PENROSE DOUBLE AT ROCKINGHAM


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An epic race in the Metro Caterham Academy (Group 1) for novice drivers between Jay Gardner and Adam Pile started the full weekend of racing at Rockingham, with Gardner victorious. In the second race of the day Edwin Jowsey started his long weekend by wining in the Cardinus Formula 3, later followed by pole position for the FJHRA / HSCC "Millers Oils" UK Championship, which he unfortunately failed to finish after leading the first four laps. Jon Milicevic in his Copper T59 came through to win this one, despite a safety car intervention. The second Caterham race for Group 2 also was a two horse race with Jeremy Webb passing Lee Wiggins on the 6th lap to claim victory despite being hounded to the flag.

The BRSCC Porsche 924 Championship, despite a small grid produced some excellent racing, with Will Penrose first over the line, and in the LMA Euro Saloons Tony Soper in his Harrier was awarded the win after Simon Blanckley overtook in a safety car period and was subsequently excluded from the race. Last years most successful Fiat driver, Simon McFie, finally got his first win in 2009 in the Motorlawyers Fiat Racing Challenge after beating Jason Greatex, winner in a number so far this year and despite a late roll of Roger Esp in his Fiat Uno. The Race.tv Open Sportscars ended with Josh Fisher putting in a performance to beat the field after 14 laps and fastest lap.

Sunday’s racing commenced with another measured performance from Edwin Jowsey in the Cardinus Formula 3 from Damien Charveriat, followed by an impressive display from Will Penrose in the BRSCC Porsche 924’s, winning by some 23 seconds from Matt Upchurch. The Bike Engined Sports Cars (BESCR) were unfortunately a little short on entries, and Paul Steele showed some domination in his Radical beating Jon-Paul Ivey by over 30 seconds. Similarly the second race of the Race.tv Open Sportscar Series was short of entries but the battle between the front two could not have been closer, finishing with Alan Hogg just 0.4 seconds ahead of Steve Griffiths at the line.

The racing that Rockingham is famous for is on the long oval but with the demise of the ASCAR championship it leaves the Pickup Truck Championship as perhaps the fastest racing in Britain outside Formula One. As expected, the first race of these 2 litre space frame vehicles provided close racing to the flag, with Phil White beating the rest and John Mickel having the first accident in to the wall at Turn 4. The second Pickup race occurred after a rain storm which caused havoc to the second BESCR race, causing a delayed start. A master class of driving though from John-Paul Ivey led to nearly a minute gap in the BESCR’s, and Nic Grindrod took advantage of the conditions in the Pickups to seal an excellent win ahead of Pete Stevens leading the pack in.

To round off the action Alfa Romeo’s had their usual colourful selection of Italian exotica, won this time by Peak Alfa’s Roger Evans in his superbly prepared GTV, and the Fiat’s had a second race of the weekend, and this time normal service for this year was resumed by Jason Greatex, leading Saturday’s winner until he was unable to continue, eventually beating James Levy by some 9 seconds.

The full results for the meeting can be found at:www.tsl-timing.com/brscc/2009/92931.pdf

Peter Ritchie


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