THE Wiscombe Park audience were denied the prospect of season-long adversaries Rod Thorne and Terry Graves going head-to-head in a battle for victory when the former’s Pilbeam MP58 suffered transmission failure as the car was leaving the start-line.

Thorne, of Frampton , was quickly offered a drive in the up to 1100cc racing car class behind the wheel of the Alfa Dana owned by Poole driver John Forsyth.

The difference in the two machines could not have been more marked. Thorne’s usual mount, the Pilbeam, being specifically designed for speed hillclimbing and equipped with a three-and-a-half litre racing engine while the Alfa Dana has its origins back in the 1950s as a circuit racing car and is powered by a 500cc.

Despite the disparity of power and performance it did enable the garage proprietor a weekend of motorsport while Ed Hollier annihilated Graves and the rest of the opposition with his 1600cc Suzuki Hayabusa powered Pilbeam MP62.

The large capacity Sports Libre class saw Colin Pook lose the lead on the last run of the day.

The Frampton driver’s five-litre Rover V8 powered Pilbeam MP43 sports racer being beaten by Doug Bennett and his 2.3-litre turbocharged Sylva Striker.

The following day Bennett improved his time to claim another win over the MP43 but on this occasion the driver in the runner-up slot was Hayley Thorne.

Lyme Regis driver and reigning Bridge Tyres & Wheels Wiscombe Park champion Craig Moore took two victories across the weekend in his Ford Cortina GT, contesting the over 1600cc Rally car class in a bid to be the first Wiscombe champion to successfully defend his title.

This weekend sees the final events of the season at Wiscombe Park. Local riders will be well represented with Kirsty Glover contesting the 500cc class on her Yamaha SR alongside Weymouth’s Keith Haines, who will ride a 470cc KTM 450 SMR.

Haines will also be out in the 750 class on an Aprilia SXV550.

In the sidecar category, Portland duo Kev and Sara Dewell will continue their learning curve on the Windle Suzuki while Weymouth’s Tom Clifford will be busy as passenger to Jon Staden on his Jacobs Suzuki and the Suzuki Trike of Alex Warren.