COWLEY STARS TO WIN ANGLESEY TITLE
The battle to be crowned Star of Anglesey went down to the wire as Matthew Cowley narrowly pipped David Mcarthur to defend his title in the Formula Ford 1600 races.
The 19-year-old, who was the Pre ’90 Formula Ford champion in 2015, secured his second consecutive Star of Anglesey trophy after bagging a second-place finish and a victory in his Van Diemen JL13 during a pair of hotly contested races.
Despite only qualifying on the third row at the end-of-season BRSCC Winter Race Day at the Welsh circuit, Cowley made the most of a DNF for polesitter Joshua Smith and a subsequent safety car period to surge into second spot on the rostrum, while Mcarthur took the race-one win.
Just 1.5s covered the top three by the end of the second race, in which Cowley made a perfect start to storm into the lead at Turn 1. After thwarting a series of advances from Mcarthur – who needed back-toback victories to claim the Post ’89 accolade – Cowley usurped his rival to win the trophy by five points.
With a number of leading runners absent from the meeting, Ivor Mairs capitalised to snatch the Pre ’90 Star of Anglesey honours thanks to a brace of class wins.
A field of just eight cars served up three thrilling encounters in the Winter Global Lights. With winning margins at less than 0.3s in each outing, the Irish series rounded out its annual trip to the UK in style.
The frenetic 15-minute thrashes began in dramatic fashion when early frontrunners Max Drennan, Conor Farrell and James Thompson plummeted to the back after all three came to blows at the fast sweeping right-hander of Church on lap two.
Following a separate spin for erstwhile leader Michael Conway, his father, John Conway, took control of proceedings and held off recovering pair Drennan and Farrell by just 0.13s at the flag.
After multiple lead exchanges during a four-way scrap for the race two win, and having survived late contact with James Thompson, Drennan staked his own claim on the top step by leading home Farrell and Michael Conway.
A perfectly executed final lap – partly aided by an ailing Thompson – allowed Drennan to navigate his way from third into the race lead in the finale. Drennan denied a third different victor by pulling off a daring overtake around the outside of Farrell at Rocket to seal a last-gasp win.
Doug Carter was untouchable in his Radical PR6 throughout Sunday as he romped to two commanding victories in the Winter Sports Saloons and Caterham Series.
Carter claimed pole position by a whopping 5.8s, before translating his dominance around the coastal circuit by lapping the entire field at least once in both races. Even a 10-second time penalty for a jump start in the opening race failed to deny Carter from taking a pair of imperious victories.
Out of an eclectic mix of 16 machines varying from Ginetta G40s to an MG Midget, Ginetta Junior graduate Charlie Fagg proved to be Carter’s nearest competition as he led home Oliver Thomas and Danny Carroll in his SEAT Leon Supercopa.
Further behind the supreme Carter, Andy Thompson impressively recovered from throttle problems onboard his SEAT Toledo in race-one to record a top-five finish from the back of the grid in the series concluder.