Race 4 saw the return of the Gold Arts Magnificent 7s for their second 20 minute blast around the home of British motorsport. Of the 17 qualifiers, only 13 were seen on the second race for the Magnificent 7s, the absences being the three retirees of the first race, but also Johnny Pittard’s duelling partner up front Luke Stephens was nowhere to be found, which was a shame as a resumption of the lead battle would have been amazing to see. The three retired cars from race one, we can understand, but the reason for Stevens no reappearing was somewhat unusual. No damage to the car, no electrical fault of any kind, he had found a buyer for the car. The days racing was being used to demonstrate how competitive the car still was, and the tactic worked a treat. Whether the sale was completed trackside, only Luke knows.
The grid was formed from the finishing positions of the previous race, with a 10-place grid penalty for Pittard as the winner of the race, and with Stevens’ absence, Richard Carter had the front row to himself. Having had a comparatively lonely race 1st time around, Carter could well have faced a more challenging prospect this time.
As the yellow number 42 of Carter led the field over the line, this time the safety car would not be called up as the field swarmed through the first lap without incident, Pittard with his 2.4 litre supercharged monster was 2.5 seconds into the lead from 11th on the grid by the end of lap 1, and there he remained unchallenged until the flag, but behind him, the battles raged on. Bruce Wilson and Chris Mayhew resumed their duel from the first race, with the trio of Joshua Gollin, the Lanyon brothers and Jolyon Kemp reforming their conga line. Wilson and Mayhew swapped their positions several times in the quest for 4th, but a mistake from Kemp on lap 4 saw his conga spot taken by Johnathan Constable.
By the final flag, Pittard had secured both wins of the day, the second by over 30 seconds from Carter, who was nearly 14 seconds ahead of another superb (if a little lonely) outing by Johnathan Edwards, Wilson just managed to fend off the determined newcomer Mayhew, Lanyon was the conga champion in 6th place from Constable and Ben Salmon, Gollin had made a late mistake dropping him to 9th, with the Martin Dolan & Gary Boon car, Surheed Chatterjee and Stephen Trinder finishing a lap behind.
