Morgan on his perpetual march as F1000 title battle closes up
ANGLESEY 750MC 10-11 SEPTEMBER
At a crucial moment in the title race, Rob Welham took over the F1000 championship lead from Matthew Booth as fellow title contender Thomas Gadd and Lee Morgan did the winning in three nail-biting races at the penultimate round at Anglesey.
Mittell Cars’ Matthew Higginson had taken a maiden pole position in qualifying and came close to winning for the first time too in the opening encounter. He was under intense pressure from Morgan throughout, the Perpetuum driver drawing alongside through the left-right Rocket sequence of bends on several occasions, but Higginson was able to hold firm – until the final lap.
On that occasion, Morgan was a bit further alongside as they hit the brakes and was able to cling on around the outside to go on and win from the valiant Higginson. But Morgan had a scare just seconds later when, approaching the Corkscrew for the final time, his car’s exhaust manifold broke. “Luckily it was with just two corners to go!” he said.
Behind, Welham’s bid to pass Booth for third on the final lap ended when he selected a ‘false neutral’ and dropped instead to fifth behind Gadd who, having qualified second fastest, had come through from seventh after serving a five-place grid penalty (for his part in a crash with Welham last time out at Donington Park).
For the weekend, Gadd was using an all-new chassis after his original was written-off in said crash, and in race two he used it to full effect to take an important win for his title aspirations. Starting seventh from the top-10 reversed grid, he was quickly inside the top three before leading by lap four of 14. From
10th, Morgan had gone with Gadd but, by the time he made it into second, it was too late – and in the closing laps he again had to nurse a broken manifold.
By contrast, Welham became stuck in fifth behind Dan Clowes and Higginson while Booth was a frustrated ninth after being bundled off the track at Peel on the opening lap.
Gadd’s hopes of a second win in race three – this time from pole – were over at the start when clutch problems caused him to stall. Morgan, starting alongside him, needed no second invitation and shot off into the distance for an easy win.
Welham pounced to pass Ben Powney for second straight after a safety-car period – caused when Ed Falkingham’s
Jedi spectacularly blew its engine and, amid a brief fire, spun on its own oil at the high-speed School curve. Fourteenth at the end of lap one, the recovering Gadd
made it back up to sixth by the end, right behind Booth.
Heading to Snetterton’s title-deciding final three rounds, Welham has edged ahead of Booth and Gadd, who provisionally are tied for second in the standings. “It’ll need me to bring my A-game so maybe I’ll try and get some more sleep,” said Gadd.
In spite of his six non-scores, Morgan still has an outside chance – just as he did 12 months ago when, at the same venue, he dramatically emerged as champion. “I suppose I had a bit more of a chance last year, but it won’t stop me going for it again this time – I’ve nothing to lose,” he said.
There was also a twist in the Bikesports title race as Valour Racing’s Leon Morrell closed the gap significantly to leader Simon Walker-hansell, whose North Motorsport Radical SR3 spluttered through both races with a mystery fuel surge problem.
The first race, initially led by Walkerhansell before his problems started, was won by debut sensation Thomas Fleming (see News) after he rubbed and squeezed past team-mate Morrell through Church. Next time out, defending champion
Morrell took revenge after running second to Fleming for the first 12 laps of the 18.
Kris Mccloy proved unbeatable in the Hot Hatch triple-header in his Honda Civic for his first victories in the category. Cameron Elder’s Civic led the opening lap of the weekend, but thereafter Mccloy was never headed.
Multiple race winner Philip Wright pressed Mccloy hard in the first race but it was fellow Civic pilot Joe Bower who emerged as Mccloy’s closest challenger in the next two encounters.
A second and two thirds in class mean Wright has now won the division A title. But he will need some good fortune in the Snetterton finale to stop David Drinkwater (C class champion in his BMW Compact) from making it four outright titles in a row.
Similarly, Paul Jarvis (his Citroen Saxo VTS having undergone major repairs after being damaged at Donington Park) secured the class B crown after three entertaining battles with Mathew Mandipira’s Renault Clio 197, which prevailed in each race.
Jonathan Lisseter is now the favourite to win the Ma7da title after two wins and a second at Anglesey, as chief rival Danny Andrew suffered some misfortune – particularly in the second race, which he led comfortably until a late safety-car period.
In the last-lap dash that followed the restart, Andrew was attacked by Lisseter’s Team Sellars team-mate Eddie Mawer into Rocket. The pair ran wide at the exit and Lisseter – struggling to keep up with incorrect tyre pressures – gratefully drove past them both. Mawer won race three ahead of Lisseter and, in spite of a late spin on a damp track, Ben Powney completed a Sellars 1-2-3 result.
Paul Cook led Graham Crowhurst in the first of three BMW races before his overheating E46 M3 slowed and retired.
Cue a straightforward hat-trick of wins for Crowhurst’s similar car.
Colin Gillespie and Phil Dryburgh (SEAT Leon TCR) won the 45-minute Roadsports race after early leader Will Stacey’s Lotus Elise stopped with a major oil leak.
On the Welsh Racing Drivers Association’s first event on the Anglesey Coastal layout, Christian Douglas (Ariel Atom) was twice a winner ahead of Chris Everill (Ginetta G55).
Carl Swift and Robert Baker (SEAT Leon TCR) took their fifth Club Enduro win of the season in a sodden, safety car-disrupted two-hour plus marathon, a dozen seconds clear of Rob Boston (Lotus Elise), who must have rued losing a similar amount of time with two grassy moments at The Banking.