Click to go the page you require: 1 3 Result Images

May 20/21 SILVERSTONE (Page 2)

Dave Allan was present for the morning session before he had to leave for Japan and he managed, in slightly damp conditions, to put the car in seventh position of the eighteen cars that were testing. However, the gremlins struck when Bill took the car out for the first time. The gearbox stuck in fifth gear before Bill had driven any real laps. Fortunately there was an afternoon session and, one gearbox removal later where the selector mechanism had to be replaced, Bill made his first real appearance in the Civic. Taking it steady and feeling the car in, Bill was able to put in a number of reasonable laps in preparation for tomorrow's qualifying session.

Saturday started warm at sunny at the Silverstone circuit. By the time the qualifying was due to start the sun had gone in, but the weather remained dry.

Both Kevin and Bill made quiet starts. Gradually their times started to come down when disaster struck for Kevin. He had started to push on with the car, when at Copse Corner, the back end of the car slid round and he found himself firmly implanted in the gravel and his session was over. Bill, who had got to within one-tenth of a second of Kevin's time, then had to ease off for a couple of laps whilst the marshalls removed Kevin's car from the gravel. Unfortunately Bill was not able to get the car to go any quicker. Kevin and Bill had qualified in fourteenth and fifteenth place respectively of the twenty drivers that were contesting this round.

Bill had reported that his Civic had started to misfire toward the end of the session. The fuel system was checked and cleaned and seemed to be fine for the race, although nothing amiss had been found. A new wing mirror was also fitted to Bill's car after he had 'collected' a bollard on the back part of the circuit.