|
Race wins for Laurence Kilby and Benji Hetherington
Class wins for Andy Harvey, Peter Challis (x2), Kevin Wendt (x2),
Ian Craig, Yaser Almaghrbi and Brett Walter (x2)
Brett Walter still leads the championship, but Kevin Wendt's joker moves him up into second place
Round four of the 2009 LMA Euro Saloon and Sports Car Championship
took place on what was the hottest weekend of 2009 to date.
Photos courtesy of Steve Shurey
Qualifying:
 Laurence Kilby was the talk of qualifying setting the first ever sub-minute lap for the LMA Euro Saloon and Sports Car championship with a
59.632s lap, fully 1.3 seconds below the outright LMA lap record and almost 2.3 seconds clear of the next driver. Benji Hetherington was up next guesting in a Ginetta G50 similar to those which race on
the TOCA package followed by 10 cars separated by just 1.3 seconds. Peter Challis (Nissan Primera) was 3rd overall and headed Class B in this round which qualified for
the DKMLabour.com Super Touring Cup with Class A Mal Davison (Noble M400) 4th, then the Class B Super Tourers of David Jarman (Nissan Primera) and Derek Hale (Honda Accord).
Class C was closely contested with 3 of the 4 protagonists qualifying together in 20th-22nd with Kevin Wendt (BMW M3) just getting the better of Olly Allen (Ford
Escort Mk II), Nick Hayes' Seat Leon right behind them. Ian Craig (BMW M3) led Class D while championship leader Brett Walker (Renault Clio) was over a second clear of
his nearest competitor Joe Walton (Renault Clio).
Race 1 (Saturday):
The gasps of the crowd said it all! While Kilby's qualifying lap was sensational, it
wasn't obvious on the track how much quicker he had been than the others. The crowd based up at Woodcote were audibly stunned when Kilby's Mitsubishi Evo came
into sight with nothing following – he crossed the line at the end of lap one already FOUR seconds ahead of second place Hetherington (Ginetta G50) with Challis (Nissan
Primera), Derek Hale (Honda Accord) and Mal Davison (Noble M400) taking the next places and another second further back. By lap two the lead was 6.3 seconds, by
lap 3 it was 8.4 and by lap 4 with a 10 second plus lead, the race was effectively over. Kilby was already lapping the back of the pack by the end of lap 4, but despite
busy laps from that point on, his pace was relentless. On lap 18 he recorded 60.840 to set a new official lap record and only slowed on the final lap to win from
Hetherington by over 30 seconds with 10 lapped cars between and all cars from 7th backwards had been lapped.
 Davison's challenge
lasted just four laps, coming onto Luffield on lap 5 his Noble and Challis' Nissan touched leaving the Noble spinning and blocking the track. Tony Soper (Harrier) went left and just as he looked to have avoided any
trouble, the Harrier spun on the grass relegating him to 20th – Davison had recovered to end lap 5 in 9th place but would be forced to retire on lap 12. Worse was to befall Derek Hale who in avoiding Davison
found his Honda beached in the gravel on the outside of Luffield, his race over.
With 34 cars having started the race, it was hard to know where to look – do you
watch Kilby blasting around at the front, watch the battle for 3rd place between Challis and Andy Harvey (Subaru Impreza), or further down the pack with Jasons
Newman (Peugoet 306) and Tarling (Renault Clio) swapping places over and again as they squabbled over what finished as 21st place? Or did you watch the front three
Class C rivals; the first lap ended with Hayes leading Allen and Wendt two places behind. On lap 4 Wendt had caught and passed Allen but Hayes still led the class by
3.5 seconds. Wendt was chasing down hard and moved into the class lead on lap 6 after which point the gaps between the three slowly stretched out so joker-playing
Wendt won from Hayes by 19 seconds with Allen 14 seconds further back – it never seemed that far while watching. Ian Craig took a comfortable win in the Class D BMW
M3 from Yaser Almaghrbi (Daihatsu Charade), the latter only just locating replacement brake pads in time for the race. Brett Walter played his joker in Class E
and justified his confidence by winning the class by 8 seconds from Joe Walton.
The heat unsurprisingly meant a high number of retirements – 11 in all including
Simon Deaton whose Mitsubishi Evo gave conflicting fuel level information so Deaton droned around slowly in the hope of finishing, Doug Ellwood (Marcos Mantis) who
suffered timing sensor failure possibly caused by losing the alternator belt in qualifying, and Mark Harrison (Mitsubishi Evo) who retired after the 20 minute mark but before the winner had crossed the line.
Race 2 (Sunday):
 Race two looked like being more of the same; Kilby got a flying start and led by almost 3 seconds after the first lap, but this time
from Harvey and Challis who had both got past Hetherington. Again Kilby was pulling away by 3 seconds per lap, but on lap four Hetherington got by Challis after 3 laps of them being nose-to-tail
, if not side-by-side, and just ¾ second behind second placed Harvey – Kilby was already 12 seconds clear beating his own new lap record on lap 2. A high number of
non-finishers in race one occupied grid places at the back so the drama was in watching then cutting through the slower cars. Doug Ellwood (Marcos Mantis) and
Derek Hale (Honda Accord) were making best progress, but Mal Davison's Noble was struggling to run even at Class E pace, the turbochargers not supplying more than 0
.5 bar boost in the opening laps. Gradually the Noble started to work again and Davison laboured through the pack up into 15th place, well off his normal pace.
Kilby continued to attack, setting another new lap record (60.641) on lap 14, almost beating it again on lap 15 (60.717) by which time he was 19 seconds clear of
Hetherington in second place, with Harvey third and 1.5 seconds ahead of Challis. It all went wrong on lap 16 as Kilby's Mitsubishi started to sound flat and was visibly
slower than before. A lap of 68 seconds let Hetherington move to 13 seconds behind, the following lap he had closed up and followed Kilby across the line just 5/100ths
behind, passing him on the entry to Copse and off on his way to win the race. Next up were Harvey and Challis who started the final lap 0.8 seconds apart and about
the same behind Kilby. They got by quickly enough, but the drama still wasn't over as they came round Luffield and Brooklands together. Challis looked like he might
catch Harvey in the sprint to the finish line, but one of the Clios was trying to stay out of the way on the inside, Harvey cleverly ensued Challis had nowhere to go and
crossed the line 1/10th ahead of Challis with the lapped Clio finishing between them. More pain for Kilby as David Jarman also caught him on the final lap, relegating Kilby
to 5th. Ellwood and Hale were rewarded for strong drives from the back finishing 6th and 7th, 3rd and 2nd in classes A and B respectively.
 Kevin Wendt recorded
his second class C win of the day but had to work hard for it as he fell behind Olly Allen on lap 3 and took an further 5 laps to catch and repass. Nick Hayes was unable to reproduce his Saturday form and
finished 3rd in class 9 seconds behind Allen. Yaser Almaghrbi recorded his first ever LMA Class win in Class D while Brett Walter continued his winning streak in Class E
finishing 17 seconds ahead of 2nd placed Antony Sullivan (Renault Clio). Chris Boon got lucky retiring his Honda Civic on the last lap with a puncture only to cross the
finish line in the pit lane thus scoring the points after all.
Brett Walter still leads the championship with 166 points, but a similar 66 point haul
takes Kevin Wendt up into second on 146 from Andy Harvey (132) and Peter Challis (128). Brett Walter also leads the Mark Fish Clio Cup on 158 points from Antony
Sullivan (102) and Jason Tarling (72). Renault scored a massive 170 points over the weekend and now lead the MSE-Performance.com cup for manufacturers with 524
points from Ford (378). A good Nissan turnout combined with a heavy Subaru DNF list leave them equal third on 280 points. With two more wins, Peter Challis maintains
his perfect record within the new Super Touring Car Cup and leads with 120 points from 6 races from Bernard Hogarth (88) and John Hammersley (80).
Race 1 Result:
Winner: Laurence Kilby (Mitsubishi Evo), 2nd Benji Hetherington (Ginetta G50), 3rd Andy Harvey (Subaru Impreza), 4th Peter Challis (Nissan Primera), 5th David Jarman
(Nissan Primera), 6th Simon Blanckley (Seat Leon), 7th Keith Butcher (Nissan Primera), 8th John Hammersley (Honda Accord)
Class Winners: Class A Kilby, Class B Challis, Class C Kevin Wendt (BMW M3), Class D
Ian Craig (BMW M3)), Class E Brett Walter (Renault Clio), Class F Hetherington
Fastest lap: Laurence Kilby 1:00.840 (96.98mph) – new lap record
Race 2 Result:
Winner: Benji Hetherington (Ginetta G50), 2nd Andy Harvey (Subaru Impreza), 3rd Peter Challis (Nissan Primera), 4th David Jarman (Nissan Primera), 5th Laurence Kilby
(Mitsubishi Evo), 6th Doug Ellwood (Marcos Mantis), 7th Derek Hale (Honda Accord), 8th Tony Soper (Harrier LR9)
Class Winners: Class A Harvey, Class B Challis, Class C Kevin Wendt (BMW M3), Class
D Yaser Almaghrbi (Daihatsu Charade), Class E Brett Walter (Renault Clio), Class F Hetherington
Fastest lap: Laurence Kilby 1:00.641 (97.29mph) – new lap record
Next race: Rockingham 18th July
With support from :
Mark Fish Motorsport, MSE-Performance.com & LMA Perfomance
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 ( www.nyssaracing.com )
|
