THRUXTON BECKONS FOR NEXT CATERHAM ROADSPORT EPISODE OF 2020
The 2020 Caterham Roadsport Championship makes the switch from Cadwell Park’s tight confines to the fast and open sweeps of the brilliant Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire. Once again, the Roadsport drivers will share a grid with the slightly faster Seven 270R drivers, meaning two races taking place on one track at the same time will make it rather intense and very busy for the drivers to contend with.
The Roadsport championship is the next step on the Caterham ladder for the Academy drivers and their cars from the 2019 season, enabling them to enjoy another year of racing with the friends they have battled against in the hugely successful Academy series. With only light modifications, the Roadsport race car is a simple development of the 2019 Academy car; its performance significantly enhanced by the addition of a rear-anti roll bar and a switch to track orientated, yet still road legal, Avon ZZS tyres.
Drivers had to cope with a mix of conditions throughout the Cadwell weekend as a rain-affected first race on Saturday for some drivers, was followed by two dry races for the rest as the entry competed across three groups and three respective contests in order to ensure everyone managed two starts. Through it all came one of last year’s Academy champions in Tom Wyllys, who almost took maximum points with two wins and a fastest lap to put him at the top of the points by three from a rather familiar adversary. Blair McConachie, the man who pressed him all the way in the Academy White Group in 2019, continued his pursuit to begin 2020 and managed to grab a win in the final race of the Cadwell weekend to go with his 2nd place earlier in the day and will want to be on his tail, or more ideally in front of Tom, in either or both of the two races coming up this weekend.
Harry Eyre is next in the standings in 3rd, having shared the rostrum with both Wyllys and McConachie respectively and will hope he can keep up with them this weekend after he finished several seconds back in his first Cadwell race before only ending up 1.4s back at the finish of his second. Two more podium finishers that weekend were Nick Allbones and Carl Jones and both are already tied for 4th place having each taken a 2nd and a 4th from their races. With Wes Payne also just a point behind after he came third in Race 1 with the fastest lap, it leaves the top six covered by no more than eight points, making it very prone for the entire order to turn on its head should things get a little crazy out on track.
On the fringes of breaking into this sextet are William Brunt and David Gracey in 7th and 8th respectively, while there’s a current three-way tie for 9th place with Daryl Cresswell, Michael Kerley and David Morgan all on 35 points. With the later start to the season, it’s only the second meeting of the year so it’s still early to determine who has the true early advantage, but hopefully, some excellent racing might just get us a little closer to revealing who the title contenders will be going forwards.
Scott Woodwiss
