ANGLESEY JULY 10/11 PREVIEW – BRSCC MAZDA MX-5 CHAMPIONSHIP

Six races in to the 2021 BRSCC Mazda MX-5 Championship season and there’s plenty of reasons to believe that this is not going to be a straightforward task for one driver to dominate and command the points table. With three different race winners and many others also grabbing solid scores, the championship now heads to Anglesey in North Wales for the first time since 2019 finely poised to go into overdrive come the weekend’s conclusion.

Even though he’s only taken one race win from six so far, it’s the consistency from Fraser Fenwick that’s put him in the lead of the standings heading to Wales. He kept himself in the top five and collected a podium during the Croft season opener before popping up with a win in the first race at Silverstone, and despite following that up with two 8th places, he made sure that his results were enough to put him in a strong position early on while others did well at one meeting, but struggled at the next. It’ll be a big task to maintain his lead and Fraser will know he has to bring his A-game from now on to ensure it remains with him.

The man on form right now, however, is definitely Steve Foden who finally shook off a long-standing aim of scoring a BRSCC Mazda MX-5 race win at Silverstone and rather than just taking one, he captured a pair for his troubles for good measure! The weather conditions certainly worked in Steve’s favour, but regardless his strong form means that he will want to eradicate the five point deficit he has to Fenwick and take over as leader himself. Now that he and the car appear to be in top form, it’s quite possible Steve will be the man to beat again.

Oliver Graham is a somewhat surprise 3rd place, considering that so far he’s yet to have finished a race this year higher than 5th. Another beacon of consistency, Oliver’s been quietly working on his form and has been another that has kept his head while others allowed theirs to drop at times around him. Impressively, he’s only 13 points away from the lead, but if some of the more prominent front runners find their stride again then Graham will need to find another gear to keep up with them. One of those prominent front runners is Oliver Allwood, who will feel as though he should be in a fairly commanding lead already had he not found the tyres in the final Croft race and finished mid-pack. Aside from that race, he’s never finished lower than 4th with three podiums to his name already and as someone who is all too familiar with being a race winner, his aim will absolutely be to grab that first win of the year this weekend.

Then we come to Croft’s hat-trick hero Jack Brewer, who ended up landing back to earth with a bump after flying high in Yorkshire. A tag from Brian Trott in the first race on the last lap and then a first lap incident in the second were followed by a lacklustre final encounter at Silverstone which saw him drop from the points lead to 5th, but thankfully at this early point he’s only 24 away from leader Fenwick so he has time to make up the deficit. A bounce back to his fortunes a couple of months ago will be the only thing he’s looking for.

There are other movers and shakers amongst the rest of the top 10 in the points, with Adam Craig currently enjoying one of his best starts to a season currently in 6th, looking to build on a best finish of 6th from Croft, while another driver who should be higher is Brian Trott, who really hit his stride at Silverstone with podiums in all three races. Not only will be wishing to climb higher from 7th, but also to continue his progress in the Masters points table for drivers aged 45 and over. There’s also two drivers with the surname Greatrex currently in the top 10, with Callum currently sat in 8th and Jason Greatrex in 10th with the pair sandwiching Stuart Symonds, the trio separated by 18 points and ready for a fight.

Scott Woodwiss