Two second places for Paul Sheard at Pembrey

Bob Marsh - Last modified: 25th Sep 2008

The penultimate meeting of the 2008 Max5 Championship season started with championship leaders Tom Roche and Paul Sheard in equal first place. There were two championship races together with a third non championship race which took place late Saturday afternoon.

After a week of really bad weather conditions both days proved to be ideal racing conditions.

Qualifying: Conditions Dry

The two championship leaders were both determined to be on pole position for the race with Tom just getting there by less than 0.2 seconds over Paul with Joachim Ritter getting third on the grid.

These times would not only give the grid positions for the first championship race but also the additional non championship race.

Race 1 Conditions: Dry

Grid:

1 Tom Roche 1:11.161 73.65 mph
2 Paul Sheard 1:11.338 73.47 mph
3 Joachim Ritter 1:11.346 73.46 mph

Nine cars took to the grid for what was arguably one of the closest races of the whole season.

For the first three laps the front two rows of the grid held its position behind Tom Roche who was unable to take any real advantage of his pole position.

By lap 5 Paul Sheard had taken the lead but was soon overtaken by Tom and on lap six Joachim Ritter moved ahead of Paul into second place and set about catching and passing Tom.

At the end of lap 7 less than four seconds separated first from eighth position and by lap ten Joachim was leading and the gap was now less than a second between first and fifth.

As the final few laps unwound Joachim retained his lead with Jonathan Halliwell grabbing a well deserved third place and also taking the fastest lap.

Joachim Ritter gaining his first race win in an MX5 with Paul in forth place.


Result Race 1 (Non championship)

1 Joachim Ritter 16:54.695 72.31 mph
2 Tom Roche 16:55.398 72.26 mph
3 Jonathan Halliwell 16:55.448 72.26 mph
4 Paul Sheard 16:55.827 72.23 mph

Fastest Lap: Jonathan Halliwell 1:10.873 73.95 mph on lap 8


Race 2 (Max5 Championship)

Conditions: Dry

Grid:

1 Tom Roche 1:11.161 73.65 mph
2 Paul Sheard 1:11.338 73.47 mph
3 Joachim Ritter 1:11.346 73.46 mph

Following the excitement of the race the previous day everyone was looking forward to the first championship race of the weekend.

From the start Tom was away the quickest and the first into Hatchetts closely followed by Paul and Joachim, disaster struck lower down the field when contact between Mark Pierrpoint and Charles Plumley and Jonathan Halliwell resulted in the latter two not being able to continue due to the damage done.

The incident left the whole field strung out with Tom pulling further away from Paul as the lap unfolded.

The following pack eventually found their feet again and Joachim Ritter closed in on Paul for second place and Matt Robinson and Nick Wright were having their own battle against each other.

Tom continued to pull well away from Paul who was winning his battle with Joachim and as the final lap came to a close Tom Roche came home first with Paul and Joachim second and third respectively.

An outstanding third lap gave Nick Wright his first fastest lap of the season.

The result gave Tom a one point advantage over Paul going into the second Championship race of the weekend.



Result:

1 Tom Roche 16.45.927 72.94 mph
2 Paul Sheard 16:51.711 72.53 mph
3 Joachim Ritter 16:51.977 72.51 mph

Fastest Lap: Nick Wright 1:10.863 73.96 mph on lap 3

Race 3 (Max5 Championship)

Condition: Dry

Grid:

1 Tom Roche 1:11.179
2 Joachim Ritter 1:11.548
3 Charles Plumley 1:11.628
5 Paul Sheard 1:11.809


For the second race the grid positions were made up from the second fastest lap during qualifying on the Saturday.

After the incident in the earlier race Charles Plumley was able to rebuild the car and took his place on the grid, unfortunately Jonathan Halliwell’s car was not repairable in the four hours between the races and he could only watch from the sidelines.

From the start Tom was again away first and well clear before the rest could reach Hatchetts where again they all bunched and there was nearly contact between Matt Robinson, Charles Plumley and Joachim Ritter, this however, slowed everyone down and by the end of the lap Tom had opened up a massive three second lead over Paul Sheard.

Matt Robinson, Nick Wright and Charles Plumley made up the next three positions and were ‘nose to tail’ with neither able to gain any real advantage.

At the front Tom was dominating the race with the gap opening up further as the laps went by, the excitement was further down the field with Charles Plumley moving up into fourth place by lap six and just managing to hold onto that position to the chequered flag ahead of Nick Wright and Matt Robinson with Joachim almost catching the three of them.

Another win by Tom and fastest lap leaves him three points clear of Paul with one round to go.

Three points in one race is a lot to make up but it is not impossible but Paul has it all to do on his home circuit.



Result:

1 Tom Roche 16:47.413 72.84 mph
2 Paul Sheard 16:55.769 72.24 mph
3 Charles Plumley 17:06.538 71.48 mph

Fastest Lap: Tom Roche 1:11.121 73.69 mph on lap 2

The final and deciding round of the Max5 Championship for 2008 will be held at Oulton Park on Saturday 27 September.