On a wet and miserable Saturday the Chelmsford based CM Motorsport team travelled west to the high speed Castle Combe circuit in Wiltshire to contest the sixth round of the Julius Thurgood Historic Saloon Car Championship.
With various modifications to both the engine and chassis the team were looking to improve on their second place at Chadwell Park but they were aware that this would not be an easy task against bigger engine capacities that had been put into the same class for this particular meeting.
Undeterred by the class structuring the CM Motorsport Anglia 105E set a blistering qualifying time to get within half a second of the existing lap record on a drying circuit.
Starting from a remarkable 10th place overall on a full capacity grid, for the second race in succession Wood found himself blocked in the pack by a Ford Mustang and a Jaguar on the run down to the first corner, allowing his class opposition to get by.
With this put behind him Wood set about catching the leaders by eventually passing the Mustang with a brave attack under braking going into Tower Corner on the third lap.
With a six second deficit to his nearest rival Neil got into his consistent smooth rhythm, not only catching but passing another Anglia setting a new lap record in the process.
His next target after seven laps was his closest class arch rival from the previous two rounds. Lap after lap Wood closed the gap to the 140bhp Mini Cooper 'S' to just under half a second as they both passed the chequered flag.
"Fourth in class and ninth overall was not as good a result as the previous round but braking the lap record is a remarkable achievement," said team member Glenn Imber.
Published Thursday August 22, 2002
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