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The Masters Series and XK Challenge at Brands Hatch - 24th May 2008 - the XK ChallengeEvent Report by John Davies Roberts  Continuing winning ways against stiff opposition and winning 3rd in Class and 5th overall in the raceThe Bank Holiday weekend started on Friday when we went to Brands Hatch to Test the XK in preparation for the latest round of the XK Challenge. Friday went swimmingly and the car performed well after the successes achieved at Donington Park in early May and Snetterton in March. Our best lap time on this tight Indy Circuit was a 1 minute 02.8 second lap; the engine didn’t miss a beat and we are hoping that the time-related misfire is now a thing of the past. On Saturday we were the first race of the day and I signed on at 7 am (I don’t do mornings!!) and had the car through Scrutineering by 07:30 hrs. Then it was final race preparing for Qualifying at 09:00. The new Marquee was erected for the first time this season, adorned with the brand new MWS Banner Ad and new Brochure-ware complete with Business Cards, as can be seen in the photos in this Race Report. Qualifying went really well, with me taking the first half and my race partner Chris Keith-Lucas taking over for the second half. We achieved a Lap Time of 1 Min 01.8 Sec lap time, a second faster than Friday’s lap times. This gave us 8th position in the race and 5th in Class. With the sun shining and 22 degrees of heat we assembled on the grid after the formation lap. The Red Lights went out and off we went heading towards Paddock Hill Bend jostling for position. I had a ding dong battle with John Burton in his XK120 Fixed Head for many laps until he came in for his mandatory Pit Stop of one minute. This gave me the opportunity to do a really fast lap before my change-over. I came in on the next lap for CKL to take over. I must say that our change over of drivers is becoming very slick and CKL had to wait for Claire Tippett from The Masters who was timing us, to give Chris the all-clear for the one minute before he buried the throttle for his stint at the wheel. Chris had another battle royal holding off Messrs, Burton, David Hall and Dick Skipworth in his Class ‘D’ XK120. He did a grand job in making the XK150 as wide as possible, going into the corners and we came home a creditable 5th place overall in the race and 3rd in Class ‘C’. So yet again, we came home with another trophy and hopefully more points in the championship fight. This was even more rewarding as we were holding off drivers who were beating us last year. So, well done to us and well done to the car, its reliability and turn of speed, which has certainly improved over last year. Thanks Chris!! We will be racing with The Masters at Spa-Francorchamps at the Spa Summer Classic on the 12th, 13th & 14th June in the one hour 2 Driver Endurance Race. Hope to see you at either or both?! John D R. Action shot courtesy of Roger Gage, official Jaguar Enthusiasts` Club photographer For more XK Jaguar Racing photos visit his web site at www.xkjaguar.co.uk Our thanks to MotorSport Vision for permission to film at Brands Hatch |
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