GUEST ANDERSSON STARS IN TCR OPENER
ViktorAndersson scored a sensational TCR UK victory on his and the Lynk & Co 03’s British debut at Brands Hatch.
The Swedish TCR Europe racer demonstrated touring car nous in a fine performance that would have left him a close second to Callum Newsham in the points had the car not lost its race-three podium to a rideheight infringement.
Andersson displayed defensive prowess to win the opener after jumping polesitter Newsham’s Hyundai. Then he called on his inner Matt Neal to execute a series of passes under braking into Clearways en route to fourth in race two and an on-the-road second in race three.
Pushed back to fourth in the opener,
Newsham was second to Adam Shepherd’s Cupra – who leapt from eighth to first at the start – in race two, then took a dominant maiden race win in the finale. Reigning champion Carl Boardley struggled to perfect his Cupra’s set-up but claimed a pair of podium finishes.
Four times a winner in Audi TT Cup Racing’s debut non-championship season, Carl Swift scored a largely untroubled double success in its first championship weekend. Area Motorsport team-mate Matt Luff kept him honest in the opener but tangled with Bradley Burns in the sequel – restarted after a startline pile-up. Burns added second to his earlier fourth, while Harry Yardley-Rose was twice third.
Having switched to Rhys Claydon’s title-winning car, Robbie Kenning claimed a maiden Metro Cup victory on Sunday. He had qualified on pole a day earlier but was slow away on his first start in the K Series-powered car. That let Mike Williams escape only for his engine to blow on the final lap, handing veteran Dick Trevett victory.
Reigning champion Max Edmundson won two of three Civic Cup races from pole position, despite the category’s influx of highly rated drivers. Debutant Spencer Stevenson impressed en route to second in the opener, while Josh Files scored two podiums and Alistair Camp gave his new FN2 model a winning debut in the reversed-grid race.
Fiesta ST240 wins were shared between Zach Lucas, Alastair Kellett and Daniel Lewis. Lucas and Kellett were dominant until Fiesta Junior graduate Lewis finally managed to nail a start. Lewis leapt from third to first in the partially reversed grid race and won from fellow teenager Lucas Hayden.
Mike Blackburn dominated the opening pair of ST150 races but could only manage fourth from sixth on the grid in race three, surviving a half-spin after an unsuccessful late challenge of debutant Steph Sore. Sam Watkins showed what might have been with a six-second win over Liam Browning after being punted into the barriers earlier on.
Jenson O’Neill-Going was denied a Fiesta Junior hat-trick by gearbox gremlins in the finale won by
Finn Leslie.