Paul Sheard leads Max5 Championship

Bob Marsh - Last modified: 23rd Jul 2008

Qualifying: Conditions dry

Sixteen cars came out for qualifying on a dry circuit with Jonathan Halliwell, Brett Walter, Charles Plumley and Tom Roche pushing hard for pole position with less than 0.3 seconds separating the four of them on the grid.

Jonathan Halliwell gaining his first pole position of the season.

Grid:

1 Jonathan Halliwell 57.641 Average speed 135.69 kph
2 Brett Walter 57.704 Average speed 135.54 kph
3 Charles Plumley 57.768 Average speed 135.39 kph
6 Paul Sheard 58.002 Average speed 134.84 kph
11 Joachim Ritter 58.705 Average speed 133.23 kph
12 Paula Sheard 58.765 Average speed 133.09 kph
13 James Maxfield 58.837 Average speed 132.93 kph

Championship Race: Conditions dry

On lap two there was contact between Paul Sheard and Tom Roche as Tom attempted to move up quickly through the field, leaving both cars damaged but able to continue with Richard Breland and Charles Plumley taking advantage of the incident and moved up to third and fourth respectively.

The gap between the first two cars and the rest of the field was beginning to grow but the remainder of the field was well bunched together.

At the end of lap four Paul Sheard and Tom Roche had regained some of the lost ground and were closing quickly on third placed Richard Breland. Lower down the field on the exit of Gerrards Paula Sheard spun relegating her from twelfth to last position.

The race was now starting to breakdown into groups of cars with the front two pulling away and 6 cars challenging for third place, making this one of the most exciting races of the championship so far.

On lap nine Brett was able to establish a comfortable lead over Jonathan which continued to be extended over the remainder of the race with Paul Sheard and Tom Roche closely matched for third and fourth place.

At the chequered flag Brett came home triumphant with a well deserved second place for Jonathan Halliwell and Paul Sheard winning the rights to third place.

Result:

1 Brett Walter 13:39.793 Average speed 82.99 mph
2 Jonathan Halliwell 13:40.544 Average speed 82.92 mph
3 Paul Sheard 13:47.505 Average speed 82.22 mph
10 Joachim Ritter 13:54.499 Average speed 81.53 mph
12 James Maxfield 14:06.966 Average speed 80.33 mph
15 Paula Sheard 14:14.448 Average speed 79.62 mph

Fastest lap went to Joachim Ritter on lap seven in a time of 57.753 average speed 84.15 mph.

The result has left Paul leading the Championship by 2 points from Tom Roche.