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August 19/20 SILVERSTONE (Page 2)

The car was fine after qualifying and needed minimum maintenance in preparation for the race tomorrow.

Sunday, weatherwise, was similar to yesterday. The race today had been extended to thirty minutes from the normal twenty. Oulton Park, at the beginning of the season, was the only other time that this had been tried when the attrition rate for the cars had been high. Nevertheless, on that occasion, both of the Synchro Civics finished.

The race started at 12:16. Kevin made a reasonable start and by the end of the first lap was up to twelfth place as two drivers, Desmond Smail and Tom Ferrier, had already retired from the race. The race became slightly processional, as the two Peugeots had opened up a gap at the front with Matt Kelly trying to hang on to them in third place. Kevin drove steadily and with cars dropping out and mistakes being made by other drivers, he found himself back up to eighth place. It was a position he was to hold comfortably. Toward the end of the race he started to gain on seventh place man, Richard Meins in the GR prepared Ford Focus. Although never in a challenging position, he did manage to get the gap down to 3.7 seconds at the end of the eighteenth lap.

For the first time for three meetings, a safety car was not needed. And another first was, what looked like, blatant use of team tactics. Dan Eaves, who had dominated the race in his Peugeot right up to the last corner, pulled over to let team mate Toni Ruokonen through in, what can only be described, as a desperate bid by Peugeot to clinch this year's championship.

The eight points that Kevin picked up for today's effort moved him up to an excellent seventh place in the championship. If he can continue to drive as consistently as he is at the moment, and with that important dose of luck, he will hopefully maintain this fine position.

The next round of the championships is at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend of September 2/3. Dave Allan will be back and it will be good to see both Civics in action again, as it looked a little empty with just one Synchro car in the race.