And so the season begins with a dry and sunny day at Castle Combe for seven contenders of the Championship.  The morning started with all seven taking part in the practice, with six contenders being confirmed as full entries with Wynne Morgan listed on a long reserve list.  After the morning practice run, following a number of withdrawals due to mechanical failures, Wynne was fortunately enough to be given an entry, so seven Championship contenders took to the track for their timed run after lunch.

For some it was their first time at the Castle Combe as well as their first event of the season.

The day started with the Roadgoing Series Production Cars up to 1400cc, and in amongst a class of five, Martin Davies proved to be a great contender in his Ford Fiesta, achieving 2nd in class at the end of the day.

In the Roadgoing Series Production Cars 1800cc up to 2600cc, we saw 3 championship contenders battle it out in amongst a large group of 10 cars, Wynne Morgan in his Renault Williams Clio and Efion Jones and his daughter Sioned, double driving their Audi S3 Quattro.  At the end of the day Wynne finished with a 167.95, with Eifion achieving a 171.60 followed by Sioned with a 194.11.  Sioned improved on each and every run, resulting in an improvement of just over 17seconds between her practice and last timed run.

In the Rally Car class we saw Alison Lock in her 1380cc BL Mini compete against a Seat Ibiza 2lt, unfortunately Alison experienced some mechanical issued but managed to get a timed run in (198.06)

Last but not least we saw a selection of Clio’s sprinting around the track with our very own 2016 Championship Winner Andrew Bisping, amongst the mix, in his Clio 200.  Also in the class with Andrew, was a new championship contender Rob Thomson in his Renault Clio 172 Cup.  Andrew achieved a time of 163.55 with Rob finishing second in class with a 161.38