BRCA Clubman’s Rd2 – Report
After a very wet weekend at the season opener, the drivers of the BRCA Clubman’s Series arrived on the Saturday for Practice day at Adur and the weather was perfect, with temperatures of 20ºC+ and the forecast for the following race day was even better so no wet cars required for this weekend. Every driver in all of the three classes was looking forward to getting some track time on the new Sweep control tyres for all classes. The Adur crew had put a lot of work in over the last year. All of their time and effort paid off and it has made the facility even better with a new corner position for race control and scrutineering, new fencing and a re-leveling of the walkway surface.
A dry race day greeted the drivers at 7 am on race day when the venue opened. Spaces in the pits filled up quickly as the organisers had a full entry for the days Racing ahead. For those who couldn’t make it to Saturday practice, the first 30-minute slot was just for them to have a quick practice before the timed practice started. Even at this early stage, we could already hear squealing tires, so the grip was coming up already and we were in for a hot one. Later came the usual drivers briefing by the BRCA and Club officials and racing got underway shortly after which is now the standard Round by Round qualifying system.
The 13.5T Open class had some new contenders for top honors this time around who had not raced at the first meeting of the year and they were the Westwood brothers, Jay & Glenn. The first round of qualifying went to Jay who took the win with the first 20 lap run of the day from Ashley Wiffen and Glenn. Round 2 was Glenn’s turn at the top of the timesheets and keeping it in the family followed by Ollie Payne and Jack Ioannou. The heat had come up by now so Glenn just missed out on a 20 Lap run so Jay was still favorite for TQ at this stage. Round 3 and Glenn posted a 20 lap run to make it two round wins with Ollie and Jack 2nd and 3rd again. Jay still had a chance of the overall win as his round 1 time was fractionally faster but would need to win the last round of qualifying. By round 4 the temperature was at its highest and times were slower. Local track knowledge would pay off for some with another pair of brothers Liam and Ryan Hendy. With Liam taking the round win a few seconds off the FTQ of the day set by Jay. Ollie took his 3rd-second place of the day which would put him second on the grid for the finals and Ashley took 3rd in the round to place him behind Jay on the grid in 4th place. Glenn pulled off after lap 2 and Jay finished 5th in the round so overall TQ went to Glenn Westwood.
In 17.5 Blinky qualifying championship leader Billy Fletcher carried his success from the previous meeting to take the round 1 win from Richard Palmer and Mark Buonaiuto. Round 2 saw pull out halfway through the race to leave Richard to take the round win followed by Shaun Batt and Damian Tigwell. So things were hotting up with many drivers looking to take the top honors at the halfway stage. Round 3 and Billy was back up to speed taking another round win with Richard taking another 2nd place and Shaun 3rd. Billy had now secured pole position for the A final with two 19 lap runs so the fight was now on in the final round for grid positions and it was Shaun who took the round win this time followed by Mark Trinder and Billy.
With new Formula Sweep control tires being used for the first time at a BRCA meeting everyone was still learning all day long finding what tire additives worked best with various makes being used. Stephen Lander was showing well in practice and carried that through to qualifying taking the round 1 win followed by James Wright and James Greener. Things were going Stephen’s way with a win in round 2 with the two James’s swapping places throughout the race finishing with less than a tenth between them with James W being the victor over James G. Stephen wrapped things up in round 3 with a 3rd win followed by James W and James G again. James W took the final round win with James G 2nd and Lee Owen 3rd.
In the opening 13.5 Open A-main Glenn Westwood had a perfect start to leg 1 and the hard chasing car of Ashley Wiffen who had moved through the field from fourth on the grid had made his way up to 2nd place, they stayed in that order until the finish line but Aaron Rose had also had a fantastic race to claim 3rd from 7th on the grid. In leg 2. Ashley Wiffen made some great moves on the first few laps to take over the lead in leg 2 when Glenn had to retire from the race. Ollie Payne kept him honest for the rest of the race and they crossed the line at practically the same time but it was Ashley who took the win with Jack Ioannou a few seconds behind taking 3rd. Overall it was Ashley Wiffen from Ollie Payne and Aaron Rose.
Billy Fletcher drove away from the field in the first 17.5 Blinky final winning by approx a quarter of a lap so there was no secret that new tires had been saved by him and many others for the finals. Richard Plamer fought off a hard chasing Damian Tigwell and they finished 2nd and 3rd. After his leg 1 win, Billy was looking good for the overall win and didn’t disappoint as he came home to take another flag to flag win from Richard who was a lot closer this time. With a hard chasing pack behind Richard, there was a fight on for 3rd place and Mark Trinder was the best of the rest to finish in 3rd place. Overall and behind Bully it was Richard Plamer in 2nd and Damian Tidwell 3rd.
Stephen Lander led the Formula grid away and pulled out a huge lead by the end of the race to finish nearly 12 seconds clear of second place James Wright. Damian Giddins had a great race to improve from his 4th place on the grid to finish a fine 3rd. After winning leg 1 in such style it very nearly didn’t go all his way in leg 2 with Stephen having a race long battle with James W but in the end, took the win and James Greener came home 3rd after problems in leg 1. Overall and behind winner Stephen Lander it was James Wright in 2nd and Lee Owen 3rd.
Source: BRCA [brca.org]
