The weather started dry and bright, with some pleasant sunshine, but the weather forecast was that there would be cloud and rain by lunchtime. Right on cue, at around midday, the rain started and didn't let up for the rest of the day. Organisers and marshals were struggling valiantly with a series of problems which were only made worse by the inclement weather. The net result was that proceedings slowed so much that in due consideration of the marshals and the catering team the lunch break had to be taken before second practice had finished. By this time it was clear to the organisers that it would only be possible for competitors to have one timed run in the afternoon if the British Sprint Championship run-off was going be completed before the curfew time of 6 o'clock. As news of this decision spread around the paddock, many competitors (around a fifth of them), faced with the prospect of a long wait for a single timed run in the pouring rain, decided that discretion was the better part of valour and called it a day (hence the large number of DNS entries in the results).
Although it was a disappointing outcome to the day, pretty well everyone had at least one dry run in the morning, and based on this experience there was widespread approval of the 1 3/4 lap format. The organising team should take encouragement from this and persevere with the format for a faultless event next year. AH
Results
GW-Sprint logo by Iain Smyth at www.design-line.org
