Racing Results 2013
Rounds 9 & 10 Anglesey: 3rd/4th August 2013
- Double race win for Danny Winstanley
- Class wins for Simon Blanckley (x2), Chris Whiteley and Nick Hayes
Summer holidays and the sheer distance involved for many competitors may have contributed to a mere 10 car entry for this year's trip out west to the Anglesey circuit. The scenery is great, the weather always changeable, this year would provide more of the same.
Qualifying:
The double race winner at Oulton Park, Danny Winstanley (TVR Sagaris) narrowly took pole (by 0.65 seconds) from Paul Rose (Saker). A Eurosaloons debutant Graham Davidson (Noble M400) was third up on the grid just over a second further back. Another gap of more than a second saw Steve Harris (Saker) complete the second row.
Former BTCC driver Simon Blanckley made a welcome return in his Class B Seat Leon, sadly the sole class entrant, qualifying 5th just ahead of Steve Putt (Mazda RX7). Nick Hayes got the better of Chris Whiteley in the Class C Seat Leon contest, but were 9th and 10th behind the 2 PlayStation Nissan 370Zs.
Race 1 - Saturday:
Rose seemed to get caught at the start, being far from level with Winstanley as the lights went out, but then stormed round the inside of The Banking to take the lead. A lead which was very temporary, Winstanley's TVR using its power advantage to regain the lead on the short run down to Church. Rose tried to go round the outside at Church but again the TVR accelerated away. Davidson was keeping close station in 3rd looking to take advantage of any mistakes.
Up into Rocket and again the front three closed up on each other, only to spread back out on the run to the start-finish line, lap 1 ending with a 0.6 second lead for Winstanley over Rose, Davidson a second further back, with Harris right on his bumper. The front four had already opened up a 3 second gap to 5th placed Blanckley who had Putt sitting close behind.
Rose held on gamely through the second lap, still within a second of Winstanley before the TVR driver upped the pace with 4 laps under his pole time to extend the lead to 6.5 seconds after 6 laps. Davidson and Harris had been dropped, now 15 and 18 seconds behind the leader. Blanckley had pulled clear of Putt in the race for 5th place, and while Hayes was comfortably 5 seconds ahead of Class C rival Whiteley, Whiteley was the one having stuck still less than half a second ahead of PlayStation driver Salman Al Khater.
Winstanley was in control of the race and gradually backed off a second or two a lap, but still had enough pace to take an easy 17 second win over 18 laps from Rose, with only Davidson and Harris (41 and 48 seconds behind Winstanley) still on the same lap. Blanckley had looked to have the measure of Putt in the early laps, and by lap 13 was 9 seconds ahead, a gap which shrunk to 2 seconds the following lap, Blanckley presumably going off somewhere. Two more laps and Putt moved up into 5th place and held on to the position by just 2/10ths.
Hayes finished just 4 seconds ahead of Whiteley to take the Class C win after Whiteley managed to shake off the attentions of Al Khater.
Race 2 - Sunday:
Normal Anglesey tradition dictates there will be one dry day and one wet day, this year did not disappoint as heavy rain fell overnight. By the time the race started the rain had stopped and the sky was bright, but the track was still a long way short of dry.
Just how wet the track was, was demonstrated on the opening lap times. Winstanley was 12 seconds slower than in race 1 as he lad Rose across the line to complete the first lap, Davidson a couple of seconds back in third from Harris. Blanckley was 5th and already 4 seconds clear of Putt, the Mazda struggling in the wet conditions. Whiteley got a great first lap and moved up from 9th to 7th, more importantly he had got in front of Hayes.
It was not only the lap times differed from race 1, Davidson got off to a flyer, and although running a good 10-12 seconds slower than in the dry, he was a second clear of Rose by the end of the first lap, with race 1 winner Winstanley a second further back in third. Six laps in the gap at the front was over 2 seconds, the track was beginning to dry and lap times were improving, if still 9 seconds slower than in the dry. Winstanley was now 6 seconds further back while Harris had been dropped in the contest for the final podium position.
Whiteley was master of the conditions and had moved up to 5th place, while at the back, Putt, Hayes, Ashley Oldfield (Nissan 370Z) and Al Khater were embroiled in their own battle, with Al Khater closing up an earlier gap. By lap 10 the 4 drivers were running within a second, the following lap they were all lapped by front two.
Lapping the last 4 cars who were having their own close battle, closed things up a little at the front, and while Davidson was able to maintain a 3 second gap back to Rose, Winstanley had closed up to within 3 seconds of Rose now the track was drying. Winstanley was now the man on the move, the TVR finally able to use its power advantage. Lap 13, Winstanley was just 1/2 second behind Rose, the following lap he moved up into second place and was a little over 2 seconds adrift of leader Davidson.
That gap was down to 0.6 the following lap, on the final lap it all went wrong for Davidson who failed to finish the race, Winstanley taking his econd win of the weekend, this time by just 1.8 seconds from Rose. Third placed Harris was almost a lap adrift, just completing his penultimate lap before Winstanley took the flag.
Blanckley took 4th place along with the Class B win, while Whiteley came home 5th for the Class C win, some 10 seconds clear of fellow Class C competitor Hayes.
Rose's two second places still outpointed Whiteley's points score for the weekend and his lead in the championship has extended again, now leading 212-154 from Class C leader Whiteley, with Steve Harris remaining 12 points further back in 3rd place on 142 points. Seat outscored Saker 88-66 in the MSE-Performance.com Manufacturers Cup and now lead 466-374. Paul Rose leads the Mark Fish Sports Car Cup 206-146 from Steve Harris while Gary Prebble's absence sees Whitely now lead the LMA Saloon Car Cup 150-132 from Prebble and Hayes who now draws level. respectively.
Next time out is Brands Hatch on 31 August/1 September.
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