Hall’s tyre strategy lands him Bikesports crown
The first Bikesports race of the championship showdown proved to be a duel of tyre strategy on the damp-butdrying Snetterton surface. Charles Hall qualified on pole using brand-new wet Michelins on his Spire GT3, but had opted for slicks come the race just 90 minutes later, while Anthony Ayres started beside him with wets on his Radical SR3.
The wets seemed to be the optimum choice initially as Ayres slithered into the lead on the exit of Wilson on the first lap. The pair scrapped for the next tour, Hall making the most of the speed on the Senna Straight before Ayres snatched the place back with the better grip in the sodden Riches right-hander.
But, after Hall’s tyres warmed up, he made the same pass on the straight and crucially held it into Riches, eventually winning by 11.75 seconds from Richard Webb, who robbed Ayres at Agostini.
Rather than an easy cruise to the title, Hall had to endure a nervy 20-minute second race as Martin Brooks shot past on lap four of 11 in his Radical PR6, while Webb also grabbed second two laps from the end. Hall scraped home third, after nursing a left-rear tyre-valve failure to the end, to narrowly take the title. “I was just thinking about what I needed to do this time,” he said. “I had to let go of the win and just get it home.”
Local driver Robert Welham turned around his engine-frustrated season in F1000 to score two wins. In race one he resisted Dan Clowes, energetically punching the air after crossing the line just 0.6s ahead of the triple Silverstone winner.
In the damp Sunday morning race, it was Ma7da regular Ben Powney and
Welham who provided the entertainment. Powney was mugged from pole by Paul Butcher and Lee Morgan off the start but, having scoped out the wet wide line at Riches on the green-flag lap, used it expertly to pass both on lap one for the lead.
Welham started from eighth and was already in the podium positions by the end of lap two, and shrewdly used the wet line at Agostini to pass Morgan and then the outside of Riches a lap later for the lead, even while managing a clutch issue.
Lee Morgan was the strongest at the start of race three to soar from fifth to first and comfortably win. Welham dropped to seventh from pole at the start but was battling with Clowes and Elliott Mitchell in Agostini for third.
Clowes snuck through a small gap on the apex left by Mitchell but, when
Welham attempted to follow, he tagged Mitchell, which ended up flipping the car over. Welham stopped to help extricate Mitchell, who walked away unscathed.
A spin for Richard Morris at Oggies in the Sports 1000 race proved decisive in his title fight with Ryan Yarrow. Morris (Spire GT320S) had been leading on the penultimate lap when he spun, gifting Yarrow (GT3S) the win. Morris had a spirited second race in which he recovered to second on dry-weather tyres from dropping to 12th at the end of the first lap. While he finished ahead of title rival Yarrow on wets (fifth), Rich Miles was a long way up the road for the victory.
Roadsports was a battle of the German marques as the BMWS took on Porsche.
Hugh Gurney won in an E46 M3 by 20.25s from the Cayman of Warren Allen, who had engaged in a titanic duel with the David Gardner/chris Mills M3 on the penultimate lap. Silverstone winner Bradley Philpot challenged for the lead early on in his Lotus Elise, but spun on the Bentley Straight on lap four with a suspected engine-mount breakage to end his day early.
BMW Car Club Racing debutant Stephen Scott-dunwoodie elevated himself from eighth to first in just two laps in race one, having changed the gearbox on his E46 M3 between qualifying and the race following an oil leak. He made a marvellous start to make the top three, taking a lead he didn’t relinquish on lap two with a late-braking move into Riches past Paul Cook.
Race two belonged to Michael Cutt (E36 M3), but that wasn’t without a nudge with Michael Pensavalle into Hamilton early on, Cutt winning from Rick Kerry and Cook.