Bratton resident Ben Norton tightened his grip on the Castle Combe Formula Ford Championship with another hard-fought victory in round three of the ferociously competitive series on Bank Holiday Monday.

Norton clawed his way to the front of a spectacular lead pack in his Wiltshire College-run Spectrum, and duly maintained his unbeaten run in this year's championship, taking his lead in the standings up to 16 points in the process.

A wet-but-drying qualifying session set the stage for an epic race, as with the track getting quicker and quicker with each lap, pole position changed hands a dozen times within the final minutes alone - to the surprise of Saltford man Steven Jensen, who took first place on his penultimate lap but tumbled to seventh in the 1m14s it took him to complete the next one!

Felix Fisher (Bridgwater) and Nelson Rose (Wotton-under-Edge) shared the front row, with Norton lurking in fifth behind Marcus Allen, the latest teenage rising star to be given his break by top Gloucestershire team Kevin Mills Racing, and Bradford-on-Avon's David Vivian in the second Wiltshire College car.

It was young charger Allen who burst into an early lead when racing commenced on a dry track later on. What began as a nine-car lead gaggle distilled into a breakaway pack of five cars, led as Allen did his utmost to fend off Fisher, the fast-advancing Norton, Jensen and former champion Ed Moore (Bradford-on-Avon), the latter determinedly hacking his way forward from ninth on the grid.

As the race moved into its second half, Norton used his Spectrum's awesome fast corner pace to draft alongside Fisher into second place, and then to repeat the move on Allen two laps later. The teenage sensation did not give up, though, and proceeded to hound Norton throughout the final laps.

Although the Wiltshire College driver duly completed his hat-trick of 2009 race wins, his margin of victory was just 0.2 seconds, with less than one second covering the entire top five.

Jensen managed to snatch the final podium spot from Fisher, and then somehow avoided a bizarre slowing down lap incident that saw Allen, Moore and Fisher tangle while easing off to congratulate Norton. The trio were more bemused than angry or hurt.

Although Fisher could not deliver a FFord victory, earlier in the day his elder brother Josh (the reigning local FFord champion) strolled to a win in the Special GT Championship driving Quantexe Racing's impressive new Juno sportscar. Even getting stuck in fourth gear for the final few laps could not stop Fisher - although he was helped by the race being red-flagged three laps early. Second-placed Andrew Shanley (Trowbridge) had started to close on the ailing leader but never had chance to catch him.

The stoppage was caused by third-placed Simon Tilling spinning to a halt in a dangerous position, his car having been damaged by contact in traffic. His departure gave Wrington's Darcy Smith the final podium spot.

Trowbridge's Mark Funnell took another victory in class C for modified sports and saloon cars, winning an early tussle with Melksham's Simon Norris, whose new Mitsubishi Lancer finally managed a relatively trouble-free run. Funnell then added another success in the programme-closing Open Sports and Saloons race, repeating his May Day trick of starting from the back of the field and still charging through to victory in his roadgoing Lotus Exige.

Gary Prebble led the continued Mitsubishi Lancer domination of the Combe Saloon Car Championship, with Tony Dolley (Bridgwater) coming through from a distant 14th on the grid to take a brilliant fourth overall and victory in the 1800 to 3000cc class, his Peugeot 206 GTi enjoying the dry race much more than the damp qualifying session.

Dolley gained a lot of ground as the field parted to avoid a second lap brush between early class leader Guy Higgs - the Gloucester man impressing greatly in only his second race - and Nick Charles (Yate). While Higgs spun down the order, Charles survived to enjoy an outstanding battle for class C victory with Will di Claudio (Bromham) and David Kift (Bristol). Although it was last year's outright champion di Claudio who emerged victorious, Kift was just as delighted with second after a long run of poor luck.

Yatton Keynell's Jason Cooper remains unbeaten in the up to 1400cc class, finishing a superb ninth overall out of 35 cars, but was helped by early misfortune for his main rival Olly Lewis. The Bath man was right on Cooper's tail in qualifying, only for a leaking differential housing to cause him to be pushed off the starting grid.