Longleat 2006

Despite the prior threat of severe weather, Longleat 2006 turned out to be dry and sunny and was, as ever, an extremely enjoyable event. Five Davrians (Steve Alecock, Graham Cashmore, Mark Chater, Neville Cheeseman and John Rawlins) and a Darrian (Phil Gale) fought for the honours, with the Davrian Handicap Challenge finally going to John Rawlins, the only NDR competitor to improve on his bogey time (by a mere 0.02 seconds). Steve Alecock was the winner of the ‘up to 1400cc modified production car’ class.

Unfortunately, both Neville Cheeseman, who had brought his Mk7 out of retirement for the first time since 2004, and Mark Chater suffered a variety of problems with their cars,: Mark was forced to retire his Mk7a immediately following practice, but Neville soldered on making steady improvements to the running of his ex-Pat Longhurst Car, although he was never able to find his legendary pace.

During the lunchtime line-up, Graham Cashmore won the Adrian Evans Memorial Cup for ‘Best Davrian’ (for the third time)and John Rawlins received the runner-up award for ‘Best NDR Car’.

PHOTOS

1. The lunchtime lineup (Robert Harrison talking to Graham Cashmore) : The eight cars from front to back are:
   Mk6          (SteveAlecock)
   Mk6          (Graham Cashmore)
   Mk7          (Neville Cheeseman)
   Mk8          (John Rawlins)
   Mk7a        (Mark Chater)
   Darrian T9 (Phil Gale)
   Mk1          (Robert Harrison)
   Mk8          (Robin Cheeseman)

   NB. Keith Briggs also brought his Mk6 but too late for the photocall

2. Graham Cashmore receives the Adrian Evans’ Memorial Cup for ‘Best Davrian’

3. Neville Cheeseman leads John Rawlins and Steve Alecock to the start-line.

All photos by Martyn Morgan Jones

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