Mamba Motorsport - Castle Combe Race Report Page

LUX Traffic Systems Raceday - Castle Combe

- The Mamba C23R lives to fight another day

Author: Dave
Editor: Dave
Date: 30 August 2006

This was the inaugural visit to Castle Combe for the Mamba C23R.

Castle Combe was hosting an extensive meeting over the August Bank Holiday Weekend which featured Aston Martin Owner's Club, Classic Ferrari and the latest round of the Sports Racing and GT Challenge.

The Mamba C23R, that enduring Lotus 23 replica, came through a "war of attrition" at Castle Combe on Monday 28th of August 2006.

As usual the pre-race activities were all accomplished with metronomic reliability and were hassle free. Unfortunately qualifying was to prove more exciting!

After a 16 year absence from this circuit Ken Culverwell and the C23R were getting to grips with low flying over the bumps during practice when disaster struck.
A major off by another competitor at Bobbies, the second of the recently introduced chicanes, had laid oil & petrol all over the approach and with no waved yellows to warn the following drivers, the C23r took to the green stuff via a pot hole.
The result was a poor grid position as Ken had to abort practice, cruise round & return to the pits for a safety inspection.

A close scrutiny revealed no major problems, so a start was still on, albeit from his worst grid position of the season, 16th.

The race got off to a lively start with three cars going out courtesy of a rampant Aston Martin at Quarry on lap one.
Ken took a prudent view and stood off for a couple of laps before setting about making up for lost time.
A couple of superb overtaking moves on the entrance to Bobbies showed the braking & handling excellence of the C23R, even on this 'bumpy' circuit.
After what can only be described as a race of attrition (6 of the 30 grid forced out) Ken managed to finish 10th overall and 4th in class.

pulling clear through Bobbie's

This was the lowest finish of the season, largely down to the incident in qualifying, but in Ken's capable hands the car managed to make up 5 positions on the track in a relatively short race.
So the day did offer some rewards for the team which is now looking forward to a better result at Donington Park.