Racing Results 2011
Rounds 1 & 2 Silverstone: 9th/10th April 2011
- Race wins for Phil Keen (guest) and Dave Cockell
- Class wins for Dave Cockell (x2), Richard Hawken (x2), Mark Poole, Jim Pocklington, Andy Jordan (x2) and Nick Boon (x2)
- Richard Hawken plays joker to lead the championship
Round one of the 2011 BRSCC Euro Saloon and Sports Car Championship took place on what was the warmest weekend of 2011 to date.
Qualifying:
35 cars made up a bumper grid for the first round of the 2011 season, including a large number of new drivers to the series and a guest in the shape of Phil Keen in a Mosler MT900 having a shakedown run.
The Mosler was impressively fast, qualifying on pole over 3 seconds under the Euro Saloons outright lap record. Just outside lap record pace was Andy Robinson (Ford Falcon) heading Class A by half a second from Dave Cockell (Ford Escort Cosworth) with Nick Williamson’s similar Escort close behind. Class B pole went to Kevin Wendt (BMW M3) but he would later be unable to start either race. Jim Pocklington (BMW M3) put his car on Class C pole and 9th overall easily beating the Class C lap record, while Stewart Calder (Renault Clio) and Nick Boon (Honda Civic) took Class D and E pole respectively.
Kevin Wendt was not the only driver with early season problems. Peter Challis’ Nissan Primera was suffering from a broken CV joint which restricted him to just 4 laps, Charlie Jackson was even less fortunate failing to complete a lap. Mike Gregory’s weekend ended early as his Ford Escort Mk II dropped a valve despite an engine rebuild only late that week.
Race 1 (Saturday):
33 cars made the start line, although Peter Challis pulled out on the rolling lap. The grid were very spread out on the rolling lap, the pace car not doing much of a job of bunching up the pack. Phil Keen on pole blasted straight into the lead while Andy Robinson tried to hold on gamely, but coming into Brooklands for the first time, Robinson ran wide allowing Nick Williamson to move up into second place, crossing the line at the end of lap one already 3 seconds adrift of Keen. Dave Cockell was right on Robinson’s tail, the pressure telling the following lap when Robinson applied the power too early in Brooklands and the big Falcon spun round. Unable to restart, Robinson’s race was over.
While the Mosler disappeared off into the distance, the real race was on behind. The two Escorts of Williamson and Cockell were edging away from the chasing Mitsubishi Evos of Gary Prebble and Barry Squibb, Williamson slowly opening up a gap on Cockell. The Mosler was already into the backmarkers on lap 4, Williamson and Cockell started lapping on lap 5 by which time the gap between them was over 2 seconds. But Cockell started to close up slowly, by lap 8 the gap was down to half a second, a slower lap from Cockell on lap 9 opened up the gap before he got down to chasing Williamson again, catching up on lap 14. Cockell finally passed Williamson on lap 18 and soon eked out a 5 second lead to take the Class A win from Williamson, with Prebble and Doug Ellwood (Marcos Mantis) making up the next two places.
With Class B poleman Wendt absent, and Challis pulling out on the rolling lap, the Class B battle was between Ilsa Cox (Seat Leon Cupra) and Richard Hawken (Nissan Primera). Cox had qualified 5 places and almost a second ahead of Hawken and this helped her gain a 4 second advantage over Hawken by lap 2. This gap remained constant until lap 11 when Hawken started to reel in Cox by around half a second a lap until Hawken closed right up on lap 15, passing Cox a couple of laps later. Hawken kept up this pace to the end to take 6th overall and the Class B win from Cox by 4 seconds.
Class C boasted a 10 car entry, second only to the 13 cars running in Class A. While Jim Pocklington got off well up front, further back down the track Ian Craig got a better start than Mark Poole in their BMW M3s, moving up into 2nd in class on the opening lap, though their positions were reversed a lap later. Poole was pulling away slowly and inherited the class lead when Pocklington pulled off at Brooklands 6 laps from the end, Poole going on to the class win as last car on that lap, Craig finishing one lap earlier, one place down in 13th, both some distance ahead of defending champion Nick Hayes (Seat Leon) who looks to have his work cut out this season.
Class D comprised 3 Renault Clios with Stewart Calder and Andy Jordan running at the front, a BMW and a Daihatsu. Calder looked to be getting the better of Jordan, but Jordan was able to catch up while Calder could not pass a Seat Leon in front of him. Jordan caught up and passed Calder, an attempt to outbrake Jordan saw exit the track backwards at Brooklands leaving Jordan to take the Class D win, with Calder resuming to take second in class. Yaser Almaghribi (Daihatsu Charade) was looking good to stop an all Clio podium, but rising temperatures caused his retirement on lap 11 leaving 3rd in class to Ian Jordan.
Nick Boon (Honda Civic) took an easy class E win beating the class lap record which had stood since 2006, Gordon Mason in only his second race too his Peugeot 205Gti to 2nd in class running some 6 seconds faster than in qualifying where his rear brakes were faulty.
Race 2 (Sunday):
More of the same weather wise, but the attrition rate was getting worse. From 35 cars which started qualifying, we were down to 31 starters and Keen’s Mosler on pole pulled out on the rolling lap. Robinson and Challis started on the back row after their early race one retirements and were quick to blast through the pack on the opening lap, Robinson making up 14 places on the first lap alone! Up front Cockell led from Williamson, but Williamson’s race lasted just the single lap leaving Prebble as Cockell’s nearest challenger, Squibb being 6 seconds down in 3rd on lap 2. Prebble was keeping close to Cockell but he too succumbed on lap 9. Incredibly this promoted Robinson into 2nd place having started 30th, but fully 21 seconds down from Cockell with a dozen lapped cars between them. Cockell continued at relentless pace and maintained the gap, finally winning the race by 24 seconds from Robinson, with Squibb taking 3rd place by just a second from Ellwood, though these two were 13 and 14 seconds behind Robinson.
Hawken started this race one place in front of Cox but lost ground on the opening lap, ending the lap 2 places down. By lap 5, Hawken was 3 seconds and 4 places behind Cox but again Hawken got into the zone and by lap 10 was just half a second shy of Cox, the following lap Hawken was in front by half a second, a lead he then extended to 8 seconds by the end of the race. Challis had been racing through the pack but the Primera was not as fast as usual and finished 2 places behind Cox in 9th to take 3rd in class.
Pocklington got his BMW back out for this race and just won Class C after ending lap one 16 places behind Craig, chasing through the pack to pass Craig on lap 8 after which the BMWs ran in formation to the finish, the gap between ebbing and flowing as they raced through the backmarkers. Race one winner Poole took 3rd in class a long way back.
What started as a 2 way scrap between Andy Jordan and Calder in Class D also embroiled the Class C Clio of Nick Jones who separated them as they circulated in formation for lap after lap. This allowed Ian Jordan to make it a 4 Clio train as he caught up, the four cars finishing in that order less than 2 seconds apart. Nick Boon had another easy win in Class E while Mason lowered his lap time in a lonely race to finish 2nd in class.
As the only joker player combined with two class wins, Richard Hawken leads the championship after round 1 on 60 points from Dave Cockell (44), Andy Jordan and Stewart Calder (40).
With support from :
Mark Fish Motorsport, MSE-Performance.com & LMA Performance
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 (www.nyssaracing.com )
Click here to link to the full TSL Timing results pdf of the meeting