HARRISON CRASHES AFTER TAKING PORSCHE DOUBLE
Four races in the Porsche Club championship headlined a low key third Deutsche Fest at
Brands Hatch, with wins shared by Kevin Harrison and father and son Mark and Jake Mcaleer.
Two of the races replaced those cancelled to allow for Silverstone’s resurfacing, but sadly for spectators attending only the formally designated “festival” part of the weekend on Sunday, they missed the best action.
Three times on Saturday Harrison showed mastery of the standing start. From second on the grid for race one he bottled up a train of cars for 28 laps, narrowly heading poleman Mark Mcaleer and Simon Clark at the flag. Peter Morris and the other Class 1 cars followed, the queue somewhat broken up during lappery.
Harrison did it again in race two, but Clark’s Cayman found a way past on lap four and held the lead until red flags flew when Richard Higgins (996) performed a multiple roll after clipping a Boxster at Graham Hill Bend. Clark couldn’t repeat his feat in a shortened rerun, as Harrison won from Clark, Craig Wilkins and Chris Dyer.
Sunday qualifying brought drama when Harrison plunged off at Clearways in company with two Boxsters on another car’s dropped fluids, damaging the 996 beyond immediate repair.
As a result of this, Mark and Jake Mcaleer started together on the front row and finished race three neatly in formation ahead of Morris. It was Jake’s turn to win a processional fourth race, his first outright victory, beating Dyer and dad Mark, who held the lead until lap four when his tyres started to fade.
“I had wins in class 2 but this is the first overall and in C1, and it’s an absolute dream to share the podium with dad,” said the younger Mcaleer.
Three outings for Racing Saloons brought a matching hat-trick of wins for the Nigel Innes BMW. On Sunday morning he raced clear of an exciting scrap for second between Marcos Burnett’s M3 and the Cliff Pellin Fiesta which was a four-way contest involving Colin Philpott’s Jaguar XJS and Peter Seldon’s M3 before contact at Druids. Innes was also in good form in the Production BMW championship, netting podiums in three races all won by Matt Swaffer.
Gary Hufford’s M3 won both races for the BMW Car Club championship, helped by four of the top five qualifiers not completing race one because of mechanical or accident damage. David Kempton (mended differential) and Michael Cutt (replaced wishbone) charged from the back to second and third on the road in race two but Kempton was penalised for being too eager to pass while behind the safety car. Graham Crowhurst won his class both times in third and fourth overall.
The improving Z Cars numbered 14 this time round, but there was no change at the front where Edd Giddings added wins seven, eight and nine to maintain his perfect score.
Champion of Brands Formula Fords appeared twice on Saturday, Matt Rivett winning both contests.
His 0.124-second winning margin over Max Marzorati was slender in race one, but seemed huge in comparison with race two when Marzorati looked in control until he was hindered by traffic. Rivett pulled alongside approaching the flag to take victory by 0.001s, the decision only made when officials examined photo finish evidence.