WINSTANLEY AND WIGGINS SHARE SUPERLIGHT WINS
Five Caterham championships headlined the BRSCC Finals bill at Donington as a total of six champions were crowned in a weekend hit by mixed weather conditions.
Aaron Head may well have dominated this year’s Caterham Superlight Championship with nine wins on his way to title glory last month at Croft, but the 24-year-old would not grace the top step of the podium this time – with both races settled by less than 0.4-second margins.
Danny Winstanley snatched a last-lap win during Saturday’s opener, following a relentless 30-minute tussle over the lead that included 10 cars – at least! In the season finale, Lee Wiggins fended off a remarkable recovery effort from Head, who charged through from 22nd after a DNF the previous day. Ben Tuck and Jack Brown each recorded victories in Caterham Supersports as newly crowned champion William Smith graduated to the R300-S class.
Scottish youngster Daniel Bremner took his fourth Tracksport win of 2016, while Donald Henshall kept Steve Mcculley at bay on a wet-dry Sunday to record his maiden Caterham victory. A pair of top six finishes proved enough for Russ Olivant to secure the Roadsport championship after race one winner Daniel Quintero was one of three drivers excluded from the results for failing to slow sufficiently under waved yellows. Rui Ferreira inherited the victory, but fell back in the second encounter as Andrew Perry stormed through from sixth for his first win of the year.
Ben Gillias fought back from sixth and passed direct rival Jay Mccormack for the lead on the final tour to snatch the Academy White Championship by just two points. The same grandstand finish could not be replicated in the fight for the Academy Green title, as a safety car conclusion denied Peter Spencer the opportunity to pass rival Steven Tozer, with the latter coming out on top. Both groups came together for the annual end-ofseason Academy Autumn Trophy, in which Mccormack cantered to victory in relative comfort after making a lightningquick start from row three.
Only reliability issues stopped Jason Timms from recording a clean sweep of race victories onboard his Dallara F311 in the Monoposto Tiedeman Trophy. Timms beat Neil Harrison in the first outing but was forced into retirement in the second race when technical gremlins struck after he had pulled over 10s clear. Meanwhile a pair of class wins cemented Geoff Fern as the overall Trophy champion.
In the Production GTI Mk2 Championship Chris Webb wrapped up the 16V crown with a double podium as runner-up Nick Porter and Adam Hance each tasted the winning spoils. Matthew Petts brought out the red flags in the opener when he dramatically rolled his VW Golf onto its roof at the Old Hairpin, yet, despite being sidelined from the final race with a heavilydamaged car, Petts was still able to secure the 8V title as rival Wes Chatterton failed to record a class win.
Charlie Cudlipp achieved the only brace of outright race wins throughout the entire weekend by controlling proceedings in the Production GTI Mk5 Series. The Somerset driver swept past polesitter Andy Baylie into the right-handed first corner of Redgate to take an early lead, which he had stretched out by the chequered flag, before repeating a similarly peerless performance in the second event.
Nippon Challenge regular Richard Hockley overcame a sluggish start from pole position to claim his maiden win in his first appearance in the Honda VTEC Challenge. Having suffered a dramatic engine blowout in the opening race, Jeff Cooper recovered from 13th on the grid to earn a remarkable victory in a topsy-turvy second encounter. Cooper made the race- winning pass in the closing stages when Steve Sawley misjudged his braking into the final chicane, allowing the former to sneak by. In the Smart 4 Two Cup, Alan Palmer twice led home James Palmer to boast class honours.
An eclectic mix of 39 pre-1960 Touring Cars contested a 45-minute enduro in the HRDC Touring Greats, as Neil Brown took advantage of misfortune for Mike and Andrew Jordan to steal the overall race victory. Father/ son pairing Mike and Andrew had carved open a 35s lead but surrendered an almost-certain win when their shared Austin A40 encountered some rear brake problems.
Mike Jordan recovered from the DNF disappointment in the HRDC Allstars, beating Mike Whitaker and Mark Halstead to victory in a TVR Griffith. Jordan had at one stage enjoyed a comfortable margin out front, before a late charge by Whitaker allowed him to close to within 0.5s as the pair crossed the line nose-to-tail after 30 minutes of racing.