ELLIOTT NORRIS BAGS ACADEMY TITLE

Elliott Norris is the Caterham Academy Group 1 champion. Photo: www.rachelhorganphotography.co.uk

The Autosport Caterham Academy Group 1 Championship was decided yesterday at Mallory Park when a third place finish was enough to secure the title for leader Elliott Norris.

The race was won by Italian student Achille Corbellati with an immense lights to flag victory. Rob Chappell took a very impressive second, just a mere 0.059 seconds behind the Italian.

Unfortunately the Academy Group 2 race was declared a ‘no contest’ after the race was stopped on just the second lap on two separate occasions. The title contenders will now have to wait for the final round at Silverstone in two weeks to decide who is the champion.

True to form the Mighty Minis provided lights to flag action in both of the categories. In the Standard Class Chris Slade extended his points lead with a hard won victory and in doing so also collected the Edwina Overend Memorial Trophy which was presented to Chris by Ron Overend, Edwina’s husband, and her two grand daughters.

Due to a thunderous downpour the Super Mighty Mini race was reduced to just 11 laps but the shortened race was still entertaining. Scott Kendall suffered with a water induced misfire which saw him out of the running very early on. Man on a mission James Lyford pressured race winner Elliott Stafford relentlessly but he could not hold off the hard charging Pat Ford who made his way through the pack from a lowly qualifying position to take second from Lyford.

In the Alfashop Alfa Romeo Championship there was a late driver change when Chris Healey replaced daughter Mel, who had just failed to return in time from her honeymoon, at the wheel of her 156. Chris probably wished he hadn’t of bothered when he was forced to retire after just 4 laps! Guy Hale took the win in a 147 GTA. Andrew Robinson was second and Emma Karwacki extended her championship lead with a third place finish.

Adam Lockwood enjoyed the best return on a pair of races in the Nippon Challenge. The Porstmouth driver brought his Nissan 200sx home second in the initial outing behind Paul Hughes’ Honda Integra and then won the final Nippon Challenge race ahead of Gary Chappell.

Paul Corbridge from Peterborough had a similarly successful day in the Fuchs Titan Race MR3 Series taking a race win and a second. Gary Lawrence from Westoning was the other MR2 race winner taking the chequered flag in the final race of the meeting just half a second ahead of Corbridge.

For the offficial results CLICK HERE