COMPACT CUP & CO SHINE ON BRSCC MAY WEEKEND AT SNETTERTON
A spectacular two days of racing took place this past weekend in Norfolk courtesy of the BRSCC East Anglian Centre, as Snetterton’s 300 circuit played host to a double header full of saloon, sports car and “allcomers” style racing that entertained the spectators from start to finish with some thrilling action.
The headline act of the weekend was the Nankang Tyres BMW Compact Cup, which featured a mammoth 43 car entry to cement its status as one of the healthiest and best-supported championships in British club motorsport. First blood of the weekend went to Tom Griffiths, who was the main at the head of the field after both Matthew Parkes and Ben Huntley’s stints in the lead eventually came to nothing. Parkes would end up retiring while Huntley could only manage 4th place, leaving Griffiths to take the win ahead of defending double champion Seven Dailly and Wayne Flint. Going into Sunday races, with this being the first weekend that the Compact Cup had run over two days, Dailly was able to beat Griffiths away from the front row at the start and held the lead through a brief safety car for a first lap incident, before going on take victory with Griffiths claiming 2nd place some 1.1 seconds back and Gordon MacMillan coming home top Masters driver on that occasion with a very impressive 3rd place, holding off former MX-5 racer Paul Maguire in the process.
Dailly would then round off his Sunday and his weekend by going on to once again lead the race from start to finish from pole position, taking his second win of the day with Griffiths again picking up 2nd place and regular rival Ian Jones also leaving Norfolk with silverware of his own by taking 3rd.
More tin-top action was present in the BRSCC Fiesta Championship racing with MRF Tyres, where former Class C champion David Nye aimed to pick up where he’d left off at Cadwell Park just a couple of weeks ago. After collecting pole position by almost 3 tenths, he proceeded to lead from the front in Race 1 to take a lights to flag victory with Jamie Going chasing him down all race in 2nd place and James Waite continuing his strong run of podium finishes with 3rd place. Nye would then do it again in Sunday’s first race, winning by less than a second from Waite in P2 this time and Samuel Watkins taking up the final podium place. His perfect run couldn’t last, however, as retirement forced him to end his third race after just 3 laps. This left Jamie Going to lead the way on the road and indeed cross the finish line in 1st, however he was one of four drivers slapped with 5 second time penalties for track limits. This left Ryan Faulconbridge to collect the win instead with Watkins moving up to 2nd and Going slipping back to 3rd as a result.
Another new race winner came to the fore in the latest rounds of the BRSCC Fiesta Championship racing with MRF Tyres, as Nathanael Hodgkiss made a welcome return to the grid in Norfolk and indeed for the rest of the season. He immediately reminded everyone just how good he was as he beat pole man Joseph Loake away from the lights in Race 1, jumped into the lead and kept him at bay by several tenths of a second all race to pick up his first Fiesta Junior win of his career and of the season. Loake picked up 2nd place ahead of points leader Olly Turner, who had to settle for 3rd after also copping a time penalty for track limits too. More of the same came for Hodgkiss in the second race as again he would claim the lead and prevent a closely following Turner any chance of getting through as he settled for 2nd; Ted Potts picked up the final podium place in Race 2 with 3rd.
Patrick Sherrington was virtually unstoppable in the opening rounds of the BRSCC OSS Championship, a home for some of the fastest and most incredible sports prototypes and sports racing cars in the UK. Race 1 saw him start on the front row alongside the Chiron of Richard Wise and Sherrington had to wait until Lap 5 before finding a way past and cantering away in the lead throughout the remaining laps. Patrick would end up winning by over 8 seconds with Wise in P2, while Julian Griffiths was best of the rest in 3rd place as all three drivers won Classes A, B and C respectively. Sherrington was then untouchable in Race 2 as he blitzed the field and took the flag by over a minute in the end, with Richard Fearns trailing in his wake in 2nd place and Adam Dale picking up 3rd and the Class B win in the process, albeit only less than a second behind P2 man Fearns. More of the same followed in Race 3 with Sherrington completing the hat-trick in fine style, once again winning by more than a minute with Jack Fabby clinching 2nd and the Class B win ahead of Normal Lackford in 3rd.
The Classic & Modern Motorsport Club brought three separate contests under their banner to Norfolk with a multitude of entries in each. First off was the increasingly popular Southern Saloon Car Series with a mega 31 car line up taking to the track. Race 1 saw veteran Rod Birley and his evergreen Ford Escort Cosworth “WRC” clinch the win from Alex Sidwell’s Holden Commodore V8 Supercar and Edward Leigh’s BMW M3 GT4, before Birley ended up leading an Escort 1-2 as he completed the double with fellow Ford man Malcolm Wise in P2 and Leigh again in 3rd in the BMW. The Pre ’64 and Classic Challenge was a close affair with Brian Arculus coming out on top in the 30 minute in his Lotus Elan, just ahead of John Andon and Philip Lambe in a pair of Triumphs who joined him on the podium. Dave Cockell then went on to take both races for himself in the Ford Saloon Challenge & Dunlop TVR Challenge encounters, taking P1 in each with Rod Birley, Paul Neville and Malcolm Wise sharing the silverware behind him.
Another superb entry also appeared in the form of the Track Attack Race Club, with their Nippon Challenge, Tricolore Trophy and Multi Marques never failing to put on a great show. Craig Tomkinson’s rapid little Vauxhall Nova took honours in Race 1 from Richard Hockley Honda Civic and the ever present Renault Clio of Tony Hunter, with all three drivers winning their respective categories in the process. Hockley then took his turn on the top spot in Race 2 by taking the Honda to victory from the flame spitting Mazda RX-8 of Clive Haynsford and Hunter’s Clio in 3rd.
The weekend ended with an Allcomers Sports & Saloon race on Sunday, where Adrian Matthews came out the victor aboard his Ford Puma ahead of Marcus Bicknell’s Citroen Saxo and Rikki Taylor’s Ford Fiesta ST150.
Scott Woodwiss
