Steed the avenger as he bounces back to win
Josh Steed was the avenger at Thruxton last weekend, when he took honours in the Sunday race to make up for what was arguably a lost victory the previous day.
Steed, who had claimed pole in the wet qualifying session by 0.9 seconds, gambled on fitting wet-weather tyres on a drier surface for the opening race. That might still have worked, but a red flag on the initial start was followed by a safety car after Steed had pulled out a mammoth 2.776s on the first lap of the restart.
Still Steed sprinted clear by 3.6s within one lap when the race got going again, with time for 10 laps of racing. But he was living on borrowed time. Within three more laps, he had been overhauled by the chasing quartet of John Bennett, Will Aspin, a guesting Max Coates and David Ellesley. Bennett pulled clear to lead Aspin home by 2.5s, with Ellesley third and Coates fourth after a hairy 360-degree spin at Church.
Steed trailed home sixth, but put things right on Sunday. Bennett qualified sixth but, following another early safety car, he moved up to second when Ellesley got onto the grass at Church. Now he set off after Steed’s steed, but the leader held firm and kept Bennett at arm’s length, eventually winning by 1.5s. As Ellesley fell to fifth, Aspin won a terrific scrap with Haytham Qarajouli to wrest third on the final lap.
Marc Warren looked the class of the concurrent G40 Cup field in qualifying, but was beaten by Nick White in race one before imposing himself on top in the sequel.