[GCCheddaris]

Finally Special Saloons were a standing dish at Thruxton in the 1970s and this meeting had two races, split at 1000 cc. The first race for cars up to 1000 cc saw a trio of Imps battle for the lead and the first picture shows eventual winner Jeff Ward leading Pat Mannion and Brian Prebble. The next two pictures show the battle for fourth and the honour of first Mini with Mike Curnow (60) in a 1000 cc car scrapping with Roger Saunders (72) and Reg Ward, both in 850 cc Minis. Unfortunately it came to a head on the last lap with the three colliding with only Ward finishing.

The over 1000 cc race saw Nick Whiting lead the first lap before spinning off on the second lap. However Whiting fought back to retake the lead and win. The first picture shows Tony Hazlewood's mighty leading Jaguar XJ8 with Whiting's Escort lurking in the background, then Tony Sugden's Escort leads the first three in the 1300 class, Graham Goode (Escort), Peter Baldwin (Mini) and Phil Winter (Mini). Finally, Chris Sims and his Vauxhall Magnum visits his 'local' circuit, a mere 370 mile round trip to his home in Newquay.