Racing reports
National Formula Ford 1600 Championship leader Ross Martin took an amazing treble win at Croft, showing a clear pace advantage over the rest on his first visit to the North Yorkshire track. He claimed dominant lights-to-flag wins from pole in the first two races, then rose rapidly to win the reversed-grid race three.
In the first two races Martin broke clear of a squabbling pack. Rory Smith and James Clarke finished second and third respectively in race one and the pair completed the podium in race two in the opposite order. Smith took third from Neil Maclennan at the last, when Maclennan ran wide trying to pass
Clarke through the complex.
Then in race three Martin climbed from starting sixth to be second within three laps, before taking the lead from Jamie Sharp at a safety car restart – the caution caused by Clarke spinning at Tower.
“I don’t know where I found that pace from – best drive of my life by far,” said an emotional Martin of his weekend.
“I made an awesome start [in the reversed-grid race] and going into the race I wasn’t sure what to take from it;
I had two wins under my belt and I wanted to get the car home. But the way I did it there, I don’t know how. [The moves] were clean, I never hit anyone off.”
Lewis Kent took both TCR Uk/touring Car Trophy wins and with it claimed his long overdue first victories in the series after technical woes with his Hyundai in previous races. Kent dominated race one then, with extra ballast in race two, was able to hold off James Turkington.
“We knew we had pace all year, we’ve just had bad luck, so we’ve got that gone now,” Kent said. “We weren’t too fazed with the extra weight we had to carry in the second race, we had to do it all last year so we knew how to do it.”
Jack Harding won the first two Mazda MX-5 Supercup races, holding off a multicar train in both. His championship rivals followed him home in race one – Aidan Hills heading Luke Herbert. The pair looked set to follow Harding home in the opposite order in race two, but Hills dropped to fifth on the last lap after running off trying to pass both Harding and Herbert at Sunny. Steve Roberts took the reversed-grid race three win, resisting Herbert and Harding, while Hills stopped on the formation lap when his power steering pump blew.
Lee Deegan continued his strong Civic Cup form by winning race one. He took the lead when Daniel Hobson faltered momentarily on the start-finish straight, the close-following Deegan making accidental contact on the way by. Jason Ballantyne won the reversed-grid race two, while Deegan rose to finish a close third.
Josh Coggan won the opening
Volkswagen Racing Cup race in his
Golf to put recent reliability woes behind him. Rob Allum took the reversed-grid race two, with ballast-laden Coggan fifth after a track limits penalty.
Garry Lawrence won the first two
Porsche Championship races; he was left with a sizeable lead in race one when fellow Boxster runner Andrew Porter broke a wheel hub running over a kerb when lapping a backmarker. Porter also headed Lawrence briefly in race two, but then spun at the complex. He recovered to finish second, and won race three while Lawrence stopped with gear problems.
The Alfa Romeo Championship shared the track with the Porsches, and Bryan Shrubb won race one. His Alfa Romeo 33’s crownwheel and pinion broke as he crossed the line, which kept him out of race two. Gary Miller’s 156 took that win.
Ian Jones won both BMW Compact
Cup races, twice beating Matthew Parkes in fine battles. It was a frustrating meeting for championship leader Steven Dailly, who crashed out early in race one hitting the chicane’s tyre bollard. He then sat out race two, not wanting to risk penalties battling from the back and having hurt his wrist in the accident.
Paul Brydon in a Solution F BMW won the opening Northern Saloon & Sportscar Championship race after leader Matty Cobb in his Lotus Elise tripped over a backmarker. Cobb won race two, passing Brydon on the last lap.