ROCHE SCORES SILVERSTONE MAZDA HAT-TRICK

Experienced Mazda competitor Tom Roche showed his class at Silverstone over the weekend, winning all three races in the BRSCC Mazda Autumn Challenge. However, Alexander Preston pushed him all the way coming second in each encounter.

Roche, from Cardiff, won the first of two races on Friday by just .0345 of a second with Mark Litherland in third. The Welshman, who runs the Blendini team, extended the gap to over four seconds in the second outing with Andy Coombs taking the final podium spot. Windsor based Preston fought back on Saturday morning to lower the margin to a little over two seconds but couldn’t prevent Roche from taking a hat-trick of wins. Wolfgang Reip was third.

All three Mazda races took place in dry conditions. Sadly, the same could not be said of the main event – the Britcar 24 hours. The race started in dry conditions and the rain held off until the last three hours when the heavens opened. However, nothing could stop the MP Motorsport team of Richard Abra, Mark Poole, Clint Bardwell and Michael Symons from claiming a deserved victory. Richard Abra had the honour of guiding home the BMW E46 GT and did so comfortably with a lead of four laps over the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Dave West, Jamie Wall, Michael Brown & Paul Cripps. The MB Motorsport team did however have the consolation of winning Class One. The Perfection Racing Aston Martin G4 was third.