With the programme running late, and the three-hour race likely to be foreshortened by around 10 minutes, there was no messing around as the grid formed up, did its pace lap, and was on its way. Onslow-Cole took the Strata21 Aston into an immediate lead, while Javier Morcillo searched for a gap down the inside as the pack rounded Paddock, and the Mosler was second as they climbed up to Druids. These two both pulled away from the rest, with Paul Bailey's Aston holding back a snarling duo of Lee Mowle (BMW Z4) and David Ashburn (Porsche 997 RSR), followed by Rob Smith in the little Praga. Fast starters, and making up ground, were Martin Byford in the BPM Megane, Tommy Field's Chevron, and Lawrence Tomlinson, making short work of the middle order after starting near the back in the Team LNT Ginetta G55.
Lap five saw a dramatic clash at Clearways -- Witt Gamski's Ferrari 430 had spun in the fraught midfield, and was collected by Anthony Reid's Chevron, the little yellow car being launched, and a following Flick Haigh taking swift avoiding action. Heavy damage to both cars, and the track strewn with debris as well as the two cars at awkward angles, signalled the deployment of the Safety Car. Taking the opportunity to pit at this early stage were Tommy Field, who's Chevron had started to lose pace, and Tom Webb, in the GTS BMW GTR -- too early for fuel, surely, but team boss Tom Shephard later confided that they dispensed 17 valuable litres of Sunoco at that opportune moment.
With the rescue and clear-up marshals performing their tasks around the stricken cars, and with a red flag possibly being an unpopular move owing to the existing time constraints, the Safety Car held the field stationary for a few minutes as a safe path was cleared. Field did an exploratory lap, but returned to the pits, and the Tracktorque Chevron was pushed away, a broken piston being cited for the failure.
Once the caution was lifted, Onslow-Cole and Morcillo began to pull away from the pack again, and the Bailey/Mowle/Ashburn trinity became a quartet as Mike Millard's Rapier SR2 joined in. Colin White was now getting used to the Dunlop rubber on his Ginetta G55, and relieved Martin Byford of 10th place before slowing dramatically, and making a pit call. Another in trouble was Millard, the Rapier audibly misfiring badly along the Cooper Straight. Millard snaked through the Indy loop, and made a smoky entrance to the pitlane, where the car was engulfed in flames that were rapidly extinguished by the marshals and pit crews."
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