Meeting abandoned as rain batters Silverstone, but series champions still crowned

Dominik Jackson was crowned Radical Challenge champion after heavy rain caused the abandonment of the meeting with only one of the series’ three races running.

The first lap of Saturday’s race was run behind the safety car but, from the green flag, title rivals Jackson and Steve Burgess hit the front.

But on a drying track Burgess’ wet tyres soon went off, leaving Jackson seven seconds clear of Jerome de Sadeleer at the pitstop window with Burgess and Brian Caudwell contesting third.

Jackson opted to stay on wets but, having changed to slicks, Burgess soon reeled him to take a dominant victory. De Sadeleer consolidated second with Caudwell taking third on the road before a time penalty in lieu of a stop/go for pitlane speeding was added, dropping him to eighth.

Kristian Jeffrey completed the podium, having beaten Jackson out of Woodcote on the last lap but fourth place would prove enough for Jackson to take the title.

It was one win each for Paul Gibson’s Mclaren 650S and Gareth Downing’s Mosler MT900 in the two GT Cup sprint races. Gibson led through Copse on the opening lap of the first race while Kevin Riley – sharing the Mosler with Downing – and Bob Berridge’s Volvo S60 had a touch.

Paul Bailey’s Ferrari 488 Challenge lost second to John Seale’s similar car on the fourth lap, but Berridge ousted Bailey three laps later for third and closed in on Seale.

He was ahead onto the last lap, only to run wide on the damp at Brooklands and hand the place back to Seale, as Gibson dominated to win.

The Lamborghini Huracans of Chris Yarwood and Tim Richards completed the top six, after Riley and Christoforou Pantelis’ Ferrari 488 Challenge outbraked each other at Brooklands two laps from home.

Although Gibson got away first in race two, Downing was now in the Mosler and led from the second lap as darkness began to fall.

Gibson managed to retain second but had Berridge as a constant shadow as both continued to hold station.

Behind the lead trio was a five-car battle, which raged for most of the race. Seale won the tussle from Richards, Pantelis, Yarwood and Bailey.

A late surge from Pantelis netted him fourth with a lap to go, but he undid his hard work with a lock-up which dropped him back down to sixth.

Christian Olsen built a comfortable lead in the LMP3 Cup before handing his Ligier JSP3 over to Nick Adcock.

Once Jack Butel had taken over from Dominic Paul behind the wheel of their Ligier though, he began to close rapidly as Johnny Mowlem, Bradley Smith and Colin Noble closed in from behind as well. Smith’s Norma M30 eventually overtook Mowlem and Butel on the same lap and into second.

Smith continued to close down Adcock’s lead and made the decisive move at Village with a lap to go, with both Mowlem and Noble following through. With Mowlem/ Bonamy Grimes given a track limits penalty, they dropped to fourth, with second enough to give Noble and Tony Wells the title.

There was also an attempt to run a Monoposto race on Sunday morning in the pouring rain. After two laps behind the safety car it went green, but was red-flagged a lap later with a number of frontrunners already heading pitwards. Alex Fores’ Dallara F301 was declared the winner, from James Densley’s Tatuus Formula Renault and Richard Gittings’ Jedi Mk6.