Mittell celebrates birthday in style with Bikesports win
SILVERSTONE 750MC
7-8 AUGUST
Scott Mittell celebrated his birthday in style on Saturday, overturning Bikesports rival
Joe Stables’s morning advantage to win race two in his eponymous Suzuki Hayabusapowered car. The icing on his cake was
Dan Gore’s first F1000 victory since
2019 in his Mittell Racing-run Jedi.
Double champion Stables (Radical PR6) had the handling advantage to resist
Mittell in the Bikesports opener, but a heavy shower provided a tyre quandary in race two. Those who opted for slicks, including Stables, had to start from the pitlane but he still finished second, half a lap adrift of Mittell, whose tweaks between the races dialled in dad
Ian’s chassis design.
Lee Morgan slashed Elliott Mitchell’s F1000 points lead from 25 to 15 by winning the opener, then went top after Mitchell retired from the sequel, but he didn’t win it. Gore caught Morgan napping when the field was released from a Code 60 after Robert Welham, unsighted, could not avoid clipping front-row starter James Hills’s car, which had stalled on the grid.
Aided by a full-course caution as the pit window opened, Andy Marston led the Roadsports 45-minute enduro throughout in his bewinged BMW E46 M3, this season’s major upgrades finally doing the trick. “The car’s been a bit of a pig but it felt mega for the first time,” he said. “There was a bit of understeer at the beginning but, when the rain came, it went.” A 1m13.32s (90.83mph) class lap record doubled his joy.
Other E36 M3s led the chase, with Chris Mills/david Gardner 10 seconds behind, but well clear of Matthew Weymouth.
The latter’s sparring partner Tony Rodgers (SEAT Supercopa) and Neil Savage – who spun his Lotus Elise at Farm on the opening lap, then again onto the Hangar Straight – were both excluded for overtaking under yellow flags, promoting Nick Vaughan’s trusty Audi A3, with 250,000 miles on the clock, to fourth.
Buoyed by stemming Hot Hatch leader Alistair Camp’s unbeaten record in the final leg of Brands Hatch’s triple-header, Philip Wright repeated first time out. Poleman Camp started the second cautiously too, but battled ahead on lap four of nine, keeping Wright behind to notch his seventh win from nine. Chris Smith took third again to round out an all-honda Civic podium, with Ryan Polley staving off Jack Ashton’s rapid
MG Metro in a four-car scrap for fourth.
Lee Deegan outdragged polesitter Adam Shepherd at both Type R Trophy starts, but the former Civic Cup and BMW M3 champion – back with the 750 Motor
Club after a Ginetta G55 GT campaign – demoralised Deegan by breezing past and leading home. With the ABS light on second time out, Deegan tried a reset, but the brake balance was awry, kicking his EP3’S tail out as chasers ganged up. Shepherd thus extended his run to seven wins from eight. Novice Luke Rosewell and Clio 182 convert Mark Balmer netted a third apiece.
Previous champions Danny Hands
(AHS) and Craig Pollard (GAC) repeatedly passed each other in the Formula Vee opener. Hands, joint third in the points behind Pollard, took victory by just 0.20s as veteran Ian Buxton (GAC) progressed rapidly to third. Reigning champion and series leader James Harridge’s Maverick refused to run in qualifying, forcing him to start at the back of the 32-car grid. Nineteenth inside a lap, he carved through to fourth, and could have made the podium had the safety car not picked him up instead of the leaders. The crocodile was released with time for a single lap.
Saturday’s finale promised a repeat until two cars tangled at Village on lap one, triggering a red flag. Although the drivers escaped injury, with medics in attendance, both ambulances displaced and the circuit curfew imminent, a restart was impossible.
Sunday’s sprint races majored on one-make double-headers, always busy on a circuit that compresses tight packs three times per lap. In the first Clio 182 contest, Jack Kingsbury moved to sole leadership of the championship with a double win, to Jack Dwane’s fourth and fifth. Jason Pelosi bounced back from his Brands roll to hound Kingsbury, and encouragingly led race two for a couple of laps in his Deranged Motorsport car. Scott Edgar led their pursuit both times.
Reigning Toyota MR2 champion and points leader Aaron Cooke outran four-time title winner Shaun Traynor initially as Mk3 Roadsters congregated at the sharp end of the grid. Traynor evened honours in a more unruly second stanza. Both were overtaken by Nick Williamson under yellow flags with Rhys Dorman’s Roadster in the gravel before Club. Williamson was excluded, and Paul Cook sanctioned for outbraking himself and nerfing Mk2 standout Cam Walton – third in the opener – into a spin at Club. Adam Lockwood completed a Roadster 1-2-3 ahead of Sam Harper (Mk2).
Irishman Niall Bradley bagged a BMW Car Club brace, overcoming fast starter Rick Kerry’s One Series V8 second time out. How he saved “a really, really, big moment” exiting Club he’ll never know, however. Brad Sheehan (E46), a retiree in the opener, and Michael Cutt (who, from the back, had passed half the pack by Abbey only to find the gravel trap in his E36) charged to third and fourth in the finale. Gary Burstow and Ben Pearson scored class doubles.
Radical converts Joe Lock and Ash Hicklin won the 100-minute Club Enduro in Tim Gray Motorsport’s BMW M3, breaking Carl Swift and Rob Baker’s monopoly. Baker’s SEAT Leon Supercup needed new front brake pads at the mandatory stop – handily during a safety car – but an obstinate wheelnut left them fighting for third, behind Marston’s M3. Without the fastest lap point, Oulton Park’s finale will decide the crown’s destiny. Threetime Le Mans 24 Hours racer David Mercer (M3) finished fourth.
From sixth on the grid, James Plant burst his caricature Healey-chevrolet through a mighty miscellany to win the Bernie’s V8s race. Adam Southgate’s Boxster bested the concurrent Porsche Trophy posse, while British Touring Car Championship ace Josh Cook thundered Pete Hallford’s Boss Mustang back to sixth post-stop.