Written by Joshua Barrett
Stock Hatch
The first race of the weekend saw Tom Bell and Shayne Deegan pull clear and the two cars stayed in that order throughout the race. However, some great battling occurred behind. Patrick Fletcher was in third position in the early stages but there was contact between himself and Nathan Saunders through the Vale on the second lap which put Fletcher into retirement. Steve Powlesland took third position before both Saunders and Paul Jarvis worked their way ahead of him before they came to blows into the Vale on the ninth lap which saw Saunders spin out. This allowed Powlesland to take his first podium since returning to Stock Hatch a couple of seasons ago ahead of Jarvis. Lee Deegan has to come through the field after spinning into the Vale after contact with Jarvis; Deegan came home in eighth position just behind Saunders.
The second race was damp and saw some great battling for the race lead between Lee Deegan, Bell and Saunders. Firstly, Bell led the race but was being pushed hard by Saunders. But Bell outbreaked himself into the Vale which allowed Lee Deegan into the lead as Saunders had already fallen down to fourth behind Lee’s brother, Shayne. However, on the seventh lap of the race Bell managed to slither his way back through ahead of Lee Deegan as the rain started to fall. Shayne also fell back behind Saunders when a stone went through his radiator so started to overheat the engine, however he still finished in fourth place just ahead of Philip Wright.
Mark Armstrong, who was out in the Bucks Automotive hire Clio, dominantly took both victories in the Clio 182 series which saw its biggest grid of six cars as the series continues to grow.
Formula Vee
A fantastic battle raged for the lead in Formula Vee throughout the first race of the weekend between Paul Smith and Martin Farmer. For the majority of the race the two leaders could not be separated as they changed positions on each lap. On the tenth and penultimate lap Smith pulled at a second advantage to Farmer which meant he was able to hold to take the victory ahead of Farmer. A strong performance also came from Graham Gant as he stayed with the two leaders and finished in second position. Keith Farrance came home in fourth beating multiple Irish champion Lee Newsome in the Sheane prepared by the Jordan’s. There was an incident at the Vale which saw James Clennell make contact with a back marker. Ian Jordan and Tim Probert also got tangled up in the incident but managed to carry on.
Smith managed to make a break at the start of the second race which saw him charge off into the distance despite injuring his back, he finished the race thirteen seconds clear of Farmer and Gant. Once again Farrance beat Newsome to fourth place. But an incredible battle occurred for sixth place which was won by Probert but for most of the race there was a ten car train all scrapping for the position.
Despite making contact in race and being airborne Ian Jordan won both races in class B and clinched the class title.
Locost
In the first Locost race at Silverstone Lee Bankhurst and Richard Jenkins traded places multiple times around the circuit as they slipstreamed each other – on most laps the two drivers changed places. Even though Bankhurst didn’t realise it was the last lap he managed to defend Jenkins off to clinch the victory. Alastair Garratt finished third and stayed with the two leaders throughout the race but never found a way passed either of them. Tim Neat won a race long battle for fourth place ahead of David Boucher and Richard Bradley. Meanwhile, Ryan Munt who only made his racing debut at Snetterton finished in an impressive seventh place. Unfortunately, Shaun Brame has a spin at Vale and Ian Allee was unable to avoid him and drove over the top of the front of Brame’s Locost.
Bankhurst drove a faultless second race and drove clear of his rivals to take his first double victory in Locost. Bradley ran in second place in the early stages but an alternator failure caused him to initially fall down the pack but eventually put him into retirement. Also, after an incident between Neat and Garratt which put Neat to the back of the field after a spin and Garratt out of the race it meant the battle for second was eventually taken by Jenkins who fought his way through from as far down as sixth. Paul Bryant had an impressive performance to finish on the third step of the Silverstone Grand Prix podium. Steve Wells had a misfire in qualifying which meant he had to start from the back of the grid but he worked his way up to eleventh by the end of the race. Impressive drives also came from Jason Gibbons who finished fifth, Jack Coveney who finished seventh and Rob Fitter who finished eighth.
Roadsports
The Toyota MR2 of Anthony Day converted his pole position into an early race lead as he sprinted off ahead of class B runner JM Littman who made a superb start as he gained four places off of the line in his Porsche Boxster. In the pit stops Littman managed to jump Day to take the lead which he managed to hold until the final lap when Day took the lead back to win the race. Although, Littman took the class B honours.
After falling down the order in the first stint, with Emin Sadig at the wheel, Will Arif clawed his way up into third position overall in their BMW Z3M to finish ahead of Rob Horsfield.
The Honda DC5 of Carey Lewis and Frank Pettit finished in second place in class B ahead of John Wilson and Patrick Mortell in their Toyota MR2. Meanwhile, Eliot Dunmore won class C in his VW Corrado by a lap to Alex Knight in his Toyota MR2.
The SR> cars joined Roadsports once again at Silverstone and the Ram Cobra replica of John Dickson and Cheng Lim held of the Allard J2 of John Plant who chased them all the way.
750 Formula
Billy Albone started the first race from pole position and pulled out a clear lead from the start, a lead he would never lead as he dominated the race and took the Batton 3 to a victory of over six seconds from Robin Gearing in his Darvi P88. Gearing had to work his ahead of Bill Cowley for that position, he did so on lap two. Chris Gough start off well by running in third position but fell back to seventh by the end of the race. Meanwhile, multiple race winner Dave Hodkin worked his way through from the back after being disqualified in qualifying to finish in fourth place.
Local man to Silverstone, Gearing made the most of his pole position in race two to take an early lead but with Hodkin starting on the second row he made his way into the lead on lap two and he pulled out a 4.5 second advantage by the end of the race. Albone also found his way passed the early race leader to finish in second. Cowley came home in fourth a long way behind Gearing. A strong performance came from Jon Lee who finished in fifth position in his Darvi Mk4/5.
Huw Davies and Mark Glover were the winners in class B.
Sports Specials
Clive Hudson made a good start in the first race which gave him a good advantage from his pole position; he held the advantage to Paul Boyd and Rob Johnston throughout the race. However, the race was finished early as David Caldecourt had a big crash at the Link where his Eclipse hit the barriers hard and burst into flames. All the rescue did a good job, as usual, to get Caldecourt to safety. This allowed Wayne Rothwell to finish in fourth place overall and he took the class C honours. Colin Benham won class B in ninth overall.
Hudson led eleven laps on the second race, but it was a twelve lap race. And on the all-important twelfth lap it was Boyd who came across the line first. It was an impressive last few laps from Boyd as he firstly worked his way ahead of Johnston before passing Hudson on the final lap. Nigel Brown had a better race where he finished fourth ahead of Rothwell. Rothwell once again took the class C victory in his Tiger GTA, while Benham came home ninth and the victory in class B. Nevertheless, Benham had to work hard as Paul Cooper pushed him hard all the way to the flag.
Allcomers
As expected, Lee Bailey in his Radical SR3 dominated the Allcomers race at Silverstone which, as it was at Rockingham, very popular. RGB regular Matthew Higginson brought out a mighty Rage R200RT and it flew to second position. Peter Coombs came home in third. Ian Smythe dominated class B in his Ford Fiesta Cosworth and finished in a very impressive fifth overall. Matthew Wallis came home as the leading Toyota MR2 in ninth place just ahead of Timothy Heron and Alex Knight. David Drinkwater was the leading BMW Compact. A delighted Paul Thorpe won Class C and the Classic Stock Hatch class in his Ford Fiesta XR2i and finished thirteenth overall. Class pole sitter Ryan Lowry was involved in an incident at Village which ruled him out of the battle for the lead. Jon Peerless finished second in class ahead of Matt Rozier in Michael Williamson’s Fiesta.
Images and video from Silverstone to follow.