LITTLE Witley's Steve Watton continued his good start to the season in the latest round of the Thouroughbred Sportscars Championship at Brands Hatch but nearly threw it away with a spin near the end.

It was warm and sunny for morning qualifying, which saw 31 cars on track, making it a busy affair. Roy McCarthy ended the session on pole position in his V8 MGB, with Watton just behind him in his 1965 TVR Griffith.

Andy Green, Phillip Goddard, Chris Acklam and Tony Lees, in their V8 Morgans, were all separated by less than a second.

At the start, Watton made a superb getaway. McCarthy led the chase with Green, Goddard, Lees and Simon James in the Sunbeam Tiger all close behind.

But, when they went into the second lap, the better handling of the McCarthy MG told and he slipped past, under-braking for Druids.

Thus began a 20-lap duel and the two of them were barely separated by more than a second throughout. The gap fluctuated slightly, as the two lapped slower traffic, but neither could get a clear advantage over the other.

Going into the last five laps, Watton saw he was now gaining more on McCarthy and pushed even harder on tyres that had lost almost all their grip.

Watton was caught out by that and, as he exited Graham Hill bend for the penultimate time, he put the power down just too early and the car spun onto the grass.

He had it going again in no time and spun the car around to get under way just as third-placed Green came into view.

Watton had to defend his place for a couple of corners until the grass and gravel had cleared from his tyres and Green was all over the back of the TVR going into Clearways. But he managed to pull away over the last lap-and-a-half to retain his second position.

He said: "I was waiting for Roy to make a mistake, but he didn't and, in the end, it was me who nearly came unstuck."

But Watton was pleased with second, which keeps him in touch for championship honours. The next round is at Oulton Park in Cheshire on Saturday, May 19.