BRSCC ENJOYS ANOTHER CLASSIC CANTER AT CROFT
- Super Classic Pre-99 Formula Ford Championship
- Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup
- Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge
- AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship
- BRSCC Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy
- BRSCC BMW 1 Series SuperCup
- Ricci Concept Classic VW Cup
- Audi TT Cup Racing Championship
- BRSCC Evolution Trophy
- Finsport Renault Cup
- Mini Se7ens
- Mini Miglias
In its second visit to Yorkshire this season, the BRSCC ventured north once more to the fast and flowing Croft circuit for another two days of fascinating club motorsport action. Title battles took more dramatic twists and turns, as championship contenders had weekends to remember, or to forget in what turned out to be a real tin-top fest all weekend long.
AIRTEC MOTORSPORT FIESTA ST240 CHAMPIONSHIP
Croft would turn out to be a critical weekend for the direction of this year’s AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship battle at the top of the standings between Alastair Kellett and Albert Webster, as both would experience their own ups and downs before the meeting was complete.
Qualifying set the tone as expected with Webster storming to pole this time by more than half a second from Simon Horrobin, while Kellett ended up third quickest by almost nine tenths off Webster’s pole time. However, both of their fortunes would quickly take a nosedive as race one got underway. The combination of a bunched pack and cold tyres left a handful of cars getting loose through Clervaux and collecting each other, in particular both Kellett and Webster. Both cars were eliminated as a result, leaving them to use the DNFs as one of their dropped scores each.
With the safety car deployed for just one lap, the order at the front had changed with John Cooper picking his way to the front ahead of William Kellett and Horrobin, although William would fall back to pit lane with an issue of his own a couple of laps after the restart. Cooper was left to lead from Horrobin, who continued to apply the pressure and was never more than a second behind him at any one stage of the encounter. Despite pushing as hard as possible, Simon couldn’t find a way through and was resided to second place as Cooper took his second win of the season, while Matt Luff was an unchallenged third ahead of Joseph Knight and Zach Lucas.
Over in the Club class, leader Morgan Kidd picked up the first of her class wins of the weekend by claiming an excellent sixth place overall, finishing ahead of key rivals Connor Blackburn and Caitlyn May in second and third, while Sean Reynolds and Marco Ricci completed the top five in class.
The first start of race two was stopped after two laps after Sean Reynolds was involved in an incident at the back of the circuit. When racing got back underway, Horrobin got the better start to take the lead from Cooper, while Alastair Kellett was able to catapult his way up to third place after originally starting at the back on the first start. By lap three, he was up to second past Cooper, and on lap six he found a way past Horrobin to take the lead and from here, he was able to hold firm.
Taking a victory that could prove crucial in the end given how the weekend started, Kellett picked up the win ahead of key rival Webster in second place, as Albert too had worked his way from the back of the grid after his race one retirement and he too took a critical second place towards his championship charge. Horrobin completed the podium in third ahead of Luff in fourth and Cooper in fifth. Over in Club class, Morgan Kidd was victorious for the second time that weekend ahead of Adam Clark in second, Connor Blackburn in third, then Archie Johnson and Marco Ricci completing the top five.
Partially reversing the grid for race three allowed William Kellett to start from pole alongside Gary Miller, and it was Miller who picked up the better start to lead from the outset with Cooper following past into second. Cooper dropped out early on with mechanical issues, leaving William Kellett to continue his chase for the lead, while behind him father Alastair was trying to work his way towards the front to join him. However, contact on lap 4 bent his steering and sent him to the back of the field, forcing him to try and recover.
Out in front, William Kellett was doing all he could to pressure Miller and on lap eight, he finally found a way past to lead the race. In fact, Miller would slip from first to fourth on that lap as both Horrobin and Webster also found ways past to pick up second and third. From here, the race order remained unchanged and William was able to ensure both members of the Kellett family left Croft with winning silverware. Kellett won ahead of Horrobin in second and Webster in third, another crucial result that gives him the championship lead by eight points heading to Silverstone, with Miller and Luff completing the top five.
Club class once again went to Morgan Kidd as she completed her best weekend in class to date with a hat-trick of wins. She was also able to keep the top six Pro class drivers in her sights throughout the race to take a comfortable and impressive seventh outright, with Adam Clark second in class again from Archie Johnson, Connor Blackburn and Caitlin May.
VINYL DETAIL FIESTA ST150 CHALLENGE
With the race for the title tightening up in the Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge, the latest rounds at Croft marked the penultimate stop on the 2023 tour, as the North Yorkshire circuit played host to another three races that produced plenty of typical ST150 entertainment and three different winners in the end.
First blood in qualifying went to Cadwell Park winner and defending champion Michael Blackburn, who continued his great form from the previous round to claim fastest time ahead of Thomas Ikin, Dan Robinson, Sam Beckett and Paul Dobson, all key contenders in the race for the championship crown. However, another was already experiencing a tough start to the weekend as an off in qualifying put Matt Pimlott to the back row of the grid with everything to gain from there.
Blackburn’s start to race one was just what he needed, managing to maintain the lead from P1 to end the opening lap ahead of Robinson, Dobson and Beckett. This lead quartet would remain together for almost the entire fifteen minutes, somewhat locked in a stalemate as the top four kept within two seconds of each other in the early stages. This spread out a little more towards the end, but the order remained unchanged to the flag. Blackburn’s excellent drive was rewarded with his second win of the season, followed by Robinson, Dobson and Beckett in that order. Guest driver Shanel Drewe put in an excellent debut drive too to pick up the final top five spot on her first attempt.
Blackburn couldn’t repeat his start from race one the next day in race two as he dropped to fourth by the end of the opening lap as Beckett took over in front from teammate Robinson and and Dobson in third. Once again, these three drivers would end up as the class of the field and the spread between them was never more than 1.4 seconds. Beckett claimed race two to repeat his 2022 success at Croft when he took his first two career wins, victorious from Robinson in an SBR Motorsport 1-2 with Dobson in third, Ikin in fourth and Blackburn still managing fifth place.
An early lap one safety car saw Matt Pimlott retain the lead from reverse grid pole for race three, leading away on the restart from Mark Blunt, Dobson and Alec Townley, although Townley was quickly passed by a charging Beckett who picked up fourth on lap three, then third from Blunt on lap six before claiming second on the final lap from Pimlott. This came after Pimlott had lost the lead to Dobson early on, with Paul putting his foot down to break away and be unchallenged in the lead. This he would convert to victory, with Beckett and Pimlott completing the podium places, and Robinson and Blunt taking up the rest of the top five.
Now the championship moves back to Silverstone on the National circuit for its final test of 2023!
NANKANG TYRE BMW COMPACT CUP
Gareth Claydon headed to the most recent rounds of the Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup with a healthy lead in the points standings as the championship touched down at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire for the penultimate event of the year. While he was hoping to extend said points lead with three more wins, there was one factor that he hadn’t counted on scuppering those plans – Guy Davis.
Claydon’s plan to dominate from the front did get off to a grand start in qualifying, as he turned in a pole position lap that put him almost eight tenths clear of the rest of the pack. Davis managed second fastest time and from the outset of race one, the pair drove off together ahead of the rest of the field with Joseph Doble retaining third on the grid from the outset. Davis pursued Claydon for the first half of the race before finding a way past on lap six, but despite trying to create a gap, Claydon kept firmly on his tail until the flag.
Davis managed to charge to the end to pick up the first win of the weekend with Claydon keeping up his podium streak with second, ahead of a delighted Joseph Doble who put in his best drive to date to secure his first podium finish in the Compact Cup. Matt Flowers and Matt Millson came through to complete the top five, while guest driver Gordon Macmillan was the top Masters driver home. While Gordon took the trophy, the points instead went to Richard Sutherland just behind him.
The original start to race two saw a red flag, but a rough restart saw Davis slip from pole to fourth on the opening tour as Claydon led out front from Flowers and Millson. It didn’t take Guy long to claw his way back into contention, picking off Millson before lap two was complete, then engaging in a duel for second with Flowers as the pair kept Claydon in their sights all the while. Going into the final lap, Claydon led ahead of Flowers and Davis, but a final skirmish between the three saw the result practically inverting itself. At the flag, Davis had managed to steal race two victory and while Flowers had held second, Claydon had been demoted down to third. Millson and Middleton completed the top five with Mike Doble collecting another Masters win in sixth.
The random top ten draw for race three produced pole for Rudi Macmillan while Davis conveniently drew a front row slot alongside him. Not surprisingly, Davis wasted no time in grabbing the lead once more and a quick starting Claydon from fourth on the grid would also follow him through to make it the same one-two from Saturday’s race. Out in front, it was another straightforward encounter with Davis reeling off the laps and keeping Claydon at arms’ length by a couple of seconds in what was another textbook drive from car #28.
Davis would complete the hat-trick in fine style with Claydon following in behind in second, while Thomas Middleton picked up a hard fought podium finish in third after batting away race-long advances from Matt Millson in fourth place; pole man Rudi MacMillan completed the top five finishers to round off the weekend. Now the championship gets set to conclude at Snetterton where a new Compact Cup champion will be provisionally crowned!
AUDI TT CUP RACING
Croft in Yorkshire welcomed the new Audi TT Cup Racing series for the first time as it made its penultimate stop on its inaugural 2023 calendar. With the news that TTCR would become part of the official permanent support package for TCR UK in 2024 fresh in everyone’s minds, everyone headed into the weekend in particularly positive spirits.
Carl Swift made a welcome return to the series and instantly made his presence known with pole position in qualifying ahead of regular TTCR runner Andrew Dyer in second and an excellent personal best effort from Adam Blair in only his second weekend in the series with third fastest. From the outset of race one, Swift had the rest of the pack in his command as he was a second out in front by the end of the opening lap, but in contrast Dyer had a nightmare start and dropped to ninth before beginning the charge back up the field. By lap four, he’d stormed his way back into the top five and into fourth place.
Within no time, his sights were set on the podium places once more with Richard Forber and Blair ahead of him as he closed in on the pair. Incredibly, he passed both to move into second place after a last lap skirmish and completed a strong comeback after a shaky start. As for Swift, he ended up scoring a commanding win by more than seven seconds in the end from the resurgent Dyer, while Forber took the final podium spot ahead of Blair in fourth and Luke Handley completing the top five. Masters honours went first time out to newcomer Jonathan Williams.
Swift’s efforts to collect a second win of the weekend in race two were stopped dead in their tracks when he began to fall back with a mechanical issue after two laps and eventually retired from the race and the rest of the weekend, the issue too severe to fix. Dyer took up the mantle as race leader and ensured he had the position on lockdown, leaving Handley to deal with a fast moving Scott Parkin who was closing in quickly after starting in fifth.
As Dyer picked up victory for race two, Parkin battled with Handley over second and the pair made contact, resulting in the former finishing third on the road, but being handed a time penalty as a result. This meant that while Edgecumbe picked up the runner up spot in second place, the penalty promoted Handley back to third and demoted Parkin to fourth place. Paul Bancroft also collected fifth place and the Masters win in the process too.
In race three, Dyer wasted no time at all in quickly building his advantage again, leading by almost two and a half seconds at the end of the of the opening lap, clear of Handley in second and Edgecumbe in third. This would be the race order for the first four laps, before Blair moved up to third past Edgecumbe and began to challenge Handley. After battling for a couple of tours, positions did change with Blair squeezing through to collect the runner up spot as Dyer dominated once again to pick up his second win of the weekend. Handley settled for the final podium spot from Edgecume and Parkin, while Christopher Jackson collected Masters honours finishing eighth overall.
SUPER CLASSIC PRE ‘99 FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP
The Super Classic Pre ‘99 Formula Ford Championship dropped in to Croft Circuit for the second to last outing of what had proven to be a popular and successful season all round to date. Heading to Yorkshire would be a slightly smaller field than normally experienced throughout the year, but there was still plenty of quality in attendance.
Qualifying produced an excellent pole time from guest driver Callum Grant as he went fastest by over six tenths with Doug Crosbie making his first appearance of the year with second fastest ahead of Super Classic A class leader Morgan Dempsey. From the start of race one, Grant’s superior pace was evident as he quick to pull away and create an initial gap. Crosbie’s lap times ensured that he didn’t get away too quickly initially, but once in his groove Grant was unstoppable. At the end of eleven laps, Grant took the win with Crosbie five seconds back in second, followed by Dempsey third, Richard Freye in fourth and Paul Mason completing the top five.
Race two was essentially a repeat of the first earlier in the day. Grant again leapt to the lead from pole and was almost 1.5 seconds ahead by the end of the opening lap, continuing to stretch out further and further from the chasing pack. In the end at the chequered flag, Grant completed the double with his second win of the day, with the same top five as the earlier race – Crosbie, Dempsey, Freye and Mason respectively.
Now the championship prepares for its final rounds on the return leg to Oulton Park at the end of October for what’s sure to be a thrilling season finale.
BRSCC EVOLUTION TROPHY
The ever growing and developing BRSCC Evolution Trophy once again featured another excellent mix of cars from within the Classic VW Cup, Cooksport Renault Cup and the Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy, and as the series touched down at Croft, it also marked the series debut of the BMW 1 Series SuperCup, as the second development car was complete and in the hands of Chris Coomer of PBS Brakes, ready to make its maiden Evolution Trophy appearance.
Classic VW Cup cars locked out the first three spots on the grid with Adam Marshall’s Golf and Tim Moll’s Golf Berg Cup car taking the front row ahead of Nick Sanderson’s SEAT Leon, while Richard Clarked took the Cooksport Renault pole, Bruce Hadfield lined up 11th overall in as the sole MX-5 Mk4 Trophy car on the grid, and Coomer put the BMW 1 Series a decent seventh outright.
Marshall grabbed the best start to race one and ensured he was unchalleged for the entire race, ending up two seconds in front by the completion of the first race and extending that by almost another two seconds per laps until he was almost ten in front after five laps. Keeping it clean and tidy, Marshall got the job done with ease to finish first outright and take a comfortable Classic VW win ahead Moll’s Mk1 Golf in second and Sanderson in third, while Simon Tomlinson also worked his way to fourth both overall and in CVW. Tony Hunter won Cooksport Renault Cup from David Mycock and Philip Barwick, while Hadfield put his MX-5 in 9th and Coomer took 11th in the BMW 1 Series after pitting early on and using the rest of the race as a test session.
Moll made sure Marshall’s task of winning race two was a little tougher from the outset, as he quickly took the lead from the start and held it over the opening laps. An early safety car on Lap 4 helped him hang on a little longer, and he even managed to continue to hold off Marshall for most of the remaining laps on restart. It was only on the final lap that he lost out, both to Marshall and then Tomlinson to drop to third. Marshall completed the double as Classic VWs again locked out the first four places outright with Sanderson in fourth, with Hunter again taking Cooksport Renault honours from Mycock and Clarke, then Coomer in the 1 Series in 11th and Hadfield in the MX-5 in 12th.
The final Evolution Trophy weekend of the season takes place on a return leg to Snetterton, where it’s sure to be a fine occasion to see out the season.
MINI 7 RACING CLUB
Providing an excellent guest appearance on the BRSCC timetable for the second time in 2023, the exceptional Mini 7 Racing Club were out in force with both the Se7ens and the Miglias heading to Croft for the penultimate weekend of their season. As expected, both grids provided their usual cut and thrust action across both days.
In the Mini Miglias, Andrew Jordan enjoyed a superb race long battle for the lead in race one with Kane Astin, the two drivers nose to tail and constantly dicing back and forth. Jordan was able to hold firm and resist all of the advances and pressure that Astin wanted to apply, even when Kane tried a move down the outside into Clervaux to no avail. Astin pushed all the way to the flag, but he was unable to deny Jordan from claiming the victory on Saturday, only four tenths ahead of second place. Rupert Deeth also enjoyed an equally excellent battle for third with Aaron Smith, with Phil Bullen-Brown taking the last top five spot. Richard Colburn also took the Libre win from Peter Hills and Julian Proctor.
Sadly for Astin, he wouldn’t get another chance to try and overhaul Jordan in race two. From the partially reversed grid, Astin got as high as second once more as he chased Jordan through the cars ahead of them to take up the top two spots again, but mechanical issues forced Astin to pit mid race, leaving him out on the spot. As for Jordan, it only took him five laps to go from seventh to the lead and there he would stay, completing the double on a successful trip to Yorkshire. Once again, Smith and Deeth diced between each other and it was Smith that got the better of his opponent this time with second and Deeth in third. Bullen Brown and Shaun King completed the top five, while Colburn again took Libre honours but this time ahead of Gary Warburton in second and Hills in third.
Over in the Se7ens, Joe Thompson beat pole man Mike Jordan away from the line to lead race one, with Joe followed by Ross Billison and Spencer Wanstall initially while Jordan had to battle back from fourth. After picking off Wanstall, Jordan set off after the top two some four seconds up the road, and it took him another five laps before he was on their tale. A superb three way dice for the win populated the final laps but despite the best efforts of Billison and Jordan, they had to settle for second and third and Thompson took a hard fought win. Wanstall and Thomas completed the top five, and Matthew Page won the Se7en S category from Matthew Ayres and Michael Winkworth.
Darren Thomas got away quickest as race two got underway, beating the reverse grid front row men Graeme Davis and Glen Woodbridge to lead by the end of lap one. Also moving quickly were Thompson and Jordan, as they got to the front together within three laps before being joined once more by Billison. It turned out to be the same story as race one as Thompson did his best to fend off those behind him, but eventually Jordan’s pressure forced him to crack on the last lap as Mike found a way past. The race was prematurely red flagged for Bradley Jordan’s car after it went off at Clervaux, handing Jordan the win from Thompson and Billison on countback, with Thomas and Connor O’Brien completing the first five. Frazer Hack also collected the Se7en-S victory from Winkworth and Jonathan Page.
Scott Woodwiss
