LITTLE Witley's Steve Watton made a brilliant start in his campaign for honours in the Thoroughbred Sportscar Championship at Snetterton.

Watton held off Andy Green to win the first meeting and record the fastest lap.

The contest is for sportscars of the 1960s and 70s, involving battles between E-Type Jaguars, MGs, Morgans and Aston Martins.

Watton, in his 1965 TVR Griffith, won four out of six races last year and was second in the final two.

But he was racing under invitation so was ineligible for overall championship honours.

Moving into class D' this season has meant bringing the car up to a minimum 1,000kg and going down to a narrower wheel size.

This has made the car harder to handle and slower on straights, although Watton will still be looking at speeds of more than 160mph.

He completed testing on the car over the winter and has made various changes to minimise the effects of the weight penalty.

Twenty-three cars of different makes, all from the 1960s, took to the track for qualifying in the warm Norfolk sunshine.

At the end of the session, Watton had put his Griffith on pole position by almost two seconds from Green in his V8 Morgan. At the start, the Worcestershire driver got away well and led over the line at the end of the first lap by just over a second.

He gradually built up a five-second lead over the first six laps.

However, with oil dropped at the Russell chicane, Watton hit the throttle coming out of the corner and the car snapped sideways, fish-tailing up the straight.

Lucky to get away with it, he took it easy over the oil for the remainder of the race but still ended up winner by just under five seconds.

Watton will next be competing in the championship at Brands Hatch in early May.