MOTOR RACING: THE 500th running of a Formula Ford race at Castle Combe on Saturday saw the current lap record holder for the category take an historic victory.

Matt Rivett, who also heads the circuit's Melton Concrete Products Formula Ford championship, led from flag to flag at the Classic Raceday.

But Calne-based Rivett did not have it all his own way, having been beaten to pole position by former champion, Kevin Mills from Gloucester, the eponymous team owner getting back behind the wheel in an attempt to win this history making event.

Making Rivett's life easier though were the problems befalling his arch rival from Bradford on Avon, another former champion, Ed Moore, arguably the country's most successful current Formula Ford 1600 driver.

Moore qualified in a lowly 16th place after an electrical problem caused by a misfire, which contributed to an off in the morning's session, giving him much to do in the race.

Once past the first corner at Quarry, Rivett's more modern Ray GR97 was more than a match for the older Swift SC92 of Mills whose lack of recent race experience was destined to be a factor.

It was race fitness therefore, rather than lack of pace, which was the likely explanation for the 4.5 second gap between the two at the finish. The consolation for Mills was a class win.

Pat Blakeney, retained his third place from qualifying, with Bratton's Ben Norton fourth and Moore fighting through to fifth and second in class.

One of the star drives came from Nelson Rowe, from Wotton under Edge, in his 1971 Crossle 20F, who finished seventh overall and won the Pre '90 section, beating Trowbridge's Stephen Gibbins, who was second in his Van Diemen RF88.

Rowe was again a star in the HSCC's Historic Formula Ford Championship race, for which his car is a little more suited. Nevertheless, a close second place and fastest lap was as much as Rowe could hope for after a phenomenal battle with eventual winner, Neil Fowler, in a Lola T200.

Cirencester's Westie Mitchell took a closely fought third place, having spent most of the race dicing with eventual fourth placed man David Wild.

Atworth's Rob Ballard put his new Mitsubishi EVO 7 RS on pole position for the National Mobile Windscreens Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship race and promptly drove off into the distance.

His powerful new car annihilated its opposition, including the Impreza of Weston-super-Mare's Steve Turvey in second and Gary Prebble's Rover Turbo in third.

Erstwhile championship leader Tony Hutchings, from Calne, made life difficult for himself with an off in qualifying with his MG ZR, putting him back to 23rd on the grid and fifth in class. His charge through the field ended with gear linkage failure.

Bath's Guy Woodward had the luxury of a more powerful, 500 bhp Jade Trackstar for the savesometax.co.uk Special GT championship race.

Unsurprisingly, the experienced sports car driver took an easy pole position and was hardly challenged in the race, save for a token effort at Quarry on the opening lap by champion Louis Davidson.

The latter took an impressive second overall and class win, defeating many more powerful rivals, including the Nemesis RME02 of Bristol's Tony Michael, with whom he fought tremendously hard throughout the race, part of which was run under a safety car, after a heavy accident at Camp, when Nick Williamson lost control of his Escort Cosworth.

Winning class C with another classic performance was Trowbridge's Mark Funnell, bringing his road going Lotus Exige to sixth overall.

Dursley's Matthew Watts took the win in the HSCC Classic Racing Car Championship race with his Brabham BT16.