SILVERSTONE SUPER SATURDAY IN STORE FOR BRSCC AND CO
This Saturday at Silverstone, the British Racing & Sports Car Club prepares for the first of its championships and series on its portfolio to conclude their 2023 seasons, as the National circuit plays host to a full day of action. While the Civic Cup and Metro will continue on to their final rounds in October, two more championships will provisionally crown their champions on this day, subject to official confirmation in each. That means racing action is set to be especially frantic and energetic in the race for the crown!
MILLTEK SPORT CIVIC CUP
While others in attendance are completing their 2023 campaigns, the Milltek Sport Civic Cup still finds itself with two weekends of competition left to run. The first of those is Saturday’s one-day thrash on Silverstone’s National circuit, where there’s real tension at the top of the points standings and only five more races to settle it.
At this stage heading to Silverstone, it almost dead level between leader Alistair Camp and second placed Max Edmundson, the pair only separated by a single point. Had Edmundson not been carrying penalty points, it would in fact be him that leads the way but as such, he needs to ensure he stays trouble-free to eliminate the risk of any more. Camp has only one won race to date so far this season at Oulton Park, but he’s taken full advantage of others hitting trouble or their inconsistent form to rise up the table and score well when it counted.
By contrast, Edmundson has two victories to his name this year and has been mighty impressive, the young charger establishing himself as a regular frontrunner and managing to shake off some of the erratic tendencies in his driving style from early in the season. He’ll want to keep the pressure on and aim for more victories to try and leapfrog Camp before the Brands Hatch finale.
With three wins so far, Dan Thackeray sits in third on dropped scores and is only six points off the lead, so that puts him still very much in contention and someone who could spoil the part if given the chance. The top three are a few points clear of fourth placed man Ryan Bensley, but it only takes one bad weekend from any of them and good results from Ryan to haul him back into contention. Results from the final rounds at Brands Hatch cannot be used towards dropped scores, so ensuring he’s on a good footing to challenge in Kent will be key.
The top four are in a league of their own somewhat as fifth placed Morgan Bailey is a substantial 59 points back from fourth with a lot of ground to try and make up. He’ll need all the luck he can get to even remotely stay in touch with them, especially as Will Redford will be on his tail in sixth just seven points behind. Harvey Caton, Jack Harding, Sam Kirkpatrick and Alex Kite complete the current top ten, each looking to battle over seventh and ninth in the standings too.
NATIONAL FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP
The final weekend of competition for this year’s National Formula Ford Championship takes the paddock to another spiritual home of the category, as Silverstone’s National circuit plays host to the last races both of the season. There’s still a tight battle for the crown at the top of the standings, and with both races mandated to count towards the final points total with no ability to use them as dropped scores, the pressure will well and truly be on.
At the top, it looks to be a straight fight mainly between leader Jordan Kelly and Lucas Romanek. On dropped scores after the last rounds at Knockhill, there’s only a nine point margin between them despite Romanek scoring more points to date outright. Lucas started the year stronger with three wins and three second places from the first six races, while Jordan struggled but still managed a maiden win at Snetterton.
Then through the midway point, the momentum shifted in favour of the Irishman, as Kelly began to hit his stride from Kirkistown onwards. In fact in the last eight races, Jordan has only been off the podium once with the Team DOLAN man taking four wins to his name in that period. By contrast, Romanek has only won once and missed out on the podium twice, thus helping to currently balance things only just in Kelly’s favour.
In terms of what each needs to do, Jordan knows that if he can make sure he either outscores Romanek or keeps the number of points he loses to a bare minimum, the provisional title can be his, while Lucas’ goal will simply be to score as well as he can, try to win both races and ultimately keep Kelly behind him all weekend too. Doing that, especially by winning, could still give him the title he missed out on last year, but only just.
Mathematically, Romanek’s Oldfield Motorsport teammate Brandon McCaughan is still in with a shout of the championship, but will really need fortunes to go all his way if he’s to achieve it. With two wins to his name in 2023, Brandon has stepped up further to match his teammate, but he’s also had his share of bad luck with a double DNF at Donington being the biggest blow. He enters the weekend 64 points behind Kelly, but he’ll need to win both races, take pole and both fastest laps and hope that Jordan ends up scoring zero from the weekend to snatch it. It’s a tall order, but Brandon will at least aim to go out on a high at the end of the season and finish well.
Fourth place could still be up for grabs too, as Elliot Budzinski leads Ammonite Motorsport’s charge and the American now heads by 24 points. Budzinski won at Donington Park, also a first time victory, while Quinn has yet to do so but has shown great pace recently to become a regular on the podium, but the former Team USA Scholarship man Budzinski will also hope for a trouble-free weekend to net him that P4.
Alongside the main title contenders, the final round has brought out a number of guest drivers using this weekend as an early warm up for both of Formula Ford’s big end of season knockout competitions. Speaking of the Team USA Scholarship, 2023 winners Jack Sullivan and Ayrton Houk will make their UK racing debuts this weekend in preparation for the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy, and they’ll be joined by Hayes regular Michael Moyers and Jacob Tofts in a pair of Kevin Mills Racing Spectrums, along with former Festival winner Josh Smith, Lewis Fox in a modern Ray chassis and American racer Jeremy Fairbairn. Other returnees include Chris Middlehurst and Lucas Blakeley, the latter looking to build on his Brands Hatch victory, and also look out for the four Super Classic invitation cars joining the entry as Neil Hunt, Benn Tilley, Stuart Kestenbaum and David Porter look forward to another day out on the National circuit.
BRSCC SUPERSPORT ENDURANCE CUP
It’s safe to say that in its first full season as a championship, the BRSCC’s new SuperSport Endurance Cup has been an unquestionable success. Bringing a popular two-hour club-level endurance format to its portfolio has inspired many cars, drivers and teams to participate throughout the year across some of the country’s best circuit. Now it all culminates back at Silverstone on the National circuit for the final two hour race of the year, where provisional overall and class titles will be settled.
Pro-A is going to be a straight fight between the BMW 1 Series of Keir McConomy and Bart Horsten, and the Honda Civic of Ricky Coomber. Keir and Bart were quick out of the blocks with three class wins on the bounce in the first half of the season, but reliability problems have hampered them in the last two races leaving Coomber to collect the victories as a result. Now separated by sixteen points, it almost certain that the BMW pair will take the class, but Ricky will just drive as hard as he can and hope luck goes his way.
Pro-B is where we find two of the contenders for the main overall SuperSport honours. Leon Bidgway’s Lotus Exige currently leads outright and in class with 185 points while Julian McBride’s BMW M3 E46 is second in class and third outright on 175 points, just one away from second overall. Julian took first blood at Snetterton in April, but since then Leon has picked up three class wins and put himself in position to lead on dropped scores. If Leon can stay out of trouble and take another victory, it could not only provisionally hand him the class, but also the outright honours as well.
Both drivers have regular company in the class with the Chris and Andrew Etheridge in their M3, Jamie Hayes and Alex Read in their SEAT, Lee Collins’ Caterham and Martin Gadsby’s BMW Compact all hoping to come away from Silverstone with good results too.
Tim Hartland and Stuart Mead are at the head of Pro-C in their VW Scirocco and look set to pick up the provisional title here too as well as stay in the fight for the overall title. It won’t be easy as they’ll need to rely on Bidgway’s Lotus hitting bad luck to stand a chance of overhauling them, but they can at least be pleased with their season’s work in class. Competition comes once again from a pair of MINIs as John Wyatt looks to cement second and the unique MINI Clubman of Keith Issatt and Chris Williams also joins the party too.
In Clubman-A, Paul Hinson is hoping to put in another excellent drive and produced some equally great strategy to collect another class win and claim the class as his own, but his regular rivals will certainly keep him honest. The Renault of Graham Price and Matt Dennis has been getting stronger all year and will be on his tail throughout, as will the Clio of Andy Mollison and the Matthew Groom and David Weinberg in their Clio 172 as well.
Clubman-B leaders Richard Amos and Bruce Robinson are not present for the finale, but their scores look set to be good enough to help them achieve the provisional title despite not racing. That means it’s on for second between the Renault Clio of Matt Adams and Sarah Dennis, and the Mazda MX-5 Mk3 of Michael Sanford, Lewis Noon and Sam Reuter. Both will want to try and end the season with a class win.
HICKFORD CONSTRUCTION MG METRO CUP
After joining the BRSCC during the off-season over the winter, the Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup now comes to the second to last meeting of its first full campaign of racing underneath the Club’s banner in 2023. Silverstone’s National circuit is the venue for the penultimate Metro outing and there’s a great turnout of almost 20 cars set to contest Saturday;s pair of races.
Up top in the title race, Rhys Claydon maintains the lead he holds over Mike Williams by fifteen points on dropped scores. The pair split the victories between them last time out at Cadwell Park, although Claydon did suffer a retirement after a loose bonnet eventually caused mechanical issues that forced him out of race one. That DNF has now become his dropped score while Williams is currently dropping twelve points from Snetterton as his, and now with only four races until the end of the season it’s getting to the stage where every single result and every single point really does matter.
A little way back in third but still in a battle of his own is Matthew Simpson who himself is also fifteen points ahead of his competition. That competition is Ben Williams, both having taken their fair share of podium finishes and hoping to be on the pace from the outset at Silverstone. Both came back from retirement in race one at Cadwell Park to stand on the podium in race two, and they’ll be hoping not to have to do that and and remain in the lead pack all day.
There’s also potential for fifth down to eighth changing around before the season is complete. Phil Goodwin, Tim Shoorter, Jon Moore and Dick Trevett can usually be found racing against once another on any given weekend so far this year and they’re sure to do the same on the National circuit on this occasion.
Scott Woodwiss
