The ASM organised the last events of Autocross and Motocross races before the Easter festive season. A Demolition for small cars concluded the day’s programme .
Patrick Cassar on his Opel Corsa won all the three qualifying heats and the prestigious Class A finals though driving in a counter-clockwise direction on the ASM tracks is not his favourite.
The start line grid of this Class A Autocross nine laps race which covers almost 10 km distance was as follows:- 1st placed was Vince Farrugia on a VW Polo, next to him was Christian Calleja on an Opel, Melo Zammit on an Escort lll, Cassar Patrick on his Opel, next to him was Christian Galea on his Ritmo and Josef Abela on an Opel Nova.
Cassar and Galea drew the attention of all present while on the start-line. Both took the lead ahead of the rest but Cassar manage to gain a very small advantage over Galea for all of the nine laps and gained a larger gap over the other competitors in this race.
Cassar had lots of pressure from Galea’s Ritmo who also managed to drive side by side but Cassar was driving on the best side of the racing line on track. Both drivers drove very close to each other right to the Finish Flag but Cassar was determined to win this race to narrow the championship points gap to Galea. Both drivers showed all excellence in Autocross high speed circuit driving.
Cassar and Galea were followed by Zammit and Calleja while Calleja lost his place to Farrugia’s VW Polo during the third Lap. Calleja also lost a position to a foul placing from Josef Abela who was warned for his un-sporty deed which also cost Abela three penalty points.
The Class B finalists were Keith Borg on a Nova, Matthew Agius on a Fiesta, Guzi Pace on an Escort, Mario Scicluna on an Opel and Philip Grima on an Escort Mk.lll.
Scicluna and Borg had a very good start. So did Guzi Pace but in the first right hander he lost control of his rear end of the Escort and slightly obstructed Matthew Borg and Agius from progressing on.
Scicluna and Keith Borg progressed on while Grima followed in third place a placing he held to the 5th Lap when he was forced to retire due to an engine failure. Matthew Borg, from sixth place manage to overcome Agius and Pace and advanced behind his cousin Keith who finished in second place behind Scicluna’s Opel Corsa.
Clayton Camilleri on his KTM 250cc won all the three races of the Class A Motocross. Carmel Borg placed second to Clayton in all the races on his Suzuki RMZ. Paul Muscat made pressure to the leaders but he placed close by too in third overall on his KTM bike. Stefan Dimech placed fourth overall also in Class A.
James Zahra also won the three heats of Class B. He was followed by Gozo rider Joseph Bigeni and Charles Borg who finished the three heats with one point ahead of Turu Micallef.
Though Turu made a good start in the second heat ahead of Zahra and Borg, he had pressure from Bigeni who passed him right on a few metres before the finish flag. After the third race, Zahra finished first overall, and Bigeni and Borg finished in second and third overall respectively.
After all Autocross and Motocross races were completed the Mini Car demolition proceeded. Unfortunately some things went wrong with a number of competitors and only five cars made it to the ring. Yet, it was a great race and a great show to watch by all present.
All cars suffered much punishment during the over 15 minutes race. The race went on between a Skoda and a Mazda driven by father Francis and son Leo Butler whose car seemed to be a little better than his father’s car though he even broke his steering wheel control. Leo showed superior driving and was declared winner on this car Demolition race.
Another Big Car Demolition is scheduled to be run on 30 June during a Saturday Night special event.
Next Autocross (13th event) and the 6th event for the Motocross will be held on Sunday 15 April from 11am.