CLUBSPORT TROPHY READY TO GO THE DISTANCE AT CADWELL PARK

Last year’s pair of inaugural races for the BRSCC Clubsport Trophy was an instant hit, with both grids ending up sold out and featuring a healthy and inspired variety of cars competing across the series’ five classes. Now with Brands Hatch and Donington Park in the history books and now the extended offseason due to the pandemic has come to an end, it’s finally time for our first full season of racing to get underway, starting this weekend at Cadwell Park.

As a reminder, the Clubsport Trophy is a multi-class, mini-endurance series that features 45-minute races and a mandatory pit stop. Entries can feature either a solo driver effort or a two-driver combo and all cars are separated into a five-class structure, allocated based on their “true” power to weight ratio (meaning the weight of the car including the driver in full race kit). This should mean that all cars are accurately placed into the right class with some cars of the same specification potentially being allocated differently based on how their power to weight ratio stacks up thanks to their drivers.

Looking down the entry list, we begin with arguably the fastest cars in the field in Class A. Mark Thomas brings a favourite car from Donington last year as his Ford Capri in a replica European Touring Car livery will be looking to handle Cadwell’s twists and turns as best it can. Olly Samways brings a rather special Toyota MR2 “SuperGT” to the party and that’s sure to be put to the test against David Sheads’ BMW Compact, the Porsche Boxster of regular Mazda MX-5 racers Adrian Burge and Bruce Robinson, and a very formidable looking Lotus Exige from BC Cars Motorsport to be piloted by former MX-5 champion and team boss Brian Chandler and his regular driver Matt Pickford, who will also be racing in the MX-5 SuperCup this weekend too.

Class B will see a pair of MX-5s attempt to gang up on Andy Thompson’s touring car-esque looking Seat Toledo 1.8 Turbo, a regular attendee at many all-comers style races and series. The MX-5s in questions will be a Mk3 model to be driven by Declan Lee and Aidan Hills, both SuperCup stalwarts, and a modified Mk1 from Scottish racer Scott Ferguson. Whether any of them can beat Thompson’s SEAT will be an interesting discovery to make.

The most densely populated class this weekend is Class C, with another three MX-5s in the mix here. After some pre-season testing and even a debut in Britcar recently at Croft, Paul Sheard brings not one but two of his Sheard Autosport prepared Mk4 models, with the potential of Paul sharing his entry with Nicholas Dunn (another SuperCup racer on double duty), while former Formula Ford Festival winner, rallycross and historic racer Chrissy Palmer pilots the other. More SuperCup stars line up in the form of Alex Miller and John Langridge in another Mk3. Joining them are David Thomas’ Toyota MR2 Mk1, the BMW 330 of BMW Compact Cup racers David May and Mark Skeats, Cameron McLean’s Renault Clio 182 and the superb looking modified Ford Fiesta of Alex Boam.

Class D is going to be a straight one-on-one shootout between the pairing of Craig and Gary Butterworth in their potent little Renault Clio 172 Sport and yet another example of a Mk3 Mazda MX-5 in the hands of Darren Stapleton. Watching this fight between a front-wheel-drive hot hatch and a rear-wheel-drive sports car might just attract some attention if it’s as competitive as it has the potential to be.

Over in Class E, there’s still no escaping Mazda MX-5s! Two Mk1s from Kevin Bird and Rob Greensmith from Steel City MX-5 will be in attendance along with the Mk2.5 from Nick Glover who also appeared with us last year. There’s also a couple of Compact Cup machines in the hands of Adam Read in one and Philip Adcock and Andrew Waters teaming up in the other, along with Christian White’s MINI Cooper S and the cheeky little Suzuki Swift GTi of Craig Robertson, who is back on the grid after the inaugural Brands Hatch outing.

Five cars will be waiting on the reserve list, with Richard and Steven Bartlett in one more Mk1 MX-5 and Matt Fletcher and Chris Molloy in another, along with Andrew Bond’s super Honda Civic EG, Tom Stanway’s BMW 328i and the Proton Satria GTi of Perry Tubb and Richard Wain. Also, be sure to watch out for the excellent looking BRSCC CityCar Cup who have the pleasure of joining our grid for their first-ever race. With a mix of Citroen C1s, Peugeot 107s and Toyota Aygos, they’re sure to be brilliant fun on track and could even give some of the dedicated Clubsport entries some trouble in the right hands!

Scott Woodwiss