It was a little easier for Bonamy Grimes and Johnny Mowlem in the second race of the day, their Red River Sport / FF Corse Ferrari 488 Challenge taking a convincing win after attrition put paid to some significant contenders, in a race that saw the previous result in the classes turned on it’s head.
Before the race started, Chris Bingham’s Ginetta came to a halt on the out-lap to the grid – it was recovered for repairs, and re-joined to finish the race, though eight laps adrift and not a classified finisher. When the race did get going it was the same story at the front – Grimes followed by Gambrell, with Malone now third, and Barton’s BMW fourth, though behind them there was a kind of “BTCC reverse grid” situation, with the Trophy cars hanging on to front-running places for as long as it took the GT contingent to catch them up – Woodrow stablemates Chris Murphy and Calum Bates set the pace in their BMWs, but David Fielder was a fast starter in the SGM E36, and soon put some manners on them., with Anastasi’s Ginetta keeping a watching brief – though that was short-lived, as the Datum machine pulled off, drive shaft failure putting an end to the race for the popular Italian duo. Quickly moving up the order from back-row starts, and atoning for a miserable Race 1 were Darren Ball, power-sliding his TCR Cupra, and the May/Skeats Ginetta, with Mark Skeats taking the opening stint, both cars leading their respective classes.
BTCC ace Colin Turkington was a DNF in the Amspeed BMW
Elliot Wilson had split the Woodrow dominance of the Trophy class in his Ginetta, but his harrying of Bates’ BMW was interrupted by Nathan Wright, in the Brookspeed BMW M2CSR, who had his own opinion as to who should be leader. The heavy-hitters took their mandatory stops, leaving Wright as overall leader for a few laps, with Elliot Wilson now ahead of Bates. Gambrell’s Porsche didn’t return from it’s mandatory stop, a holed radiator being diagnosed, leaving Johnny Mowlem, having relieved Grimes in the Ferrari, ahead of Dom Malone’s Porsche. Just as the pit window was closing, Colin Turkington, in the Amspeed BMW started by Mark Smith, came to a halt on the grass just past the pit exit with a suspected alternator issue, a sad end to a promising run for the former BTCC champion and the Britcar “OG” – this was handled by a yellow flag, but more was to come; Lee Goldsmith’s BMW M2 crawled along the pit straight, and it wasn’t just observing the yellow flag, and seconds later, the infield section of the circuit was engulfed in a dramatic pall of smoke, steam and haze, as Dave May brought the 118 Rescue Ginetta to a halt – a sad end to a troubled day, though both May and co-driver Skeats had been particularly racy when it mattered, posting the fastest lap of the class. Also coming to a halt on the circuit at the same time was the BMW E46 of Harry Barton, meaning both Geoff Steel-run BMWs were out on the same lap, the M2 with overheating and the E46 with a split header tank, adding to that mist over the infield.
With a lot of clearing up to do, the Safety Car was deployed, and with just 11 minutes of the race left, further racing was in doubt, and so it ended – a five-lap run-down to the flag under caution with Mowlem winning by nearly a quarter of a minute over Dom Malone. This was a famous victory for the pro/am partnership, particularly for Bonamy Grimes, a local man in front of guests from his old Diss scout group, and Dom Malone had excelled in the Amspeed Porsche. Gambrell was brave to attempt a lone drive at an unknown circuit, and brought the Toro Verde Porsche out for the final lap, unclassified in the official results but taking the flag and bagging a small portion of Britcar points to maintain his tally. Third overall, and leading the GT class, was the amazing David Fielder, in what SGM team boss Simon Green describes as a “10 year-old road car”, a fitting end to a torrid couple of weeks for Green, and there was redemption also for the Team BRIT McLaren of Noah Cosby and Caleb McDuff; off the podium in Race 1, and despite a quick spin by Cosby on the opening lap, he truly got stuck in, hauling the car up through multi-class battles, while McDuff capitalised on the Trophy and Cup cars taking their later stops, though, caught in the Safety Car train at the end, he was unable to make further progress. Martin Addison once again put in his usual solid performance to take the final GT class podium place, while in the TCR category, Darren Ball turned his Race 1 woes around, taking an assertive and impressive class win in the Capture Motorsport Cupra, ahead of Ash Woodman’s EDF-run Cupra, and the TSR Performance Cupra of Fynn Jones and Rob Ellick third, while there was an unfortunate retirement for the Cupra of Nick Hull and Richard Avery.
The battling Ginettas of Dave May & Mark Skeates and Nick Casey – the latter eventually taking the class win
The second drivers in the Trophy class didn’t have much racing to do, the Safety Car coming out as their pit window had just closed, so class winner Ian Wilson, sixth overall in the Race Consultants Ginetta, held steady after son Elliot’s storming opening stint, while the internecine battle between the Woodrow BMWs that had raged race-long was settled in favour of Calum Bates, less than a quarter of a second ahead of Chris Murphy at the flag. The MacG Racing Mazda of Jonny MacGregor and Josh Tomlinson ended a disappointing weekend in fourth place, while the remaining class contenders were stymied by the late Safety Car after impressive early-race showings – Alex Turnbull’s Ginetta, Andrew Dawber in the BMW M2CSR started by Nathan Wright, and the father and son partnership of Steve and James Harrison in the High Row Ginetta finishing fifth, sixth and seventh, and rounding out the class after a torrid pair of races was the usually front-running BMW F80 of Bryan Bransom and Jas Sapra. The only finisher in the Ginetta class was Nick Casey’s Datum Motorsport G55 Supercup, though this was no hollow victory, but a personal triumph for the lone driver in his first season of competition, and his first event without pro-driver Adriano Medeiros taking the car for half of the race. Team BRIT’s Bobby Trundley and Asha Silva took the Cup class win on the road, after enduring intermittent boost leak in the BMW M240i for most of the race, but a post-race penalty for a pit-stop infringement demoted them to the runner-up spot, handing the class win to Jamie and Christopher Hayes in the JLC Seat Supercopa, with County Down commuters Dennis Storey and Allan McCullough having no issues, and No Pressure, on their way to third place in the SVG-run BMW 130.
Overall podium from Race 2
Full results from the TSL website (PDF).
Text: Steve Wood; photos: Steve Jackman, Chris Valentine, Stevie Borowik and Paul Cherry.