Honours shared as Type R Trophy produces close contests
The Type R Trophy continued its ultracompetitive start to the season with Joe Jessup and Jake Hewlett sharing the victories at Oulton Park.
Jessup had been classified as winner of round two at Croft, but only after onthe-road conqueror Travis Coyne had been excluded, so victory in round three was the first time he had passed the chequered flag first. His win was made at the start, as he surged through from the outside of row two to lead into Old Hall and was never headed thereafter.
That is not to say that it wasn’t close, because former Stock Hatch champion Jeff Humphries piled pressure on the leader, while also being threatened by round-one winner Chris Nylan, who briefly got ahead on lap four. Humphries looked set to take second place, though, until a mistake on fading tyres on the final tour left him a relatively distant third. Dave Fricker’s race-long defence of fourth position was negated by a track-limits penalty, elevating Hewlett.
The top 10 were reversed for the race-two grid, and Jessup had made relatively little progress before he was ruled out with a blown fuse. From row two, Mark Dicken took the lead up Clay Hill on the opening lap and managed to cling on for the first seven of the eight laps as Hewlett and
Matt Digby took turns to try to find a way through. Ultimately, though, Hewlett went from third to first on the hairpin loop on the final lap to claim his first win, with Dicken second, Daniel Chapman third and Nylan fourth, while Digby fell to sixth.
Sports 1000 continues to be dominated by Richard Webb, who eased to victories by 34.32s and 34.31s respectively in the latest Spire. In the early stages of race two, it looked like reigning double champion Ryan Yarrow might be able to challenge in his self-developed version, but he was frustrated with his own driving after a couple of spins dropped him almost to the back and needing to recover to sixth.
Paul Smith was second in his Mittell, having relieved Colin Chapman’s Spire GT320S of the position at Hislop’s on lap five of 12. Chapman was chased home by fourth-placed Paul Rogers’ Spire GT3S.
In the earlier race, Michael Roots pitted from second position with a clutch issue on his Mittell that would ultimately rule him out of race two. Yarrow was second from Chapman, but only after Smith was demoted to fourth with a 5s track-limits penalty.
Simon Walker-hansell won both of the Bikesports races, his first victories in the category. On a day when the Class B SR3S dominated, Walker-hansell’s North Motorsport team-mate Leon Morrell led the first race initially but lost out shortly after a safety car restart. Ashley Hicklin had a spirited drive to third, benefiting when Joe Lock went off at Island on the final tour.
Walker-hansell was only briefly headed by Doug Carter’s PR6 in race two, Carter eventually losing out to Alastair Smart’s similar car for the second time that day in the battle for Class A honours. Jack
Leese, meanwhile, claimed second overall in his SR3 RS.
Christian Pedersen dominated the Historic 750 Formula scratch race in his methanol-fuelled Austin 7, but barely got past the first corner in the handicap race before pulling off. John Village emerged on top of the later contest in his V2.