Rudman takes a hat-trick in hotly contested Legends
SNETTERTON BARC 19-20 SEPTEMBER
Reigning Legends champion Miles Rudman managed three wins during a hotly contested weekend of racing.
Rudman was in contention in race one from the start, but it was Jack Parker who snatched the lead into Brundle on the last lap. It was any one of four exiting Murrays, with Rudman winning by 0.047 seconds ahead of Connor Mills, closely followed by Parker and Stephen Whitelegg.
John Mickel led the majority of the second race and, after losing out to Parker on the Bentley Straight a lap from home, he grabbed the lead back on the run to the flag.
Will Gibson was in control of Saturday’s final from Mickel and Sy Harraway when the safety car came out. All three tangled exiting Riches on the green flag, leaving Parker to head home the one-lap sprint from Robin Fountain and Daniel Clark.
Rudman was the winner in the first of Sunday’s races after Parker demoted
Clark at Brundle. It was another dash for the line, with Rudman a bumper ahead of Parker, Clark and Mickel at the flag.
After Mickel had taken his second win over Parker and Gibson, the final race of the weekend came down to another one-lap sprint after two safety-car interventions.
Chris Needham was shadowing Rudman throughout the last lap, before pulling out of the slipstream to take the win. But a 10s jumped-start penalty dropped him well down the order, giving Rudman win number three from Parker and Mickel.
There were three-way fights in both
Mini Miglia races between Rupert Deeth, Lee Deegan and Aaron Smith. Deeth led race one initially and managed to hold off Deegan’s challenge in the second half to take the win, with Smith snatching second from
Deegan a lap from home. It was more of the same in race two, with Deegan and Deeth swapping and changing places until Smith split them on the penultimate tour. Smith went for the lead into Riches on the last lap, but it was Deegan’s win by one thousandth of a second, while Deeth was a close third.
As Morten Dons and James Abbott passed James Taylor in the first of the two Sports Prototype races, Dons made contact that proved costly as he lost the lead by pulling off with a broken steering arm. Abbott took a comfortable win from the similar Revolution A-ones of Taylor and Richard Wells, while Dons dominated race two from Chris Hoy and Wells.
Former British Touring Car racer and reigning Mini Se7en champion Jeff Smith won both Se7en races. Spencer Wanstall was close to winning both, losing the first when Smith got a late break and the second after a safety car led to a one-lap sprint, where Smith got the decisive jump at the restart. Andrew Deviny took two thirds.
Andy Robinson (Ford Falcon) had to work hard in race-long battles with Daniel Brown’s Ford Sierra Cosworth to win both Classic Thunder races. It was a lights-toflag victory in the first, but Brown led race two until Riches on lap four of eight.
Dave Griffin won the battle of the BMW E46 M3s in the Pre ’93 & ’03 tourers. The first came after a safetycar spell when he took race-long leader Stephen Pearson around the outside at Agostini on the final lap, before it was a lights-to-flag win in race two.
Stuart Oliver was the only double winner from the British Truck Racing contests, as Tom O’rourke, Mark Taylor and Ryan Smith claimed the other wins.