RAF AND RADICALS TOP BIRKETT RELAY
OCTOBER 23
Seventy years after Silverstone staged the first Six Hour Team Relay race – it’s also visited Snetterton, Thruxton and Donington – its 10th running on the British GP circuit delivered a win in the handicap division for the Royal Air Force Motorsports for the first time since 2011.
Flight Sergeant Chris Slator, a constant down the years, played a key role in his faithful Peugeot 306 GTi.
The RAFMSA team’s mix of youth and experience helped it stay out of trouble. It advanced in the closing stages, then stormed ahead in the last hour of a dry race barely interrupted by a brief late safety car. Marshals and circuit crews has otherwise effected live snatches under yellow flags, even when Ash Hicklin’s Radical SR3 shed a rear wheel at Becketts.
The Ark Racing team – left with Ivor Mairs’ BMW when its ’71 Birkett-winning ArkSprite’s gearbox failed in practice, and Derek Drinkwater’s lumbering Cadillac Le Monstre replica blew its oil out – still led initially.
Twins Scott and Ryan Parkin (who each qualified three cars) then moved Darkside Developments ahead until
Scott’s potent and frugal VW
Golf TDi Mk5 conked out while fourth on scratch.
Triple A’s Lotus, Seat and BMW M3-equipped team thus returned to of the handicap table, while battling Prep’n’Lay Racing’s trio of BMWs on both sides of the equation. Successive RAF sorties put it in front in the final hour, chased home by the Mini Kievs’ BMW Minis and turbocharged Clubman estate, which covered more ground but had fewer credit laps.
Three of the four Radical teams set a cracking pace, focusing on the scratch prize. Simon Freeman’s awesome 2.3-litre turbocharged Ford Ecoboost-engined SR10 extended an early advantage that Josh Smith’s RJ Motosport never looked like losing. Daytona karting CEO Charles Graham (SR3) regained the prize he won in 2019 (with Wade Eastwood and F2 racer Luciano Bacheta) as Alistair Smart more than pulled his weight in a 1340cc PR6.
Despite their tribulations, Mike Chen, Hicklin and Chris Short claimed second from M&M’s, grappling with a gearchange glitch. Prep’n’Lay’s BMWs were best of the tin-tops, trumping Triple A’s by three seconds. The 7 Series-Midlands posse, from a depleted Caterham entry, finished sixth, ahead of the class-winning Darkside duo.