SILVERSTONE PROVIDES BLAZING HOT CLUB ACTION
Zach Anderton was ecstatic to clinch his first Formula Jedi victories – Photo: Shaun Smith
Silverstone basked in glorious blue skies and bright sunshine for a scintillating BRSCC Midlands Centre race day on the National circuit that saw an incredible mix of single seaters, touring cars and sports cars entertain the crowds throughout the day. Thankfully, the racing was so clean and trouble-free, there wasn't a single safety car period all day, which allowed the meeting to run ahead of time with much efficiency.
The Excool OSS Championship turned out in incredible numbers for its opening 3 races of 2016 with a bumper field of over 30 cars, which came in all manners of shapes, sizes and engines across 5 classes. In Race 1, it was class winners who filled out the podium with Class B’s Duncan Williams taking his Juno to the top spot ahead of Class C’s Josh Smith in his Radical and Graham Cole in the Class A Jade. Cole had led for most of the race before a technical glitch cut his engine out, forcing a drive through the field for a podium. Race 2 saw Cole get his redemption as he clinched the overall and Class B win with Williams and Smith once again joining him on the podium in 2nd & 3rd respectively. Race 3 could have been a second win for Cole had mechanical problems not cruelly robbed him just a couple of laps from the end. This handed former overall champion Smith to claim a win to round out the weekend from a charging Jordan Sanders, who put in some storming laps to charge through to 2nd place. Graham Hill took a well-earned 3rd place overall and 2nd in Class C after battling hard all weekend.
In the other classes, there were wins all across the 3 races for Richard Fearns in Class A, Tim Harmer and Daniel Predregast in Class E and Karolis Griska and Kevin Suenson in the designated Aquila Synergy class. With such an incredible turnout for their opening meeting, OSS had everyone’s tongues wagging come the end of the day.
Equally as striking and exciting to watch, the rapid Formula Jedi Championship put on a pair of simply sensational races. Race 1 saw Paul Butcher forced to hold off the advances of an incredibly determined Zachary Anderton and Dan Clowes for the entire race, creating an awesome 3 car battle for the lead. All of them deserved a victory, however in the end Anderton was the one to somehow find a way through on the last corner of the last lap to snatch his first Jedi win from Butcher and Clowes. More of the same was prompted in Race 2 after Clowes broke into the lead throughout the initial laps, but Anderton did enough to stay close and pass mid way through. Zach pulled away to make it a brace of wins from Clowes and Butcher.
It was action aplenty in the Honda VTEC Challenge as Adam Jones’ Super Tuner class Civic became embroiled in a weekend long scrap with the Tuner Class cars of Paul Waddington and Mark Bennett. Waddington led the early laps before Jones took over. From there, he was never headed despite advances from the cars behind and he clinched the win from Waddington and Bennett. A titanic battle occurred in Race 2 with Jones remaining in the lead all the way to the final lap, when Waddington made the move to take the win with Bennett once again in 3rd place. Paul Donkin managed an impressive pair of Production class victories, despite an engine fault that had to be cured between races.
The Hondas were joined in the same grid by the quirky Smart 4Two Cup, which saw an impressive turnout. Martyn Clatworthy won the first encounter ahead of Alan Palmer and James Palmer, which Alan then followed up in Race 2 with the top step ahead of James with Simon Coverdale completing the rostrum. Clatworthy sadly wasn’t able to make the flag on that occasion.
Showcasing some of the best British sports cars, the Dunlop TVR Challenge saw a relatively healthy turnout for its opening races of the championship. Dean Cook had to battle hard his Class A+ Sagaris to find a way around Nick Cresswell’s Invitation class Caterham, however when he did he had more than enough pace to pull away and win by 8 seconds from Cresswell, with Tim Davis taking an overall 3rd and Class A win aboard his Tuscan. Cook doubled up in the second race, however was pressed much harder by Cresswell all the way to the flag, with Davis again in 3rd. Mathew Smith secured honours in both races for Class C, while Mike Luck was only able to score points in Class B in Race 1 before being unable to make it out later in the afternoon.
An increased entry in the Alfa Romeo Championship had Andy Robinson bounce back from technical problems to score the win in the Modified class and overall, with Power Trophy’s Ron Davidson 2nd and Twin Spark Cup’s Tom Hill in 3rd, allowing Hill to continue with a commanding lead in the Twin Spark points. Due to technical problems to some cars, a slightly reduced grid took to Race 2 with Robinson once again winning from Davidson and Hill. Joshua Lambert, James Lambert and Andy Hancock shared the Twin Spark podiums throughout the weekend.
A massive thank you to all of our BRSCC Midlands officials and the brilliant marshals who performed exceptionally as always! You can see a full breakdown of the results from the weekend via TSL Timing here – SILVERSTONE RESULTS.
Scott Woodwiss
