Norway’s day in England

Isachsen, Bakkerud and Enerberg fastest.

The first qualifying heat has been completed with few problems. Champion Sverre Isachsen has ended the first day of the new season with fastest time among the Supercars, his fellow Norwegians Andreas Bakkerud and Lars Øivind Enerberg setting the pace in Super1600 and TouringCar respectively.

Fastest though he was, Isachsen’s race was a little of an anti-climax; the champ led from start to finish, Marc Laboulle close, but not close enough to mount a challenge and seemingly content to place second as he followed Isachsen over every inch of the race, including their last lap pass through the Joker Lap.

The penultimate race of the heat was a different and far more interesting event in which tanner Foust took a narrow win over Andréas Eriksson and Liam Doran at the end of a four lap thrash that had the crowd in its toes. Eriksson sunk down the order later when a penalty for causing a jump start was added to his time. Foust was almost certainly slowed in his pass through the Joker Lap in the last lap of the race as Timur Timerzyanov has spun his Citroën which was parked half across the track in the Joker Lap section. Mats Lysen had taken victory in the preceding race and, at the end of the day, emerged with third fastest time, ahead of Foust, Stig-Olov Walfridsson who fought back well in an early race after a slow practice session. There were several jump starts in the heat, Eriksson, Toomas Heikkinen and Wil Teurlings penalised while Michaël De Keersmaecker was excluded after twice jumping the start in his race.

Bakkerud was clearly fastest in Super1600 where home fans had plenty to cheer as Julian Godfrey placed second. There was nothing to cheer for Johan Larsson who beat Godfrey on the road, but collected a 30-second penalty for missing the Joker Lap. Godfrey’s joy, however, was short lived as his car turned out to be under weight, the team putting up its hands and admitting that it had forgotten about this year’s increased minimum weight. Vaidas Navickas was also in the penalty zone, three-seconds added to his time for a jump start.

The TouringCar boys and girl had the cleanest heat, Enerberg 0.6s faster than champion Derek Tohill and all 11 starters completing their races – although Patrick Mertens did so only with a horribly misfiring engine which expired in a huge cloud of smoke as he crossed the finish line.

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