The 90-minute race marked the third overall win for Dom Malone and Adam Smalley in the Amspeed Porsche 991. That was a fair pre-race bet in any event, but it turned out to be a race of chaos, safety cars, stoppages, penalties, rain – and rainbows – that the heroic drivers had to contend with.
The Cunningham’s Porsche 991 Cup
Mark Cunningham had annexed pole in the short 10-minute qualifying session, having satisfied himself prior to the red-flagging of the session exactly half-way through, his re-fettled SG Racing Porsche 991 being a clear second and a half better than Malone’s best lap. “It’s the first time I’ve been on overall pole since we raced the Seat in Production S1” exclaimed Mark, but events outside of his control as the grid formed up for the race proved that his glory would be squandered.
Rain had been on the forecast, and a few spots as the cars exited the pit lane to form the grid turned more serious as the lap progressed, causing eight of the runners to go back to the pits for wet tyres. Some of those that did form up on the grid made a unilateral decision to change there and then, initiating a chaotic situation with jacks, wheels and manual wheel braces, and the officials diving into the rule book. The TSR Audi TT was still on the jacks as the tail end of the grid filtered around it for the pace lap (sadly to little avail – Craig Fleming did just one lap before the Audi’s gearbox faltered), and the race was sensibly started under Safety Car conditions, and remained so for four very long laps. Mark Cunningham had played it by the book and the SG Racing Porsche remained on slicks, causing a spin even under the Safety Car on the opening lap, dropping him down to ninth place in the queue, so he was in for wets next time around, as was Asha Silva, who had struggled with the dry Direzzas on the Team BRIT BMW M240i, and Calum Bates in the Woodrow BMW M3. Jonny MacGregor made a dummy run through the pit lane, obviously reckoning he could tough it out in the MacG Racing Mazda RX8 until the pit window opened 18 minutes into the race. And he did, changing tyres and handing over to Josh Tomlinson, ironically just as the field were let loose to race, though already out of the race was Paul Fullick, the #68 Team BRIT McLaren having come to a halt. Malone was followed by Chris Bingham’s Ginetta, and the impressive TCR Cupras of guest entries Steve and Sam Laidlaw, who were being tailed by Martin Addison in his newly-aquired Aston Martin, then the Datum Ginettas, Marco Anastasi ahead of Dave May.
Ash Woodman briefly led the race as other teams made the first of their two mandatory stops
And Mark Cunningham? Seventeenth, and setting the fastest lap so far.
There were only four racing laps before the Safety Car was deployed again, this time for teenage newcomer Archie Buttle, who had being making an impressive debut in the Vortice Ginetta G56, but came to a halt at Palmers. Virtually all of the field now took the opportunity to make their first mandatory stop, handing the lead of the race briefly to Ash Woodman’s TCR Cupra, then Dan Morris’s Ginetta, and when Ian Wilson, in the Race Car Consultants Ginetta G55 started by son Elliot came to grief at Oggies, with the rain now of Old Testament proportions, the officials had seen enough and the red flag was shown with exactly one hour of the race left to run.
Sam Laidlaw took the TCR class top spot
Racing resumed under the Safety Car for the full 59 minutes left on the stopped clock, with the rain now abated and the sun finding a gap in the clouds, though on a still very wet track. The officials had used the break to examine the start fiasco, and now awarded stop/go penalties to the 11 cars that changed tyres on the grid, including Malone’s Porsche, which had just re-taken the lead after the first round of pit stops. Dan Morris had still not stopped, and led once again in the Ginetta, followed very closely by AddIson’s Aston Martin and Noah Cosby’s Team BRIT McLaren, but Maurizio Sciglio, now in the Datum Ginetta, had come to a halt at the Wilson hairpin, causing another Safety Car intervention, and a round of second pit stops. The caution was lifted quickly, and oh, how fortunes can change in such a race, for leading now was Nick Hull, having taken over the RACE Cupra TCR from Richard Avery, with Fynn Jones in the RSR Cupra second and David Fielder’s BMW third, while Peter Cunningham, now in the SG Racing Porsche, was up to fourth place, just ahead of the Laidlaw family Cupras, who had been inseparable throughout the race – they took the lead a few laps later, son Sam now ahead of dad Steve, before taking their second stops. The pro-drivers were now taking their stints, with Adam Smalley tearing up the track in the Amspeed Porsche started by Malone, and time for Mark Cunningham to relieve dad Peter in the similar SG Racing machine for the final 25 minutes, allowing Peter to romanticise about his stint: “I drove through a rainbow, with the sun shining and spray everywhere – I couldn’t see a thing!”
A Trophy class win for the Brookspeed / UBIX BMW M2CSR
The pro-drivers were now coming into their own on the run to the flag, with leader Smalley now nearly a lap ahead of Aaron Morgan’s Team BRIT McLaren, and Nathan Wright third in the Brookspeed BMW M2CSR started by Andrew Dawber. The evening sun was low in the sky when the chequered flag fell for another win for Dom Malone and Adam Smalley, though Smalley found he had a box full of neutrals a few laps from the finish, and completed the race with only fourth gear available. A very emotional Aaron Morgan brought the #38 Team BRIT McLaren home second, claiming the GT Class win, after Noah Cosby held it steady in the opening stint, while it was the best result yet for the Brookspeed/UBIX BMW M2CSR, third overall and an amazing Trophy class victory. The team put it down to calling the pit stops just right, but Nathan Wright needed to keep an eye on a rapid Geoff Steel M2 in the closing stages, and relative novice Andrew Dawber held it together, his first race in the rain, which earned him the Rowe Driver of the Day award. The Laidlaw family got split up after the final round of pit stops, though Sam had been streaking away by that point; he was fourth overall and the TCR Class winner, with dad Steve runner up but finishing seventh overall.
Bobby Trundley and Asha Silva’s BMW in parc ferme
There was a brimful of emotion in the Team BRIT BMW M240i, rain-meister Bobby Trundley fifth overall and bagging top points in the Cup Class, keeping the dream alive for himself and Asha Silva, who earned the Sunoco Driver of the Day for her fraught opening stint in dreadful conditions. Martin Addison was second in the GT class, sixth overall, after a trouble-free run in his new Aston Martin, while Mark Cunningham brought the SG Racing Porsche home eighth overall – he may have finished further up the order, but a misunderstanding over car numbers on the timing screens saw him called in for a stop/go that he need not have taken – nevertheless, the class runner-up spot was secure. Ash Woodman bagged the final TCR podium place in an up-and-down race – he’d led overall at one point – and claimed the maximum class points as the first registered runner home, ahead of Rob Ellick/Fynn Jones (they had led the race too), as had Nick Hull and Richard Avery, fifth in class but claiming third-place points. David Fielder completed the GT podium, his SGM BMW M3 having been in the top three overall at various times, and Chris Murphy did his usual job, second in the Trophy class in his BMW M3, while Woodrow team mate Calum Bates fared less well, a braking issue leading to a clash with the barrier, ending his race in the final 15 minutes.
Also in trouble in the final quarter of an hour was the Geoff Steel BMW M2 – after Lee Goldsmith’s opening stint, pro-driver Gus Burton could sniff the Trophy class win, but was stymied by a late puncture, dropping to third in class, while MacG Racing’s improvised strategy didn’t quite come off, the Mazda of Jonny MacGregor and Josh Tomlinson finishing fourth in Trophy, and Jamie and Christopher Hayes, having missed qualifying to fix and exhaust problem in the JLC Seat Supercopa, drove a solid race to second place in the Cup class. It was a long way down the order to find the Ginetta class winner – a late-stopping strategy by Dan Morris and Colin White, but then hit with a 32-second penalty, didn’t deter them from claiming the class win, with the 118 Rescue machine of Dave May and Mark Skeats over a minute behind after sustaining late-race damage. Also taking the flag but too far behind to be classified were Archie Buttle’s repaired Ginetta, and Takuma Aoki, who brought the Team BRIT McLaren started – or rather not started – by Paul Fullick, out for the final two laps. And finally, Chris Bingham, an expected front-runner in the GT Class in the Raceworks Ginetta G55, retired shortly after the first round of pit stops.
Words: Steve Wood, photos from all four Britcar photographers: Paul Cherry, Stevie Borowik, Steve Jackman and Chris Valentine
Overall podium
Sunoco Driver of the Day went to Asha Silva
Andrew Dawber receives the ROWE Driver of the Day award from Britcar’s writer Steve Wood