Jackson and Marrs win title after late drama
Wayne Marrs and Tom Jackson took their fourth win of the British Endurance Championship season at Donington Park and, with a little help from a charging Marcus Clutton, snatched the title in their Rob Boston Racing Mercedes-amg GT3.
Marrs started from pole position, thanks to Jackson’s qualifying lap in greasy conditions, but was passed by
Iain Campbell’s non-scoring Greystone Mclaren 720S and Sacha Kakad (HCR Motorsport Mercedes). A third early safety car coincided with the pit window opening, so Campbell, Marrs and Lee Frost (Race Lab Lamborghini Huracan) took their first of two mandatory stops. But Kakad, concerned about fuel mileage, stayed out. Eventually, pitting twice under green-flag conditions would hit HCR’S chances despite Pro driver Hugo Cook’s blistering pace.
An extra stop to reset a power-steering issue on Campbell’s car, shared with Michael Broadhurst, dropped them from contention too. That allowed Jackson to ease home ahead of Lucky Khera, in for Frost, despite both serving stop/go penalties for short stops.
Chris Goddard’s Class C-leading Ferrari 458 Challenge car, shared with Jamie Stanley and Charlie Hollings, looked set for the overall championship by a single point. But Clutton, in the Porsche 911 Cup started by Pete Erceg, overhauled a 30-second deficit within half an hour and forced a mistake from Hollings at the Esses with three minutes remaining to divert the title towards Marrs and Jackson.
“All I heard over the radio was screaming and shouting,” beamed Jackson. “Four wins, a second place [from six races] – it’s a whole season’s worth of good effort and results.” Team boss Rob Boston reflected: “Wayne was a very safe pair of hands, Tom was obviously very fast and, between them, they were a great pairing.”
Explaining Jackson’s reduced pace in the closing stages, which appeared to contribute to Hollings’s time loss, he added: “We were desperately fuel-saving so we had to slow him down enough that we didn’t do another lap.”
Each Pre-’66 Touring Car race enthralled for different reasons. In dry conditions, Barry Sime’s Mini took Saturday’s humdinger. Sime climbed from fourth to first but was then caught and passed by Garry Townsend’s Lotus Cortina. Sime, drifting through the corners to keep up, stayed with Townsend and then dived inside at the
Esses on the final lap. Third on Saturday despite losing fourth gear, James Ibbotson claimed Sunday’s wet race. The outgoing champion catapulted his Hillman Imp between Sime and Townsend at the start
before clearing off. With his sideways style increasingly exuberant as the race wore on, Ibbotson took his third overall victory by 11s from Sime and no-one else was within 45s. A pair of Class D wins were enough for Luc Wilson (Austin A40) to take the title.
Jason Hughes stole the opening Super Tourers race from Stewart Whyte’s grasp at the final corner in a thrilling twilight finish. Having kept the pressure on polesitter Hughes’s 2000 Vauxhall Vectra from the start, Whyte edged his similarvintage Honda Accord inside at Coppice mid-race and got a run down the Exhibition Straight. But, as Whyte went to lap a pair of backmarkers on the final corner, he locked up on the dirty line and Hughes nipped through for victory. Mark Jones (Renault Laguna) was third ahead of James Everard (BMW M3 E30) and Gary Prebble (Honda Civic EG), who respectively took the Pre-’93 and Pre-’03 Touring Cars honours.
Hughes sat out Sunday, giving Whyte an easier run. Prebble was holding off Everard for second until a broken throttle bracket ended his race, so Chris Southcott’s Civic EK9 inherited Pre-’03 laurels, while Richard Wheeler (Nissan Primera) edged Jones to fourth and second Super Tourer home.
After being denied by a red flag at Snetterton, Matt Hammond claimed his first Mini Challenge Trophy wins of the season. He withstood pressure from championship dominator Nelson King to win in the worst of Sunday morning’s wet weather, before losing out to Joe
Wiggin – the one-time Mazda MX-5 champion taking his own first of the season – in a rumbustious second race. Hammond sealed race three with a delightful pass of Tom Ovenden through the Craner Curves. Second, fifth and third positions for King leave him well-placed to lift the crown at Brands Hatch next month.
Colin Philpott won the Jaguar Challenge opener by swooping past both James
Ramm and Tom Robinson in one move as Ramm spun at Goddards in tricky conditions. On a drier track, Robinson’s supercharged XJR6 dominated a shortened second race to win from Ramm (XJS).
The Pre-’83 Touring Car section was run from a separate grid with a delay, and was twice won by champion Stephen Primett in his Ford Escort Mk1.
Classic Thunder honours were shared between Andy Wilson’s raucous Holden Monaro and the BMW M3 of Kirk Armitage. Simon Light’s V8-powered Ford Capri, second in the opener, inherited the lead of race two when the Monaro packed up, only to nose the barriers exiting Goddards and let in Armitage. Two class wins for AJ Owen (Honda Civic Type R) were enough to snatch the title from fastest qualifier Jason Davies, who blew his Ford Sierra Cosworth’s engine in qualifying. Malcolm Harding (Ford Escort Mk2) took the concurrent BOSS section on Saturday but struggled with gear selection issues and rain tyres on a drying track on Sunday, as Mike Manning’s Ford Sierra RS500 prevailed. A double class success scooped the overall crown for James Dunkley in his Zetec-powered Fiesta XR2.
Gordie Mutch and Jimmy Broadbent sealed the Praga Cup title with a pair of victories. Broadbent held off a closing Jamie Morton (in the car started by Ben Collins) on Saturday. Mutch may have struggled to overhaul soloist Shane Kelly on Sunday, but for the latter’s stop/go for a short pitstop. After qualifying fastest, Scott Mittell and Charles Hall endured a catalogue of misfortune in the races, but two sixth-place finishes were enough for second – and leading non-factory entrant – in the points.
Invitational entry Will Stacey completed a fine weekend for Rob Boston Racing by cruising to wins in both Britcar Trophy races in his Lotus Elise S2.