BRSCC BEATS THE HEAT AT SNETTERTON
On undoubtedly one of the hottest race weekends we’ve experienced so far, the BRSCC headed back to Snetterton in Norfolk for another superb Summer Race Weekend on the full 300 circuit. Endurance racing was very much the flavour of the meeting with no less than three long distance encounters across the two days, along with plenty of tin-top sprint racing from BMWs, CityCars, Fords and CMMC to add to the entertainment.
After an incredible Anglesey double header, the Fun Cup Endurance Championship came to town to begin its second half of their season, with double race winners Olympian-GRD hoping to go for the three-peat in Norfolk. They started from the back by default with Skull Club Racing drawn on to pole position alongside Vapeclub with EDF Motorsports, but it was the latter that would be one of the early front runners as UVio/Hofmann’s Motorsport quickly worked their way to the front and enjoyed an early three way scrap with Vapeclub and MJ Tec. While that was occurring, Olympian-GRD climbed up to third after just over half an hour.
After the first couple of pit windows, both Olympian and Uvio were now locked together in a battle for the lead, but Olympian began to drop back and lost out to PLR Racing and Vapeclub not long after. But by half distance they were back up to second and chasing down leaders UVio, with the next couple of pit windows seeing the top five shuffle around a few times until a definitive order started to become clear heading towards the final hour with Olympian in second behind UVio after duelling with PLR and Vapeclub.
From what started as a gap of over thirty seconds, Olympian chased down UVio going into and through the final pit window, eventually managing to pass them as UVio exited their final pit stop. Riley Philips drove on to extend his lead and give himself, Simon Rudd and Chris Dovell their third win in a row for Olympian-GRD, followed by Farquini and Fabulous Randaccio in second for UVio and PLR Racing’s Ben Pitch and Neil Plimmer in third. Vapeclub and Greenheath completed the top five.
Sunday’s long distance epic came courtesy of the three hour Silverlake C1 Endurance Series with just over fourty teams entered for their third outing of the season. After qualifying and then a random draw of the top ten from the session put RABSport Racing on pole alongside AST Suspension UK featuring BTCC stars Josh Cook and Jade Edwards alongside Sylvain Rubio, the latter leading into Riches first time as the race went green. Baycon Racing took over starting lap two, but eventually perennial race winners Alpha-Trojon were into P1 just six minutes in. They then pitted as the pit window opened, allowing AST Suspension UK back to the front.
After an early safety car just before 30 minutes in, 2022 BTCC champion Tom Ingram put the OPC-PR car into the lead as AST and others began their first stops, and after battling Abbott Racing Motorspor before they too called into pit lane, OPC-PR were classified leaders at the end of hour one from Baycon Racing, Snail Speed Racing, Watt Motorsport and BPC Tyre Buffing. More position shuffling occurred through more stops, with WRC Developments finding themselves leading at one stage just past half distance, while Alpha-Trojon continued to charge back up the order.
Heading into the final hour, it looked as though Baycon Racing were in the pound seats to take victory, but they were sadly denied after they were forced to pit due to being too short on fuel to make the end of the race. This in turn promoted Alpha-Trojon to yet another win by over a minute with WRC Developments picking up second and while Baycon Racing did take third on a road, a three lap penalty for failing to provide footage promoted BPC Tyre Buffing onto the final podium step ahead of AF Racing and Snail Speed.
A trio of races for the Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup provided plenty of entertainment of their own across both days, with championship leader Joe Doble looking to extend his lead. A clean start to race one saw Doble effectively run unchallenged from start to finish and take victory, leaving a tussle for second between Gordon Macmillan, Connor Grady and Alex Read which came to a head when Read and Grady both slid off the road at the Brundle/Nelson complex. Both would cross the line second and third respectively, but Read was deemed to have gained an advantage thanks to his grassy moment and was demoted behind Macmillan post-race; Gareth Claydon completed the top five.
Doble again got the jump to lead race two from pole, again not troubled as he once more led from start to finish to secure victory, although Grady did get to just half a second behind by the flag in second but was unable to pass. Macmillan completed the podium again ahead of Read and Wright in the top five, the latter just beating Claydon to the flag for fifth.
Ross Stoner took advantage of his front row spot from the random top ten draw for race three and leapt into the lead from lights out with Macmillan, Claydon and Joe Doble, before losing it to Macmillan shortly after. This began a race long chase between the top five as Grady also put himself into the mix, and a scuffle into the Brundle/Nelson complex left Doble bounding over the grass. Macmillan drove on to victory from Stoner in second, while Claydon threw away a podium running off the road at Coram and dropped to sixth behind Doble, Grady and Max Noble.
Over in the Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup & Student Motorsport Challenge’s pair of races, Stuart Bliss ensured he was still the man to beat with victory in both, but there was plenty going on behind him that provided much entertainment. In race one, Bliss had to overcome a challenge from Brady Pollock who duelled him for the lead briefly before the pair ended up holding firm, Bliss adding another win to his tally with Pollock holding off the invitation Gen 2 development car of Philip House on track. A super five way battle for third (House invisible for trophies etc) ended up going the way of Jack Wheeler, ahead of Josh Jackson and Richard Jepp.
Another fast start from Bliss gave him the lead of race two from the outset before a lap one incident at Brundle/Nelson forced a safety car that ate into two thirds of the race distance. With just a five minute sprint left on the restart, the on-track top three of Bliss, House and Pollock remained the same to the flag, while fourth backwards saw Joe Moss taking the actual final podium place from Jepp and Elliot Lettis.
Pollock was also the dominant victor in both races in the Student Motorsport Challenge for West Suffolk College, while other SMC podium finishes went to Wheeler of East Surrey College, Jepp of Northbrook Racing, Jackson or QE Motorsports and Lettis of City College Norwich.
In the 45-minute SW Motorsports ClubSport Trophy race, it was Volkswagens to the fore (quite literally) as the first four places on the grid in qualifying were taken up by a trio of Golfs and a Scirocco, driven by Jamie Hadley, Rob Andrade, Julian Daniel and Phiroze Bilimora respectively. All four, along with Shane Kelly’s Morgan, were the pace setters from the outset with Hadley and Daniel soon in a battle for the lead and trading places back and forth shortly before the pit window.
Daniel pitted first followed by Hadley a few minutes later, but the latter’s task was made a lot simpler when a fire on Daniel’s car forced him to pull off the track and retire. This produced the safety car which was beneficial to those which were making their stops late, losing them minimal time. When back underway, Hadley kept the rest at arms’ length to claim the victory, followed by Bilimoria in second and Kelly in third, thanks to a pit stop penalty for Andrade demoting him from P2 on the road to fourth. Nick Watling and Jack Wheeler completed the top five in their Ford Fiesta.
With Hadley winning Class A and Watling & Wheeler winning Class B, other class victories also went to Callum Bates in his BMW Z4 (Class C), Barney Francis in his Mazda RX-8 (Class D) and Phil & Matt Adcock in their BMW E36 Compact.
The pair of Modified Ford Series produced yet another incredible grid that wasn’t just strong on numbers, but featured plenty of variety, power and speed up and down the entry. Both races ended up being a back and forth battle between the Mk1 Escort RSRs of Tommy Field and Jack Gadd, especially race one where the pair really were in a race and class of their own. Both ran close to each other in the early stages, but Gadd dropped back to over 13 seconds back by the end as Field picked up the win, followed by Dave Cockell’s Escort Cosworth, Stephen Scott-Dunwoodie’s Sierra RS500 and Piers Grange’s Mk2 Escort in the top five.
The same front row pair performed the same disappearing act in race two, racing off from the rest of the pack and again enjoying a battle of their own. Just as the day before, Gadd stayed close initially but faded backwards as the 15 minutes ticked on, eventually allowing Field to complete a double just shy of seven seconds ahead of Gadd with the same trio of Cockell in third, Scott-Dunwoodie in fourth and Grange in fifth completing the top five.
Also in support for the weekend was the combined grid for the Classic & Modern Motorsport Club’s Southern division, with the Super Saloons, Tin Tops and Intermarques Silhouettes all lining up together. Ray Harris’ Ginetta silhouette was victorious in race one and did well to survive a brief challenge from Russell Humphrey’s Vauxhall Tigra before he spun at Nelson from second and had to recover back to P2 in the end. Colin Smith in another Ginetta silhouette, Paul Knight’s Tigra and Martin Reynolds’ Escort Mk2 took the top five spots. After a mid race safety car almost curtailed the end of race two, the race was given an extra final lap on the restart and Harris’ Ginetta completed the double from Humphrey, Smith, Reynolds and Knight.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
