SUPPORT RACES PUT ON A SHOW AHEAD OF C1 24 HOUR MAIN EVENT AT SILVERSTONE
Ahead of the 2023 Silverlake C1 24 Hours on the Silverstone GP circuit this past weekend, a selection of BRSCC championships and series provided some exceptional entertainment on the support timetable beforehand. Tin-tops, sports prototypes and another two hour endurance race all added to the feel-good factor of the weekend in glorious late spring sunshine, with plenty of battles and great racing across the board.
AIRTEC MOTORSPORT FIESTA ST240 CHAMPIONSHIP
On the Silverstone GP circuit’s long straights and flowing corners, the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship had a real chance to stretch its legs, as Alastair Kellett looked to extend his points lead at the head of the overall standings and in Pro class. Just about everyone that competed at the Snetterton season opener was back in action, along with a one or two new additions to the grid.
Kellett made the best start to his weekend with pole position by almost three tenths, joined on the front row by fellow Snetterton winner Zachary Lucas, and Kellett made sure no-one was beating him to Copse as Race 1 of the day got underway. Making an early escape, Kellett left Lucas to momentarily defend from Olly Turner before Olly was tagged into a spin at Vale that pushed him down the order on the opening lap.
Lucas got right onto the tail of Kellett before the end of the first lap, but no sooner had it been completed when the safety car was called for an unfortunate incident between Connor Blackburn and Gary Miller down at Brooklands. The runyourfleet.com Jaguar safety car bunched up the pack for a couple of laps before racing resumed with six and a half minutes left on the clock once the clear-up had been completed. Immediately, Kellett tried to make a break but while Lucas was initially able to keep with him, he then slowed with a mechanical issue exiting Stowe on the restart and eventually dropped to 14th at the chequered flag.
This promoted Albert Webster into 2nd place with Spencer Stevenson not far off his tail in 3rd, as the pair made a beeline for Kellett’s lead advantage. Webster appeared to be right on Kellett’s pace and didn’t take long to sit on the Irishman’s rear bumper looking for a way through. Over the final two laps, he applied as much pressure as he dared in a bid to snatch the lead, but Kellett’s experience shone through and held back Albert’s advances to ensure the top three stayed as it was. Kellett picked up his second win of the year, Webster took his first senior podium with 2nd and Stevenson was pleased with a strong 3rd place.
While guest driver Ulick Burke was classified as the top Club class winner, the points for Club victory went to Sean Reynolds, followed by Morgan Kidd and Marco Ricci.
Once again Kellett got the best start in Race 2 while Webster came under pressure from Simon Horrobin into Copse, but held on with Stevenson also following suit to produce the same top three running order that Race 1 was seen. While Kellett had a small gap ending the opening lap, Webster’s quicker pace on the following tour allowed to be right underneath Kellett as Lap 3 began. However, another unfortunate incident involving Matt Chambers forced the Safety Car to be called.
The lengthy clear-up sadly ate into the remainder of the race time, meaning that Kellett was able to sprint to the flag on the final run to the line to wrap up a double victory from Silverstone, followed once again Webster in 2nd and Stevenson in 3rd in Pro class. With Ulick Burke again crossing the line first as a guest in Club class, the points for the win instead went to Marco Ricci this time ahead of Adam Clark and Archie Johnson.
VINYL DETAIL FIESTA ST150 CHALLENGE
The Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge made its first venture onto the full Grand Prix layout of Silverstone in Northamptonshire, with an excellent entry of 20 cars lining up for their second outing of the 2023 season. Matthew Pimlott headed to Silverstone with a slender championship to defend, knowing that his main rivals from the Snetterton opener were going to make it difficult for him to stay on top.
From qualifying, defending champion Michael Blackburn started from pole position with Ethan Rogers lined up alongside on the front row, but a sluggish start from Blackburn dropped him backwards as the first few rows behind tore past on the run to Copse. Rogers took the lead into the first corner, followed closely by Thomas Ikin and Daniel Robinson – a top three order that was locked in for the next couple of laps while the safety car was called for an incident up ahead of them at Brooklands.
Once the safety car was called back in, Rogers remained in top spot with Ikin in close attention, while Robinson was only able to hold back Sam Watkins for a lap before he submitted and allowed Sam to squeeze past for 3rd, shortly before Pimlott also did the same to push Robinson to the bottom of the top five. Meanwhile, Ikin pressed Rogers hard heading into the final lap but ended up falling back towards Watkins as Rogers managed to pull away and take victory – on the road, at least. A technical infringement discovered post race sadly disqualified Rogers, handing the win instead to Ikin for the first time in the ST150s from Watkins in 2nd and Pimlott in 3rd.
The sprint to the first corner starting Race 2 saw Ikin, Watkins and Sam Beckett three abreast heading into Copse, with Beckett getting sideways at corner apex but avoiding contact with the two cars to his left. He remained 3rd as Watkins led from Ikin through the opening corners, with Watkins trying to make an early escape out in front but Ikin quickly closing him down again.
Sam Watkins led the opening lap with Ikin in tow and there was no change on lap two either, but before the pair could continue their battle, the Safety Car was called once again for another incident up ahead of them. Unfortunately, the lengthy clear up of said incident meant that the race would go on to finish with a flying restart to the chequered flag with no overtaking permitted. This gave Sam Watkins his first win of the year, followed home by Ikin in 2nd and Pimlott again in 3rd.
ZEO PROTOTYPE SERIES
Heading into its third season with the BRSCC, the sublime ZEO Prototype Series made its first appearance of 2023 on the full Silverstone GP circuit with one of its biggest entries to date. Some 25 cars headed into the weekend ready to race, including a selection of Revolutions courtesy of a tie up with the Sports Prototype Cup, a quartet of Pragas making their full season debuts, plus the usual line up of Radicals, Junos and other unique machinery.
Familiar front runner Mike Jenvey took pole in qualifying and the lead from the start of Race 1, immediately pursued by a trio of Pragas driven by Ruben Stanislaus, Jessica Hawkins and Rodolfo Gonzalez. Initially, Jenvey had the measure of the three cars behind him, but seven minutes in and Mike’s Jenvey-Gunn strangely shut down and ending the lap, he’d slipped from 1st to 4th behind the Pragas with Stanislaus taking over in front. Back up to full speed, Jenvey wasted no time repassing Hawkins and Gonzalez to climb back to 2nd.
Soon enough, Jenvey was back in the lead past Stanislaus and quickly started trying to rebuild his lead, but it wasnt long before the Pragas were back on his tail and what followed was a thrilling four-car fight for the outright lead during the final 10 minutes. This became a trio when Hawkins was forced to retire late on with a mechanical issue, but not before Jenvey pulled off an outrageous late dive into Vale to snatch the lead back on the penultimate lap. Jenvey charged to victory in the end, followed by Stanislaus in 2nd and Gonzalez a slightly distant 3rd.
On pole for Race 2 also, Jenvey’s start was equalled by the Revolution of Jonathan Mitchell, holding the outside line to steal the lead exiting Copse. The identical Revolution of Redwood/ Abbott moved up to 2nd and not long after, Shane Kelly moved the University of Wolverhampton Praga shared with Jessica Hawkins into 3rd as Jenvey temporarily slowed on the Sir Lewis Hamilton Straight and seemed to drop out of contention.
Mitchell’s lead was closed down by the Redwood/ Abbott Revolution, Kelly and the recovering Jenvey, the latter of the three managing to charge back to 2nd in quick time. The Redwood/ Abbott car dropped out heading to Stowe at half distance as Jenvey took the lead from Mitchell moments later, but lost it again on the next lap. Soon enough the top two had Kelly on their tail and he took 2nd just as Jenvey dived for the pits with what turned out to be a terminal issue.
For the remainder of the race, Kelly tried to hunt down Mitchell and slowly reeled him in, but the Revolution had enough pace to hold him back and take the race win, forcing Kelly to settle for 2nd place on this occasion. Will Stowell, meanwhile, put in a quiet but consistent drive to pick up the final podium spot with 3rd.
BRSCC SUPERSPORT ENDURANCE CUP
The BRSCC SuperSport Endurance Cup had seen an exceptional opening race to its first full season as a new championship at Snetterton, and it managed to build on that success in fine fashion as it touched down at Silverstone on the full Grand Prix circuit for another 2 hours of club endurance action. Almost 40 cars lined up for the occasion, with many of the contenders from Snetterton’s opener back to continue the season.
Pole sitter Bart Horsten led the pack into Copse from lights out in the BMW 1 Series shared with Keir McConomy, followed by the M3s of Jasver Sapra/ Bryan Bransom and Dave Griffin, with Julian McBride’s M3 making it a quartet of BMWs out in front. The Sapra/ Bransom car took over after a few minutes and held on as the first safety car was called for Alistair Lindsay’s SEAT stopped before Aintree.
During the safety car, most of the pack dived in to make their first mandatory stop, but the top three chose not to pit immediately with everyone else. That was until Dave Griffin brought his M3 in for its stop, a lap before the race got underway again with Sapra/ Bransom chased hard by Horsten/ McConomy on the restart. The two leaders continued to circulate together as the M3 held back the 1 Series lap after lap, before Sapra/Bransom pitted first to leave the 1 Series out on its own. Another safety car was called briefly for one lap, Ricky Coomber’s Honda Civic momentarily stopped exiting The Loop.
Griffin pitted to make his second stop while Horsten/ McConomy made their first, playing beautifully into the hands of Griffin as he was now free to drive to the finish in the net lead. Then drama befell Sapra/Bransom when their BMW stopped on pit entry, forcing them out of contention and leaving Griffin out on his own unchallenged in the lead. That was until just before half an hour to go, when the M3 suffered mechanical gremlins of its own and was forced to retire in pit lane.
While this now moved Horsten/ McConomy into P1, they still had their second stop to make, and when they did they rejoined behind the Lotus Exige of Leon Bidgway with less than 20 minutes to go. From here, Bidgway’s task was simple and he drove faultlessly to take overall victory and Pro-B class honours, with fellow class mates Julian McBride and Luke and Paul Browes in their BMW M3s taking P2 and P3 overall.
Other class wins in the field went the way of Bart Horsten and Keir McConomy (BMW 1 Series) in Pro-A, Stuart Mead and Tim Hartland (VW Scirocco) in Pro-C, Paul Hinson (BMW Compact) in Clubman-A, Bruce Robinson and Richard Amos (Mazda MX-5 Mk3) in Clubman-B and Adam Read and David Drinkwater (BMW E36 Compact) in Clubman-C
Scott Woodwiss
