Asha Silva and Bobby Trundley’s title hopes were dented after their #4 BMW M240i suffered front end damage
Title contenders Dom Malone and Adam Smalley had to fight for the overall win in the Amspeed Porsche 991, while current table-toppers Asha Silva and Bobby Trundley had a misfortune that put the Team BRIT BMW240i out of the race, meaning the crown rested on the result of the final Into-the-Night race.
The regular contenders were boosted by a number of Invitation entries for this season finale, and significant of these was the Innovation Ginetta G56 of Luke Bennett and Dan Wylie, which lined up on the front row of the grid just 0.013 second shy of Bon Grimes, in a FF Corse Ferrari 458 rather than the usual 488, and while Grimes led the pack away when the lights went out for the rolling start, it was Bennett, taking the first stint in the Ginetta, that sneaked into the lead with an ambitious move down the inside at Druids, and began to build a margin. That margin didn’t last long though, as within a few laps the leaders were lapping , and came across a squabbling bunch of mid-fielders on the Cooper Straight; there was contact between the Ferrari and Asha Silva’s BMW, which sent the title-contending Team BRIT machine bouncing along the Armco and onto the infield, and it was race over for a visibly distraught Asha. The same lap also brought about several other cars falling by the wayside – Andrew Dawber had already pitted the Brookspeed/UBIQ BMW M2CSR with first-lap suspension damage, while Alex Read’s Cupra, Nick Casey’s Ginetta were in the gravel or on the grass around Clearways, and Chris Murphy made a early pit stop in the Woodrow BMW E36 to check for damage.
The Safety Car was deployed for eight laps, and the pit window opened just before the field went green again, with the majority of the field taking the advantage. The pro-drivers had taken over the heavy-hitting machines, and Johnny Mowlem, now in the FF Corse Ferrari, was defending a lead that was being bitten-off in chunks by Adam Smalley, who had relieved Malone, and James Kellett, who had taken over from Ash Muldoon in the other Amspeed Porsche, was also moving in. The Ferrari was visibly bouncing around as Mowlem took risks in negotiating back markers as only a driver of his gigantic experience could calculate, but the older 458 was no match for the approaching Porsches – Smalley slipped through at Druids with 15 minutes of the race left, but another Safety Car period intervened, as first-timer Freddie Ingram, having taken over from Archie Buttle in the Vortice Ginetta G56, was in the Paddock Hill gravel. There was less than six minutes to go when the caution was lifted, and Kellett resumed his pursuit of Mowlem, pushing his way through a packed field, to deal with the matter cleanly, but with now just minutes of the race left, the four-second gap to the leader was not contestable, and it ended as an Amspeed 1-2, Malone/Smalley, now in prime position for the title ahead of Muldoon/Kellett, while Mowlem exercised discretion in the Ferrari started by Grimes, a further seven seconds back in a car that was later found to have sub-frame concerns that would prevent any further participation in the event.
First race outing for Paul O’Neil’s new team #297 Ginetta, one of a number of invitation entries boosting the grid
But it’s not just about the top three, there was action through the field; in the Challenge class the early-leading Innovation Ginetta came home fourth with Daniel Wylie taking the final stint, while Amspeed wing-men Mark Smith and veteran racer Karl Jones posted fifth in the team’s BMW M3, while in GT, Nathan Wells led throughout in the Woodrow BMW GTR, an amazing fourth overall, and Chris Bingham’s Ginetta got the jump on Martin Addison’s Aston Martin during the pit stops, these two completing the class podium, with returnee Richard Wheeler’s Fox Transport McLaren, shared with 16-year-old son Michael just staving off the Ginetta of American Champ Car exponent Sevin Christian and Innovation team boss Simon Griffiths, the gap being just 0,186 seconds at the flag, while Barry McMahon and Paul Plant were sixth in the Alfa Romeo Giulia.
The Invitation entry of Michael Knibbs and Aiden Hills took an impressive victory in the Ginetta class, six seconds ahead of championship regulars Dave May and Mark Skeats in the 118 Recovery G55 GTA, while the Datum machine of Maurizio Sciglio and Marco Anastasi had issues which saw it finish five laps down. Father and son duo Ian and Elliott Wilson kept it together to take the Trophy win in the Race Car Consultants Ginetta G56, ahead of Bryan Bransom and Jas Sapra in the SGM BMW F80, second-stinter Sapra collecting a puncture in the erstwhile class-leading car, while the final podium place went to the Invitation entry Ginetta of Darron Lewis and Carl Garnett, run by the new Project 29-7 team headed by Paul O’Neill and Alex Miller. On a crowded track, usual Trophy front runner Callum Bates pushed all the way through the race, but came home fourth in the black Woodrow BMW E46,nearly a lap ahead of Steve Fresle/Jack Mitchell in the SGM Ginetta, which was a replacement machine prepped in the small hours after a test day issue with the original, followed by James and Steve Harrison in the High Row Ginetta.
Rob Ellick and Fynn Jones landed the TCR class win and another 30 championship points
Chris Murphy is a regular Trophy class winner, but the early-race damage put him on the back foot, his Woodrow-run BMW E36 down in seventh place, while the repaired Brookspeed BMW M2CSR of Andrew Dawber and Nathan Wright took the flag but was 14 laps down. The TCR class had a number of Invitation entries, but title contenders Rob Ellick and Fynn Jones kept out of trouble to take the class win in the TSR Performance Cupra, with lone pro-driver Jac Constable, racing as a Guest, well-up the overall order in the early stages in the Audi, but suffering a stop/go penalty, and Cedric Bloch, racing with hand controls in the SGM Audi, was third in the TCR contingent, while Jamsport jettisoned the planned GT Class BMW for a TCR Subaru after qualifying woes, but issues for 16-year old rising star Jenson O’Neill-Going and novice Liam Turnbull ended their race after 26 laps. The tightly-run JLC Group team had a point to prove, and the Seat Supercopa of Jamie and Christopher Hayes led the Cup class throughout, finishing ahead of Mark Jones and Craig Fleming in the TSR Audi TT, with invitee Tom McFarlane making an impressive debut, finishing third in his VW Scirocco.
Overall top three from Race 1
Text: Steve Wood; photos: Paul Cherry and Chris Valentine.