BRSCC LIGHTS UP THE WELSH COAST IN ANGLESEY THRILLER
The British Racing & Sports Car Club enjoyed an early summer visit to the Welsh coast by the Irish sea, as Anglesey Circuit/ Trac Mon marked the next stop on the 2025 tour schedule. With a pair of Fun Cup Endurance Championship races, a multitude of Ford-based championships and even historic Formula 3 cars, action was guaranteed from the first lights out to the final chequered flag as the Club went racing by the ocean once again!
The usual double header for the Fun Cup Endurance Championship saw a unique record broken by the end of Saturday’s running, but not before two typically action-packed three hour encounters. Red River Sport leapt to the lead past race one pole sitters Signature RV at the start, but the Morpheus #110 car took the lead on just the second lap and then battled with Team Pacific as they traded turns in P1, the pair running together until their first scheduled stops. Former champions Sheradize UK worked their way into the lead just before the hour mark.
Morpheus ‘#110 suffered mechanical issues after their second pit stop that put them out of contention, while at the front Sheradize had to deal with the defending champion Olympian-GRD team car in hot pursuit in second place. The pair stayed in status quo all the way towards the final window, where a drive through penalty for Olympian after an earlier unsafe release was balanced out by a slow final stop for Sheradize. This ended up promoting Olympian to a lead they would not lose, taking their third win of the season and their fourth in a row, with Sheradize trailing home in second place.
An epic back and forth fight for third between VapeClub-EDF and UVio/ Hofmann’s Motorsport trading places and even tangling at one point as the two cars scrapped for the final podium spot. In the end VapeClub took the podium spot two seconds ahead of UVio, with PLR Racing completing the top five.
Both Sheradize and PLR were taken out of contention seconds into the start of race two in the early evening twilight, thanks to a multi-car incident at The Banking. UVio initially led the restart after a brief safety car, but they slowed at the Rocket complex and had to pit with problems, leaving Demon Tweeks 2, Axiametrics and Greenheath to scrap amongst themselves early on. Team Pacific joined them before long, as they ended up racing with the Olympian car to the end of the first stint, after they’d dropped back in the beginning. Another safety car was called just after the first pit window after Seed Data’s car pulled off on the pit straight smoking heavily.
After more shuffling around through another pit window and errors for some teams, Signature RV found themselves leading at half distance from a charging Olympian with Team FFs in third. But Signature’s lead was short lived after a right front suspension failure left them tumbling down the order, and leaving Olympian in the lead once more. From here, they completed the final pit stops to score a record breaking fifth win in a row in Fun Cup Endurance, clear of second placed Morpheus. Axiametrics duelled with Greenheath over the final laps, with Racelogic completing the top five.
Three races from the BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship provided some of the best racing of the entire weekend at Anglesey, as the young stars of the future made their first visit back to Wales for several seasons. After pole position in qualifying, Thomas Merritt set out his stall early with the lead ahead of Archie Davies, Dara McInerney and Isaac Doble. This quartet would run together for the entire 15 minutes, Davies locked onto Merritt’s tail for the duration and almost made a successful pass in the final minutes but to no avail. Merritt picked up his second win of the season from Davies and McInerney on the podium, followed by Isaac Doble in fourth and 2024 Scholarship winner Daniella Sutton in fifth.
Despite an issue for Callie Clifford forcing a red flag and a restart to race two, Merritt picked up another great launch on the second attempt, which served him well as a safety car was called to recover Oscar Homerstone’s stranded car at Rocket. With a short shootout on the restart in the final minutes, Merritt again fended off advances from second placed Davies to clinch a second win of the event, while Isaac Doble made a crucial pass on Sutton at Rocket to pick up third place. Sutton remained in fourth ahead of 2025 Scholarshop winner Lewis Islin.
Merritt looked for the hat-trick in race three, but again had to defend hard from Davies and Doble trying to pass in the opening corners. However, Doble was able to escape to chase for the lead, leaving Davies to scrap with McInerney, Islin and Jack Burgess for the final podium race with some terrific clean, wheel to wheel racing between the group. While Merritt completed a well-earned clean sweep of victories ahead of Doble, the sensational fight for third in the closing stages went the way of Jack Burgess from Davies and McInerney. Fantastic battles and racecraft shown all weekend from the Juniors in a fine display of racing!
The AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship’s visit to Anglesey began with a rather pleasant surprise – Am points leader Jason O’Connell putting in a storming lap to claim an outright pole for race one alongside defending champion Alastair Kellett, but it was the champ that beat him off the line and took the lead from the outset. Once in front, he would never be headed and finally clinched his first win of the season in Pro class and outright, with O’Connell less than a second back in P2 overall and victory in Am class. Gary Miller, Zach Lucas and George Foxlow completed the overall top five, while Daniel Robinson and Luke Warr took to the Am podium too.
Not content with just one victory from Anglesey, Kellett returned to the track the next day and did it again in race two – but not without working for it. Miller tried to apply race long pressure but was unable to shake his fellow Irishman from top spot as Kellett picked up win number two, while O’Connell passed Lucas in the closing stages to take third place and another Am win, and Foxlow completed the top five overall. Luke Warr and Maggie Webster also wrapped up the Am top three.
However, Kellett’s hope of a hat-trick evaporated after he spun out three corners into race three, leaving his 2024 title winning car in the hands of George Foxlow to lead the race. Commanding from the front and never looking back, Fiesta Junior graduate Foxlow led every single lap to clinch his first ST240 win, followed by Am hat-trick hero O’Connell, Miller and Luke Warr, while Kellett put in a champion’s drive to recover to fifth at the flag. Webster also completed the top three in Am behind O’Connell and Warr.
Going back to a circuit that is much loved by many in the paddock, the Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge touched back down at Anglesey with another competitive grid in store for their trio of races all weekend. Race one required two starts after the first saw three cars tangle off the line, but second time around it was championship leader Max Buxton who leapt to the lead from pole in the opening laps, before a duel with Sam Watkins brought several other cars into the front group. Eventually, they scrapped behind Buxton, giving him the victory while Dillon Davis picked up second from Watkins, while Michael Blackburn and Billy Blockley wrapped up the top five finishers.
Buxton repeated his start in race two to lead again, but Davis mounted his own challenge at one thirds distance to grab the lead. Buxton quickly grabbed the place back and resisted further pressure as the minutes ticked down. The battles brought Watkins into play in the final laps, and another failed attempt left Davis under attack from Watkins and Blockley on the penultimate lap. Watkins ambitiously tried to dive inside Davis at Rocket on the final lap to no avail, dropping him off the podium to fourth, as Buxton took his second win of the event from Davis and Blockley. Blackburn came home in fifth.
Blackburn then benefitted from a partially reversed top ten to head the field from pole in race three, and he escaped while the rest of the pack jostled for positions on the opening lap. Watkins and David ended up giving chase behind him, and Watkins was on Blackburn’s bumper going into the race’s final third. Despite Watkins getting close to passing several times, the defending champion finally grabbed his first win of the season, with Davis, Blockley and Buxton trailing behind.
Single seater at Anglesey action came courtesy of the Geoff Page Engineering Super Classic Pre ‘99 Formula Ford Championship, back to a circuit that the entire paddock was keen to return after missing out last season. Tom Hawkins took pole by over a second but was forced to start from pit lane, leaving front row man Ben Powney to battle with Oliver Roberts for victory from the outset. Roberts squeezed Powney to the edge of the road in his move for the lead at Target, and then resisted pressure later in the race to pick up overall and Super Classic B victory from Powney (Super Classic A winner). Hawkins charged through to 3rd from pit lane, taking fourth overall from Chris Stones (SCB), with Andrew Schofield (SCB) completing the top five. Colin Williams and Nigel Grant took Super Classic C and D honours respectively.
The top three from race one instantly kicked off a race long battle in race two, Powney and Roberts swapping places in the early laps while Hawkins watched on in third. Roberts eventually escaped and created a gap to clinch a second win of the weekend, as well SBC victory. Hawkins was left to get the better of Powney for SCA honours on the penultimate lap and second overall, while Schofield and Stones completed the top five, and Williams took the SCC win (Nigel Grant was a non-starter in SCD).
Battle lines drawn for race three, Hawkins leapt to the lead while Roberts had to fend off Powney, Schofield and co on the opening lap behind. Powney slowed with a problem midway through and officially dropped out of contention, leaving Hawkins to coast to a three second victory from Roberts in second and Stones in third. Nigel Dolan picked up fourth, while Mathew Smith headed a fantastic multi-car battled in mid-pack.
A near-capacity entry for the Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship featuring Student Motorsport made the trip to Anglesey, an impressive feat for such a remote circuit in a unique location as the coast of the Irish Sea. The Boston College Racing pair of Stuart Bliss and Andrew Dyer headed the field from the front row as race one got underway with Dyer in front, joined by Chris Mackenzie and Richard Jepp in the lead group as the rest of the mammoth field jostled for position behind. The leaders stayed together for the entire race, with Dyer picking up the victory while Jepp stole second from Bliss on the final lap, demoting the defending champion to 3rd ahead of Mackenzie and Pollock. Dyer’s win also gave Boston College the SM win from Northbrook’s Jepp and Boston’s Bliss.
Dyer retained the lead from pole as race two began on Sunday, but immediately got the push from Jepp to help the top two quickly break away. It took until Jepp to make a serious attempt to pass Dyer at Rocket which ultimately failed, leaving him under pressure from third placed Bliss behind. It didn’t take long for the pair to catch back up to Dyer, but neither of them could mount a challenge. Dyer collected a second win from Jepp and Bliss, again completing a SM top three lockout, followed by Mackenzie and Alistair May.
Mixing up the top ten for race three, Ben Spencer found himself on pole as a result and starting at his best chance of a first CityCar race win. A clean start helped his cause, and he did well to resist the initial lap one attention from behind. He then tried to escape as the likes of May, Brady Pollock, Mackenzie and Chris Parkes argued over 2nd backwards, and Spencer and May ended up in a race of their own, but late battles helped Ben get away. He clinched that first CityCar win, trailed home by Pollock and May on the podium ahead of Mackenzie and Jepp. Pollock took the SM win for West Suffolk College BP, with Jepp second for Northbrook and Dyer third for Boston.
Adding a unique spectacle to the weekend’s event at Anglesey, the 500 Owners Association Historic F3 field turned out a wonderful selection of historic junior single seaters to really put on a show for all in attendance. George Shackleton led home a Cooper 1-2-3-4 in the first race, victorious in his Mk XI ahead of Peter de la Roche’s Mk IX in second, followed by Hamish Cameron-Everleigh’s Mk8, James Wilson’s Mk10 and the Martin F3 500 of Alex Wilson in the top five.
Later in the day, de la Roche managed to get his own back with victory in the second race aheaf of Wilson and Finlay Mackintosh’ Cooper Mk11, with Andy Raynor’s Cooper 500 Mk VIII and Stuart Wright’s Mk XI completing the top five.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
