THE Castle Combe circuit’s hugely successful ‘Saloon Car Championship’ celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with a capacity grid for the 2015 season opening ‘Howards Day’ on Easter Monday, April 6.

After an eventful winter at the circuit, which has seen a ‘solar farm’ erected in the infield and a large proportion of the track resurfaced, the enthusiasm from the Castle Combe Racing Club’s registered competitors is stronger than ever.

As has been the case for the last two decades, the 2015 saloon car champion will be decided from any of the four classes taking part, as drivers score points based on their class, rather than overall position.

One man who knows how to win it is the man who has taken part in it longer than anyone else, Bridgwater’s Tony Dolley. He won his class in 1996 and the outright tile in 2003 and is back with his faithful Peugeot 206 again this year.

In the past, his main class opposition has come from Bristol’s Mark Wyatt back for 2015 in his newly rebuilt Astra, though Fiesta pilots Ayrton Anderson from Peasedown St John and Kieren Simmons from Weston Super Mare are likely to be very fast. A very strong threat is Yate’s Nick Charles, a former double champion, though his new 206GTi may not be quite ready for this first race.

Almost every car in the super powerful A class could be a bet for victory, and includes more champions, namely Calne’s Tony Hutchings, in his Audi TT and Combe’s most successful ever driver, Southampton’s Gary Prebble, having bought the SEAT Leon Cupra he borrowed last year and won a race in.

The ‘Bird’ family, Kevin and Charles from Ditcheat, have their BMW 130i and Renault Megane respectively. Swindon’s Julian Ellison and Keynsham’s John Barnard continue their Astra Turbo battle and the 3 car Grant Motorsport team includes Bath’s Angus Gorringe in a Nissan 200SX and Dave Scaramanga in a VW Scirocco.

Seend’s Adrian Slade will be a strong bet for Class C and therefore outright points honours this year in his 106 Gti whilst ‘On-Pole High Performance Consultancy’ backs the championship and also Russell Poynter-Brown from Compton Martin, in class D in the ’Interceptor Racing’ Corsa.

As is now tradition, the event will run in memory of circuit saviour Howard Strawford and one of his favourites was the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 championship, in association with Drive South West and Empire RV.

Chippenham’s Adam Higgins has the opportunity to emulate his father and Riadro Racing squad team principle Bob Higgins, by taking his 3rd title in a row. Higgins senior achieved that feat in 1983 and has the added pleasure and tension of watching his older son Richard, from Bridgwater, compete in the same class in an almost identical Van Diemen JL12. Bob himself will be on their tails in class B in an RF90 Van Diemen.

The main opposition to Higgins should come from the Kevin Mills Racing team, fielding Langport’s Roger Orgee in the Ridgemill Van Diemen RF00 and Coventry’s Nathan Ward in the Spectrum 011C.

But with the talented Felix Fisher from Bridgwater returning for the first few rounds, the competition is wide open. His brother Josh is also out in class C for the pre-1990 cars but will be more interested in trying to challenge at the front.

The Fisher brothers will also be out in the ‘Sports Racing’ 20 minute race for the series freshly supported by paddock based Merlin Motorsport. They are both planning to run in the under 1400cc class in ‘one off’ specials. Felix is in the 1 litre Halesbury HR14 and Josh in the Fishface 01, conceived by his GT champion father, Brian.

Potentially the fastest cars likely to be seen at the circuit this year will be the class A unlimited capacity machines such as the Riley TDC of Salisbury’s Nigel Mustill and the Radical SR8 of Wrington’s Darcy Smith.

But in reality, some of the well driven B class cars will be outright challengers too, such as the Radical PR6 of Darcy’s son Josh from Bridgwater, the 2013 ‘Special GT’ champion. Former Combe FF1600 contender, Nick Jones from Chepstow, wheels out his Radical SR3 run by Kevin Mills Racing.

The highly modified saloon and sports car in the ‘Sports and GT Championship’ in association with Avatar, include one of its Audi V6 twin turbo cars for Dylan Popovic.

He will have to contend with the highly successful Darrian Wildcat of Langport’s Ian Hall, now even faster with a 6 litre Rover V8 engine developing huge grunt. Like a number of drivers, Hall feels the new track surface will offer a higher grip level. In contrast, he said, “But if it rains, then it may be very slippery for a while until it beds in.”

Bristol’s Oliver Bull is another former FF1600 pilot trying a new discipline and will debut in a 2 litre Vauxhall Tigra ‘Silhouette‘. Kevin Bird is another having a busy day, moving from his 130 BMW to an M3 GT4, which will be an interesting contrast to the awesome BMW M6 coupe of Blagdon’s Doug Watson.

Another favourite of Howard was the visiting Mini Se7ens and Miglias, as they have always been crowd pleasers since first appearing at the circuit in 1967. In the faster Miglias is Pill’s Sam Summerhayes now in his second season in this competitive championship.

The Midget and Sprite challenge contenders will already have kicked off their season at Mallory Park, so the multi class contenders should be right up to speed and keen to show how deceptively quick these little cars really are.

Monday's action starts at 8.35 am with qualifying, racing getting under way from 12.45 pm.

Admission prices are £15 for Adults and £10 for OAPs, whilst accompanied children under 16 are admitted free. ‘Paddock Transfer’ is free if the tickets are booked in advance.

For further information, visit the Castle Combe Racing Club online at www.ccracingclub.co.uk, www.facebook.com/CastleCombeCircuit, or @castlecombeuk on twitter