nd and Simon Farrow on 3rd. Dan and Brad showed some excellent skill by providing some close racing, switching positions for most of the race. Dan's bottle went under the pressure from Brad, leaving Brad to take the victory on 22 laps, Dan also on 22 laps and Simon brought in the rest of the field on 20 laps.

It was time for the main event, James Rowney qualified on pole but couldn't start the final due to radio problems, this left Micheal Ball to start in pole with Lee Carter in 2nd and Chris Swallow to take Brad Sellars position in 3rd due to Brad having servo issues before the start of the race. Lee moved into the lead on the first lap with Mike Kitchen into 2nd from 7th on the grid. By lap 3 Mike took the 1st and had a comfortable lead with his 10.5t powered Xray only to be constantly gunned down by Micheal and Chris. Halfway through Mike made a mistake that cost him the race leaving Micheal, Chris and Lee as the top 3. On the penultimate lap Micheal gave away his impressive lead to Chris after making a mistake, then on the final lap, Chris misjudges a back marker on the line leaving Lee to very nearly taking the victory. Chris' winning time of 23 laps @ 308.17 followed by Lee on 23 laps 308.34 and 3rd for Micheal a second behind also on 23 laps.

Just like to thank the people involved in running the club and also to the clubs members for the great racing!....more to come next year!...bring it on.

 written by James Rowney