The BRSCC’s North Western Centre were in charge when TCR UK visited Croft on 13th/14th July. With a packed supporting programme, it was a thrilling weekend of action in testing weather.
TCR UK
Race 1
Conditions for the first TCR UK race were very wet. Brad Hutchinson made a great start from the outside of the front row to move his Cupra Leon ahead of Callum Newsham’s Hyundai i30 which had started from pole. Newsham then ran side-by-side with another Cupra Leon driver – Carl Boardley – all the way to the Jim Clark Esses where Boardley established himself in second.
Newsham was soon battling back, taking second from Boardley at the start of lap 2 and charging off after Hutchinson who was already a couple of seconds down the road.
Once Newsham had caught the leader, Hutchinson put on an excellent display of defensive driving but eventually he left a gap on his inside at Sunny In which allowed Newsham to get alongside and move ahead at Sunny Out to take the win as Hutchinson held off Boardley to take second place.
Race 2
There was more heavy precipitation as the field lined up for the second encounter which featured a reversed grid. This had put Stewart Lines on pole but at the end of the formation lap he headed into the pits with a driveshaft issue.
Brand new tyres meant Boardley was flying in the early stages, getting in front from eighth on the grid before the end of lap 2. As the contest unfolded, Darron Lewis (Hyundai i30) began to close in on the leader with Hutchinson and Newsham in tow. With 4 minutes left, Hutchinson passed Lewis into Clervaux and set his sights on Boardley. He was right on his back bumper at the start of the final lap but ran wide on the exit of Tower, rejoining the tarmac just ahead of Lewis who then ran wide at Sunny In handing third to Newsham. He would have lost the place anyway when a 5 secs track limits penalty was applied.
Race 3
The rain had finally started to abate when race 3 got underway but the track was still saturated. Newsham headed the field into Clervaux but very nearly lost control at the first corner when his rear wheels failed to find grip on the wet tarmac. He caught the slide but not without taking a trip through the gravel. Somehow, he retained the lead in front of Boardley who had out-dragged Hutchinson away from the grid. Next time through Clervaux it was Boardley’s turn to slide off the track. Like Newsham, he managed to get back on to the tarmac but not before Hutchinson had gone through into the runner-up position.
Conditions at Clervaux were proving to be really treacherous as they also caught out Bradley Thurston who hit the barriers in his Honda Civic triggering a Safety Car period.
After the restart, Newsham and Hutchinson pulled away to finish first and second as all eyes focused on third placed Boardley who was having to use all of the road and quite abit more to keep Adam Shepherd (Cupra Leon) from taking the final place on the podium from him. This is a feat he managed to achieve.
Downforce Radio Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship
Race 1
At the start of the first Downforce Radio Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship encounter, Paul Bateman went round the outside of pole-sitter, Jonathan Greensmith, at Hawthorne Bend to take the lead. However, on lap 2, Greensmith dived down the inside at Tower in what turned out to be a race-winning move. Just after that manoeuvre took place, third placed Jordan Head caught a huge slide which cost him momentum and allowed Alexandros Kattoulas to take the position… but not for long as Kattoulas had a spin exiting the Chicane. Pete Smith was very fast in the closing stages but could not quite overtake Head to take the final place on the podium.
Race 2
A great start to race 2 from Greensmith gave him an advantage of a couple of lengths over Bateman by the time the field reached Tower for the first time. Conditions were much wetter than when the drivers had been on track earlier in the day and many of them skidded off necessitating the appearance of the Safety Car after a couple of laps. By this point Jack Warry had worked his way through the chaos into third with the slippery conditions masking the reduced power from a misfiring engine. When the Safety Car pulled in, there was time for one more racing lap. Greensmith kept everyone at bay to take his fifth in a row while Bateman exited The Hairpin side by side with Warry and just held on to second.
Milltek Sport Civic Cup Championship
Race 1
Heavy rain spiced things up when the Milltek Sport Civic Cup Championship contenders took to the tarmac for the first time. At the end of the opening lap, Max Edmundson had a huge advantage out in front but he then spun exiting the Chicane. This put him in the middle of a dozen cars battling for the lead headed by Lewis Kent, Liam McGill and Josh Files. Eventually, Edmundson worked his way to the front of the field where he passed Files approaching Clervaux. He had opened out a small gap to Files when the race was red flagged after a car crashed exiting Barcroft. McGill was third.
Race 2
Race 2 featured a reversed grid – and more wet weather. Alistair Camp converted his front row start into the race lead before proceedings were interrupted by 3 laps behind the Safety Car. When the contest resumed, Will Redford overtook Camp around the outside into Tower but then lost control on the exit of the Jim Clark Esses and slammed into the barriers. His was one of many cars to hit the tyre walls in the treacherous conditions which brought out the red flags. Camp was declared the winner from Kent with Files third.
BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship
Race 1
Jenson O’Neill-Going took the lead of the opening Fiesta Junior Championship race on the first lap. He was resisting enormous pressure from Jacob Hodgkiss when the red flags brought the contest to an early conclusion. Tommy Harfield was classified third.
Race 2
It was a similar story next time out with O’Neill-Going making the early running as Hodgkiss and Harfield battled behind him. As the 15 minutes unfolded, four cars closed in on the leader and it looked like Hodgkiss was about to move ahead but he got nudged into a spin at The Hairpin by Archie Garfield who was later disqualified from the results. With Hodgkiss’ Fiesta in a dangerous position, the Safety Car was scrambled. After the restart, Harfield passed O’Neill-Going into Tower to take his first win in this category and then the erstwhile leader lost second to Finn Leslie through the Sunny double right hander. O’Neill-Going attempted to hang on around the outside of Leslie but ended up on the grass. He rejoined to finish third.
Race 3
So bad were the conditions for the Junior’s final outing that it started behind the Safety Car. When the field was unleashed, Harfield survived a very sideways moment at the first corner to again take victory a whisker ahead of Leslie with O’Neill-Going third.
Clapham North MOT Mazda MX-5 SuperCup Championship
Race 1
Remarkably, Aidan Hills came through from twelfth on the grid to win the first Clapham North MOT Mazda MX-5 SuperCup Championship encounter. Just over 5 minutes after the start Jack Harding had a 3 second lead over Joe Wiggin with Hills a second further back in third. Soon Hills was into the runner-up position and closing in on Harding while Wiggin was pushed into a spin exiting the Hairpin which put him well down the order. Hills caught Harding with a few minutes remaining and, on the last lap, he found tremendous grip through Hawthorne Bend which enabled him to take a decisive lead at the Chicane. The epic battle for third eventually went to Tom Griffiths.
Race 2
Hills also had to start from row sixth for race 2. This time conditions were much wetter which seemed to suit Patrick Fletcher who had a 1.2 secs lead at the end of the opening lap. He proved uncatchable. Jack Harding took second after a superbly executed pass on Jack Brewer at Barcroft. The latter held off the charging Hills in the closing stages.
Race 3
For the final outing, the Top Six were reversed on the grid and James Cossins braved it out around the outside of Griffiths through the first couple of corners to hit the front. The fastest driver however was once again Fletcher and by the end of lap 3 he was ahead and on his way to another win. Cossins and Griffiths continued to battle but Harding, Wiggin and Hills picked their way through that fight to take second, third and fourth.
AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship
Race 1
Alastair Kellett scored a lights to flag victory in the opening AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship encounter. He cruised majestically away from a 3 way battle for second between Simon Horrobin, John Cooper and Zachary Lucas. Horrobin took the position. Cooper was struggling to find gears and dropped behind Lucas when he ran wide exiting The Hairpin but he moved back into third when Lucas spun into the tyre wall exiting the Jim Clark Esses. He managed to extricate his car and finish sixth.
Race 2
In race 2, Kellett established a lead of a few lengths almost immediately as Cooper and Horrobin made contact at Clervaux. Both continued although Horrobin dropped to fourth behind Lucas Hayden. He got back up to third at the end of the second lap as Hayden got pushed sideways exiting The Hairpin.
Kellett’s lead was wiped out by the appearance of the Safety Car. When the contest resumed, Cooper lost pace and dropped down the order which put Horrobin in position to take the lead when Kellett left the door slightly open at Tower. Hayden completed the podium.
GAZ Shocks Mazda MX-5 Championshipc
Race 1
Luke Pullen and Adam Sparrow managed to break away at the start of the first GAZ Shocks Mazda MX-5 Championship race as several cars battled over third spot. Before long Ewan Thomas had established himself in that position until the final circuit when he had a ding dong battle with William Chadwick. That ended when Chadwick ran wide exiting Sunny Out. Ahead of him, Pullen was setting fastest laps in the early stages but as the track became drier, it was Sparrow who had the greater speed and he took the lead at Tower on the penultimate lap. Pullen fought back but ran wide at the same corner the next time through so he finished 4 tenths behind.
Race 2
Pullen once again made the best start when the field came under Starters’ Orders once more although he was unable to pull away due to a first corner incident triggering a Safety Car period. Pullen had a great restart and immediately pulled out a lead of more than a second over Sparrow who quickly found himself being shuffled down the order. As Pullen motored away to take a comfortable victory, Jack Noller ran second until he was overtaken by Chadwick under braking for Sunny In at the head of an 8 car battle for the runner-up position. Chadwick held on to take second as Ewan Thomas moved up to third with a daring round the outside manoeuvre at the second part of the complex.
Race 3
For the final encounter, Chadwick was the early leader but soon Sparrow was filling his mirrors despite starting from eighth on the grid. Chadwick kept him at bay until Sparrow took a trip across the gravel at Clervaux. He bounced back and pushed Chadwick around the final corner but couldn’t find a way by. Pullen battled hard to pass Noller to take third by which time the leaders were 4 seconds down the road. However, Chadwick received a 5 second Track Limits penalty which dropped him to third behind Sparrow and Pullen.
Demon Tweeks Audi TT Cup Championship
Race 1
When the red lights went out to unleash the Demon Tweeks Audi TT Cup Championship for the first time Carl Swift got the best start from the outside of the front row but polesitter Bradley Burns left his braking very late when they reached Clervaux. Somehow he kept control of the resulting slide to take the lead which he never lost despite the race being interrupted by the Safety Car after a competitor pushed a tyre stack into the middle of the track at the Chicane. Matt Luff was third.
Race 2
Burns won race 2. He got a better start this time and was comfortably ahead when they reached Clervaux. In the closing stages, there was an epic battle for second in which Luff eventually got the better of Swift having initially gone round the outside at Clervaux. Their duel allowed Will Stacey to catch them but he ran wide exiting the chicane.
Thanks!
The BRSCC wishes to thank all marshals and officials for their help in delivering a very efficiently run meeting in such inclement weather.
Dave Williams