Tilley triumphs twice on sunny day for Nissan
Winning honours were shared when the GT Cup came to the full Brands Hatch circuit for a quartet of races forming what is due to be the penultimate round of this year’s championship. Grahame Tilley probably had the most to celebrate, with two wins and a fourth, although he also suffered a mechanical retirement.
Saturday’s races packed in plenty of drama. Shamus Jennings (Porsche 911) surged from last place to win the opening sprint after a first-corner spin, while Tilley’s polesitting Nissan GT-R had looked comfortable in the lead until it shed a wheel. Jim Geddie’s Lamborghini, another lap-one casualty, was third behind John Dhillon (Ferrari). Fourth, reinforcing his points lead, was classwinning Ginetta driver Simon Orange.
The pitstop race was effectively decided on lap three when a sudden downpour lashed the track and Dhillon made an inspired dive into the pits from fourth place. Others were committed to at least one more slow lap on slicks, and Dhillon was ably supported by Phil Quaife, who steered the 488 home ahead of Jennings/greg Caton, Jim and Glynn Geddie and Tilley/will Tregurtha. Orange and co-driver Josh Jackson won their class again.
The speed of the Tilley/nissan combination was finally rewarded in race three, which brought a comfortable win over Jim Geddie and Dhillon, as Jennings’s Porsche stopped at Westfield when its gearbox broke. The Porsche missed the finale, which also lost the Lamborghini when Geddie stopped on the green-flag lap with a suspected driveshaft problem. Tilley was in command until a caution period and the pit window coincided, and Tilley left his stop a lap later than almost everyone else.
This promoted the Alan Purbrick/david Brise Saker into a temporary lead, chased by Quaife, but both were easily overhauled by the Nissan after it rejoined 15th in Tregurtha’s hands. A steady run in race three secured more points for the Orange/ Jackson Ginetta, but the car came to grief at Sheene Curve on the final lap of race four.
The Radical SR1 Cup’s first-ever visit to the Grand Prix circuit started badly with a red flag following two lap-one incidents. James Pinkerton won the first race and finished third later, beating his
nearest championship rivals both times. Will Hunt was a worthy race-two winner.
The ‘junior’ SR1S outshone their Radical Challenge cousins, which did little to justify two hours of race time over the two days. Mark Richards beat the other eight SR3S by more than a minute on Saturday, a dull encounter rescued by the next four gathering for a blanket finish.
Richards dominated again in Sunday’s sprint race, but lost out to Shane Stoney in a chaotic 50-minute affair, which was interrupted by a short shower that was long enough to cause confusion.
Nearly 50 Caterhams gathered for the 7 Race Series, but each contest came down to a tussle involving five or six. Champion-elect Phil Jenkins won both and, after 40 minutes of the feature event, he was in front of Jon Mitchell, Alex Koeberle, Jake Swann Dixon and Anthony Barnes in a bunch covered by half a second.
Michael Gibbins completed his clean sweep of 2020 Sports 2000 races, achieving his 15th and 16th victories in succession in his MCR. His second win, as sunset and the curfew approached, nearly qualified as a night race.