The Britcar E-series returned this weekend for it’s third round, hosted at Thruxton. It was the Morgan of Isaac Raine that came out on top of what was a brilliant race on the fastest UK racetrack.
This was meant to be the fourth round but technical gremlins meant the planned round at Oulton Park could not go ahead as planned. Though that round will be moved to later on in December if possible.
David Hornsey put his Morgan on pole as the class one runners were at one point all within 0.012 of a second from each. In class two Archie Dunbar-Rees took pole, with Tony Draper in second behind.
Hornsey kept the lead form Cody Pryde and Luke Whitehead got ahead of Isaac Raine. In class two Alasdair Lecky collected Draper through the chicane and the pair spun around to the back. At the second chicane more drama unfolded as Pryde and Hornsey came to blows on exit with Hornsey hitting the wall and Pryde seemingly taking responsibility and holding back. Luke Whitehead also lost out in this allowing Raine into the lead and Nesta Mejia making up places to get into second.
David Hornsey powers the Morgan around his home circuit
Hornsey and Pryde were making good gains into the leading cars but for Pryde his race would be cut short as he ran hard over the curbs coming out of the final corner and wedged his Porsche into the barrier. This incident led to Pryde retiring from the race leaving him unable to repeat his brilliant drive at the last event.
In Class two Draper having passed Will Foster earlier in the race caught class two leader Dunbar-Rees and made a brilliant move into the final chicane as he was being squeezed by Dunbar-Rees. This the led to a brilliant side by side battle for most of the next lap as the two Ginetta’s battled it out as the two class leaders were lapping them and this time Dunbar-Rees came out on top, getting past Draper into turn one.
As the field comes in to pit during the pit windows gaps open up and close with everyone on different strategies. Raine maintains the lead, as does Dunbar-Rees who maintains the class two lead. Draper has a bit of trouble during his stop and drops two the back of the pack. This along with Hornsey catching Whitehead and Lecky catching Foster set up a brilliantly exciting climax to the race.
Ginettas neck and neck
And all of these battles reached their climax on the same bit of track as Draper caught Lecky as Lecky caught foster; along with the class one battle of Whitehead and Hornsey all arriving at the back straight at the same time. Draper passed Lecky into the first chicane and then the class one runners came through, Whitehead brilliantly passed the slower cars, but Hornsey on old tyres went off in his attempt. As this was happening Draper found a way to get past Foster to grab second place in class. With all this going on behind Raine took the flag in what ended up being a dominant performance from the Morgan driver. Whitehead took second place ahead of Hornsey and Mejia. In class two Dunbar-Rees claimed a deserved win, having importantly fought off Draper in the first stint. Draper finished second despite an extra pitstop and several moments around the tricky track. Will Foster stayed ahead of Lecky to claim class third.
You can watch a reply of the race on our YouTube channel.