SUN SHINES ON ANGLESEY WINTER RACE DAY CLOSER

A most beautiful sunrise over Snowdonia greeted the officials and competitors at Anglesey for the BRSCC NW region’s Winter Race Meeting on Sunday November 18th.   The weather was on our side all day, with dry, crisp conditions and wall to wall sunshine.

Our colleagues from Ireland brought their Global GT Lights cars for three races, once again impressing all onlookers with their perfectly formed rolling starts.   Conor Farrell, James Thompson and Mark Braden each took a race victory, and with the final championship positions too close to call at the circuit between Peter Drennan and Conor Farrell, it appeared that the champion might be decided in the bar on the ferry back to Dublin!

The Reprise IT Tiedeman Trophy is an Autumn end of season mini championship for Formula Monoposto cars; the championship started at Castle Combe in October, then visiting Brands Hatch, before concluding with two races at Anglesey.   Seventeen very quick and extremely varied single seat cars took to the grid.  

Neil Harrison took victory in both races in his immaculate Dallara F302, followed in the first race by Zachery Anderton in his indecently rapid Jedi, and in the second race by Marcus Sheard in his Reynard 883; repaired after a small fire in qualifying.   However, with seven different classes and the championship honours up for grabs, the racing was competitive throughout the field.  

In the event Will Cox was crowned the 2018 Tiedeman champion overall in his Formula Vauxhall Junior car, with Philip Davis in his 1998 Van Diemen SC99 finishing runner up, and Terry Clark in a Formula Vauxhall Lotus car third overall. 

Mention should be made of Bryn Tootell who, very sportingly, let his friend Alistair Bell borrow his car in the second race after problems in Race 1 – Bell, after all, had travelled all the way from Hong Kong to compete; taking time off from his ‘day’ job as a Cathay Pacific airline pilot.

Formula Monoposto regular Ewan Sergison also deserves special mention as well for repairing a number of cars following their travails in qualifying and the first race.

The Sports, Saloons and Caterhams races brought a varied mix of open sports cars and saloon cars to the grid.   Nicolaj Lindberg, commuting to Anglesey from Denmark to compete in his glorious sounding Radical SR8 took the first race victory, closely followed by Doug Carter in a slightly less powerful Radical PR6.   Jasver Sapra was the first non-Radical runner in his BMW 330, another car that sounded spectacular around the undulating Welsh circuit.   Doug Carter won the second race after Lindberg was black flagged for a starting position indiscretion, with Daniel French finishing runner-up in a Caterham 270R.  

Particular mention should also go to Max Wolstenholme in his Porsche Boxster, who was competing in his first ever races.

The first Formula Ford race featured a hectic battle between the young Co Kildare driver Jake Byrne, Tommy Foster, and the two McArthur brothers.   Foster, aged 16 and hailing from Truro in Cornwall, but no relation of Joey, has recently graduated out of karts, with a view to competing in Formula Renault Eurocup in 2019.    The two youngsters finished first and second with Foster ahead by only half a second; less than two seconds covered the top four with Tom McArthur finishing ahead of David.

The second race was equally frenetic, with the top three covered by just half a second.   That race was eventually won by Tom McArthur with British F4 regular Jamie Sharp a very close second and Tommy Foster third.

Mention should also be made of Davide Meloni, a San Marino resident, who had travelled all the way to Anglesey to compete in the Formula Ford races.

Overall, the day featured some sizeable grids of extremely varied cars, and some great racing, and the meeting was a highly appropriate season closer for the BRSCC NW region.   It was particularly impressive to see drivers travelling from Denmark, San Marino and even Hong Kong to compete in the meeting.

Our heartfelt appreciation goes out to all marshals and officials who have assisted in any way to make the 2018 season the success it has been, at both Anglesey and Oulton Park circuits.

The planning now starts for the 2019 season!