BRSCC & TCR UK TURN UP THE HEAT AT SILVERSTONE NATIONAL
The home of British motorsport provided two days of intense club racing action and plenty of talking points as the BRSCC headed to Silverstone’s National circuit with TCR UK and its roster of support championships. With extra entertainment provided by the Ginetta Juniors, Modified Fords, and ClubSport Trophy, along with Fiestas, Audi TTs, and Civic Cup, the on-track activity was nothing short of captivating.
ireworks began between the two championship contenders in the TCR UK Touring Car Championship barely seconds into race one, with the pair tangling while exiting Copse. Adam Shepherd ended up laps down after stopping with a right rear puncture, while his main rival, Carl Boardley, continued on unscathed. Callum Newsham hunted down Boardley after the safety car restart, and the pair circulated together, kept close again after a second SC interruption. Newsham carried on his pursuit in the final laps but was unable to slip past and resigned himself to P2. Boardley took the win, though he was initially disqualified from the result. However, a post-race appeal saw the exclusion overturned. Brad Hutchison’s CUPRA took third ahead of Steve Laidlaw and Darron Lewis.
The second race required two starts after the first was initially delayed due to technical issues for Shepherd and Will Beech, followed by a sizable accident involving Will Powell’s Honda that led to the race going under the safety car. Start two followed a lengthy red flag period to recover Powell’s car, with several drivers heading to the pit lane during the break for repairs. Hutchison took command from the restart but ended up facing more pressure from Newsham in the closing stages. Despite Newsham’s efforts, Hutchison managed to fend him off. Boardley benefitted from Steve Laidlaw’s penalty to pick up third, with Matthew Wilson and Lewis completing the top five.
Boardley got the better start to lead race three from the outset, while Hutchison and Newsham tangled at Copse just moments in. Shepherd wasted no time in picking up P1 before the opening lap was complete. However, a loose splitter caused a plethora of problems for Shepherd, who was eventually forced to pit and retire with further damage. This left Boardley trouble-free to pick up his second win of the event, while Darron Lewis collected an excellent second place, followed by Steve Laidlaw, Hutchison, and Sargeant.
The Milltek Sport Civic Cup drivers had a busy event at Silverstone with no fewer than four races across both days, including the replacement race that was postponed back at Oulton Park. This race ran first on the timetable and featured a momentous occasion. Harvey Caton, who had been trying endlessly to take his first Civic Cup win, managed to streak away and clinch victory by over four seconds while all the action took place behind him. Will Redford and Josh Files joined him on the podium, with championship leader Max Edmundson remaining in P4 despite a track limits penalty, and Dave Marshall picking up fifth.
The first of the scheduled Silverstone races saw Files steal the lead from pole man Redford into Copse, with Edmundson following him through. The top two in the championship remained glued together as they escaped out front. The pair circulated together for the entire race, with Edmundson relentlessly pressuring Files but unable to prevent him from taking victory. Once again, there was action all around behind them, with Caton taking third after his part in an entertaining multi-car battle that lasted several laps, followed by Redford and Marshall. The next day, Lewis Kent picked up the lead of the third race from Spencer Stevenson before being forced to resist a rapid Alistair Camp through the first half of the encounter. It came down to the final lap between the pair as they fought to come out on top, ending in a photo finish that Camp won by just 0.012 seconds at the flag, with Caton, Files, and Marshall behind.
A busy weekend for the Civics was completed on Sunday afternoon with their fourth appearance, which saw another frantic scrap for the win and podium places from start to finish. After the top six had endlessly swapped places lap after lap in an enthralling display, Edmundson came out of the shuffle with victory, with Files second, while Marshall stole third on the line from Caton and Camp.
The BRSCC Fiesta Junior Championship provided another grid that didn’t fail to put on a great show all weekend in all three races. The two-part race one had to be stopped midway due to an incident involving Daniella Sutton at Brooklands, but when restarted, pole sitter Jacob Hodgkiss resumed his battles with main rival Jenson O’Neill-Going, albeit with Jenson’s Mk6 now ahead. Hodgkiss would drop back after later battles, leaving a recovering Finn Leslie to challenge O’Neill-Going on the final lap exiting Luffield. The sprint to the flag gave victory to O’Neill-Going by less than half a tenth, and Jenson kept the win, but Finn was excluded post-race, which promoted Thomas Merritt and Billy Blockley to the overall podium ahead of Alfie Garford and Archie Davies.
Hodgkiss put some of his recent bad luck and misfortune behind him as he caught and passed early dominator O’Neill-Going in the closing stages to pull off another close finish, this time by 0.182 seconds. Alfie Garford completed the overall and Mk7 podium ahead of Leslie and Archie Davies, rounding out the top five.
As O’Neill-Going and Hodgkiss again led the way in race three, this time with Garford, a charging Leslie, and Mason on their tail throughout, the race became even more intense when O’Neill-Going dropped out with mechanical problems. Leslie would also fall out of contention after a tangle at Maggotts forced him to pit and eventually finish in a lowly 17th place. Back up front, the WERA Tools Alliance Academy cars of Garford and Mason were in contention to win. Despite briefly holding on to a 1-2 just after halfway, in the end, it was a first Fiesta Junior victory for Garford, with teammate Mason settling for third. Hodgkiss’ eventful weekend ended on a high with second place, mere milliseconds ahead of Mason, with Blockley and Jack Burgess finishing in the top five.
Everything looked plain sailing for Alastair Kellett in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship from the outset at Silverstone, but despite taking pole and leading the majority of race one, the Irishman was denied victory on Saturday when gearbox issues forced him to pull up at pit entrance and retire. This allowed Gary Miller to take an emotional first ST240 win ahead of Zach Lucas and Lucas Hayden, with Am class winner Henry Howarth fourth ahead of Archie Johnson.
Miller would do the chasing again in race two, albeit following Zach Lucas this time, who converted his front-row start into a lead he wouldn’t lose despite massive pressure from Miller throughout the race. In the closing stages, they were joined by a charging Kellett, who came through from the back of the grid to an eventual third place behind the top two. Lucas took victory from Miller by less than four-tenths in the end. Archie Johnson again won the Am class in fourth ahead of Joseph Knight.
After partially jumbling up the first few rows for race three, a fast start for Knight put him into the lead just a couple of corners after lights out. Soon enough, both Miller and Kellett were in pursuit of the lead, and neither needed long to slip past Knight before engaging in their own battle. Kellett eventually made the move into Copse in the closing stages and drove on to round off a mixed weekend with victory. Miller remained second ahead of Knight, with Lucas and Connor Blackburn rounding out the top five, while Archie Johnson stole the Am class win on the final sprint to the flag from Dan Lewis.
Bradley Burns picked up where he’d left off from Croft in the Audi TT Cup Racing Championship by converting his second pole position from qualifying into a third win in a row in race one. Never headed from start to finish, Burns claimed win number three, finishing four seconds ahead of closest pursuer Matt Luff, while all the action took place from P3 backward. Carl Swift eventually worked his way onto the final podium step, deposing Luke Handley in fourth and Jason Pelosi in fifth.
Race two ended up as more of the same, with Burns again leading from lights to flag with no real pressure from those behind. The battle for the podium spots stayed close, though, with Luff, Swift, and Sam Heading all dicing amongst each other for the entire 15 minutes. Luff eventually topped the trio when the race was red-flagged early due to a car stopped on the Wellington Straight. Swift, Heading, and a distant Andrew Dyer completed the top five.
Will Stacey started race three on pole as a silver lining for a tough start to the event and led the first half before Heading found a way past on the Wellington Straight. By the time this happened at half distance, Burns was now on their tails, and both he and Heading slipped by Stacey, demoting him to third. In the end, Burns and Stacey’s duel for second on the final lap (which ended in Stacey’s favor) allowed the reprieve Heading needed to secure his first Audi TT win in only his second weekend in the championship. Swift, meanwhile, had run fourth before slipping to 13th in the final laps, promoting Luff and Paul Luti into the top five.
Some of the best racing of the entire weekend came courtesy of the Ginetta Junior Championship, which made its first appearance on a domestic BRSCC race weekend outside of their regular British GT support rounds. Race one quickly set the tone with battles all the way through the field, but the main focus was the lead fight between R Racing teammates Ethan Jeff-Hall and Chase Fernandez, along with Isaac Phelps midway through. It became a five-way dance when Marcus Saeter and Charlie Hart joined the fun in the closing stages, and after several frantic laps, it was Jeff-Hall who emerged victorious, just ahead of Hart, followed by Phelps, Saeter, and Henry Joslyn, respectively.
Jeff-Hall led off from the start of race two, pressed by Fernandez before the pair swapped places at half distance while Phelps watched on just behind in third. After Phelps dropped back briefly, a last-lap squabble between the R Racing pair brought Isaac back into play. A tap in the tail from Phelps under braking at Brooklands pushed Fernandez into Jeff-Hall, forcing all three cars to run wide, but Fernandez still held on to win, with Jeff-Hall P2 and Phelps remaining P3. Saeter and Hart headed the next lead group in fourth and fifth.
Race three produced a brand new winner as Charlie Hart took the fight to both Fernandez and Jeff-Hall, watching both take turns in the lead before pouncing just past half distance. Another multi-car fight broke out, with all three drivers endlessly trading places while Joslyn and Archie Clark joined the fun in the closing minutes. Eventually, Hart made the race-deciding pass into Brooklands on the final lap to finally claim his first Ginetta Junior win by seven-hundredths, followed by Fernandez and a first podium for Clark, with Jeff-Hall and Joslyn in the top five.
There was also plenty of entertainment in the pair of Modified Ford Series races, the vastly popular series making their last appearance at a BRSCC race meeting in 2024 before they return next year. The pair of Mk1 Escort RSRs driven by Tommy Field and Jack Gadd were the pacesetters right from qualifying and into race one, charging away out front with Field pushing on to take the race win. Gadd was second, while Simon Light’s V8 Capri climbed from 11th to 3rd ahead of Lloyd Jamieson’s Escort Maxi Cosworth and Tom Ovenden in another Mk1 RSR.
Race two ended up as a much closer and more exciting contest, especially thanks to a charging Dave Cockell from deep on the grid. Starting back in 36th, Cockell’s Escort Cosworth flew through the pack before picking off the leading cars one by one. At the front, Field and Gadd briefly contested the lead on lap one before a big moment for Gadd exiting Luffield took him out of contention. Cockell only needed four minutes to get up to fourth before claiming third from Light’s Capri and then second from Gadd’s RSR. Catching Field with three minutes to go, the pair had a fantastic duel right to the line, with a drag race to the flag seeing Cockell snatch the win by just two-tenths. Gadd completed the podium, with Light in fourth and Stephen Scott-Dunwoodie’s Sierra RS500 in fifth.
Saturday afternoon’s action began with the 45-minute SW Motorsports ClubSport Trophy race, featuring the usual busy, varied, and eclectic grid of cars lined up for more multi-class pit stop racing. A potential battle between the front-row pair of Rob Boston/Sam Reuter’s Mazda MX-5 and Phiroze Bilimoria’s VW Scirocco was scuppered after the Mazda made a poor start, and by the time it climbed back to P2, Bilimoria had to pit just before the scheduled window opened due to a problem.
The Boston/Reuter MX-5 continued on in the lead and ended up battling on track with the lapped Bilimoria until the Mazda made its scheduled stop. All was well until a spin in the hands of Reuter handed the lead over to Mike Parsons’ VW Golf. Another off at the same corner a couple of laps later all but confirmed the victory for Parsons, who reeled off the final minutes to take the overall and class win – on the road. Post-race, Parsons was one of a handful of drivers served with pit stop time penalties, handing victory in the end to Andrew Dyer’s Audi TT Cup racer ahead of the Boston/Reuter MX-5. The penalty for Parsons pushed him back to third ahead of Chris Murphy and Keiran Power, both in BMW Z4s to round off the overall top five.
All of the top five cars ran in Class B, with other class wins going to Graham Price’s Renault Megane in Class A, Simon Byrne and Ryan Firth’s MG ZS in Class C, Andrew Stephen’s MINI Cooper in Class D, and William Gallacher’s Toyota MR2 in Class E.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
