Following on from his success at the previous rounds of the Cannons Motorspares Tin Top Championship, Nick Boon was back at the world famous Brands Hatch circuit for rounds 9 and 10 of this extremely competitive race series.
A two-day meeting was held over a gloriously sunny weekend of 12th and 13th June, with qualifying and round 9 on Saturday and round 10 on Sunday, so a busy yet reasonably relaxed weekend for the team. Practice went well for Nick, posting a time that was an improvement of half a second from his previous best at Brands. Main rival Bernie Baxter was just 0.5 of a second behind Nick's time, but some 4 places back on the grid. A new challenge in the class was the lovely Mk1 Ford Escort of Russell Turner; the powerful pinto engined machine posted a time good enough for 7th overall and 4 places ahead of Nick. This gave the team some things to ponder before the race!
With a brief from team boss, Chris Boon, to get as close as possible to the car directly ahead on the rolling start and stay to the inside into the daunting Paddock Hill bend, Nick did just that as the 29 car grid roared off on its 20 minute race. Plan A, tick.
Despite managing to do exactly what he needed to do, the jostling pack were all fighting for position and as Nick approached Surtees corner he was rudely attacked from behind by one of the Cassar brothers, this put Nick across the in field and down to 28th place. Plan B, umm!
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With what seemed like an impossible task, Nick got his head down and passed car after car, eventually closing in on Bernie Baxter, the local driver strangely off the pace, having dealt with Bernie, Nick was on a charge and was soon closing in on Turner - albeit some 10 seconds adrift. With just 2 minutes to go, Turner missed the oil flags at Paddock Hill and spun into the gravel. Although slightly fortunate to gain from his competitor's misfortune, Nick sealed another class victory and 11thoverall. His lap times were brilliant, even beating the 4 year old lap recordby half a second. Consolation for Turner was a new lap record, piping Nick's best time.
With the grid for the second race, formed from the finishing order from Saturday's results, Nick again lined up 11th, this time first in class. Turner was starting from the back - needing to "do a Boon" to catch Nick and potential class victory. Sadly, Baxter was out for this race, his Fiesta having blown a core plug and damaged the engine. No dramas at the start for Nick, this time around, although the fast starting Jaguar of Ken Angel managed to delay Nick for a few laps by some careful defensive driving! All eyes were on Turner as he scythed his way through the field; with half the 20 minutes completed he was right on the Supercarhub driver's boot lid. Five laps of pressure and Turner was through, the more powerful machine able to out-drag Nick on the back straight.
Ahead, maybe, but he was not able to pull away and Nick was harrying his every move. Over the start line with just a few minutes to go and Turner seemed to miss a gear and the revs were heard to rise - next time around and the engine sounded less than sweet. Nick was attached to the Escort bumper going into Paddock and on the run up to Druids; he was through into the class lead and into 10th overall. To demonstrate his pace, Nick even chased down Cassar, the villain from the first race, to hassle the bigger engine car right to the flag.
The smiling Supercarhub.com driver commented "When I was punted off I thought that was it for me for the weekend, but luck was on my side and the car was not damaged, so I just got my head down and drove as fast and as smoothly as I could. To come out of the weekend with two wins and an extended class lead in the championship is more than I expected, but I am not complaining".
The next Cannons Tin Tops event which Nick will be competing in is on 27th June at Lydden Hill in Kent. Look out for the in-car video footage from the Brands Races which we will post up via the Supercar