CHANDLER TAMES CADWELL
Brian Chandler produced a master class at Cadwell. Photo: Jon Elsey
A busy Northern Centre meeting featuring 22 races was the perfect send-off for outgoing Competitions Director Drew Furlong, who leaves the BRSCC today.
Drew has put a lot of energy into building up the Club’s Mazda championships over the last three seasons and the results of his labours were there for all to see with 54 Mk1s entered for the Cadwell triple-header. Suffolk’s Brian Chandler was undoubtedly the star of the show with a hat-trick of race wins to blow the title wide open.
Chandler emerged from a tight first encounter with leader Simon Baldwin, winning by just over a second with Sam Smith third. The first ‘B’ group race went the way of William Stephenson who just beat Kevin Dengate to the line. Carl Andrew took the final podium place and earned promotion to the A group along with Matt Tasker and David Henderson.
The second A group race was a similar story with Chandler and Baldwin occupying the first two berths, but this time Ben Tuck demoted Sam Smith to fourth. Lewis Field was the victor in the B race winning comfortably from Adam Craig and Simon Drinkall.
Race three produced what could be a very significant moment when championship leader Simon Baldwin only managed to complete two laps after a ‘racing incident’ with Chandler forced him to retire. This left Chandler to complete the full house, although Darron Lewis pushed him hard claiming P2 in the process. Sam Smith completed a satisfactory weekend with another podium finish. In the final B group outing Fleet’s Brian Trott claimed his maiden MX-5 win beating Graham Colby and the impressive debutant Tim Penton to the line. Chandler now moves into second place in the points table, just fourteen points behind Baldwin.
From the strong Alfashop Alfa Romeo contingent, Graham Seager was the only driver to make the podium in what were two fantastically entertaining races. Graham won the first round in his GTV ahead of Chris Snowdon and double champion Roger Evans. Bryan Shrubb’s 33 bested the lot of them in the second equally exciting tour, demoting Seager to second. Andy Robinson took the final slot. Ray Foley scored two Power Trophy class wins and James Ford and Paul Plant shared the honours in the Twin Spark Trophy.
What looked like Alan Henderson’s serene procession towards the MX-5 SuperCup title was rudely interrupted yesterday afternoon. It was business as usual in the first of the three Mk3 races with Henderson winning by over fourteen seconds from Anthony Nield and Liam Murphy. However, Murphy turned the tables on the AK Automotive driver in round two, squeezing home by just 0.352 seconds, with Anthony Nield again making the podium. The final SuperCup race was another very close encounter with Johnathan Clements winning by a very similar margin from Murphy with Jonathan Greensmith rounding out the podium. Henderson had to make do with fourth but actually strengthened his place at the top of the standings.
Veteran racer Richard Styrin made a return to the Toyo Tires Porsche Championship just for Cadwell and came away with an impressive two wins. Styrin edged Ed Hayes to the line by 0.054 seconds in the first race with Garry Lawrence claiming the first of what would turn out to be three P3 finishes for the Bedfordshire driver. Race two saw the same pair finish first and second with the margin of victory increasing to almost a second. Styrin’s grip was broken in the third and final race by championship leader Adam Southgate who led from start to finish and was untroubled winning from Richard Avery by twenty-seven seconds.
A brace of P2 finishes for Michael Watton saw him leave Cadwell on Sunday night with the biggest points haul of all the Formula Jedi drivers. Championship leader Lee Morgan won Saturday’s encounter by just 0.262 seconds from Watton, who also trails him in the points table. Cambridge’s Paul Butcher was third. Ben Hingeley had a moderately comfortable four second win on Sunday from Watton with Dan Clowes another twenty seconds adrift. Watton’s success has closed the gap right down on Morgan to just a single point.
Our friends from the Track Attack Race Club were again very welcome visitors at a BRSCC meeting and brought with them three healthy grids. The pair of Nippon Challenge races produced the same three drivers on the podium – albeit in different order. Race one went the way of James Janicki in his Nissan Skyline, ahead of Rob Horsfield and Lee Gillard. Horsfield went one better in the second race driving his MR2 Speedster to victory ahead of Janicki with Gillard again third. Mark Astall and Simon Thorpe were the first home in the Deutsche Marques Cup.
The Citroen Saxo of Simon James had too much for the rest of the TARC Tricolore Trophy pack, winning both races. There was quite a battle for the remaining podium places with Carl Chambers and Kevin Jones taking the honours in round one before being superseded in the second race by David Clark and Andrew Mitchell. The Coupe Cup wins were shared between Simon Miles and Alex Cursley.
The final TARC series, the imaginatively titled YourIrishShop.com MR2 Series produced a fantastic first race with just 0.836 seconds separating winner Dave Hemingway from third placed Aaron Pullan, with Adam Lockwood sandwiched in between. Pullan went on to win a more sedate second race from Lockwood with Nathan Harrison moving up to third.
All the results, qualifying times and lap analysis can be viewed at CADWELL RESULTS
