CADWELL PARK PRODUCES ANOTHER BRSCC SUMMER SCORCHER
- Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup
- Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge
- Clapham North MOT Mazda MX-5 SuperCup
- GAZ Shocks Mazda MX-5 Championship
- BRSCC Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy
- Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship
- Downforce Radio Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship
- BRSCC BMW 1 Series SuperCup
- Ricci Concept Classic VW Cup
- BRSCC Evolution Trophy
- Finsport Renault Cup
- MG Metro Cup
Scorching temperatures helped make this past weekend’s British Racing & Sports Car Club visit to the magnificent Cadwell Park circuit in Lincolnshire even more enjoyable, especially with a plethora of popular championships and series in attendance providing more thrilling racing. While some drivers dominated on their respective grids, wins were shared out on others and more twists and turns took place in respective championship battles.
The GAZ Shocks Mazda MX-5 Championship essentially saw a continuation of the triple header from Croft, with Luke Pullen and Adam Sparrow sharing out the three victories between them. A first lap incident in race one forced a second after the first was red flagged, and Sparrow leapt into a lead he wouldn’t lose despite pressure from first Pullen, then Jack Noller and Thomas Langford before Pullen retook second on the final lap. Behind the top two, Langford’s return after his Croft absence began with a podium in third initially before he was demoted one place for gaining an unfair advantage, giving Noller third with Oliver Graham finishing in fifth.
For one title contender, their second race would be over before it even started as Noller lost a wheel on the formation lap and would be a non-starter. When Sunday’s first encounter did get going, Pullen hounded Sparrow for the opening three laps before making the pass to hit the front. Defending well on Cadwell’s tight confines, Pullen managed to gap P2 by just over a second by the chequered flag, with Sparrow settling for second ahead of Langford, Graham and Ewan Thomas.
With Pullen and Sparrow at one win apiece now, race three would be the rubber match to see who would walk away with a second win. Sparrow led the opening stages including through an early safety car, but Pullen proved that his pressure would pay off and eventually slipped by with three laps to go to collect win number two of the meeting and four for the season to date so far. Langford again rounded off the top three, followed by Graham and a fifth place for Adam Craig.
With championship leader Paul Bateman absent from Cadwell Park, Jonny Greensmith and co had a prime chance to score big points in the pair of Downforce Radio Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship races, but just as it looked as though Jonny could be on for as much as seven wins in a row, one driver had other ideas. Harry Deane made a one-off appearance and not only stormed to pole by eight tenths, but also ended up chasing Greensmith for most of the race before passing him in the closing laps. Deane took a superb victory on his first outing of 2024 with Greensmith still scoring well in P2, followed by Jamie Turner in an excellent third ahead of Jack Warry and Martin Tolley.
Race two played out very much in identical fashion later that day, with Greensmith taking the lead from the front row and heading the field for the majority of the race. Again, Deane left it late after hounding Greensmith for several laps and made the pass with just two laps to go before driving on to secure the double. Another healthy second place did Greensmith’s charge no harm, placing him ahead of Jack Warry, Jake Paice and Christian Dann in the top five.
The Clapham North MOT Mazda MX-5 SuperCup ended up being all about two drivers in the end – Aidan Hills in Pro class, and Ollie Hall in Club. Both of them were unshakeable from the top step of the podium all weekend and both respectively supercharged their class title aspirations by dominating from start to finish. Hills had to quickly skip past Patrick Fletcher on lap two of the opening race to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish, taking the first of his wins just shy of two seconds in front of Fletcher on the road, but a penalty demoted him to third behind Tom Griffiths. Joe Wiggin and a returning Will Blackwell-Chambers completed the top five.
More of the same occurred in race two on Sunday morning, with Hills this time leading from the outset and unmoved from the lead all race to rack up win number two in Lincolnshire, and despite dropping back early on, a safety car helped Fletcher finish less than a second behind in P2 ahead of James Cossins in third, his second podium of the season. Griffiths and Oliver Allwood also picked up top five finishes.
Hills then worked his way from eighth on the partially reversed race three grid to third in just one lap, before taking the lead by the end of the next tour and driving way to complete the clean sweep. A strong effort from Blackwell-Chambers saw him complete his return with a fine second place ahead of Oliver Allwood, then Cossins and Griffiths behind.
As for Club class, a trio of victories for Ollie Hall ensured he further maintained his lead, with Wilbur Tiley taking three P2 finishes and Aimee Watts a hat-trick of thirds.
Proving to be one of the most competitive championships on the BRSCC roster, the Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup produced three different winners, including one brand new to the top step. Race one saw some familiarity with championship leader Joe Doble getting a rocket start to end the first lap just shy of five seconds in front and almost ten by the next, but Max Noble quickly closed him down in the damp conditions to get to within a second in the final laps. By the flag, the winning margin for Doble was just 0.3 seconds, the pair in a race of their own with Gordon Macmillan several seconds back in third from Mike Doble and Connor Grady.
It was a turn of a new race winner to take the top step in race two as Noble stepped up with a fine start from the front row before resisting race long pressure from Macmillan and co behind. It ended up as a six car train battling over the podium places, but Noble was steadfast in his defence and held on to claim a maiden Compact Cup victory with Macmillan and Joe Doble right behind him, followed by Mike Doble and Grady.
Jumbling up the front half of the grid for race three allowed Grady to take full advantage of his pole position from the word go, and dominating from start to finish. Connor ended up more than eight seconds in front by the flag to grab his second Compact Cup win, this time ahead of Mike Doble and Noble, Macmillan and Joe Doble.
After a tough Oulton Park, Mike Blackburn wasted no time in rebounding in the latest Vinyl Detail Fiesta ST150 Challenge round at the weekend, swiftly moving up from fourth to first on the opening lap of race one and keeping a racey Chris Grimes at arms’ length for the entire 15 minutes. Blackburn’s return to winning ways came just under a second ahead of Grimes, with pole sitter Dan Robinson forced to keep both Mark Blunt and Matt Pimlott at bay.
In a contrast in fortunes, Grimes got the better start to race two the next day and repeated the feat of Blackburn by again heading the field all the way through. A fine drive gave him victory, but being a guest it meant that Robinson would take the maximum points instead finishing second, followed by Blackburn, Pimlott and Blunt.
Aiden Vickers did his best to hold back the rest of the pack starting race three from the partially reversed grid pole, but could only do so for a lap before Blackburn swept through and tried to drive off into the distance but was kept honest by Pimlott from the early stages. Matt never got close enough to attack and Blackburn claimed his second win of the weekend and took another step closer to the title, with Blunt taking the final podium place from Robinson and Grimes.
Over in the Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup & Student Motorsport Challenge, Stuart Bliss still could not be stopped no matter how hard the rest of the field tried to knock him off his perch. Another pole for race one was followed by domination of the following 15 minutes, leaving Brady Pollock to lead home a three car scrap for second ahead of Haydn Payne and the Gen 2 development car in the hands of Andrew Dyer; Elliot Lettis completed the top five.
It was more of the same in race two, albeit this time with a slightly smaller winning margin for Bliss courtesy of an early and short safety car. Stuart took the flag just under four seconds ahead of Jack Wheeler in second, with Andrew Dyer third on the road in the Gen 2 car, but invisible for awards. This gave Richard Jepp the final podium step instead, ahead of Lettis and Pollock.
Pollock then led for the majority of race three and looked to be on the cusp of his first CityCar win, but lost out in the final couple of laps as first Jepp took the lead on the penultimate lap before a last lap move from Bliss allowed him to save the hat-trick of wins. Jepp remained second ahead of Dyer who was once again invisible for results, so third instead went to Lettis from Pollock and Payne.
The pair of races for the Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup saw all of the action from second place downwards, as there was one man that was simply uncatchable across both days. Jack Ashton not only took pole by a second in qualifying, but then translated that into a pace that no-one could keep up with. He was victorious in race one by 15 seconds, with championship leader Robbie Kenning holding on to second despite late pressure from third placed Mike Williams. Dick Trevett was fourth ahead of Jon Moore, who had run in the podium spots early in the race.
Deja vu occurred in race two when Ashton dominated again the next day, albeit with a slightly smaller winning margin of 12 seconds. Williams managed to escape the pack and finished in no man’s land in second, while Kenning and Moore kept it close for third place with Trevett again taking a top five finish.
The variety of the BRSCC Evolution Trophy was again on display at Cadwell Park with cars representing all four competing series – the Ricci Concept Classic VW Cup, Finsport Renault Cup, Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy and the BMW 1 Series SuperCup – turning out on the grid for Cadwell. Running as an invitation class runner in CVWC, Andrew Dyer dovetailed a busy weekend with a win in race one aboard his Audi TT Cup Racing Championship race car, taking victory overall ahead of Paul Hoggins in another TTCup car, Renault Cup winner David Mycock in his Clio, Ken Lark’s VW Scirocco and Adam Marshall’s Golf.
With Dyer absent for the second race, this allowed Marshall to take his Golf back to winning ways with more CVWC glory taking the chequered flag first. Lark took second in the Scirocco ahead of Hoggins’ TT, then Nick Sanderson’s SEAT Leon SuperCopa and top Renault Cup runner Mycock.
Further down the field, Ben Taylor was top of the MX-5 Mk4 Trophy runners in both races, and Mike Close enjoyed a pair of trouble free runs in the BMW 1 Series SuperCup car to finish ninth overall both times.
An addition to the timetable at Cadwell was the presence of the CNC Heads North West Sports & Saloon Car Championship, a contest that is popular and regularly attracts decent and varied grids. Jon Woolfitt looked on course to be unstoppable all weekend by taking a commanding pole in his Spire GTR, and was all set to win race one at a canter before his car gave out after just four laps. This left Connor Modro victorious in his Westfield, eight seconds clear of Simon Allaway’s booming Lotus Esprit V8 followed by Paul Masters’ Westfield, Jamie Cryer’s Ginetta and Richard Hall’s Caterham.
Woolfitt was unable to make the start of race two, which ensured Modro could drive on trouble-free despite a first lap safety car. Even though he still took the flag first, Allaway’s Esprit only ended up more than a second behind in the end, with Masters’ Westfield, Cryer’s Ginetta and Steven Parker’s Ford Fiesta in the top five.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
