Reports > Howard's Day Castle Combe April 17 2017
Josh Fisher & Andrew Higginbottom win at April Combe (more photos)
At the Castle Combe season opener on Easter Monday Josh Fisher won the Formula Ford race outright while Andrew Higginbottom won Class C and beat all the Class B cars too.
Driving Richard Hudson-Evans' Van Diemen RF99/JL14 for this event, Josh qualified third fastest in practice with Andrew 14th in the team's RF88 and Steve Bracegirdle 17th with his engine in need of a refresh. The race saw Josh make a good start jumping into second place behind leader, Michael Moyers. Never more than a couple of tenths behind, Josh was unable to lead a lap but a 5sec Moyers penalty for track limit infringements saw the victory go to the WPR driver. Andrew was another fast starter and found himself in a midfield pack of Class B cars and came home 10th ahead of all but the Class A cars and took fastest Class C (and B!) lap into the bargain. Steve completed the race in 13th with a best lap over a second faster than his practice best.
The team were due to field three cars in the Saloon Car Championship race but Guy Parr encountered engine problems in his Fiesta and was a non starter. Guy had qualified in the middle of a large field after only 6 laps so can be hopeful of a good result next time out. Steve Bracegirdle qualified the Mini Cooper S in 26th place and was joined by team newcomer, Graham Cox (Renault Clio 2000) in 30th. Steve had a good start making up 10 places by the end of Lap1 but by Lap 5 had been caught by Graham. On Lap 8 Graham got past but they remained tied together until the end less than a second apart.
Graham took the opportunity to get some extra seat time by entering the Hot Hatch race where he qualified 17th and had a good race to finish 11th (after a good start around the outside of the track and the run up Avon Rise) improving his lap times from his previous race.
Thanks to Mike Stokes (www.tracksideimages.uk.com/) for some great photos
