Mixed fortunes for Paul Sheard and James Maxfield at Powernights

Bob Marsh - Last modified: 29th Aug 2008

The meeting is a series of five classes of cars each racing twice over 10 minutes with the grid for the second race being the reverse of the finishing order in the first race.

The meeting was attended by Paul Sheard and James Maxfield with each one having mixed fortunes.

Qualifying: Conditions Dry

The qualifying session saw Tom Roche set the pace for the rest of the field to match with Paul Sheard struggling to make any impression on Tom.

Paul did manage to keep within 1 second of Tom and secured a place on the front row of the grid.

James Maxfield had a steady drive and whilst on the back row of the grid was satisfied with his performance.

Race 1: Conditions dry

Grid

1 Tom Roche 1:21.210 Average speed 72.65 mph
2 Paul Sheard 1:22.189 Average speed 71.79 mph
3 Jenifer Garrett 1:23.707 Average speed 70.48 mph
12 James Maxfield 1:28.026 Average speed 67.02 mph

As the lights went out Tom Roche was fastest away closely followed by Paul Sheard, Jenifer Garrett and Alyn Robson and as the quartet entered Luffield it was clear the Tom was not going to have the race all his own way and by the end of the lap he had a lead of just 0.273 seconds.

On lap two the gap increased to just over 0.6 seconds with Paul still in second place, meanwhile further down the field James Maxfield was moving up the field and was now in ninth position.

Lap three saw a change in the race with Paul catching Tom and passing him on Club Straight to establish a lead of almost half a second by the end of the lap with James dropping back to twelfth position.

The race progressed with the lead changing hands on more than half a dozen times with the end of each lap it was Paul in the lead but never by a comfortable margin with the possibility of Jenifer Garret and Alyn Robson closing the gap totally unnoticed.

On lap 8, the final lap Paul led into Copse and Maggotts but on the approach to Brooklands Tom just got past to take the lead but on the exit of Woodcote Paul found enough speed to win the race by 0.146 seconds from Tom and Jenifer.

James was unfortunately unable to claw his was back up the field and finished in twelfth position.

Result:

1 Paul Sheard 10:04.877 Average speed 78.03 mph
2 Tom Roche 10:05.023 Average speed 78.01 mph
3 Jenifer Garrett 10:05.980 Average speed 77.89 mph
12 James Maxfield 10:26.539 Average speed 75.33 mph

Fastest lap: Alyn Robson 1:13.883 Average speed 79.86 mph (New lap record)

Race 2: Conditions wet

Grid

1 James Maxfield
2 Charles Plumley
3 Kevin Middleton
12 Paul Sheard

The second race was started in light drizzle with the grid determined by the result from the first race with the positions reversed; therefore, James was on the front row with Paul on the back row.

When the lights went out disaster struck for James who was clipped by another car and causing him to spin on the approach to Copse damage was sustained and he limped round to the pit lane and took no further part in the race.

Tom was again away quickly and started to move through the field unfortunately Paul could not keep up with him in the wet conditions and finished the lap in seventh position almost six seconds behind leader Charles Plumley with Jonathan Blake in close attendance with Tom in third.

On lap two Jonathan Blake took the lead and held onto the lead into lap four when Tom Roche passed him to take the lead with Paul having now mad it up to fourth position almost nine seconds off the pace.

Paul battled on and as the circuit began to dry put in his fastest race lap on lap 6 but was unable to make any impression on the leading three drivers.

At the finish it was Tom Roche followed by Charles Plumley and Jonathan Blake with Paul a distant fourth...

Result

1 Tom Roche 10:01.892 Average speed 68.62 mph
2 Charles Plumley 10:05.279 Average speed 68.23 mph
3 Jonathan Blake 10:05.551 Average speed 68.20 mph
4 Paul Sheard 10:12.716 Average speed 67.40 mph
DNF James Maxfield

Fastest lap: Tom Roche 1:23.620 Average speed 70.56 mph

The damage to James Maxfield car should not stop him competing in the next round of the Max5 Championship at Croft over the weekend of 30/31 August.