DAY OF THE YOUNG GUNS AT ANGLESEY
Jordan Sanders commanded all 3 of his races aboard the Excool Juno CN2012 – Photo: Rachel Bourne
Another fabulous season of BRSCC motor racing concluded when our North Western Centre took charge of the Anglesey Coastal Layout on 22nd November. It was a day when young drivers enjoyed great success on tarmac that started out wet and took a long time to dry out.
One of the youngest competitors was Juno CN2012 pilot, Jordan Sanders, who dominated the three Open Sportscar events which ran concurrently with a pair of visiting categories from Ireland in the shape of Global Lights and Supercars. With 6 years of racing karts behind him, 16 year old Sanders only graduated to cars little more than a month ago but he has been competing every weekend since gathering signatures for a 2016 season which could see him involved in the V de V Endurance series. This was his first visit to the Welsh circuit and he loved the track. No doubt this was helped by the fact that he had a good set up on his car whether conditions were wet or dry helping him to show his skills to the full every time the red lights went out.
The Global Lights are always spectacular at Anglesey as they provide non-stop action. Peter Drennan came within 0.214 secs of taking a hat-trick of victories in this category but he was beaten to the line by Mark Twomey at the second time of asking.
The Supercars are also a big favourite when they come over on the ferry to Holyhead. Their second contest went all the way to the wire with James Roe, who visited Anglesey to race Formula Ford 1600 in September, less than half a second ahead of Bob Cameron. Having comfortably won the first encounter, Roe missed out on making it three out of three when in lifting off to counter some mid-corner understeer the rear of the car broke away. This sent a front wheel across an apex kerb and, once on the slippery grass, he had no control over the direction of travel.
Following a pair of fantastic Formula Ford 1600 events, Jake Byrne returned to Ireland with quite a haul of trophies. Tom McArthur set the fastest time in qualifying in his Van Diemen LA10 with Byrne’s Ray GR13 starting the opening encounter from the outside of the front row. This was also the order at the end of the first circuit before Doug Crosbie’s Van Diemen JL13 nipped ahead of Byrne the second time the pack tackled Rocket. It was all change on lap 8 when Byrne charged out of Church in the lead having been the third car to cross the line with McArthur going in the opposite direction down to third. The front trio were battling so hard that the Swift SC10 of Jason Cooper was able to close in and take third from McArthur at the final corner as Byrne won the Bernard Baxter Trophy from Crosbie.
The finishing order determined the grid for the Brian Linley Trophy thrash and Byrne was able to leave everyone battling amongst themselves to take the flag almost 14 seconds ahead. When Crosbie had too much wheelspin at the start, Cooper and McArthur moved ahead of him but during the course of the 15 minutes both ran wide at Church while Crosbie himself had a spin exiting the Corkscrew. This promoted Tom’s brother, David in a sister Van Diemen LA10, into second although he was demoted in the closing stages by a recovering Crosbie.
Byrne’s second visit to the top step of the podium also meant he won the Wallpaper Central Post89 Trophy and earned him the Moose Trophy. The latter was decided by the aggregate results of the two races. Earlier in the day Matthew Cowley had secured the Pre90 version of the Wallpaper Central Trophy and followed that up with class victory in this encounter too.
At the age of 21, Byrne was the oldest overall winner of the day!
Having wrapped up the North West Sports/Saloon Championship early in October, 20 year old Joe Spencer brought his Stuart Taylor Locosaki along for a quick blast around the Anglesey Coastal layout. The 20 year old took two victories in the contests for Sports, Saloons & Caterhams. His closest challenger in qualifying was Martin Davies (Ford Sierra Cosworth) but he finished two laps down in race 1 having been forced to make a pit-stop part-way through the 15 minutes, this allowed the two brothers Sam & Joshua Watkins to take the remaining places on the podium in their Renault Clios. Taylor was runner-up later in the day as Joshua came home ahead of Sam to once again finish third.
The BRSCC wish to express their huge appreciation for all the marshals who provided safety cover in very cold conditions at one of the most exposed circuits in the country. We hope they enjoyed the racing!
Dave Williams
