Racing reports
Endurance races have been part of the 750 Motor Club’s sporting programme since the inaugural Birkett Six Hour Team
Relay run at Silverstone in 1951. In recent seasons, mini-enduros have peppered its championship meetings, large entries satisfying racing members and teams’ aspirations of greater track time while offsetting the rising cost of circuit hire.
Saturday’s Roadsports Series event attracted 40 plus entrants, ranging from a Vauxhall Nova GTE and Mazda MX-5S through SEAT Leons and a plethora of
BMW M-series models to Michael Price’s Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, effectively the polesitter after Luke Sedzikowski/
David Whitmore (BMW M4) used qualifying for Club Enduro practice.
There was drama at the start when David Drinkwater’s VW Corrado on P3 stuttered, then stalled, and was clipped by fourth row starter Matt Wallis’s SEAT, but the 45-minute race went on. Graham Crowhurst’s spectacular “anti-camouflage” liveried
BMW E46 M3 led from the start, but invitee Dave Kempton (E36 M3) and Paul Cook
(E46 M3) growled ahead to their mandatory stops, whereupon Price steamed ahead.
The green Porsche outran its German compatriots to the chequered flag, finishing the 16-lapper almost 35 seconds clear of Cook, with Kempton and Crowhurst a distance behind. Leon Bidgway upheld local marque Lotus’s honour with fifth in his Exige, pursued by Lee Piercey’s BMW 328i.
Price’s co-driver, 2011 British GT4 champion Marcus Clutton, planted the Cayman on pole for Sunday’s two-hour Club Enduro, but Silverstone victor Joe Taylor discovered that dry tyres worked increasingly well on his Exige S3 as the drizzle abated. He qualified second, 3.06s adrift, with Carl Swift/rob Baker (Area Motorsport SEAT Leon) and Darren Ball (E46 M3) well in touch.
Taylor drove brilliantly on the same rubber to stay within 50s of Clutton over the first hour, knowing that Price would have to serve a 30s stop-and-go Pro driver penalty in the second half for Clutton’s work. Price initially stopped under a safety car, which contravened regulations, thus had to repeat the exercise. Taylor had carved several seconds per lap out of his advantage and had just passed the Porsche when he was hit with a similar imposition for a tight overtake under yellow flags.
All the while Baker was growling round metronomically out front in the
SEAT but, despite lengthening odds,
Taylor didn’t stint in his efforts to land victory. He came up 15.76s short, crucially two places ahead of championship class rivals Sedzikowski/whitmore in fourth and finishing rapidly. A lap down, Darren
Ball (BMW E92 M3) was fifth, ahead of
Paul Huxley (SEAT Supercopa).
Matt Maxted/ben Salmon (E36 M3) – who had outpaced John La Master/craig Denman (Lotus Elise) and points leader Steve Cheetham (Porsche Boxster) for
Class B pole – enjoyed a superb run to seventh, clear of Pip Hammond (Porsche Boxster). Cheetham weathered a tyre nightmare, but charged back to third in class as the circuit dried. Darren Anderson/ Philipp Nagel won class C from Darren Kell (Mazda MX-5) by 0.84s after 44 laps. Practice leader Piercey set the division’s best lap.