SILVERSTONE READY FOR BUMPER BRSCC WEEKEND OF RACING

The Home of British Motorsport is always a thrilling venue for the British Racing & Sports Car Club to visit and this weekend, Silverstone’s National Circuit is set to welcome a bumper two days of racing featuring some of the best and brightest championships and series the club currently has to offer. There’s an excellent mix of sports cars, endurance racing, single seaters and sports prototypes, ready to entertain both the limited number of trackside spectators and those watching on this weekend’s live stream coverage on YouTube and Facebook.

Saturday’s main event will be the second race of the year for the FunCup Endurance Championship, off the back of the mixed conditions they experienced at Donington Park a few weeks ago. Race winners and former champions UVio/ Hoffman’s Lotus will have a tough task to take a second win in a row due to automatically starting at the back this time, while their main rivals that will surely give them headaches include defending champs Team Olympian, Team Viking, Despatch Bay Express, CCS Media and Greensall Motorsport. Another 4 hour epic lies ahead of them and don’t be fooled by the race length – there’s rarely ever a dull moment in a FunCup Endurance race with guaranteed action from start to finish!

There’s something of another Mazda MX-5 takeover of the paddock this weekend as all three of the BRSCC’s popular championships for the evergreen small Japanese sportscar head to Silverstone ready to rumble. The Mazda MX-5 Championship sees a full 40 car grid in attendance with points leader and triple Croft winner Jack Brewer looking to remain at the head of it. He knows his task won’t be easy as with top names like Steve Foden, Michael Knibbs, Brian Trott, Oliver Allwood and Jason Greatrex among many more. The competition is always fierce here so expect it to be no different.

Also sporting a well-supported entry is the new BRSCC Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship, which began and Croft with a 12-car field and has now rapidly expanded to a grid featuring more than 30 cars, all identical to those that compete in the above-mentioned MX-5 Championship. Harry Storer became the Clubman Championship’s first ever race winner with a brace of victories, but he knows his day in the sun might not last for too much longer if the likes of Kevin Bird, Robert Greensmith, Peter Higton and Jay Shepherd manage to catch up to him. The vastly expanded grid includes a number of familiar drivers not uknown to BRSCC Mazda MX-5 fans plus some newcomers trying out for the first time, so it’s sure to be quite the occasion.

The Mazda MX-5 SuperCup is also jam-packed with a capacity 40 car grid, headed up by Patrick Fletcher who finally managed to collect his first two wins since joining the championship. He has shown formidable pace despite being an independent runner against the bigger teams and his hard work is now starting to produce results. Jack Harding and Samuel Smith chased him all weekend but couldn’t knock him off the top spot before James Cossisn, another first time winner, did so himself. That should be a fascinating Pro Class contest, while Kevin Silvain and Luke Whitworth shared the Club Class honours between them, both rookies competing in their first seasons of car racing. Richard Amos, Clive Powles and Martin Heath are looking to be their main opposition once more.

After their superb races at Donington Park and Knockhill, the Avon Tyres National Formula Ford Championship sees Kevin Mills Racing’s Alex Walker heading up the points as the paddock moves across to Silverstone. The National circuit is a firm favourite with all Formula Ford racers as many will have enjoyed this circuit previously at the end of season Walter Hayes Trophy event, so expect a lot of slipstreaming and late braking moves all weekend. Rory Smith will be returning to resume his Donington form and is sure to do battle with David Leslie Trophy winner Chris Middlehurst, the Low Dempsey Racing trio of Max Esterson, Colin Queen & Andre Lafond, Lucas Romanek, Carter Williams and the formidable Joey Foster. Expect these three races to be intense!

Sunday will mark the first two races of the brand new ZEO Prototype Cup, a dedicated series for sports prototype that harks back to the kind of racing that the BRSCC saw on its roster a couple of years ago. There’s a brilliant mix of chassis within the 14 car entry set to take to the grid, with the usual gaggle of Radicals taking on some rather unique machines. These include Duncan Williams’ Norma LMP3 racer, Mike Jenvey’s rapid Jenvey-Gunn TS6, Matthew Chamberlain in the family built CTR 01, Graham Charman’s Juno and also a brand new car just arrived on UK shores. Jay Shepherd and Ed Worthington will debut the new UK NP-01 Evo on Sunday, a closed-top Mazda-engined LMP-style spec racer that could lead to a few more making it over here in the months to come.

Plus, there’s the usual fantastic mix of machines set to make up a capacity 40 car line up in the BRSCC Clubsport Trophy, one of the best supported and most popular series on our portfolio. Across five classes there’s a whole host of Mazda MX-5s, Ford Fiestas, BMWs, MINIs, Toyotas and Renault Clios, plus a pair of Caterhams including David Fender’s ultra-rare Caterham 21, the David May/ Mark Skeats Nissan 350Z, Adrian Burge’s Porsche Boxster and Tom Stanway’s stunning BMW 328i super touring homage. Don’t miss a minute of this 45-minute encounter with mandatory pitstops!

Scott Woodwiss