ANGLESEY WEATHER BEATEN BY THE BRSCC
The BRSCC’s North Western Centre staged no less than 22 races on the weekend of 8th & 9th June at Anglesey Circuit despite having to contend with the aftermath of Storm Miguel on the Saturday. At least it was bright and dry throughout Sunday although the wind remained strong and chilly. The full 2.1 miles of the facility’s International layout was in use.
Ross Martin became the first driver to take more than one victory in the 2019 Avon Tyres National Formula Ford 1600 Championship when, having won at Oulton Park’s previous meeting, he did so again in Saturday’s opener in his Team Dolan Van Diemen. Neil Maclennan in the Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum was the early leader after pole-sitter Spike Kohlbecker appeared to bog down off the line in the Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray GR18. Rory Smith (B-M Racing Medina JL18) was the fastest out there taking second from Martin at Rocket before challenging Maclennan as they tackled the Corkscrew however they collided handing the spoils to Martin with the CDR duo of Kohlbecker and James Clarke completing the podium.
Martin made it 3 on the bounce in the first of Sunday’s two contests with a lights to flag victory. Clarke and Kohlbecker were again second and third although the former came out on top this time. Smith ran third in the early stages before a mechanical failure exiting The Banking saw him coast to a halt at Church.
In the hectic reverse grid final race, Martin’s winning run came to an end when he was hit by another car at the Rocket Complex. Maclennan made up for his race 1 disappointment by taking this ahead of pole-man Tom McArthur – the regular from the Northern Championship used his local knowledge to keep Clarke and Kohlbecker at bay in his B-M Racing Medina Sport JL18.
McArthur had a very busy weekend as there were two rounds of the Avon Tyres Formula Ford 1600 Northern Championship on Saturday and he was a twitch of oversteer away from winning both. The crucial slide occurred at the final corner of the first encounter when, with his brother David right on his tail in the B-M Racing Medina BH19, he couldn’t decide whether to take the defensive inside line or the grippier-in-the-wet outside one. His sibling was able to pounce and take the laurels during the ensuing sideways moment caused by the hesitation.
Pascal Monbaron was third in the JRT Van Diemen after Jack Wolfenden crashed his Myerscough College tended Firman at The Banking. Wolfenden was hoping to charge through from the back of the grid in race 2 but spun on lap 1 at Rocket thus Monbaron again completed the podium as Tom McArthur made no mistakes this time to come home ahead of his brother.
Aside from Formula Ford 1600s, the other focus of the weekend was 9 races for the 3 championships that the BRSCC organises for the Mazda MX5. The Super Cup and Super Series ran together and “Super” is the correct adjective for the action they provided.
The Super Cup cars ran at the front of the field and James Blake-Baldwin took a narrow victory in race 1 having been reeled in by Luke Herbert during the closing stages. Third was Steve Roberts ahead of Aidan Hills and Jack Harding.
Roberts found himself spinning on the grass at The Banking on the first lap of the second encounter which prevented him from featuring on either of Sunday’s podiums. Hills led most of this event until he seemed to outbrake himself the last time the field tackled Rocket. There then followed a crazy climax where Harding took the honours followed by Blake-Baldwin, Jack Sycamore, Herbert and Hills.
There were no mistakes from Hills as he took the final episode of this trilogy with Herbert and Harding within 0.6 secs of him and Blake-Baldwin and Sycamore not too far behind.
In the Super Series it was a great weekend for the Kell family with James Kell taking two wins and his father Darren taking the third.
Two wins for Will Blackwell-Chambers in the three MX5 Mk1 Group A races sandwiched a debut victory for Adam Bessell. With these two occupying the top steps of every podium there were third placed finishes for Ben Short, John Langridge and Jack Brewer. In Group B the honours went to Ben Hancy, Joe Wigg and Richard Baxter
The XR2s of Greg Speight and Will Heslop were the pace-setters in the Hyperdrive ST-XR Challenge Triple Header. The opener went to Heslop and he was leading the second contest until Speight passed him at Rocket. Their final duel was a ding dong affair in the closing stages with the lead being passed one way and then another. Heslop crossed the line ahead but a 5 secs penalty dropped him to second.
Michael Blackburn was having his first outing of the season in the ST-XR Challenge. He took three XR3i Class victories, twice finishing third overall with Adam Brown taking that position on the other occasion in his XR2.
Another doing the treble was Simon Hill in the Teekay Couplings Production GTI Championship. The Mk5 driver’s winning margin was 13 secs in Saturday’s damp race but his pursuers, Simon Vercoe and James Colbourne, were much closer in Sunday’s encounters and the gap to the runner-up was down to just over half a second in the last of these. The Mk2 Class went to Pete Milne at the first time of asking with Tim Hartland taking the other two victories.
Sunday also saw two races for the Disklok Civic Cup. Lee Deegan took the first contest for these dramatic mini-Touring Cars ahead of Daniel Reason and Phil Wright but the reversed grid meant he started from tenth in the second encounter and so third was the best he could manage behind Alistair Camp and Jason Ballantyne.
You can find a detailed breakdown of the weekend’s results at Anglesey here ANGLESEY RESULTS
Dave Williams
