Warwick is the top Master

Fellow Sarnian Peter Dorey also enjoyed a great weekend before severe thunderstorms south of Saint-Brieuc ended proceedings early.

Warwick reported a couple of car problems, specifically the front brakes, but admitted even without them he would not have got close to the two French stars who took the top two placings on the 3.2-kilometre long hill.

Guernsey’s No. 1 hillclimber is well accustomed to the fast, long and narrow Saint-Goueno hill, this being his 11th visit to the festival which is highly popular with British and Irish drivers.

‘It’s a cracking event and it has got so big that they have now capped the visiting entries at 70. There’s now as many of us as the French,’ he said while returning.

‘It’s pretty quick with full-throttle sections and it is also pretty narrow. You wouldn’t want to meet someone coming the other way.

‘But it [a 1-17.1] was a good result for me and although I could have been a couple of seconds quicker but for the brake problem I wouldn’t have caught [second-placed] Schatz who was four seconds quicker.

‘I’m more than chuffed,’ said Warwick. So was Dorey who was 12th overall in the French championship series, clocking a 1-25.2 in the Dallara F306 Mugen Honda.

Simon Carre clocked a 1-31.40 for fifth place in the Masters series but crashed his Dallara F3 before the weekend was cut short by the heavy rains.

‘It was horrendous when it came,’ said Warwick, who also had fellow Sarnian Colin Le Maitre for company on the trip.

In his Porsche Cayman car the all-time Vazon sprint record-holder clocked a 1-51 for 35th overall from 65 finishers in the visitors’ class.