The BRSCC’s North Western Centre ventured to Anglesey for the first time this year on 15th/16th June for a superb weekend of motor racing.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the pair of 3 hour Fun Cup races. The first of these was run on Saturday afternoon with the second that evening. They used the Coastal layout while all the other categories used the International Circuit.
Oulton Park Fun Cup winners, MJ Tec were allocated the outside of the front row in the random grid draw for the opening encounter and hoped to use this to their advantage by pulling away as the other potential from runners worked their way through from further down the order. However, their plans were thwarted by the appearance of the Safety Car after a few laps. This helped Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus catch and pass them after something of a battle before the end of the first hour.
The second Safety Car period coincided with the second round of pit-stops. MJ Tec took on 1 churn of fuel but the Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus team put in 2 so MJ Tec re-joined in the lead but Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus had benefitted from having a big re-fill with the Safety Car preventing their rivals from getting too far ahead. When their strategy unfolded towards the end of the contest, they found themselves just ahead of MJ Tec after their final pit-stop.
However, by this point, the Olympian GRD car had shown an amazing amount of speed during the second half of the race and were now away and gone, lapping everyone up to the fourth placed car. This left Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus and MJ Tec fiercely, battling for second place with the former coming out on top after some wheel banging on the last lap.
Croft winners, Morpheus Racing, were put out of contention early on by an engine problem but they fared better in the early stages of race 2 which began after tea on Saturday evening and finished at 10 pm. Within a couple of laps they had taken the lead but this being Fun Cup, they couldn’t break away. Twenty minutes into the 3 hours, they become embroiled in a 4-car battle between Team Greenheath, Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus and a car hired by Martin Gibson and Mazda MX-5 driver, Jack Noller.
After the first round of pit-stops, things became more spread out as the teams implemented their contrasting strategies. Morpheus Racing held a 4 second lead over Team Greenheath who were comfortably ahead of Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus. The Gibson/Noller car had dropped down into the midfield.
As the first hour drew to a close, Team Greenheath ran wide at Rocket allowing Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus into second with MJ Tec taking third from them soon afterwards although they gave up that position when they took on more fuel than their rivals during the second round of pit-stops. After the stops, Team Greenheath were leading with Morpheus Racing on their tail – that is until the second placed car ran wide at Rocket and then went on to the grass at Church which caused some bodywork damage. This dropped them to third behind Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus.
By this stage, the winners from earlier in the day, Olympian GRD, were up to fourth after their compulsory rear of the grid start and were put in touch with the leaders by the first appearance of the Safety Car just before the third round of pit-stops during which there was another full course yellow.
When the field was unleashed, MJ Tec were leading from Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus but within a couple of laps Olympian GRD were up to second but then everything changed as Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus repassed Olympian GRD at The Banking but their momentum caused them to nudge MJ Tec into a spin. To add to their woes, MJ Tec received a penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
In the chaos, Team Greenheath took the lead but soon Morpheus Racing had passed them. As they battled hard, a recovering Olympian GRD caught the pair of them. The leaders were 3-abreast through School with Olympian GRD on the grass at the exit. Riley Phillips was driving at the time and kept his accelerator pinned to take the lead. He then pulled away leaving Morpheus Racing and Team Greenheath to battle for second.
This dice was joined by Team ACR but it lost Morpheus Racing when they spun at The Banking.
The fourth round of pit stops coincided with another Safety Car period at which point a badly damaged Morpheus Racing car limped into the pit lane.
When the green flags waved, Olympian GRD raced away to their second victory of the day as Uvio/Hoffman’s Lotus and Team Greenheath continue to fight over the runner-up position with the former coming out on top. MJ Tec recovered from their dramas to take fourth.
On the first lap of the opening GAZ Shocks MX-5 Championship encounter the 3 leaders arrived at Rocket side-by-side. Adam Sparrow was the last of the late brakers with Thomas Landford and Jack Noller slotting in behind him. They stayed in that order until half distance when the same corner saw Noller overtake Langford and then Sparrow on consecutive laps with Will Chadwick and Luke Pullen closing in to make it 5 for the lead. Noller pulled away to take a comfortable win with Sparrow second. Langford just about held on to third despite heading into the Seaman’s three abreast with Chadwick and Pullen on the last lap.
In race 2, Sparrow and Noller broke away from thee rest of the pack but were caught in the closing stages by Langford. Noller bided his time and then pounced on the last lap round the outside at School to take his second win of the weekend. This was the only pass that took place at the front of the field however further back there was an abundance of dicing.
For the third time this weekend, Sparrow was the first to reach Target when the final encounter of the weekend got underway but he ran wide at Rocket on each of the first 2 laps which dropped him down the fifth. So, Noller made it a hat-trick of wins. Sparrow recovered to get back into second before half distance however, as the contest drew to a close, Langford caught Sparrow and pushed him down to third where he finished just ahead of Will Chadwick who had come through from the back of the grid.
Patrick Fletcher and Aiden Hills broke away in race 1 of the Clapham North Mazda MX-5 SuperCup Triple Header. Hills repeatedly attempted to pass Fletcher at Rocket but could never quite pull off the manoeuvre. By the last lap Hills tried one final time but he accidentally snagged the rear of Fletcher’s car, knocking him sideways. Sportingly, Hills waited for Fletcher to regain control and followed him home in second place. Tom Griffiths was third.
The next time they took to the tarmac, Fletcher was the early leader but this time it was Tom Griffiths who was putting him under enormous pressure and eventually completed a pass at Rocket only to pull off on the exit of Seaman’s with 3 minutes remaining due to a gearbox issue. While Griffiths and Fletcher were battling, Hills was running a close third. After Griffiths retired, Hills overtook Fletcher around the outside into Rocket on the penultimate lap to take the win. The podium was completed by Joe Wiggin who gained places during the course of the 20 minutes following a start which he was unhappy with.
The final encounter had a partially reversed grid while Griffiths had to start right at the back following his earlier retirement. Because of this, it took Fletcher 8 minutes to get into the lead. Hill and Griffiths came through to the claim the remaining podium positions although, having made their way through all the traffic, the trio were quite well spread out.
Lap 2 of the first Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup encounter saw Joe Doble pass Steven Dailly at Rocket and go on to take the win. Joe Dad’s, Mike Doble, accidentally turned his engine off which allowed Connor Grady through to take third. In the second contest, Dailly was able to keep J. Doble behind him throughout as M. Doble kept his motor running to join his son on the podium.
The final contest saw the first 3 in race 2 start from the back of the Top Ten with the first 7 grid spots drawn at random. Grady took advantage of starting nearer to the front than his rivals to take the lead early on. By the start of the last lap, Dailly was looming large in his mirrors but couldn’t find a way by. Gordon MacMillan was third.
Race 1 of 3 for the Downforce Radio Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship was won by Jonny Greensmith after he overtook Paul Bateman on the opening lap. Bateman ran wide and dropped a couple of further places. He re-gained his composure, got back into second place and reeled in Greensmith but couldn’t quite get close enough to pass. Jack Warry was third.
Greensmith repeated his lap 1 pass on Bateman in the second encounter. This time Bateman slotted in behind him as Martin Tolley and Warry made it 4 for the lead. Just before half distance Tolley passed Bateman at The Hairpin. Bateman fought back and overtook Tolley at the Bus Stop but Warry dived down the inside to get ahead of both of them.
Tolley then retired as Bateman made contact with Warry at Peel to move up to second. All this allowed Greensmith to break away and motor to victory as the stewards later dropped Bateman from second to third behind Warry because of the incident at Peel.
Greensmith once again executed a first lap pass to take the lead when the Clubman runners took to the tarmac for the final time although it was Warry that he overtook rather than Bateman who had started, and was running third. There were no further changes of order amongst the leading trio.
The first Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge race was red flagged after a midfield accident at The Hairpin. Before the cars came to a halt, Dan Robinson clipped the back of Paul Dobson at The Banking. Robinson’s car had too much damage to take restart while Dobson started from the pit lane with a taped up rear bumper. While Max Buxton’s car was towed into the pit lane.
This meant that behind pole-sitter Michael Blackburn, the next 3 grid slots were vacant! Therefore, it was no surprise to see Blackburn take the win. Sam Watkins was the runner-up. Dillon Davis was third initially but his car hesitated exiting Peel which allowed Jamie Lewthwaite to take the position as Davis dropped down the order. However, Lewthwaite was one of a number of drivers who failed to slow down when the red flags came out and was disqualified and so Liam Browning classified third. Buxton joined the restarted race from the pit lane and was classified eleventh but then stopped at Church on the opening lap of the second encounter with broken front suspension which brought out the Safety Car. With the left front of the Fiesta collapsed, it was difficult to recover the vehicle so there was only 4 minutes left when the action resumed. Blackburn and Watkins finished first and second once again with Dan Wyke in third.
A Summer Celebration Race concluded a fabulous weekend of action and allowed drivers from the various championship that had been competing at Anglesey to take on one another. Max Buxton completed a nightmare weekend by pulling into the pits at the end of the green flag lap as his repaired Fiesta ST150 wasn’t handling as it should… but then he took over Anthony Sullivan’s similar car for the last 20 minutes of the contest so that he at least got some racing laps.
Buxton’s green flag dive into the pits left Russell Halley alone on the front row of the grid when the red lights went out in his Mk1 Mazda MX-5 but he was passed almost immediately after the start by the Mk3 model of Bruce Robinson/Ollie Hall.
The Robinson/Hall Mazda went on to lap the field but there was a 3 car battle for the runner-up spot that went all the way to the end of this 40 minute enduro. The BMW Compact of Barney Lower was holding the position with a few minutes to go but he ran wide exiting The Banking handing the place to the Fiesta ST150 driven by Liam Browning. Lower finished a close third with early leader Halley right on his tail. It was good to see the ST150, BMW Compact and Mk1 MX-5 so evenly matched.
After such a brilliant weekend of racing, the BRSCC would like to thank all the marshals and officials who attended for delivering such a well-run meeting.
Dave Williams