BRSCC PRODUCES A SNETTERTON SUPREME FOR SPRING
The BRSCC’s first visit to the East Anglia region of 2025 at the Snetterton circuit brought one rather pleasant surprise – clear blue skies and warm Spring sunshine, as several more of the Club’s championships and series (plus a handful of guest formulae) all began their brand new campaigns with plenty of entertainment.
The young stars of the BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship embarked on a brand new season as it began its first full season solely consisting of the next-gen Mk7 FJC race car. Thomas Merritt lead the first encounter of the year from pole for two thirds of the race, before being passed by eventual race winner Jack Burgess two laps from the end. Merritt retained a strong second place, while 2025 FJC Scholarship winner Lewis Islin scored a podium on his debut in third ahead of Dara McInerney and Callie Clifford.
A thrilling four car lead battle between Merritt, Burgess, Islin and McInerney characterised race two, the flash point coming when Merritt ran wide at Coram on the outside of a three wide moment mid corner, forcing him to run across the grass and skip Murrays to retain the lead. Despite taking the flag first on the road, his excursion was deemed as gaining an advantage and Thomas was demoted to second behind winner Burgess, followed by Islin, Archie Davies and Clifford.
Race three only ran a handful of corners before it was red flagged and abandoned, after a car dropped an excessive amount of fluid onto the circuit in the opening moments. This was deemed too unsafe to continue racing and with timetable constraints from earlier delays, race three was unable to be restarted.
As has usually been the case in their season starters in recent seasons, no one driver dominated the first AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship weekend of the year at Snetterton. A fine defensive drive from John Cooper from pole helped him claim the first win of the season, clear from Gary Miller in second and defending champion Alastair Kellett in third from Simon Horrobin and Zach Lucas. Jason O’Connell won Am class from Luke Warr and Harry Hayes.
Miller grabbed the lead from Kellett mid way through race two to take the victory ahead of the champion, with Lucas third followed by George Foxlow and Connor Blackburn in Pro, while O’Connell once again taking Am honours from Dan Robinson, Maggie Webster, Hayes and Warr. Foxlow then took his turn to lead the partially random race three grid briefly before Lucas led through a safety car period to the end, sealing victory from Foxlow, Kellett, Morgan Kidd and Miller. It was also a hat-trick for O’Connell in Am class from Robinson and Webster.
A competitive field lined up for the opening Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge races of the year, with Sam Watkins holding off a double-duty George Foxlow to win race one ahead of pole sitter Max Buxton, defending champion Michael Blackburn and Aiden Vickers in the top five. Buxton rebounded with his first career ST150 win in race two from Foxlow, Liam Browning, Robbie Harrison and Dillon Davis, before an impressive early stint from Sophie Kinghorn in the lead of race three was eventually overhauled by double winner Buxton, Watkins, Davis and Foxlow, with Kinghorn still finishing an excellent fifth.
The first ever championship race for the newly formed Nankang Tyre BMW SuperCup saw both BMW Compact Cup and 1 Series SuperCup cars competing in respective classes on the same grid together for the first time in a points scoring context. Invitation driver Thorburn Astin took the flag first in race one ahead of Danny Wilkinson and Michael Sanford in the 1 Series ranks, while Joe Doble kicked off 2025 in the Compact Cup class with victory ahead of defending champ Connor Grady and Gareth Claydon.
The on-track duel for the lead between Wilkinson and Millie Hart would define the next two races of the weekend. Wilkinson only just beat Hart by three tenths in race two with Sanford in third, and Grady finished just behind in fourth overall as best of the Compacts from Mike Doble and Claydon. The 1 Series top three remained the same in race three with the same winning margin, as Joe Doble picked up his second Compact class honours from Claydon and Grady.
A packed out 45-car capacity entry descended on Snetterton for the opening Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship races of the year. 2024 champion Stuart Bliss, now racing for Student Motorsport team Boston College Racing, made everyone believe it was going to be a carbon copy of 2024 after winning race one from Philip House, Josh Jackson, Alistair May and Andrew Dyer, but Jackson managed to get the better of May and Bliss to take his first outright CityCar race win in the second encounter later in the day, as Dyer and Chris Mackenzie completed the top five.
A red flag midway through race three on Sunday, after an incident on the main straight forced barrier repairs, left a three lap shootout for victory. Mackenzie would come through to also collect his first CityCar win from Richard Jepp in second, newcomer Ben Spencer in third, then May and Bliss. Unsurprisingly, Boston College Racing were the mostly dominant Student Motorsport team with Bliss claiming two of the three wins, while Jepp took the third for defending champs Northbrook Racing.
Another mammoth grid heading to Norfolk was that of the Modified Ford Series, once again producing an entry that looked and sounded incredible in equal measure. Jason Davies’ Sierra Sapphire Cosworth romped to a twelve second win in race one from Tom Ovenden’s Escort Mk1 RSR, Ashley Shelswell’s Sierra XR4i, James Allen’s Focus RS and Alex Boam in the top five. Davies then replicated that feat in race two from Ovenden once again, while Allen took third this time from Paul Nevill’s Escort RS2000 and Martin Reynolds’ Escort Mk2.
Some excellent support formulae also joined in on the timetable for further entertainment. Our friends at the Mini 7 Racing Club brought both their Se7ens and Miglia grids out to play for their opening rounds of 2025, with plenty of exciting action guaranteed across all four races. Damien Harrington opened his account in the Se7ens by winning race one from 2024 champ Joe Thompson and Spencer Wanstall, while race two went the way of Ross Billison ahead of Wanstall and Thompson. Matthew Ayres won the Se7en-S class both times, with podiums shared between Joel Wren, Michael Winkworth, Oliver Birkett and Graeme Davis.
In the faster Mini Miglias, a pair of wins went to Rupert Deeth with Ian Curley also claiming a brace of second places and third places split between Jeff Smith and Aaron Smith. Race two was shortened after a start incident required recovery of a car stranded against the pit wall. Ian Fraser and Peter Hills also took a Libre class victory each, with further podiums also spread between Huw Turner, Julian Proctor and Philip Harvey.
The Classic & Modern Motorsport Club Southern division brought its Super Saloons, Tin Tops and Intermarques onto one combined grid to start their 2025, and the day was dominated by the booming Holden Commodore V8 Supercar of Alex Sidwell. Alex roared to victory in both encounters, mostly chased by the leading Intermarques cars both times. Ray Harris’ Vauxhall Tigra, the Ginetta G40s of Ray Harris and Reuben Taylor, and Martin Reynolds’ Escort Mk2 came in behind Sidwell in race one with Sam Haywood’s Renault Megane best of the Tin Tops behind them. Sidwell and Harris again locked out the top two in race two, followed by Russell Humphrey’s Tigra, Ian Hales’ Ginetta and Reynolds’ Escort.
Adding a local flavour to proceedings, the Uncle Luke’s Snetterton Saloons series also brought a great variety of machines to the paddock for their pit-stop race, shortened to 35 minutes due to timetable constraints thanks to earlier incidents. At the end of it all, Kevin Clarke’s BMW M3 was victorious, putting at least a lap on the entire field by the flag. Anton Martin and Simon Donoghue ensured it was a Bavarian lockout on the podium, followed by Martin Ward’s Honda Civic Type R and Miles Moseley’s Peugeot 208 GTi.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
