BRANDS CATERHAM BONANZA


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Aaron Head has been the man to beat in Caterham R300s this season. Photo: www.snappyracers.com

If you are a fan of Caterham racing there is only one place to be this weekend and that is Brands Hatch, which will host fourteen Caterham races in total, featuring all the championships on the Caterham Motorsport ladder. Adding to what is sure to be an action packed weekend will be four races for the BRSCC Mazda MX-5 Championship – and that always delivers plenty of drama.

The Caterham Roadsports have the honour of being the first race on Saturday morning and a further three races are on the programme to accommodate the impressive thirty-three entries. Will Smith, continues to head the points table and although he took one win at Rockingham, he was unable to prevent Caterham technician Lee Bristow from taking the first win of his race career in epic style. Jack Sales and Henry Heaton were the other Rockingham race winners so we can expect sparks to fly as the quartet battle for supremacy.

The Tracksports are up next and they are backed by Avon Tyres, as indeed are Roadsports and Supersports. If ever there was points table that did not tell the full story, then the Tracksport table is it. Stephen Nuttall appears to have a clear lead over Andres Sinclair and Nick Portlock, but it is Pete Fortune in fourth position that is Nuttall’s nemesis. The pair had been level pegging earlier in the season, replicating their on track performances that have produced some nail-bitingly intense races resulting in them hoarding all the wins so far. Fortune will need to be at the top of his game, as he needs every result to count.

An excellent performance by Aaron Head at Rockingham has underlined the Essex engineer’s comeback into the hunt for the BookaTrack.com Caterham R300 Superlight Championship. With five wins from six races, Head is clearly the man to beat. However, Head currently lays just third in the championship table, which is headed by Danny Winstanley, with David Robinson, the only other driver to have taken a victory this year, in second.

The Supersports Championship has the glory of turning out more car than any other Caterham championship this weekend with thirty-five on duty. Jon Mortimer and his matt black car continue to lead the Championship by just a single point. But it is actually the second-place man, James Robinson, who has the upper hand when dropped scores are taken into account and his recent form suggests he is the driver to beat. Well, strictly speaking he is the driver for Mortimer to beat if he wants to stay in the lead. The man for them all to beat is Mike Hart. The unmistakable blue and white Quantamatic backed car had made a habit of coming second to whoever just happened to win at any given race, right up until the last race at Rockingham, which he finally won.

Breaking up the Caterham dominance is the BRSCC Mazda MX-5 Championship, which will actually field the biggest entry of the weekend with forty-three Mk1s ready to do battle in rounds nine and ten of the Championship. Farnham’s James Blake Baldwin heads into the second half of the season with an eighteen point advantage over adversary Johnathan JJ Clements. However, Alan Henderson is only a further two points adrift and this trio look like the most likely contenders to fight out the title battle but Charlie Charman and Simon Baldwin are not completely out of the picture just yet.

The final two championships to get out on-track at the weekend are groups one and two of the Pistonheads.com Caterham Academy. After victory at Rockingham three weekends ago, Olly Wigg comes to Kent back in the lead of Group 1. However, Wigg will have to keep a careful eye on Alistair Calvert, who is the only driver to have shared the podium with him at every event and Calvert has shown he has the speed to beat him.

Group 2 leader David Webber looked unstoppable heading into the last race weekend, but ironically, this is exactly what his car was at Rockingham’s first corner. Webber failed to lose enough speed and overshot the hairpin. Although he remained the fastest driver on the track, a curtailed race meant he was not able to complete a fight back. Webber’s misfortune allowed several drivers to exploit the situation, most notably Paul Aram, who took the win. Webber and Aram come to Brands as favourites this weekend.

The weather for the weekend is looking mixed. It will be warm on both days but there is a good chance of heavy rain late on Saturday afternoon. You can view a detailed forecast at BRANDS HATCH WEATHER

You can view the timetable, entry lists and Final Instructions at CATERHAM RACE WEEKEND


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