When the BRSCC’s North Western Centre took charge at Croft on 6th & 7th September, it was a very special weekend as the MG Car Club were honouring the 95th anniversary of the marque. Therefore, many beautiful cars wearing the Octagon badge were on display around the circuit as part of a festival honouring the iconic British brand.
MG Cockshoot Cup Championship & Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup
Appropriately, the MG Cockshoot Cup Championship & Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup drivers got proceedings underway on Saturday. Their races ran concurrently with the Metros setting off 10 seconds after the Cockshoot Cup contenders.
Keith Egar’s K-series powered Midget had a healthy lead until the red flags came out as a few cars were stranded around the circuit. After the restart, Egar continued in front but David Morrison was driving another Midget, which had a venerable A-series under the bonnet, flat out to make up for his power deficit. He managed to briefly move ahead at The Hairpin at the end of the penultimate lap but Egar used his more recently designed engine to blast back ahead past the pits. He crossed the line with an 0.255 secs advantage and was sure he was the winner having seen the “Last Lap” board the previous time he crossed the start/finish flag post. So, he slowed on what he thought was the cooling down lap and Morrison overtook him to take the win. The overall podium was completed by Eliza Seville in her MGF.
Eagle-eyed Egar had indeed seen the “Last Lap” board when he shouldn’t have done. The marshals, inadvertently but in good faith, displayed it perhaps a second or two too early because it was getting close to the end of the shortened 7 minute scheduled duration.
In contrast to the drama of Saturday’s contest, Egar was able to take a comfortable win after Morrison coasted to a halt shortly after the start due to an issue with his throttle cable. Seville was second while Karl Green (MG ZS 180) was third. Compared to Saturday, Egar’s Midget had improved handling after he fitted his anti-roll bar more securely.
Jack Ashton his customary brace of victories in the MG Metro Cup although a slow start to race 2 gave him some work to do.
Ginetta Junior
Fred Green converted pole into the race win in the first Ginetta Junior race, his nearest challengers were Colin Cronin and Scott Kin Lindblom. Championship leader, Rocco Coronel, started from seventh but was delayed when about half the field tried to get through the Complex at once on the second lap.
Green repeated his victory next time out by the narrowest of margins from George Proudford Nalder. Having worked together to establish a gap over the rest of the field, they spent much of an epic final lap side by side and swapping places. In third, Lewis Goff had defended from Lindblom which allowed Coronel to close in on the pair of them. After Goff ran wide at the first element of Sunny, Coronel passed Lindblom to claim the final place on the podium.
Light rain made the tarmac a little greasy for the final leg of the Ginetta Junior Triple Header and the precipitation increased as the 20 minutes unfolded. However, this didn’t stop Green completing his hat-trick of visits to the top step of the podium at the end of a very classy drive. Proudfoot Nalder was Green’s closest challenger in the opening stages but he dropped down the order. Coronel would have finished second but he lost a position to Lindblom when he braked too late and ran wide at Sunny In.
Kent Models Mazda MX5 Championship
Steve Foden started from pole for the first Kent Models Mazda MX5 Championship race. Alongside him was Ali Bray who had won all 17 rounds that had been staged in 2025 prior to this meeting. Their dicing in the opening stages was so intense that coming out of The Hairpin at the end of lap 3, Neil Chisnall overtook both to move into the lead although by the time he exited Tower, Bray was back ahead of him. It took a couple of more circuits before Foden was also ahead of Chisnall and in position to renew his battle with Bray… with Chisnall joining in the epic fun.
It looked like Foden had broken Bray’s winning streak when he was the first to see the chequered flag however on the first lap Foden had taken a shortcut through the chicane and the stewards applied a time penalty which dropped him to second.
The second contest was an absolute thriller with countless changes of lead with Bray, Foden and Chisnall often running side by side through multiple corners. Just after half distance, Chisnall had a lead of several car lengths but with 5 minutes remaining, Bray and Foden had closed in and Bray out-braked Chisnall into Tower. That proved to be the decisive moment as this trio took the chequered flag covered by less than a second. It later transpired that Bray was struggling to select third gear while Foden had a loose wheel.
Bray and Foden renewed their battle in the third encounter. On a damp track, they were in a class of their own, finishing 27.5 seconds ahead of the third placed runner, Harry Storer. They swapped places a few times but, once again, Bray came out on top taking his 2025 win tally to 20 out of 20 starts.
Clapham North Mazda MX5 SuperCup Championship
At the end of the first lap of the opening Clapham North Mazda MX5 SuperCup Championship race, Jack Harding made a mega move around the outside on the entry to the Complex to jump from fourth to second place. Next time around, Harding made another pass around the outside, this time at Tower, to take the lead from Tom Langford. Harding and Langford then worked together to build a gap to the battle for third between Ollie Hall and Will Blackwell-Chambers. On the last lap, Langford made a bid to pass Harding but was unsuccessful.
Harding continued his good form with a dominant victory over Blackwell-Chambers in the second encounter. Third saw a three-way dice between Hall, Langford and Alistair Dendy. In the last couple of laps, Langford was something of a demon around the Hairpin. On the penultimate circuit, he out-braked Dendy to move into fourth. Next time round, he took a wide line which enabled him to sling-shot past Hall to take third just before the finish line.
The track was very wet for the final MX5 SuperCup outing of the weekend. Harding appeared to be on his way to making it 3 wins out of 3 but as the race unfolded Langford and Blackwell-Chambers reeled him in. Often when it is raining, the outside line offers more grip and Langford used this to good effect to pass Harding. He had to do this twice after Harding fought back and briefly retook the lead. Langford is a previous winner of the championship for Mk1 MX5s but this was his first victory in the SuperCup.
Clapham North MOT Mazda MX5 Clubman Championship
Two men called Jordan were the fastest drivers in qualifying for the Clapham North MOT Mazda MX5 Clubman Championship with Mr Paice 0.072 secs quicker than Mr Pimley. But the first encounter didn’t go well for either of them. Indeed, Pimley missed the race altogether because his fuel pump failed in the assembly area and then Paice made a slow start which meant Harry Deane was able to break away from the pack. Jack Warry had a remarkable first couple of corners to move into second from eighth on the grid but it was Paul Simard who had the most speed. He demoted Warry and then caught Deane.
On the last lap, Simard made a dive down the inside at Tower, he and Deane exited side by side. Their dicing allowed Warry to close in. He had so much momentum that he had to bump-draft one of the two leaders and he chose Deane. This put Dean back ahead and in a winning position. Paice recovered to take fourth place.
Pimley’s absence from the first Clubman’s race meant he had to start from 26th on the grid for the second. Despite there only being 15 minutes between the red lights going out and the chequered flag, Pimley amazingly was victorious! Warry and Deane completed the podium after Simard spun at the first corner.
Goodyear Mini Challenge supported by Mini Spares – Mini Miglia
There were 2 helpings of the Goodyear Mini Challenge supported by Mini Spares with the Miglia/Libres and Se7ens running separately for their Double Headers.
In the first Miglia/Libre contest on Saturday, the red flags appeared due to a first corner incident. As he had done at the original start, when the debris had been cleared up Rupert Deeth took the lead from the outside of the front row. There was then a thrilling battle as a trio of Minis jinked around in his mirrors. Somehow, despite many challenges, Deeth stayed ahead of Aaron Smith and Kane Astin as Ian Curley fell by the wayside before half distance.
Deeth was beaten away from the grid by Smith in Sunday’s race but was ahead by the time they tackled Tower for the second time. Deeth was unable to break away as Astin, Curley and Phil Bullen-Brown made it five for the lead in another frantic Mini race. With 3 minutes to go, Curley managed to pass Smith for second. Then, approaching the Chicane, Curley had a small overlap with the rear of Deeth’s car which pushed the leader into spin when he turned into the first element.
Thus Smith took the win from Astin and Bullen-Brown. After getting out of his car to assess the damage, Deeth got back in and continued. He was classified tenth while Curley finished fourth on the road but the stewards applied a penalty which put him behind Deeth in the final results.
In the Libre section, Andrew Dickinson and Les Stanton took a win apiece.
Goodyear Mini Challenge supported by Mini Spares – Mini Se7ens
Spencer Wanstall beat pole-man Damien Harrington to Clervaux in the first of two Mini Se7en races but when they reached Tower, Harrington went round the outside before completing the pass at the entry to the Jim Clark Esses and left Wanstall to defend second place as he pulled away to take a comfortable victory.
Wanstall was initially defending the runner-up position from 4 drivers before he was nudged into a spin at The Hairpin and was collected by Darren Thomas. Wanstall continued in fifth as Thomas retired with a broken radiator. Behind Harrington, Ross Billison fended off Daniel Munro to take second. The pair had Glen Woodbridge running with them in the first half of the 20 minutes but he dropped back behind the recovering Wanstall.
Their second thrash saw Wanstall start from sixth on the grid however, he was up to second by the time the field reached the first corner and leading at the Chicane! There was then a Safety Car period to allow Billison’s car to be recovered from the barriers at Hawthorn Bend. When racing resumed, Wanstall spectacularly used his autograss expertise as he hurled his red Mini around a damp and slippery Croft circuit on his way to victory. He was sideways at almost every corner! Munro tried to match his driving style but overcooked it on the exit of Barcroft and took a trip across the grass infield. He recovered still in second place ahead of Thomas.
Oliver Birkett and Matthew Ayres took a win apiece in the Mini Se7en S class.
Nankang Tyre BMW SuperCup
At the start of the Nankang Tyre BMW SuperCup’s opening race 1-Series polesitter, Aydan Hassan, had a slow getaway which dropped him down the order and allowed Simon Waterfall a clear route to victory. Hassan battled back to finish second ahead of Millie Hart.
Hassan had a much better start to the second contest when he took the lead and was never headed until the last lap when Waterfall dived down his inside at Tower. However, he ran wide allowing Hassan to retake the lead and go on to take his first win in cars.
During the place swapping between Hassan and Waterfall, there was some accidental contact which damaged Waterfall’s right rear tyre. He managed to limp to the finish well down the order.
This meant the runner-up position went to Jenson O’Neill-Going – the Fiesta Junior front-runner was racing a rear-wheel-drive car for the first time. He earned the wrath of the stewards in the first BMW contest for the way he drove and had to start from the back of the 1-Series section of the grid. Millie Hart boosted her championship hopes by again finishing third.
Waterfall started well down the order for the final encounter after his dramas late in race 2. He came through to finish runner-up to Hassan, just over 1 second behind. O’Neill-Going held off Astin to claim third.
As usual, there was lots of close racing in the Compact Cup where Steven Dailly took the spoils in each encounter. A spin for reigning champion, Conor Grady, at Hawthorn Bend on lap 1 of race 1 put him on the back foot.
Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship
The Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship got proceedings underway early on Sunday morning with the first leg of their Triple Header. The title hopes of championship leader, Alistair May, took a blow when he had a huge fish tail slide through the Complex on the opening lap. This put him down the order. He got his head down and started pumping in fastest laps to try to recover his position but then had a spin at the same section of track. He eventually finished tenth.
Upfront, Brady Pollock had his mirrors filled by Andrew Dyer, Richard Jepp and Alex Foden. With 3 minutes remaining, Dyer made a move at Clervaux which caused quite abit of chaos through Hawthorn and The Chicane where Dyer had to divert off the track which caused him to tip a tyre stack onto the racing line. All this gave Jepp the momentum to take the lead at Tower.
The next lap was due to be the last however Max Finn clipped the tyre stack that Dyer had dislodged and barrel-rolled. The red flags were displayed immediately. The results were declared at the previous lap when Pollock was just ahead of Dyer and Jepp. His joy was short lived as the stewards applied a time penalty for gaining an unfair advantage which dropped Pollock to second.
Light rain was falling when the red lights went out for the second CityCar encounter got underway. Dyer opened up a healthy advantage as Jepp battled to take second from Pollock on the opening circuit. Once he had yielded to Jepp, Pollock also lost third to Ben Spencer.
Jepp reeled in Dyer and passed him after a few laps having got more drive coming out of the Hairpin. He couldn’t get away though and ended up with 5 cars in his slipstream. Noone was able to pass however and so he took the spoils.
On the penultimate lap, Pollock attempted to grab back third from Spencer but the move failed and the resulting loss of momentum meant Foden pushed him down to fifth just ahead of Alistair May.
The Top Ten from the second contest were reversed on the grid for race 3. This put Philip House and Joe Moss on the front row. For the first half of the contest, they remained first and second as Spencer and May did their best to usurp them but then, in a flash, House was shuffled down to fourth between the Jim Clark Esses and Barcroft.
After a one lap pause behind the Safety Car to enable an errant CityCar to be recovered from the gravel at Clervaux, battle resumed with Moss, Spencer and May heading towards the Jim Clark Esses 3 abreast with May emerging in the lead and on his way to victory. Spencer then got sideways through the Sunny double right hander which left House and May scrapping over second with the former coming out on top.
Jepp had the worst possible start when he took a trip through the gravel at the first corner which put him out of contention.
Thank you
The BRSCC would like to thank all marshals and officials for enabling such a fabulous weekend of motorsport to take place. We hope you enjoyed all 23 action packed races!
Dave Williams