Clutton enjoys fruitful weekend of racing
Marcus Clutton’s domination of the
Radical Challenge continued at Donington Park as he claimed a clean sweep of victories across the weekend’s three races.
Clutton lost the lead at the start of the first race to Shane Stoney, but swiftly reclaimed the position before an early safety-car period after second-row starter John Macleod lost out in a three-wide battle at Hollywood, ending up in the barriers. Clutton built a six-second advantage following the restart and controlled the gap until the finish. Stoney dropped three places to fifth following his mandatory pitstop before recovering to third, one second behind Jason Rishover.
Stoney took second in race two, keeping Clutton honest for most of the encounter before a late red flag, and Stoney again provided the closest competition to Clutton early in race three. But, after dropping to third, Stoney suffered a puncture after a collision at the Fogarty Esses that necessitated a safety-car period, and eventually he retired in the closing stages.
Clutton dropped down the order after serving a 20s success penalty during his mandatory stop, but he came out on top in a three-way lead fight before cruising to victory by 5s. Chris Short came from the back of the grid to take second, as Rishover finished third after a spin.
“The car was faultless,” Clutton enthused. “We got a bit lucky with the safety car in the third race but we still had five or six cars to pass, and it’s not the easiest in Radicals to overtake.”
Further success for Clutton came in the GT Cup, where he took race-two victory alongside John Seale in a Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Richard Neary won Saturday’s sprint race in his Mercedes-amg GT3 after resisting early pressure from Matt Manderson, who
finished 5.6s behind in an Aston Martin GT3, while Seale was third, despite a spin.
A poor start dropped Neary behind Manderson in the early stages of the day’s endurance race, but he regained the lead at Melbourne Hairpin, despite contact that resulted in Manderson being spun around.
Neary handed the car over to his son
Sam during the mandatory pitstop, but the Mercedes was denied its second victory of the day following a late charge by Clutton, who had taken over from Seale in the Lamborghini. Clutton eradicated a 15s gap to catch the leader with 10 minutes remaining. Neary resisted pressure until the penultimate lap, when Clutton performed a switchback out of Redgate to snatch the lead and take victory by 0.5s.
Neary Jr repeated his father’s success from the previous day by taking a crushing win in Sunday’s sprint race, over a minute clear of the field. Seale ran eighth early on after making a bad start, but retired from the race after a collision with Sam Randon’s Porsche 997 while trying to fight his way back up the order. Shamus Jennings finished second in a Porsche 911 GT3R, resisting pressure from a pair of Huracans driven by James Webb and Jim Geddie.
The younger Neary was again untouchable in the early stages of the endurance race, building a huge lead over Greg Caton, who was sharing driving duties with Jennings. Neary Sr took over the leading Mercedes at the mandatory stops, emerging with a 40s advantage before Jennings reduced the gap to 18s by the chequered flag. Subsequently he and Caton inherited victory after the Neary car was disqualified for overtaking under yellows.
Clutton was the fastest man on track in the second half of the race after taking over the Huracan from Seale, but the deficit proved too big to repeat Saturday’s victory as he finished 12s behind Jennings. “We’ve had a bit of contact with another car, the tracking was out a bit,” said Clutton. “We did the best we could with what we had – we weren’t fast enough to catch up. Five races, four wins [across Radicals and GT Cup] – not a bad weekend!”
British Touring Car Championship racer Tom Ingram made a one-off return to the GT Cup, having competed in the series in 2015. Ingram shared driving duties in the endurance races with Ron Johnson in the all-new Toyota Supra GT4 car, being run by Speedworks Motorsport. The pair took a best result of second in class on Saturday.
Typically, the Caterhams provided the most closely contested racing of the weekend in the 7 Race Series. Alexander Koeberle was the driver to beat on Saturday, winning the first race after a close battle with Rob Watts, Mark Stansfield and Anthony Barnes. Koeberle won again in the second race, beating off competition from Stansfield and Russ Olivant to win by 0.2s.
Phil Jenkins failed to score in the first two races after a collision in race one, but the championship leader bounced back to win race three on Sunday from seventh on the grid. He held on over a one-lap shootout to the finish following a late safety car. Barnes, who led the early stages, snatched second from Watts on the last lap following a race-long battle between the pair.
Stansfield dominated the fourth race, while several cars battled for second place. Jenkins stormed from 15th on the grid to pip Koeberle to the runner-up spot, with Watts, Barnes and Olivant behind.
Jenkins said a set-up change helped transform his fortunes across the weekend. “I didn’t test on Friday, so couldn’t get the car where I wanted it and overdrove it,” he said. “We looked at the data overnight, made a few changes to the car and really enjoyed it [in the third and fourth races].”
Stefano Leaney beat Alex Fores to victory in the first two races of the F3 Cup, but the pair collided at Old Hairpin on the opening lap of the third race while contesting the lead, with George Line capitalising to claim victory. Leaney finished second, despite front-wing damage, while Fores – who suffered a puncture from the incident – fought back to fourth.