Grainger & Giddins wins Rd2 of BTCC
Round 2 of this year’s BTCC championship was held at the West London Racing Centre track. Having looked at the weather forecast all week it was going to be a wet day, and sure enough when we all turned up at the track, wet it was. At drivers briefing it was decided that the format for the day would be 4 rounds of round by round qualifying followed by 1 final. With qualifying underway in round 1 it was Tony Broad who set the fastest time followed by Daniel Booker, Damian Giddins, Tim Tims and Spencer Jones in the stock class. In Super touring it was Schumacher’s Chris Grainger setting the fastest time with Olly Jefferies, Alan Bickerstaff, Andy Murray and Stefan Chodzynski rounding out the top five.
The positions of the top 5 remained the same as round 1 in the stock class however there were a couple of movers in super touring, the first 3 were as round one with Phil Chambers moving into 4th and Ayrton Anderson into 5th Position.
In the stock class Tony remained on the top spot but Damian managed to set the fastest time and go ahead of Daniel, in fourth place now it was Spencer Jones and Tim Tims fifth. In super touring the top 2 were as the previous round: Chris, Olly then in 3rd was Kyle Gardner setting the second fastest time in round 3, well done Kyle, fourth was now Alan and Schumacher’s Tim Langdell moved to 5th Overall.
The top 3 remained the same, however the top 2 were now tied on points both with 2 fastest times each, so it went on tie break which was fastest time and this meant that Tony remained in the top position, Damian second, Daniel third, Tim moved back to fourth and Schumacher’s Mark Muzzy Musgrove moved up into the top 5 for the first time. In super Touring Chris was where he had been all day at the top but with another good time in round 4. Third fastest to go with his fastest time in round 3 it was Mark Stiles who had moved into the second spot, Olly was now third, Kyle fourth and rounding out the top five was Alan. Bring on the final.
After 4 rounds of round by round qualifying the top 10 in each class were:-
Top 10 Stock 13.5
1. Tony Broad
2. Damian Giddins
3. Daniel Booker
4. Tim Tims
5. Mark Musgrove
6. Spencer Jones
7. Rob Sawell
8. Bryan Nortje
9. Tony Watts
10. Mark Caton
Top 10 Super Touring 10.5
1. Chris Grainger
2. Mark Stiles
3. Olly Jefferies
4. Kyle Gardner
5. Alan Bickerstaff
6. Tim Langdell
7. Mark Wallace
8. Andy Murray
9. Phil Chambers
10. Matthew White
In the Stock final the rain started to take its victims with 6 cars not making more than 6 laps and the pole man Tony Broad not even starting, it was second place on the grid Damian Giddins who took a start to flag victory never being challenged once for the whole five minutes. There was a close fought battle for second place with an ever charging Bryan Nortje coming within a second of Tony Watts but was unable to catch him at the five minute limit.
Top 5 Stock A Final were:-
1. Damian Giddins
2. Tony Broad
3. Brian Nortje
4. Daniel Booker
5. Mark Caton
The Super Touring final saw pole position Chris Grainger with his Schumacher Mi4CXL pull out a 4 second gap on the first 3 laps leaving the rest of the field in his wake, he wasn’t challenged for the whole five minutes and looked like he backed off towards the end of the final having such a big lead over second place Mark Stiles. The lake as it could now only be described as, going into the sweeper was causing quite a few problems for many drivers Kyle Gardner came to a halt on lap 3 and was unable to continue. Olly Jefferies was running in a comfortable 3rd place until lap 6 where he dropped 4 seconds to leader Chris on that lap and a further 5 seconds the lap after, those 2 laps dropped him down the field so far that he was unable to recover to get back in the top 3, however this promoted his team mate Alan Bickerstaff into 3rd position which he held until the end of the final.
Top 5 Super Touring A Final were:-
1. Chris Grainger
2. Mark Stiles
3. Alan Bickerstaff
4. Phil Chambers
5. Andy Murray
We would like to take this opportunity to thank West London Racing Centre for an excellent run meeting, the catering facility for the excellent food, and also all the committee for their help through the day to try and keep the track in a race able condition. The Next round will be at Halifax on 1st July 2012, we hope to see you all there, spaces are available so please book in on central booking.
Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]
