Weekly Round Up: Haslam guns for glory at Brands Hatch
Haslam guns for glory at Brands Hatch
FUCHS Silkolene-backed Leon Haslam will look to tie up his maiden British Superbike title this weekend at Brands Hatch.
Haslam came so close to glory last season after crashing out of the final race of the championship, giving Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne the chance to clinch his sixth title.
Haslam will be hoping for no such drama this time around, as he starts the day with a 61 point advantage over Jake Dixon.
Be Wiser Ducati star Glenn Irwin, meanwhile, will be looking to secure a third place finish in his final outing for the team, while Peter Hickman, also backed by FUCHS Silkolene, will be out to finish on a high.
Wales Rally GB
Martin Wilkinson’s CA1 Sport team, backed by FUCHS Lubricants, were in Deeside last weekend supporting two of their crews on the ante-penultimate round of the World Rally Championship.
David Bogie and co-driver John Rowan were in their familiar Skoda Fabia R5 running in the International event; the 18 stages which ran on Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday formed round five of the British Rally Championship, and round six was the five Sunday stages.
Martin reported ’no problems‘ for the crew on the short Thursday ‘spectator special’ stage, and they were equally happy after the Friday stages, which were run without a break for servicing the cars. At this point, David and John were leading the British Championship contenders, as Gus Greensmith was not registered for points.
David was equally at home on the Saturday stages especially as the forest tracks dried out in the afternoon sunshine, and the grip levels increased noticeably. The pair held on to their championship advantage, and finished top of the British Championship leaderboard.
The Sunday stages started promisingly, and the crew got great exposure on the televised stage 20 through Gwydir 1 which was the Power stage. Unfortunately, they had a small spin near the end of the stage, and clouted a bank with the front end. When they got on to the road section after the stage, they discovered that the shunt had burst the radiator, and that was game over for the disappointed pair.
Tom Preston (Skoda Fabia R5) and Carl Williamson were competing on the National event, which ran over stages 2 – 14 of the International rally. The pair took a slender 2 second lead on the first stage Clocaenog, but a minor indiscretion on the second of the days stages saw them take a roll, which they described as ‘gentle’. Nevertheless, this was sufficient to put them out of contention on the third stage, Brenig.
Also taking part on the National event was the indefatigable Bob Bean, with co-driver Malcolm Smithson in the venerable Mk 1 Ford Lotus Cortina. This was just a week after the crew sealed their Class win on the FUCHS Lubricants MSA Historic Championship at the Yorkshire based Trackrod rally. The pairings’ stage times put many more, younger drivers, in less venerable cars, to shame, and they were delighted to finish first in their class and 22nd overall. Bob runs his car on FUCHS Classic Racelube 20w/50 engine oil.
Brown diverts to Blyton
Rally driver Steve Brown is heading to Lincolnshire this weekend to compete in the BTRDA rallycross at Blyton Park. Drew Bellerby has kindly agreed to lend him her BMW Mini, and he is competing in the Supermodified class.
Together they did progress
The 750 Motor Club Cartek Club Enduro championship came to a close for the Together, We Progress Racing team with a huge points haul at Snetterton.
For the students of Wrexham Glyndwr University, it’s been a hugely entertaining and busy season.
The team went into the final round with it all to play for.
In preparation for the Race of Remembrance, Bobby Andrew joined Graeme McMurchie in the Mk1 MX-5. They qualified in seventh, 42nd overall in the 50-car grid.
Graeme started the race and the team elected to fuel him long. He was eighth overall before pitting at the one hour 10 mark. Just one lap after the stop a safety car was called, allowing Bobby to claw back the remaining lap and catch the train. The pair eventually finished 28th overall.
Nick Dougill piloted the Mk3 MX-5 in a departure from his usual seat in the Mk1 alongside John Munro. The car was fuelled for 70 minutes but a timely safety car at 40 minutes saw John pit and Nick take the car to the chequered flag.
The car sat comfortably in fourth place in class. Nick kept hitting the lap times until eventually the ’88 BMW in front suffered an engine failure, allowing him to ease the TWP car home in third.
With that, the season came to an end. It has been an incredible season with 2262.54 miles raced so far, and still with the 12 hour Race of Remembrance to come in little under a month.
Ladies title for our Ashleigh
Ashleigh Morris Racing has clinched the 2018 Celtic Speed Scottish Mini Cooper Cup Ladies Championship title.
Ashleigh secured the trophy at the final round at Knockhill last weekend, having qualified in seventh.
She came home in P10 in race one, and followed that up with a 12th and a 15th to finish just three points ahead of Hannah Chapman.
Well done, Ashleigh!
Calum Beach seals title
Calum Beach is the 2018 Darley Moor F125 Champion.
With Calum in third, the team weren’t thinking about the title when they arrived at the venue.
After a small problem in qualifying, Calum rode brilliantly and eventually crossed the line in first place – some 14 seconds in front of his nearest rival.
A quick calculation revealed that he had taken the title.
Season finale victory for Mark Bowd and the JDM Racing GT40
The final round of the SR & GT Challenge took place last weekend at Snetterton 300.
JDM Racing GT40 qualified in third place in dry conditions, but the weather soon changed to rain which continued for the rest of the day.
Fortunately, the GT40’s handling on wet tyres is superb and a great start put the team in second place before the first corner.
Their chances were nearly over before the first lap was complete when the lead car spun and crashed into GT40, causing extensive front end damage. But, despite the damage, Mark Bowd pushed on to take the lead and reached the chequered flag in first place.
It was a fantastic finish to what has been a troublesome season for the team.
And finally…
Our new ambassador Kirsty Kerbs Widdrington has been back in action again, this time at the British Drift Championship Drift Demonstrations at Trax Silverstone.
