MOTORSPORT In his sole race outing of the year, Guy Woodward began and ended his season on a high with a strong second-place finish in the Special GT race at Castle Combe Circuit's final meeting of 2009 last Saturday.

The retired Bath solicitor was making his debut in a Jade 3, previously raced by former Combe GT champion, Shane Marshall and, despite minimal running, qualified the 3.5-litre machine third fastest overall and first in class.

An eventful race, with an early safety car period, saw Woodward drop to fourth before pushing strongly at the end to come within a second of race winner Simon Norris from Melksham, whose four-wheel drive Mitsubishi Evo revelled in the damp conditions.

Trowbridge's Mark Funnell had an outside possibility of claiming his first outright championship title in the same race, helping his cause by qualifying his class C Lotus Exige on outright pole position. Had it stayed as wet as it was in qualifying, Funnell would have had a better chance but in the drying conditions Norris took the class victory with Funnell second, giving him the runners-up position in the overall title battle.

Norris also took a clear win in part one of the circuit's first Saloon Car Challenge, the results of which dictated the handicapped grid for the final. Radstock's Julian Howell and Chilcompton's Mike Edgell lost out to the drying track after impressive qualifying performance had put their Minis fifth and seventh on the grid in the wet conditions.

The circuit's 2009 Saloon Car champion elect, Jason Cooper from Yatton Keynell, performed another of his giant killing acts with a tremendous drive in the final saloon round of the season.

Having qualified sixth fastest, Cooper fitted new tyres for the race, only to discover they fouled the Fiesta's bodywork as he drove to the dummy grid. His team quickly fitted spacers to provide some clearance but were too late to make the grid, forcing Cooper to start from the pit lane.

With his trademark, on-the-limit car control, Cooper was already in the top 10 by lap six, continuing to wipe the floor with his more powerfully equipped rivals.

Within a lap, Cooper had joined in the battle of the class C rivals, Will Di Claudio from Chippenham and Yate's Nick Charles, passing both of them after a neck and neck battle into Camp on the final tour. The trio eventually placed fourth, fifth and sixth overall.

Cooper's class win was a massive walkover, finishing more than a lap ahead of his closest rival. Bristol's Mark Wyatt took his first class B win of the year in the Astra.

Having started the season on pole position, Castle Combe's Andy Jones ended the year on a high with the most dominant win seen in the Formula Ford 1600 Championship this year.

Again starting from pole, Jones steered his Ray GRS07 through the wet to take an unchallenged victory, though second-placed Marcus Allen would have been particularly troublesome had he not started from the back of the grid in 29th place.

Allen's tremendous drive was to the detriment of Bridgwater's Felix Fisher and Saltford's Steven Jensen. The latter, in the Swift SC09, had qualified second, holding that place for the first six-and-a-half laps until Allen charged through. Fisher, who had qualified third, was next, taking Jensen on lap 10 for the final podium position.

Jones took another dominant win in the damp first heat of the Wiltshire College Formula Ford Carnival, Bradford on Avon's Ed Moore some eight seconds behind in second and Jensen right on his tail for third.

Moore and Jensen were eliminated in the first lap of the final, though, after Bradford on Avon's David Vivian instigated a pile-up at Camp corner.

The restarted race saw Vivian's Wiltshire College team-mate and 2010 FF1600 champion elect, Ben Norton, come through from sixth to take the win from Vivian on the road.

Vivian was later excluded for causing the pile-up, promoting Bath's Chris Acton to third, his best result of the year in his Ray GRS08. Jones took fifth, his Ray not quite so competitive in the dry conditions.

The damage Jensen's car sustained in the crash has hit his hopes of competing in the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone. He had been boosted by fresh financial support from Bath PerformanceCars.co.uk in the build-up to the race.