Castle Combe’s Midsummer Welcome for CALM All Porsche Trophy

An invitation to race at the popular and well-supported Castle Combe Midsummer Mania Raceday was an unexpected treat for the CALM All Porsche Trophy (CAP), the teams receiving a great welcome on the series’ first ever visit to the fast, flowing and scenic Wiltshire circuit.

There was just one newcomer to the CAP ranks, Jon Coomber in his recently acquired Boxster joining the regular teams and drivers.

Quickest in Qualifying was Christian Walker’s Cayman, comfortably ahead of Colin Tester’s similar car, with the next 2 rows consisting of the closely matched Boxsters of Jon Walker, Will Curtler, Jason Pelosi and Michael Goodwin who was the sole driver of the car usually shared with brother Garry.The James/Nick Carey 968 was the only SP3 car to complete Qualifying after fellow SP3 runner Steve Lloyd had to qualify in another session after a Scrutineering issue. Quickest SP4 entry was the Chris Valentine 924, shared with “ringer” David Hornsey, a second clear of series returnee Karl Rossin in his extensively-developed car and the Aiden/Andrew Crockett 924.

Race 1

Before the race, the traditional “Class of 26” photo shoot took place on the grid with all the drivers and team members present for a group photo, followed by a well-supported grid walk that saw massive interest in the CAP cars and drivers from the enthusiastic crowd.

The two Caymans of Christian Walker and Colin Tester broke away from the field on the first lap, and were soon established in P1 and 2, maintaining the positions at the head of the field and lapping swiftly and smoothly. All the action was a few seconds behind with a group of five Boxsters fractionally apart and continuously swapping places – Jon Walker, Will Curtler, Jamie McHugh, Jason Pelosi and Michael Goodwin with Rich Gravestock’s Cayman close behind. Michael dropped back from this battle after a spin at Camp Corner from which he was able restart without any damage. Not so lucky was new boy Jon Coomber who was caught out at the same corner by a damp track after a mid-race shower. His impact with the barriers brought out the red flag and the end to his CAP debut. At this point Karl Rossin was well ahead in the SP4 battle with a closely matched Aiden Crockett and Chris Valentine having their own spectacular battle for the remaining SP4 podium places, including a heart stopping moment while the battling duo were lapped by the Boxster group.

After a short delay, the race was restarted as a 5 minute sprint, with a similar pattern to the first half as Christian Walker broke away from Colin Tester’s Cayman and the close battle resumed between the Walker/Curtler/McHugh and Pelosi Boxsters, the quartet finishing in this order, and being joined by Rich Gravestock in his Cayman with the spectacular James Carey flying in the family 968 to SP3 class honours next up. Steve Lloyd started from the back and was unable to threaten James after being caught up in traffic, but duly took SP3 second place.The SP4 class saw a comfortable win for Karl Rossin with P2 going to Aiden Crockett after a race long duel with Chris Valentine.

Race 2

Our second race of the day was shortened to just 15 minutes after incidents in other races caused the timetable to slip, and there were a couple of non-starters with Michael Goodwin’s Boxster sidelined with a wheel bearing failure (the probable cause of his race 1 spin), and Andrew Crockett’s 924 being pushed off the grid with a broken drive shaft. It was Nick Carey’s turn in the shared 968, and David Hornsey in Chris Valentine’s car set himself the task of breaking the longstanding 924 lap record, set by Pip Hammond, dating back to 2016.

The front of the field took on a familiar shape as the Cayman duo of Christian Walker and Colin Tester drove away from the field. Colin led off the line, but Christian was ahead by the second lap and never lost the lead, taking a comfortable win.

This time the multi-Boxster battle for 3^rd overall and SP2 class victory was won by Will Curtler. For the first 6 laps it was a repeat of Race 1, with a tight 4-car bunch, but an incident for Jon Walker saw him lose several places on lap 7, and Curtler establishing an ever-increasing gap over Jamie McHugh, Jason Pelosi and Rich Gravestock, who remained close together for the rest of the race. Jon Walker started a recovery drive, but his race ended with another incident on the last lap.

The SP3 class featured a close battle between Nick Carey and Steve Lloyd after Steve cleared slower traffic early in the race and closed the gap. After a few laps they caught Martin Mason’s red Boxster, but after an entertaining 3-way tussle, Nick retired his 968 after an off and Martin pipped Steve to the line by a tenth of a second.

Karl Rossin made a flying start in SP4, but retired his 924 after 2 laps with ominous noises from his newly built engine, leaving David Hornsey as the only class finisher, duly achieving his lap record objective on lap 5, besting the previous record by over a second.

In a novel twist, there was a special award for the Un-driver of the day...this going to series regular Johnny Lovell who wasn’t racing, but who’s initiative was the catalyst for CAP to be invited to this atmospheric and friendly circuit for a race day that was enjoyed by all.

We feature heavily in Castle Combe Racing Club's video of the event:

Our next outing, a single 40-minute race at Thruxton, will be on Saturday, September 26th.