Higgins Hat Trick...

Brands Hatch, Sunday 31st July 2005

John 'Jon' Higgins rewrote the record books on Sunday taking only the second hat trick of the season and also beating Tick Steward's career race win record. JJ nothched up his 71st career win in a sensational final that saw a titanic battle between him and Chris Grieve, the pair trading places until Steve Thompson beached his car at Paddock bringing a premature end to the race. John 'Jon' dedicated his wins and record to Big John Edwards and James Wantling.

Steve Mills race ended with a bang as he was involved in an early race scuffle at Druids which saw his car launched into the air. Steve hurt his back when his car hit the ground but typically he still managed to drive the car round to the pit lane so as not to interfere with the race! After a visit to hospital it was discovered that Steve has fractured two vertebrae.

The entry comprised twenty eight cars once again with two guest drivers - former double champion Paul Hughes and Ian Court both starting off the back of the grid. Paul was 13th in his first Legends race for over six years. He backed that up with another 13th in his next race despite a huge spin at Paddock. In the shortened 28 car final Paul 16th. Ian's placings were 16th, 17th and 23rd.

Race one

1st John 'Jon' Higgins, 2nd Dave Moore, 3rd Steve Thompson, 4th Steve Mills, 5th Paul Thompson, 6th Jamie Clarke, 7th Marc Lord, 8th Dave Newsham, 9th Dan Clark, 10th Derek Pierce, 11th Glenn Burtenshaw, 12th Ian Sturt, 13th Gerard McCosh, 14th Jim Clarke, 15th Lawrence Davey, 16th Robin Webb

Race two

1st Peter Morton, 2nd Chris Grieve, 3rd Ali Topley, 4th Steve Thompson, 5th Dave Moore, 6th Derek Pierce, 7th Dave Newsham, 8th Simon Belcher, 9th Paul Thompson, 10th Richard Grindrod, 11th Gerard McCosh, 12th Malcolm Clark, 13th Nick Evans, 14th Marc Lord, 15th Neil Tressler, 16th Chris Robinson

Race three

1st John 'Jon' Higgins, 2nd Peter Morton, 3rd Ali Topley, 4th Jamie Clarke, 5th Lawrence Davey, 6th Ian Sturt, 7th Simon Belcher, 8th Steve Mills, 9th Jim Clarke, 10th Malcolm Clark, 11th Nick Evans, 12th Richard Grindrod, 13th Neil Tressler, 14th Dan Clark, 15th Glenn Burtenshaw, 16th Robin Webb

Race four

1st John 'Jon' Higgins, 2nd Chris Grieve, 3rd Ali Topley, 4th Dave Newsham, 5th Peter Morton, 6th Dan Clark, 7th Glenn Burtenshaw, 8th Derek Pierce, 9th Simon Belcher, 10th Jim Clarke, 11th Malcolm Clark, 12th Marc Lord, 13th Paul Thompson, 14th Ian Sturt, 15th Lawrence Davey, 16th Richard Grindrod, 17th Gerard McCosh, 18th Jamie Clarke, 19th Colin Chadwick, 20th Neil Tressler, 21st Steve Mills, 22nd Chris Robinson

Today's overall points: 1st John 'Jon' Higgins (600), 2nd Peter Morton (535), 3rd Ali Topley (510), 4th Dave Newsham (410), 5th Chris Grieve (375), 6th Derek Pierce & Simon Belcher (360)