racing

Pirelli Ferrari Formula Classic Castle Combe Report

The second helping of Ferrari action came courtesy of the Pirelli Ferrari Formula Classic, which caters from some exotic classic Ferrari cars. The series is a regular at this A Plant LUX Bank Holiday meeting so the spectators knew what to expect from this impressive series.

On pole was Gary Culver in his Ferrari 328 GTB, with Peter Fisk alongside him on the front row. Row 2 has Darren Wilson in 3rd with Ray Ferguson in 4th. At the start it was Culver who made the best start to take the early lead in this 20 minute race, with Fisk joining him in making a quick break from the rest, before stealing the lead himself on lap 1. Their lead by the end of lap 1 was significant although by the end of lap 2 Fisk began gapping Culver by roughly 2 seconds.

By lap 4 Culver had reduced the lead to nothing as he began challenging Fisk for the lead, meanwhile behind them Nigel Jenkins passed Darren Wilson for 3rd going up Avon Rise on the same lap. Jenkins immediately opened a gap to Wilson as he secured himself in 3rd at this time. The move for the lead finally came at the fast kink Hammerdown on lap 6 as Culver set to work building a lead of several seconds in subsequent laps.

For the rest of the the top 4 were strung out as the conditions didn’t help the racing at all. For the likes of leader Culver it was simply about keeping a rhythm and counting down the laps, something he did expertly to maintain his lead of several seconds to the flag. He claimed victory from Peter Fisk in 2nd whilst Nigel Jenkins claimed his second podium of the day after claiming 3rd in the Ferrari Open race too. Darren Wilson was 4th whilst a lapped Ray Ferguson and Tim Walker completed the top 6.

For more information on this Ferrari series please visit – http://www.pirelli.com/tyre/gb/en/motorsport-world/genericPage/car/ferrari_open

Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship August 2014 Report

After the exotica from the Ferrari series it was time for cars more in line with the spectators as the resident Castle Combe Saloon Car Championship rolled out for it’s 15 lap dash. On pole was the form man Charles Hyde-Andrews-Bird with Class B pace setter Mark Wyatt alongside him. Row 2 consisted of Tony Hutchings in his Audi TT from giant killer Carl Loader in his lowly Citroen Saxo VTS.

From the start it was Bird and Hutchings who made the best getaway’s whilst Wyatt squandered his good qualifying position with a slow getaway. The front three of Bird,Hutchings and Wyatt were already breaking from the rest by the end of lap 1 as Loader held up the rest behind in 4th. Russell Akers found a way past Loader going up Avon Rise on lap 2, although he already had several seconds to make up to the rest in front. Hutchings was beginning to struggle however with the balance of his car and a huge moment at Old Paddock allowed Wyatt to breeze past into 2nd on lap 4.

Whilst Wyatt left Hutchings behind him his luck was about to improve even more as Bird pulled into the pits at the end of lap 6 to retire, handing a comfortable lead to Wyatt. Akers behind in 3rd was falling well behind the rest as an almost processional race came about at the front with Wyatt leading by several seconds and Hutchings have a 10 second plus gap to Akers back in 3rd. Hutchings was clearly suffering in the race as he couldn’t live with Wyatt’s pace with the most significant battle now taking place between John Barnard and Kieren Simmons for 5th.

Lap 11 saw Simmons finally pass Barnard for 5th, and set about building a gap to secure himself in 5th. On the penultimate lap Akers pulled into the pits to retire with obvious barrier damage to the front of his Astra, therefore promoting the giant killing Loader into 3rd with his Saxo. Barnard was also suffering on lap 14 as he ran wide at Camp, giving himself front end damage once he touched the barrier.

All of this proved not to be a distraction to Wyatt who strolled home for an easy victory with Hutchings taking 2nd and Carl Loader completing the podium in 3rd. Kieren Simmons was 4th from the returning Bill Brockbank in 5th and a lapped Ayrton Anderson who completed the top 6.

For more information on this exciting local championship please visit – http://www.ccracingclub.co.uk/championships/saloons/

Pirelli Ferrari Open Castle Combe August 2014 Report

After a frantic Mighty Mini the next race proved to be completely different as the exotic Pirelli Ferrari Open series took to the track for their 25 minute race. A small grid didn’t provide much hope for a good race however it only takes two cars to make a great race. After qualifying it was Wayne Marrs on pole in his Ferrari F458 Challenge car from local man Graham Reeder in his Ferrari F430 GT3 model.

From the rolling start it was Marrs who blasted into an early lead, which he extended to roughly 1.5 seconds by the end of lap 1. Despite the poor conditions the cars were hurtling around the track as Marrs and Reeder opened a significant early gap to the rest by the end of lap 2. The only cars at the early stages who were close together were Nigel Jenkins and Vance Kearney in 3rd and 4th respectively.

From lap 4 onwards the rain started to fall a lot heavier, which brought Reeder back into play as he set consecutive fastest laps despite the increasing rain fall. Reeder eliminated the gap to nothing as he began challenging Marrs for the lead from lap 10 onwards. Behind these two the battle for 3rd came to an end as Kearney spun exiting Camp on lap 10, re-joining 5th. Despite Reeder closing after a few laps Marrs upped his pace and rebuilt his lead of several seconds over Reeder from lap 12 onwards.

On lap 13 the dominance of Marrs and Reeder was highlighted as they lapped the rest of the field, whilst behind them Kearney began his recovery drive by closing on team mate Darren Laverty for 4th on lap 14. By the later laps Marrs was really stretching his lead to 3.1 seconds as he cruised home after 19 laps to a comfortable victory over Graham Reeder in a valiant 2nd. Nigel Jenkins came home a very lonely 3rd and a lap down. Laverty held onto 4th from the recovering Kearney whilst Paul Ugo completed the top 6.

This race suffered from both the small grid and the terrible conditions, therefore this race was not a fair reflection of a usually much more competitive series. Nevertheless, it was still fascinating seeing such impressive cars in the confines of Castle Combe race circuit. For more information on this series please visit – https://www.ferrariownersclub.co.uk/race-category/2014-pirelli-ferrari-open/

Mighty Mini’s Castle Combe A Plant Lux Report

After the excitement of the more powerful Super Mighty Mini races the excitement was followed up by the Mighty Mini racers soon after. With some crossing over from the Super Mighty Mini series the two 20 minute races promised to provide action galore.

For their opening race it was Sam Hathaway who lined up on pole from Paul Inch, with father Martyn Hathaway lining up 3rd alongside Paul Rhodes in 4th. From the lights it was Inch who made the best start to lead the field into Quarry corner. Inch seemed set on running away from the field as he opened a lead of around 1.5 seconds by the end of lap 2. Behind him Martyn Hathaway suffered a huge moment exiting Camp completing lap 2 and subsequently dropped like a stone from 2nd to 5th in a heartbeat.

Much like the Super Mighty Mini race whilst the leader streaked away the rest battled over 2nd. The fight consisted of Sam Hathaway, Paul Rhodes, Adrian Tuckley and Martyn Hathaway and they were changing positions several times per lap for the majority of the race. Amazingly the group seemed to be working together as they began reeling in leader Inch by lap 6. On lap 8 the chase was complete as Sam Hathaway marched into the lead and set about building a gap to the rest. A lap later his father Martyn Hathaway joined the lead battle to make the lead fight a family affair.

Paul Rhodes suffered a scare on lap 11 when it was announced he was to receive a 5 second time penalty for breaching track limits. The penalty didn’t change much however as it simply meant he would remain in 5th, yet unlikely to improve on that . Father Martyn Hathaway produced a scintillating move around the outside of Camp on son Sam for the lead on lap 11. Going into the final lap the win was up for grabs and it was Paul Inch who took the initive as he dived inside M.Hathaway for the win at Camp. Son Sam Hathaway completed the podium whilst Adrian Tuckley came home 4th, with a delayed Paul Rhodes and Charlie Budd completing the top 6 in 5th and 6th respectively.

After waiting for the rest of the afternoon the Mighty Mini drivers finally came out for their second race of the day, and the final one of the day. The Mighty Mini field lucked out with the second race as the conditions were the best of the day as the relentless rain finally stopped in time for their 20 minute duel. Much like the Super Mighty Mini series the top 7 from the first race are reversed for the grid of the second race. This meant it was Ian Slark on pole from Charlie Budd in 2nd. At the start it was Slark who made the best start from pole to take the early initiative.

Slark’s lead didn’t last long however as Adrian Tuckley and Paul Rhodes took control of the race early on as they broke away from the field. It didn’t take long for the break to be caught by the main field however with the fight for the lead encompassing Martyn Hathaway, Paul Inch, Tuckley, Sam Hathaway and Neil Slark by lap 3. The constant swapping of places made it hard to follow the action it was so frantic, although Rhodes and Inch attempted a break from the rest on lap 4.

For Inch the pace of Rhodes was proving too much as he fell back into the clutches of Sam Hathaway in 3rd by lap 5. Lap 6 saw Ian Slark pass Tuckley for 4th at Tower and the drama continued on lap 7 as Sam Hathaway attempted an ambitious move around the outside at Quarry on leader Rhodes, with possible contact leaving Hathaway on the grass and out of the race after his spin. Slark also passed Inch for 2nd at Camp on lap 7 too. It soon became clear that race 1 winner Paul Inch was suffering from a serious problem as he lost 3rd to Martyn Hathaway at Camp on lap 8. Hathaway was clearing pushing at this stage although he pushed too hard at the Esses the following lap, spinning off and re-joining on the fringes of the top 10.

Adrian Tuckley produced an identical move to Hathaway at Camp to take 3rd from a slow Paul Inch, who later revealed his engine dropped to 3 cylinders for the final portion of the race. The man on the move late on was Damien Harrington, who vaulted himself from the final row to pass Tuckley for 3rd at Camp on lap 10. A lap later and the worst possible result for the Hathaway’s was completed as father Martyn spun out of a lower top 10 placing at Tower. Unlike the other Mini races the last lap didn’t provide any drama as Paul Rhodes came through for the victory. Ian Slark was 2nd with the amazing Damien Harrington completing the podium. Adrian Tuckley was 4th from Gregory Jenkins and Christopher Kit Stevens who completed the top 6.

Both Mighty Mini races had provided huge excitement just like their more powerful Super Mighty Mini friends. Both series showed the best of low cost racing and many will be hoping they make a return to Castle Combe in 2015.

For more information on the series visit this site – http://www.brscc.co.uk/Championships/MIGHTY-MINIS-CHAMPIONSHIP

Castle Combe Sports Racing Car Series August 2014 report

After the frantic nature of the opening Super Mighty Mini race, the pace was about to be seriously upped as the Castle Combe Sports racing car series returned after missing the last meeting. The series boasted it’s biggest entry of the year for this new series, with some old faces returning to spice up the racing also.

The conditions were truly terrible as these very quick sports racing cars took to the track for their formation lap. This itself proved a highly confusing moment as everyone thought they would only do one formation lap, although after aborted starts and a re-setting of the 20 minute race clock, the cars finally took the green flag after 3 formation laps. From the rolling start it was pole man Andy Crockett who rocketed into the lead whilst second man Norman Lackford dropped down after taking the start cautiously.

With the first four evenly spaced after 2 laps the only change to the status quo was a very quick returning Darcy Smith who took the lead from Crockett in his Radical SR4 at Old Paddock. Behind the first two the move of the race came from Chris Vinall who made a very late lunge from several car length’s back to claim 3rd at Tower on lap 4 in a move that could have easily gone wrong.

Darcy Smith subsequently opened a lead of several seconds over the rest by lap 5, by lap 9 the cars have thinned out slightly as retirements took hold because of the dreadful conditions and by the final tour on lap 14 Smith had opened his lead to 8 seconds to claim a far from easy victory. Andy Crockett came home a lonely 2nd whilst Chris Vinall completed the podium.

Circuit stalwart and local favourite Norman Lackford came home 4th from a lapped Steven Bracegirdle in his unusual Nemisis RWE98 GT and Robert Gillman who completed the top 6. The race was stunted by the weather which undoubtedly ruined the chances of a great race for this new for 2014 series, with the spectators being robbed of an epic duel between the “big banger” cars of Mike Roberts in his awesome Lola B2K/40 Le Mans spec car and local favourite Simon Tilling who returned with his new Ligier JS49T. These two in the dry would have been an incredibly race for the spectators although sadly the weather deprived everyone of this privilege.

For more information on this growing series please visit – http://www.ccracingclub.co.uk/championships/sports-racing-series/

Super Mighty Mini’s Castle Combe A Plant LUX Report

The last bank holiday of the year always seems to provide a great day’s racing at Castle Combe, with long time sponsors A Plant Lux behind the event helping support this bank holiday meeting. Sadly this year the weather severely dampened the meeting as non-stop rain throughout the day significantly reduced the spectator numbers as well as the chance for great, close racing.

With some trepidation it was the Super Mighty Mini drivers who drove out first to start of the sodden race meeting off. The front row consisted of championship leader Elliot Stafford, with challenger Jamie White alongside him on the front row. At the start it was White who made the better getaway for this 20 minute dash, however it wasn’t long before Stafford took control and opened up a 2 second lead by the end of lap 1.

As Stafford got away the rest began squabbling over 2nd place, with the battle consisting of Scott Kendall, White, Daniel Budd and James Lyford. After constant fighting where these drivers managed to make passing manoeuvres on every part of the circuit it soon became clear this battle for 2nd would go right to the finish. In Mini racing the most important tactic for a leading driver is to try break the tow to the rest behind, something Stafford executed to perfection in this race as he opened a staggering 14 second gap by lap 8.

Behind them the battle for 2nd began to split up slightly as Budd and White made a break from Kendall and Lyford who were now battling for 4th. The tow is all important in Mini racing and from nowhere Steve Maxted used it to perfection late on as he scythed through to 3rd, before challenging Budd for 2nd on the penultimate lap. After 12 laps Stafford came home the victor by 16 seconds, almost unheard of in Mini racing, from Daniel Budd in 2nd and the charging Steve Maxted in 3rd. Jamie White came home 4th whilst James Lyford and Scott Kendall completed the top 6 in a thrilling opening race.

After opening the day’s racing, the Super Mighty Mini gang were back on track for their second race of the day much later on in the afternoon. With the conditions if anything worse than the first race and a reversed top 7 grid for race 2, action was almost guaranteed from these racers. With the front row belonging to 7th man in race 1 David Kirkpatrick, with Scott Kendall alongside him. As the lights went out Kendall and 4th man Jamie White made terrific getaway’s to lead early on, whilst Kirkpatrick suffered a shocker as he bogged down and was swamped by the pack.

Remarkably it didn’t take race 1 winner Elliot Stafford long at all to the challenging for the lead as he rose from 7th to 3rd by the end of an extraordinary opening lap. The drama didn’t end there as a recovering Kirkpatrick locked up going into Camp, with the end result being an appointment with the outside barrier, ending his race very early on. Stafford was on the move again as he picked off Kendall for 2nd exiting Quarry on lap 2, before unsurprisingly the Safety Car was deployed on lap 3 with Kirkpatrick’s car in a dangerous position at Camp corner.

The recovery crews quickly got to work removing the car as the clock ticked down from 20 minutes, with the Safety Car coming in a lap later on lap 4. Although he initially lost out with the Safety Car Jamie White stole a march on the others as he timed his re-start to perfection as he opened a gap to the rest. It didn’t last long however as Stafford went past White on the inside of Quarry for the lead on lap 5. This move proved to be too much of a desperate lunge for Stafford however as he thrown to the outside on the exit, and before he had got settled again a few corners later he had dropped to 4th behind White, Kendall and Daniel Budd.

Mirroring race 1 at this point White scarpered off into a lead of 3 seconds as Kendall, Budd, Stafford and Neil Slark slowed themselves up by constantly changing places in their fight for 2nd. Just as they began closing on White again for the lead Kendall and Stafford suffered almighty moments where they almost span out, dropping them from 3rd and 4th to 5th and 6th on lap 8. Their moments also broke up the battle for 3rd although that didn’t stop Stafford mounting a late charge for win as he was soon challenging Slark for 3rd by lap 9. Up at the front White and Budd were now evenly spaced at the front, although this didn’t last long as Stafford charged past Budd on the inside at Hammerdown for 2nd on lap 11.

With several seconds to make up on the final lap it appeared too much work for Stafford. although he proved everyone wrong as he was right on the tail of White entering the final half lap. After sizing him up Stafford went for a desperate lunge on the inside of Camp, finding a gap the size of a Mini as he battled White for the win. After the drag to the finish line it was initially called as a victory for Jamie White, although timing and scoring later confirmed Stafford had indeed won by 0.001 of a second over a disgruntled White in 2nd, who was not happy in the post-race interview.

Behind them Daniel Budd completed the podium from Neil Slark in 4th, with Scott Kendall and Steve Maxted completed the top 6 in another highly entertaining Super Mighty Mini race. This series always provides exciting racing and the slides these drivers were producing in Camp left the spectators smiling from ear to ear. With only a few round left in the championship it appears to be Elliot Stafford’s championship to lose, although anything can happen in Mini racing.

For more info on this great series please visit these websites – http://www.mightyminis.co.uk/loadframes.html
http://www.brscc.co.uk/Championships/SUPER-MIGHTY-MINIS-CHAMPIONSHIP

Max Chilton rumblings leave Alex Rossi in the cold

After the announcement last night that Marussia driver Max Chilton would move aside at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, allegedly for non-payment from Chilton’s sponsors, therefore allowing Alex Rossi to make his Grand Prix debut. Whilst this seemed like a dream for Rossi, who only recently joined Marussia after leaving Caterham.

Sadly for Rossi, the reality quickly became something much different because as swiftly as he was announced it subsequently became common knowledge that Chilton would in fact be driving for Marussia this weekend after all. For the seemingly happy go-lucky American Alex Rossi this must be a huge blow to gear yourself up for a Grand Prix debut, only to have it snatched away so soon.

This bizarre soap opera began last night when it was announced by the team that Chilton was being replaced for this weekend because of “contractual issues.” The waters were muddied further in the aftermath of this as Chilton himself released a press statement which said that he was “stepping aside” to allow the team to sell his seat for much needed financial benefit. This seemed strange that the team and the driver were giving different explanations for Chilton stepping aside.

It seems that if the rumours are true this was the wake up call for Chilton to start leaning on his sponsors to pay up the promised funds, as whilst Free Practice 1 was taking place this morning, whilst Rossi was probably on track, it was announced by the team that Chilton would indeed by racing this weekend after all leaving Rossi with only the Free Practice 1 session for the weekend.

Whilst this will hugely disappointing for Rossi he can take some solace from the experience gained for the future, especially as this was his first time driving the Marussia MR03-Ferrari car. It seems likely Rossi will get more chances during Free practice sessions this year, most likely at his home race in Austin. With nothing confirmed in terms of driver line-up for next year an impressive showing from Rossi in any further running for the team could persuade them to take him on for the 2015 season.

Whilst it’s hard to read too much into Rossi’s display this morning as it was his first time in the car, therefore it was no surprise that he was 1.5 seconds behind highly rated team mate Jules Bianchi. This seems a good starting point for Rossi, let’s hope he gets a proper chance at F1 from here.

Why Andre Lotterer deserves F1 chance

Immediately following the shock announcement of Max Verstappen joining Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2015 F1 season on Monday night, rumours began circulating that for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix Caterham would replace Kamui Kobayashi with stand-out Audi sportscar driver Andre Lotterer. By Tuesday afternoon it appeared almost certainly a done deal, with the final confirmation being announced by Caterham in a press release this morning, Wednesday 20th August. For the insular world of Formula One many have started scrambling around for information and analysis on this very quick German, with the results they’ll find on him being enough to show his F1 debut this weekend is long overdue.

Andre Lotterer has already been amongst the F1 circus once before, with early titles in German Formula BMW Junior and ADAC Formula BMW in 1998 and 1999 brought him to the attention of the new Jaguar team for 2000, who offered him several tests during the 2000 season to complement his 4th in the German Formula Three Championship campaign. The link to the Jaguar F1 team was made stronger in 2001 as he raced in British F3 for the Jaguar junior racing team, before stepping up to become the official test driver for the Jaguar F1 team for the 2002 season.


Lotterer testing for Jaguar in 2002.

Whilst it initially looked likely that Lotterer would be promoted to a race seat in 2003 after it was announced that both Eddie Irvine was retiring and Pedro De La Rosa was to also leave. Sadly for Lotterer the team chose 2002 Minardi stand-out Mark Webber alongside promising young Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia for the 2003 season, leaving Lotterer looking to re-build his career momentum.

Lotterer subsequently shunned Europe and went to Japan to race in their premier Formula Nippon series, now called Super Formula, and Japanese Super GT series for 2003. Impressive results in both cemented his reputation in Japan as a very fast young driver as he was a frequent title contender in Formula Nippon for the works TOM’S Toyota team, alongside two Super GT titles in 2006 and 2009.


Lotterer and Kazuki Nakajima driving for Lexus in Super GT at Okayama in 2011.

These impressive results in Japan led to some well deserved attention from Europe, although it does seem surprising looking back that despite consistently impressive Super GT results it took until 2009 for Lotterer to make his Le Mans 24 Hours. The call came from the Kolles team racing their privateer LMP1 Audi R10 TDI. After a herculean effort from Lotterer and co-driver Charles Zwolsman to complete the race without third driver Narain Karthikeyan to injury, the car came home an impressive 7th overall after completing 369 laps.

The impressive debut with the Kolles Audi in 2009 led the highly successful works Audi team to offer him a deal for the 2010 season, where his Audi R15 TDI+ came home 2nd. From here things would get very busy for Lotterer as from 2011 onwards he would have to dovetail his Japanese Formula Nippon and Super GT commitments with a full schedule in the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, morphing into the World Endurance Series for 2012.

The full time schedule has not affected Lotterer’s pace however as he finally claimed a first Formula Nippon title in 2011 after 8 years of trying, with a perfect 2011 being completed with a heroic first Le Mans 24 Hours victory for him, after fighting off an onslaught of Peugeot’s to claim the win. Things improved in 2012 as the Lotterer/Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer partnership swept to a second consecutive Le Mans 24 Hours victory and the inaugural World Endurance Championship title also.

2013 and 2014 so far have seen a continuation of is stellar results as the Audi trio claimed a third Le Mans 24 Hours victory and currently sit 2nd in the World Endurance Championship with 5 rounds remaining. During his sportscar and single seater career so far Lotterer has regularly proven himself to be a master of wet conditions, which maybe gives some indication of why Caterham chose to give him debut in the notoriously wet Belgian GP at Spa. Another reason may be his experience of the Spa circuit this year as he’s already raced there for Audi both in the WEC and the recent Spa 24 Hours.


Lotterer at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours for Audi.

Whatever Caterham chose they have made a bold yet good decision in my opinion to take a chance on the always quick Andre Lotterer for this weekend, as a sportscar fan I’ve seen plenty of impressive drives from him over the last few years for Audi. He has a chance to improve things for the Caterham team although despite circuit knowledge the Caterham car has proved very difficult all season. I sincerely hope he gets the chance to give a good account of himself this weekend despite the troublesome Caterham car, which I think is only fair after the wait he’s had to make his F1 debut.

Photo credit goes to http://www.Motorsport.com , http://www.worldcarfans.com and http://www.autoindustriya.com please visit their sites for more amazing photos.

Castle Combe Sports @ GT MSVR Report 02/08/14

In the penultimate race of the day thanks to the re-scheduled Castle Combe Saloons race was for the Castle Combe Sports and GT championship. Another local favourite with the fans, unfortunately the decision to split the sports racing prototypes and the GT cars into two separate series appears to have severely damaged the championship as both series had staggered through 2014 with low grids.

Usually the Sports and GT Championship has been the more competitive of the two yet their race only drew a season low grid of 5 cars for the start, although peak holiday season probably didn’t help with the entry. After a wet qualifying session it was no surprise to see the two 4wd Mitsubishi Evo’s of Gary Prebble and Barry Squibb sharing the front row, with Nick Holden’s Ariel Atom and Stuart Hignell’s VW Golf completing row 2. From the start ex-rallycross racer Barry Squibb made the best start as Prebble bogged down. The reduction from 15-12 laps didn’t help Prebble’s cause as he spent the first half of the race glued to the back of Squibb’s Mitsubishi as he looked for a way past.

After a valiant defence the slightly faster Evo of Prebble found a way past on the inside at Tower on lap 5, and soon built a lead of several seconds over the ensuing laps as Squibb attempted to stay with local favourite Prebble. By the penultimate lap Prebble had extended his lead to 6 seconds as he came home for yet another victory as he dominates this Sports and GT Championship in 2014. Barry Squibb put past reliability issues behind him to claim 2nd from Nick Holden in a distant 3rd. The Darrian of Phil Gale and the VW Golf of Stuart Hignell completed a lonely the top 5, although both were several laps down on the leaders in what was ultimately a good race despite the lack of a significant grid, which is the only thing this series is missing although in the first year of the series this can be excused slightly. With only one more meeting Prebble looks certain to wrap up the series in October.

For more info on this series please visit the link below
http://www.ccracingclub.co.uk/championships/gt/

Radical SR3 Challenge MSVR Castle Combe Report 02/08/14

After the earlier Radical Clubman’s Cup race after the Formula Ford stanza, it was the turn of the premier UK Radical racing series, the SR3 Challenge, to take too the track. Despite a smaller than usual grid for this 90 minute endurance race the race still promised much excitement as some of Britain’s premier club Sportscar drivers took up their places on the starting grid. There was drama before the start however as rainfall over the back section of the circuit meant that one side was relatively dry whilst the other half was a completely wet circuit, leaving a massive headache for the drivers and teams before the start.

It was the Peter Belshaw/Phil Keen car that took place with amateur driver Belshaw taking the start, with soloist Lewis Plato alongside him on the front row. The Andy Cummings/Bradley Ellis SR3 took 3rd as ex-British GT champion Ellis took the start with another soloist Shahin Nouri completing row 2. From the start Bradley Ellis rocketed into an early lead as the rest of the field tip toed around the first laps on the greasy track. As Ellis and Lewis Plato shot away from the rest it appeared they may be on different tyres to the rest, such was their early advantage. By lap 7 it became clear tail enders Manhal Allos and Ossy Yusuf were the only one’s on wet tyres as they both set a string of Fastest laps, although their wet tyres would soon be destroyed by the rapidly drying conditions.

By lap 17 it became clear the crossover point for dry tyres had been reached, as Ellis began setting a string of his own fastest laps to only extend his huge lead from the rest behind. The hopes of 3rd man Jasper Westerholm took an early hit as he was forced in for an unscheduled stop on lap 21 with a right rear puncture, dropping him well down the order. Between laps 25 and 30 the lead dice was hotting up as leader Ellis and Plato in 2nd began trading fastest laps between each other.

On lap 32 the pit window opened for the cars in group A of the pit schedule, with 2nd man Plato and Peter Belshaw immediately taking advantage of this and pitting from their positions. The A group were all quick to pit in the subsequent laps although for the B group it took them a little longer to make their mandatory pitstop’s. Bradley Ellis was unsurprisingly the last to stop as on lap 42 as he handed over to his amateur team mate Andy Cummings with a significant lead of a lap and a bit over the rest. At this point of the race it was the Kevin Mills Radical SR3 of ex-single seater champion Scott Malvern who was setting the pace with very quick 1m04.2 lap times as he made up some ground lost in the first stint by co-driver Nick Jones.

The impressive stint from Malvern didn’t last much longer sadly as he caused a Safety Car deployment on lap 47 to recover his car after crashing, although when later interviewed he explained a gear selection issue caused the off. The Safety Car was ill-timed for Cummings as he lost almost all his advantage as the rest made up their lap to him up front. Things quickly got even worse for Cummings as he was forced to pit for a stop/go penalty, only reducing his lead further as the Safety Car came in on lap 51.

After his stop/go penalty allowed Lewis Plato into the lead of the race on lap 52, it was a tall order for amateur driver Cummings to keep up the professional drivers in the cars around him for the remainder of the race. A car off at Quarry necessitated another Safety Car on lap 56, although it’s very late deployment almost caught out the leading runners as they were forced to quickly slow down behind it. The Safety Car came in on lap 59, and Plato soon set about building a lead to the rest from the re-start. Ex-British GT and TVR Tuscan racer Phil Keen made light work of Cummings at the Esses to claim 2nd on lap 61, with a second penalty for Cummings effectively destroying his chances of a top 2 result as he was forced to pit again late on lap 66.

6 Radical SR3 Challenge

The final laps provided a showdown finish as Keen began closing on Plato at the rate of 0.5 seconds per lap as he hunted for the win, with his first challenge for the lead coming at the Esses on the penultimate lap. The final laps were tense for the leading two although eventually Lewis Plato came home for victory by only 0.3 seconds from the Belshaw/Keen car after 90 minutes of flat out racing. The greatly unlucky Ellis/Cummings car came home 3rd from a lapped Jesper Westerholm in 4th, with Manhal Allos and the Kim/Moseley cars completing the top 6 in an exciting endurance race from the Radical SR3 Challenge.

Credit for these great photos go to

http://www.radicalsportscars.com/uk/radical-racing/details.aspx?passive=1&comp=2013%20Radical%20SR3%20Challenge&t=15

6 Radical SR3 Challenge

For more info on this exciting Radical series please visit the link below
http://www.radicalsportscars.com/uk/radical-racing/details.aspx?passive=1&comp=2013%20Radical%20SR3%20Challenge&t=15#