AND THE WINNERS ARE... ORGEE TAKES TITLE DESPITE MOYERS COMBE FINALE CLASH

CASTLE COMBE: CCRC BY LEE BONHAM

Roger Orgee was crowned the 2016 Castle Comber Formula Ford champion after tangling with title rival and team-mate Michael Moyers in the final race of the year.

A red flag was thrown early on for an incident between the retiring Pete Diccox and Richard Mayall. Chaos ensued as the race was resumed without a secondary green-flag lap. Moyers led before the stoppage but ran behind Orgee at the restart. Critically, he ended up making contact with his title rival and was forced out of the race. Orgee was able to continue but later pulled into the pits, having already retained his title with Moyers out of the running.

After a safety car period, Luke Cooper and Ben Norton had a tremendous dice for the victory. Cooper led the initial running before being passed by Norton on the fifth lap. Cooper fought back to retake the lead, but Norton wasted no time in firing back with a brave out-braking manoeuvre at Camp corner. The two then lapped in tandem to the chequered flag, the season ending with victory for

MONDELLO PARK: MPSC BY LEO NULTY

Brendan Fitzgerald led the Fiesta ST grid away from pole, having qualified under the lap record, but was quickly displaced by title contenders Dave Maguire, Kevin Doran and Ulick Burke. Burke drove beautifully to oust Doran at the final corner but could do nothing to reel in the impressive Maguire as the laps ran out. Sean Lillis charged back to fifth having being bundled off on the opening lap and was promoted to fourth when Doran was excluded for a technical infringement.

In race two, Fitzgerald hung on for the win, with Maguire second and Burke hanging onto third after a great drive, despite plenty of physical attention from Maguire’s team-mate Hugh Grennan.

Mark O’donoghue won the opening Fiesta Zetec race from pole, a laterace push from Mark Johnston not being enough to challenge. Andy Kavanagh was third from Colin Lewis, up from 10th on the grid with team-owner Sean Woods charging to seventh from the back on his Fiesta debut after a first corner tangle. In race two, O’donoghue did the double with Kavanagh just holding off Woods for second after a race-long battle. Johnston had challenged the leader initially but fell back with gear selection issues, recovering to fourth at the flag.

James Holman took the opening Irish Legends race, easing away from series leader Paul O’brien in the closing stages to keep his title challenge alive. Fiat Punto graduate Ian Conroy completed the podium. In race two, O’brien grabbed the lead, while Holman charged through to second with Niki Meredith for company. On the final tour, having chased O’brien down and set a new lap record in the process, Holman challenged for the lead and the duo crossed the line as one with O’brien just nipping by for the win. Meredith was third with Jonny Taylor fourth.

In the third race, O’brien charged up from mid-grid to snatch the lead from Meredith while Holman was caught in traffic. Holman eventually moved up to second but was unable to catch O’brien, who clinched both the win and the title.

Timmy Duggan was first over the line in the opening Future Classics race, his ex-works SEAT the class of the field but, along with a few others, received a time penalty for breaking the barrier time. That handed the win to the Toyota Celica driver Robbie Parks from Ken Byrne and Adrian Dunne’s Citroen Saxo. Attention was on the giant-killing Fiat Uno of David Hammond though, as he charged through to an eventual fourth from 15th on the grid.

In the second race, Duggan grabbed the lead from Dunne early on before a Safety Car intervention. When the pack went racing once again, Dunne piled on the pressure with the duo being joined by Ken Byrne’s Celica. Towards the end, Hammond’s Uno caught the lead battle, but having just eclipsed the barrier time, earned himself a time penalty. At the flag, it was Duggan for both the win and the coveted Birrane Cup, with Dunne alongside and Ken Byrne in third.

1 Dave Maguire; 2 Ulick Burke +2.108s; 3 Brendan Fitzgerald; 4 Sean Lillis; 5 Hugh Grennan; 6 John Denning. Fastest lap Graham Mcdonnell 1m06.611s (62.13mph). Pole Fitzgerald. Starters 18.

1 Fitzgerald; 2 Maguire +0.291s; 3 Burke; 4 Grennan; 5 Denning; 6 Lillis. FL Maguire 1m06.749s (62.00mph). P Grennan. S 18.

1 Mark O’donoghue; 2 Mark Johnston +4.605s; 3 Andy Kavanagh; 4 Colin Lewis; 5 Keith Campbell; 6 Stephen Martin. FL O’donoghue 1m11.732s (57.69mph). P O’donoghue. S 14.

1 O’donoghue; 2 Kavanagh +4.089s; 3 Sean Woods; 4 Johnston; 5 Eamonn Yamamoto; 6 Lewis. FL O’donoghue 1m11.983s (57.49mph). P O’donoghue. S 13. (65.28mph). P Niki Meredith. S 9.

1 O’brien; 2 Holman +0.073s; 3 Meredith; 4 Taylor; 5 Conroy; 6 Humphries. FL Holman 1m03.118s (65.57mph). P Humphries. S 9.

1 O’brien; 2 Holman +0.941s; 3 Conroy; 4 Meredith; 5 Ivor Greenwood; 6 Taylor. FL Holman 1m03.308s (65.37mph). P Greenwood. S 10.

1 Robbie Parkes (Toyota Celica); 2 Ken Byrne (Toyota Celica) +1.475s; 3 Adrian Dunne (Citroen Saxo); 4 David Hammond (Fiat Uno); 5 Gilbert Clancy (Mitsubishi FTO); 6 Aidan Byrne (Vauxhall Chevette). FL Ger Byrne (BMW 323) 1m08.563s (60.36mph). P Tommy Byrne (Fiat Punto). S 19.

10th and put in a sparkling stint, surging up the order to secure outright victory from Littler.

The inaugural race for the newly created Prototype Cup made for a promising debut, with seven of the evocative five-litre, 420hp Ligier JS P3 chassis on show as a prelude to a full championship in 2017. The pairing of Nigel Moore and Phil Hanson proved to have the edge, taking the first victory comfortably clear of the car of nearest rivals Bradley Smith and Christian England. Rapid Northern Irish racer Wayne Boyd threatened to close on the leaders late on, but it was too late. With more orders reportedly on the books, the series looks set to flourish in 2017. “They’re fantastic – so much power,” Smith enthused.

There was an eye-catching start to the trio of Radical Challenge races, when an inspired Brian Caudwell launched his SR3 from fifth on the grid to the lead in the opening corners. Despite his progress being stymied by an early safety car period, Cauldwell held on to win ahead of closest rivals John Macleod and Jack Lang. In a dramatic twist, the latter pair collided in the closing stages but recovered to complete the podium places.

Bradley Smith stole the limelight in race two, converting pole to a lead that second-placed Lang couldn’t bridge. Having finished third and second respectively in the opening races, Lang completed his podium collection by narrowly beating champion elect Burgess to win the finale.

Ashley Dibden set the pace in the pair of races for the combined Monoposto races for F3, 2000 and Classic classes. He swept past polesitter Tony Bishop at the start of race one and quickly established a decisive gap. Bishop pushed hard to close in the second half of the race, but lost crucial ground at the Bombhole ensuring Dibden top spot. Dibden repeated the feat in race two to complete the double. Behind him Ben Cater edged outrival Tony Bishop to take the F3 class title.

Irishman Paul Dagg made an instant impression on his debut in the F3 Cup Championship, taking victories in the first two races and getting the better of title protagonists George Line and Shane Kelly. But he couldn’t make it a hat-trick in the finale, dropping to third on the opening lap and falling out of contention thanks to a late puncture. Instead it was Robbie Watts who proved dominant to take a well-controlled victory in race three. The big winner though was Line who edged out Kelly to take the title. Despite only grabbing one win all year, an ecstatic Line was rewarded for his consistency.

The Radical SR1 Championship threatened to go down to the wire with three races and a hatful of points still available. The men most likely to clinch it were Oliver Barker, James Taylor and Kye Wheatley, but with the points stacked in favour of Taylor. So it proved as, although Barker took a trio of wins over the meeting it wasn’t enough to deny Taylor the overall title.

Richard Gittings guided his Jedi Mk6 to double victory in the races for Mono and Moto machines, extending his record of consistent finishing. In the opening race he pulled clear early on, eventually taking the flag well clear of closest rival Richard Moorcroft.

He won again in race two, with a lights-to-flag victory. A hard chasing Jason Timms offered a threat but had to settle for second overall.

1 Jordan Witt (Bentley Continental); 2 Gareth Downing (Lotus Evora GTE) +1m13.265s; 3 Tom Webb (BMW M3 E46 GTR); 4 Jonathan Evans (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup); 5 Nigel Hudson (Audi R8 GT3); 6 Peter Littler (Aston Martin GT3). Class winners Webb; Bonamy Grimes (Ferrari 458 GTC); James Birch (Porsche Cayman GT4). Fastest lap Witt 1m49.444s (97.65mph). Pole Grimes. Starters 26.

1 Witt; 2 Grimes +14.111s; 3 Hudson; 4 Littler; 5 Webb; 6 Tom Hibbert (Ginetta G55). CW Grimes; Webb; Hibbert. FL Witt 1m48.932s (98.11mph). P Witt. S 26.

1 Grimes/ Johnny Mowlem; 2 Littler +13.953s; 3 Downing; 4 Scott Thomas/ Matt Bell (Mclaren 650S Sprint); 5 Neil Huggins (Lamborghini Galardo Super Trofeo LP570-4); 6 Witt. CW Littler; Hibbert; Andrew Baker (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup). FL Witt 1m51.272s (96.05mph). P Witt. S 24.

1 Nigel Moore/ Phil Hanson; 2 Bradley Smith/ Christian England +22.293s; 3 Jay Palmer/ Wayne Boyd; 4 Jacques Duyver/ Charlie Hollings; 5 Patrick Byrne/ Guy Cosmo; 6 Mike Newbould/thomas Randle. FL Boyd 1m43.887s (102.88mph). P Moore. S 7.

1 Lang; 2 Burgess +0.439s; 3 Manchester; 4 Macleod; 5 Evgeny Klyucharev/ Smith; 6 Brian Murphy. CW Klyucharev/ Smith; Chittenden. FL Smith 1m50.660s (96.58mph). P Klyucharev/ Smith. S 21.

1 Dibden; 2 Hodgen +1.959s; 3 Cater; 4 Gillett; 5 Bishop; 6 Hayden Edmonds (Formula Renault). CW Otway; Mcateer. FL Bishop 1m49.913s (97.24mph). P Bishop. S 21.

1 Paul Dagg (Dallara F311 Mercedes HWA); 2 George Line (Dallara F308 Honda NBE) +0.893s; 3 James Heffernan (Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA); 4 Stuart Wiltshire (Dallara F308 Mercedes HWA); 5 Daryl Jones (Dallara F308 VW Speiss); 6 Shane Kelly (Dallara 308 Honda NBE). FL Dagg 1m45.545s (101.26mph). P Dagg. S 12.

1 Dagg; 2 Robbie Watts (Dallara VW Speiss) +8.152s; 3 Line; 4 Heffernan; 5 Jones; 6 Jacopo Sebastiani (Dallara F311 VW Speiss). FL Jones 1m43.929s (102.84mph). P Watts 1m43.246s (103.52mph). S 12.

1 Watts; 2 Line +3.085s; 3 Jones; 4 Sebastiani; 5 Kelly; 6 Heffernan. FL Bishop 1m44.045s (102.72mph). P Dagg. S 12.

1 Oliver Barker; 2 James Taylor +23.279s; 3 Richard Baxter; 4 Andy Chittenden; 5 Jack Baber; 6 Spencer Bourne. FL Barker 1m59.474s (89.45mph). P Barker. S 12.

1 Barker; 2 Taylor +23.246s; 3 Kye Wheatley; 4 Rob Ellice; 5 Baxter; 6 Chittenden. FL Barker 1m58.487s (90.20mph). P Barker. S 11.

1 Barker; 2 Taylor +14.497s; 3 Baxter; 4 Chittenden; 5 Bourne; 6 Wheatley. FL Barker 1m57.938s (90.62mph). P Barker. S 11.