Craig Rainer and the Wealden Racing Team took the class win in their RS2000 MKII Escort for the second consecutive round of the Ford Saloon Car Championship.

Competing in the second round at Snetterton, Norfolk, and racing in Class B, Rainer, from Crawley Down, had a disappointing qualifying session when fuel starvation left him fourth in class and eighth on the grid.

Rainer had a lucky break at the start of the race when the leading Class B cars tangled at the first corner and he avoided the carnage to move to second in class behind the MKI Escort of Pantelis.

Three laps later he took Pantelis at the start of the straight. He finished the race first in class and fourth overall.

Two good results at this early stage of the season keep Rainer ahead in Class B and second in the championship overall.

While there was success for a second round running for Rainer, there was again misfortune for Mike Webb who did not finish at Brands Hatch after sustaining a puncture when fifth overall and third in class at the time.

Qualifying on new tyres since Brands saw Webb secure 12th on the grid out of 21 and sixth in class.

A good start saw by Webb forced him to put two wheels on the grass before easing his way back on to the tarmac and moving up a place.

Bumping tactics on the first corner saw one car spin off, two others go wide and Webb move up a couple more places before moving into fifth overall and third in class by the second corner.

A storming few laps entailed, with the four cars in front edging away as Webb blocked the challenges of Craig Owen in his Sierra Cosworth (Class D) and Nigel England in Fiesta (Class C).

Holding off the two challengers became impossible for Webb on lap four as he began to have steering problems and his race was brought to a premature end on the next circuit when he lost all drive due to a broken driveshaft.

The excursion on to the grass at the start may have caused the problem but, after two rounds, Webb has yet to gain a point.

Webb said: "Let's hope this isn't an omen for my year and that my fortune changes at Mallory Park on May 5."

IN the BEMSEE club Rookie 400 series, Kevin Stone had a disastrous Saturday on his Suzuki RGV 250 but managed to salvage something from the weekend with two good races on the Sunday.

Stone crashed and didn't finish in Saturday's first race at Silverstone and his luck didn't improve in the second either as he blew his gearbox to again miss out on any points for round two of the championship.

The crash caused £600 of damage to the bike but, on a rented 400 machine, Stone came 17th in race one of round three and then excelled himself on a bike he'd never ridden before with an 11th place in the second race.