Baker strengthens hold on championship
CASTLE COMBE BRSCC AUGUST 11-12
Mastering changeable conditions proved to be the key to success at Castle Combe as the British summer promptly ended in Wiltshire with the arrival of wet weather.
After a soggy qualifying session, both Civic Cup races were held in the dry as Rob Baker consolidated his lead at the top of the standings with two second places.
Jason Ballantyne surged through from fourth on the grid when the lights went out and led on the opening tour, while Baker dropped to sixth from third. As Ballantyne acted as a cork in the bottle, Baker began to make progress and worked his way up to second with three laps remaining, but Ballantyne held on and took his second win of the season.
Baker’s performance in the second race was even more impressive, because with the top 10 reversed he started ninth on the grid.paul Taylor led from pole initially before Mark Grice, who’d started fifth after suffering brake problems in the first race, overtook him on lap five. Two laps later Baker had moved into second and for the remaining five laps tried to hound Grice into a mistake, but again had to settle for runner-up spot behind his nearest championship challenger.
The first of the Fiesta Championship races was held on a sodden track as reigning Class C champion David Nye put in a masterful display to win by more than eight seconds ahead of championship leader Harry Gooding. Jamie Going, Gooding’s nearest challenger in the battle for the title, struggled to sixth.
A decision to change his front wet tyres to slicks moments before the start of race two could have proved inspired by Nye, but instead it turned into a curse as he collided with the barrier at Quarry on the opening lap. Gooding led 12 of the 15 laps but had to give way as his wet tyres overheated on a damp but drying track and Danny Harrison who, like Nye, had fitted slicks, took the lead. But Harrison was denied a well-earned win when he picked up a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, which dropped him to fourth. Gooding was promoted to the top step of the podium ahead of Going, while Nye recovered from his first-lap excursion to finish fifth.
In race three, Gooding won comfortably from Going – who claimed second despite a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits – as Nye finished third.
Jamie Falvey’s championship lead took a hit in the Caterham 270R series as he could only manage a best result of fifth from the pair of races. The former Royal Marines commando came into the meeting as the only driver to have been on the podium at every previous race, and it seemed as though that would continue as he secured pole
position in the dry. But with the track becoming treacherously slippery before the first race, Falvey came to grief at Quarry on the opening lap, bringing out the red flags. This presented a great opportunity for title rival Jay Mccormack to capitalise, which he did with a comfortable win in the opener ahead of James Wingfield and Chris Bates after taking the lead on lap three.
Any chance for Mccormack to establish a lead at the top of the standings in the second race ended in the barriers after a last-lap, last-corner crash at Camp when a lunge up the inside of leader Wingfield led to contact. Bates, who had led early on until a safety-car period eroded his lead, inherited his first win after being “in the right place to capitalise”.
A nasty accident between Matt Sheppard and poleman Daniel Halstead halted the first Caterham Roadsport race after just three laps. Both aquaplaned off the track at Camp from second and third respectively, with Sheppard’s car bouncing back off the barrier before being hit broadside by Halstead moments later. Both emerged unhurt. Daniel French took the win in the restart before winning a much drier affair on Sunday.
The Caterham Academy Green group produced the best racing action from all of the Caterham series on show, as German Lars Hoffmann and Greg Smith traded places several times in the closing laps while heading a train of three other cars.