Denning beats Lockwood in thrilling photo finish
A week after classic Minis put on a thrilling show at the Brands Hatch Mini Festival, their modern counterparts also provided great racing at Snetterton with the second bout ending in a photo finish.
Former Irish Fiesta champion Alex Denning has clearly now got to grips with the JCW machines and continued his good form from Knockhill last time out, where he claimed his maiden series win. He also led throughout the opener in Norfolk but had to work far harder for his win in race two.
Denning’s first challenge in the second contest came from his Graves Motorsport team-mate Lewis Brown, who was back at the front after a run of terrible luck in the opening rounds. Brown got a great start and attempted to pass both Denning and points leader Sam Weller around the outside of Turn 3, but was only able to sneak ahead of Weller. That did not last for long as Weller reclaimed the place around the outside of Brundle before Brown’s retaliation at Agostini on the following tour ended in contact and damage for Brown, while Weller superbly saved the slide.
All of this meant Denning was beginning to pull slightly clear up front, his margin at 1.6 seconds. But Weller soon negated that and was diving one way then the other in his attempts to pass at Riches on lap five of 10. Their battling meant Jason Lockwood and Ronan Pearson were also closing in and, sure enough, Lockwood pounced on Weller at Williams and Weller’s unsuccessful attempts to fight back seemingly put Denning in the clear again. However, with Weller dropping behind Knockhill double winner Ronan Pearson at Agostini, Lockwood was able to focus fully on the leader and zoomed up to the tail of Denning, having closed the 2.2s deficit.
They were right together on the final lap and Lockwood came oh-so-close to grabbing the win after a brilliant run through Murrays, but Denning held on by just 0.016s after a brilliant race.
Denning’s opening victory was more straightforward as he led away from pole, although second-placed Weller did suddenly close in the final stages. “I just made a mistake under the bridge but it’s very difficult to follow in the extreme heat and I was clever in the way I positioned my car,” explained Denning.
Jack Mitchell (JW Bird Motorsport) led throughout the partially reversedgrid finale, having been drawn on pole, although Lockwood did put him under pressure after passing Pearson into
Riches at the start. Denning was then denied a strong end to the weekend when his front-left tyre detached itself at Riches on the final lap when he was running third, promoting reigning champion Dan Zelos to the podium.
Weller was ‘only’ fifth in that one and was shuffled back to sixth in race two – his worst 2022 result – but he still leads the way by 51 points and is in prime position to steal the crown from Zelos.
Holden Commodore driver Alex Sidwell scooped four wins from the 10 races on the card on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit last Saturday. The local man was in commanding form in his Australian V8, claiming pairs of wins in the Classic Thunder and Super Saloons categories.
Luck was on Sidwell’s side in both Classic Thunder races. The first was headed by Jason Davies’s Ford Sierra Cosworth until a left-front wheel failure pitched him into the Clark Curve gravel trap. Kevin Clarke followed Sidwell to the flag in his BMW as the race ended under caution.
Clarke had an early lead in their second encounter, but the BMW cut out momentarily through Clearways on lap two, recovering to continue in third, which soon became second again. Sidwell was hampered by backmarkers on the last lap as the charging Clarke closed in, and took the flag less than half a second ahead. Davies blasted up the order from 30th to finish a distant third.
Right out of luck was Andrew Wilson, whose mighty Holden Monaro was crippled by an obscure electrical gremlin that restricted Wilson to only a few laps and left him withdrawing altogether from race two.
Concurrent contests for Jaguars featured wins for Tom Robinson’s XJR6 over Colin Philpott’s XJS in race one and Philpott ahead of Robinson in race two.
Sidwell was simply unbeatable among the Super Saloons, heading Nick Sutton’s Mitsubishi in race one and Andy Woodsdean’s Corvette in race two, the American car having finished third at the first attempt on its maiden UK appearance.
Birthday boy Graham ‘Skid’ Scarborough
There were four wins for Sidwell at Brands Hatch
celebrated his 70th with a win over multiple victor Stephen Primett when the Pre-’83 Touring Cars were in action. Primett’s Escort Mk1 was the race-one winner, the result settled by a bonnet’s length in a frantic one-lap dash after a long caution period. Scarborough denied Primett his seventh win of the year in race two after taking the lead on lap four of six in his
45th year of competition driving.
Malcolm Harding’s Escort Mk2 was in a class of its own in both Blue Oval Saloon Series races, only the Mike Manning Sierra RS500 staying within 20s of the winner in race two. Pre-’93 class rivals Dave Griffin and Michael Dugdale were best of the rest in their BMWS.
Trackday Championship leader John
Lyne survived a slippery surface moment and a last-lap collision to win Saturday’s round in front of Jordan Honeybone. BMW driver Lyne led until a moment at Surtees let Honeybone’s Renault Clio slip through, and that was the order through the pitstop phase until Honeybone made a mistake at Druids and handed the lead back to Lyne.
Things came to a head at Sheene Curve a couple of minutes from the end, when they collided and threatened to block the track. However, both were back on the move when the red flag was shown, and kept their places on countback.
John Lamaster (Lotus Elise) and Stewart Donovan (Toyota Celica) contested the Trackday Trophy lead and the race ended with Donovan in front of a closing Lamaster. The result might have been different if the race had run its full course, but was cut with the looming 18.30 curfew in mind. Jeremy Evans’s Honda Civic was the only other car in touch with the leaders.