The opening CSCC Special Saloon and Modsport round at Silverstone saw 2 superb races and the series at its best with exciting cars and great racing through the field. After a week of unsettled weather we were blessed with sunshine for race one.

In qualifying the top six were only seperated by 3 seconds and headed by the Peugeot 309 of brothers Danny Morris and Ricky Parker-Morris. Steven Moss` Anglia was second fastest ahead of Wayne Crabtree ( Escort )  , class C ploe man Paul Sibley`s Elan was 4th from class rival Chris Southcott in the newly relivered Midget. Tony Ellis in the deceptively fast Mazda RX7 completed this fastest group.

18 cars should have started but 11th quaifier Terry Nicholls` Castrol Supra was a DNS with plug issues. The CSCC were delighted that legendary driver Tony Sugden was in the Pace car to get the grid off to a rolling start. Ricky Parker-Morris lead a 4-car train over the line after lap 1 covered by less than one second with Crabtree,Moss and Southcott in this gaggle. These fastest cars hitting speeds up to 140 mph down the pit straight. The 4 continuned to put on a great display changing positions for 5 laps but only covered within a second of each other throughout. Crabtree had got ahead by lap 6 until Morris took him at the right hander at Maggotts onto the return straight called Brooklands. Just as the Peugeot was about to lap the 2 back-markers and at a speed of 88mph suddenly the car`s right front centre-lock wheel broke free , actually bouncing on the car`s roof before rolling safely off onto the grass without causing any damage. Morris did well in bringing his car to a halt having lost his brakes too , waiting for the space to his left off track to rotate the car to a halt. The 3 drivers behind had all kept their cool and nipped past the stricken Peugeot. Thankfully incidents like this have been very rare in the series and the Peugeot itself was relatively undamaged from its 3-wheeling experience.

Steven Moss thereafter took the lead and held a slight advantage for the rest of the race over Crabtree. Moss was delighted to take his second ever series win after that first one in the last round of the previous season , managing his tires well to the end. Southcott had to pit on lap 7 thus elevating the dueling pair of Paul Sibley ( Elan ) and Tony Ellis ( RX7 ) to eventually finish 3rd and 4th in that order. Sibley winning class C in the process.

Series debutant Craig Percy was enjoying a trouble-free race in the ex-Chris Isaac Morris Minor-Chevy V8 , a car that epitomises the spirit of special saloons and took 5th in this and race 2. Sixth was Tony Paxman who took class D from Tim Cairns`Midget , the 2 class rivals having been only around a second apart throughout the entire race. 8th was the gorgeously rumbling Capri V8 who took second in class C from Lee Jones` Mini , the latter having lost his 11-second advantage and finished the race with only 4th gear. Neil Duke`s Anglia completed the top 10. Kevin Cooper was the only Class E runner and took 11th.

The other series debutant was Dan Minton in the family`s well known mark2 Escort RS. The team had been able to record a qualifying time , getting the beautifully restored car out later in another series` qualifying session and had to start last. Storming from 17th through to 5th by the final lap only to run out of fuel at the last corner in which was a real shame for the team.

Fastest lap of the race was set by Wayne Crabtree at 61.46 seconds. Superb stuff.