Motorsport Round-Up: Morgan back in BTCC title contention
Morgan back in BTCC title contention after stunning display
Adam Morgan enjoyed his best ever weekend in BTCC action – with a first ever pole, a race win, another podium and the Team Trophy at Rockingham.
On an amazing weekend, Morgan achieved the elusive P1 in qualification after six years of trying and followed that up with a commanding triumph in race one.
Morgan came home second in race two despite carrying 75kgs ballast and secured more points with a P8 in the final outing.
Morgan’s performance, coupled with three points for team-mate Tom Oliphant, gave Ciceley Motorsport the Team Trophy for the most points scored by any team.
The success has resurrected Morgan’s title hopes. Fingers crossed!
Fine Freddie finds first Cadet podium
Karting king Freddie Housley picked up his first podium as a Cadet on a successful trip to Cumbria.
Freddie travelled to Rowrah Circuit where last year he scooped the Bambino Championship.
This time, though, he was racing as a Cadet against older and more experienced youngsters – and he was delighted to come away with a second place finish.
After two days of really wet then really warm testing, Freddie was showing good pace.
Heat one saw him finish second, followed by a P3 in heat two.
He started on pole for heat three and kept and lead for a while until a stone went in the chain and stripped all the teeth off the sprocket, relegating him to the back of the pack.
Freddie qualified third on the grid and, with a bit of luck involved, came home in second after 12 laps of defending.
This weekend Freddie goes to Shenington near Banbury, another track where he hasn’t raced in his Cadet kart.
Hickman at the double in Ulster
Peter Hickman and the Smiths Racing BMW team enjoyed an excellent Ulster Grand Prix meeting on the weekend, with wins taken in the Superbike and Supersport races.
The 31-year-old also went a close second place in the Superstock encounter, results which earned the Louth-based rider the Man of the Meeting trophy.
The Superstock race got proceedings underway, and Hickman had to settle for second despite taking the lead at the beginning of lap five as the race was stopped and the result was taken at the end of four laps.
The opening Supersport race immediately followed and Hickman moved into the lead half way round the first lap which he was never to relinquish with a dominant performance, eventually winning by a commanding 7.9 seconds.
The feature seven-lap Superbike race was stopped on lap three due to rain, with the result ultimately declared at the end of the second lap, giving Hickman his fifth Ulster Grand Prix victory, his winning margin over Lee Johnston 1.399 seconds.
Unfortunately, the weather then worsened and organisers had little option other than to cancel the remaining three races, two of which – the second Superbike and Supersport races – Hickman had been due to contest.
With two wins, a second and a fifth, Hickman duly picked up the Man of the Meeting trophy for the second year running.
Two Fife fifths and one sixth
FUCHS Lubricants-backed Ashleigh Morris headed down to Knockhill Racing Circuit in Fife for the fifth Celtic Speed Scottish Mini Cooper Cup race meeting of the year.
Ashleigh qualified in 10th after some red-flag drama and niggles with the car – and she followed that up with an amazing P5 in race one which had the team jumping for joy.
After a nervy start to race two which saw Ashleigh drop down a place, she pulled it together and defended her sixth place position to the end for another great points haul.
Ashleigh lined up on P6 for race three and, in an action-packed race, moved up to P3 at one stage before flying off at Clarks and eventually passing the chequered flag in fifth.
A tremendous weekend for our Scottish superstar.
Bridgwater & Taunton College Motorsport are hat-trick heroes
Bridgwater & Taunton College Motorsport team enjoyed huge success at Castle Combe Circuit in Chippenham, with three outright wins in the BRSCC Speed Group OSS Championship.
The student team qualified in pole and then won every race on a wet Wiltshire track.
CA1 Sport head to Ulster this weekend
Martin Wilkinson and his team at the FUCHS-backed CA1 Sport rally team are journeying to Antrim on Thursday this week to look after the Skoda Fabia R5 of David Bogie with co-driver John Rowan on the next round of the British Rally championship, the Ulster Rally.
The event itself covers eleven stages on Friday and Saturday – full details can be found on the Ulster Rally website http://www.ulsterrally.com/spectators/
