Another win for Paul at Cadwell and a top ten finish for Paula

Bob Marsh - Last modified: 26th Jun 2008

Another win for Paul at Cadwell and a top ten finish for Paula

Qualifying: Conditions Dry


With only 9 cars coming out for qualifying it was difficult to establish who was setting the early pace,

The team consisted of Paul, Joachim and Paula Sheard who was having her first Max5 race of the season. Joachim could not however take part in the qualifying session due to his flight being delayed.

Paul, lap record holder at Cadwell, was out to show that his season was now back on track and keep Tom Roche out of pole position.

Tom Roche, following an engine exchange during testing the previous day, was keen to keep as close to Paul qualifying time as possible.

Paula had a good qualifying session finishing with a best time of 1:53.900.

There was another good qualifying session from Matt Robinson who will soon be challenging for a first race win.

Grid Positions:

1 Paul Sheard 1:50.202 Average speed 70.986 mph
2 Tom Roche 1:51.034 Average speed 70.454 mph
3 Matt Robinson 1:51.154 Average speed 70.378 mph
9 Paula Sheard 1:53.900 Average speed 68.681 mph
Joachim Ritter Did not participate.

Race: Conditions Dry

Joachim Ritter had a rushed trip from the airport but managed to get onto the grid at the start of the race but was at the back.

Straight from the start it was obviously going to be a close race with Tome Roche getting away the quickest followed by Paul and Andy Burge and by the end of lap one Paul was in third position.

Joachim was determined to climb through the field and on lap two passed Paula but up front Andy Burge continued to dominate the race leading for the first three laps.

By the end of lap 5 Paul had hit the front with Tome Roche in second place and Richard Breland and Matt Robinson now contesting third place.

At the mid point of the race there were two distinct groups the leaders and a group of three which included Joachim who was now in seventh place and pushing hard to get sixth place from Andy Coombs.

Paula had now been joined by Mark Pierpoint and these two were having their own closely fought race.

Up at the front Paul and Tom continued to race at close quarters with only one or two car lengths between them.

On lap 12 Joachim missed a gear change and fell back behind Andy Coombs and Jon Halliwell but by lap 16 was back in touch and again pushing for the sixth place.

At the start of the final lap Paul had a small lead still over Tom and defended his ground well to cross the finish line in first place with Tom half a second behind, Matt Robinson gaining his third consecutive third place.

Joachim came home a very creditable sixth and Paula winning her battle with Mark to finish in ninth place.

This was the third win out of the last four races for Paul who also broke his own track record for Max5.

Result:

1 Paul Sheard 31:31.813
2 Tom Roche 31:32.381
3 Matt Robinson 31:37.721
6 Joachim Ritter 32:06.253
9 Paula Sheard 32:38.133

Fastest Lap: Paul Sheard 1:49.347 Average speed 71.541

The next round of the Max5 Championship will be at Rockingham on Saturday 12 July.