BTCC Decider Brands Hatch Bound

After a weekend of shadowing each other's every move, Jason Plato has kept his championship battle with Colin Turkington alive until the series finale at Brands Hatch in a fortnight.
 

Previous title contender Gordon Shedden had a tough time at Rockingham dropping him down to 3rd in the standings and the nature of the Silverstone National Circuit made it hard for him to make up ground in his un suited Honda.

The MG's were expected to follow a dominant tradition the have made a certainty since their return to the championship in 2012. Plato and his team mate, Sam Tordoff, topped free practice 1 and 2 respectively to confirm they would be going for wins come Sunday.

 

 

Plato made hay at Silverstone

Championship leader Colin Turkington hooked up a lap good enough for second on the grid alongside Plato for race 1. A Strong performance for Mat Jackson put him at the sharp end with the CC's of Smith and Menu staring to start 5th and 6th respectively. The 3 Honda's were left to play catch up with Jordan, Shedden and Neal all outside the top 15.
 

Race 1 saw Turkington snatch the lead from Jason Plato off the start. Everyone else was 3rd. It wasn't long however before Plato took a lunge down the inside at Brookland's

Luke Hines returned to BTCC action

and took control of the race. Turkington was close to making a move but had to much to loose. Mat Jackson's qualifying form continued into the race as he kept the BMW man honest for the whole race. It stayed like this across the line.

Menu beat Aaron Smith to the line in the BMR battle, Sam Tordoff held on for 4th. Marc Hynes sealed an 8th place finish with Rob Austin behind. Andrew Jordan made the charge into the top 10 with Shedden the best placed works Honda in 14th.
 

Race 2 races towards the end of lap 1

Race 2 was much the same but for 1 thing. The same start of Turkington leading early before Plato took the lead a couple of laps in happened but the race was cut short. Rob Collard was collected by a sideways Jack Clarke on the exit of Becketts and was pitched into a vicious series of roll overs. The car was rolled into a ball and the race red flagged. Collard was cut out of his eBay motors BMW and air lifted to hospital for precautionary X-rays.
 

The top 7 were reversed for the final race of the day which gave Fabrizo Giovanardi another opportunity to start from pole position. The start was delayed after Sam Tordoff who lined up 2nd had a transmission failure while pulling away for the green flag lap. Once the leak was cleaned up the race got underway and Colin Turkington made his way from 6th to 4th thanks to yet another trade mark start. Plato slowly worked his way to be on the bumper of Turkington. Jackson led the race and was breaking away with former team mate Aaron Smith behind who started 3rd on the grid. Giovanardi was holing back a charging Turkington for 3rd place with a defending master class for up until half race distance. This was allowing Jackson and Smith to get away but also Turkington's championship rival, Plato to close in. The train of champions lapped Silverstone nose to tale lap after lap until, in true race 3 fashion, something had to give.

Jackson took his 2nd win of the season

Giovanardi got a poor run out of copse which allowed Turkington to line up an overtake. Fabrizio held the overlap to a minimum which slowed the Ulsterman down which in turn gave Plato a offer he couldn't refuse at Beckets. Plato went too deep on the breaks and nudged the BMW ever so slightly which in turn nudged Giovanardi who was to spin out of the race. The run down the wellington straight saw Turkington and Plato side by side with Turkington holding on with some stunning out breaking into Brooklands to fend off his championship rival for 3rd.
 

This means that yet again Brands Hatch will host the title deciding round. 50 points is the gap between Turkington and Plato, 3rd place man Shedden is as further 100 back, so you'd be a brave to bet against Turkington but we all know what Plato is capable of at Brands Hatch GP.

Full album can be found here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/125463799@N02/
All photos by James Clarke

The Young Drivers - Monza Formula 1

There were some new faces in the first practice at Monza for the Formula 1 today. Roberto Mehdi was experiencing his first time in a Formula 1 car.

For the second weekend running Kobayashi has had to give up his Caterham seat to another drive, although it was only for FP1 today. Markus Erikson was once again the benchmark and this time was beaten again by his F1 rookie team mate, Roberto Mehdi, by 0.2 of a second.

Charles Pic got his first go in a Formula 1 car since the Silverstone test where he drove the 18 inch wheeled Lotus. With the regular sized wheels he was beaten by Pastor Maldonado in the sister car by 0.6 of a second. Romian Grosjean had to sit out the session.

DTM driver Daniel Juncadella replaced Sergio Perez for the first half an hour of FP1 at Force India. The Spaniard ended his stint in the car 1 second behind the final lap times of his highly rated team mate, Nico Hulkenberg.

At the front of the grid Lewis Hamilton bounced back from Spa to top the session from fellow Brit Jenson Button in a strong looking McLaren. Nico Rosberg was 0.8 of a second behind his team mate.

Sebastian Vettel also managed 6th in his Red Bull RB10. Interestingly using the chassis he complained about earlier in the season. The Chassis he raced at Spa (Chassis number 1) is being looked at to try and identity the car's lack of pace in Belgium.

British GT - Brands Hatch 2014

The penultimate round of the 2014 British GT Championship saw the championship head to Brands Hatch to do battle on the Grand Prix circuit.

The race got off to an exciting start as the Beechdean Aston Martin led the Demon Tweeks Trackspeed Porsche and the rest of the field though Paddock Hill Bend. There was slight contact between the front 2 cars which was gathered up nicely as they raced up to Druids. I am not sure if it was due to the contact but a few laps later the Aston Martin took a bit longer to come round after an unscheduled pit stop which handed the lead of the race to the Number 4 Aston Martin Vantage of the Oman Racing team from the number 63 Porsche. The other Motorbase Aston Martin was following in 3rd spot.

The race got off to a thrilling start

Up to the pit window this stayed much the same with the gap coming down slightly every few laps. Sir Chirs Hoy fell back after making a strong start in the #80 Nissan GT-R.

Just before the pit window the safety car was scrambled after an off at druids for one of the Triple8 BMWs. This closed the field up and after the pit stops the 63 Porsche had found a way to jump the #4 Aston by about a car length. The 31 Trackspeed Porsche had put in Porsche works driver Nick Tandy at the stop which saw the car pick up pace.

Sparks Fly: The Beechdean drivers didn't give up

After the restart it was evident from the track-side that everyone was pushing to the absolute limit even if they were well out of the race for points. The United Autosports Audi R8 finished 2 laps down in 17th position but was the fastest car on the track at the end of the race. It was a promising end to a tough weekend.

The M-Sport Bentley was making steady progress with works driver Steven Kane behind the wheel but the car ground to a halt with about 40 minutes to go on the short tun between Sheene Curve and Sterlings on the grand prix loop.

While attrition started to kick in the Demon Tweeks Porsche of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen carried on untroubled and was pulling out a strong lead with about 20 minutes to go. Tandy was busy closing gaps in the sister car. He caught and passed the #4 Oman Racing Aston Martin at Paddock Hill Bend and a few minutes later he was right behind the leader.

The 63 car limps home after loosing the lead

Trackspeed looked set for a fantastic 1-2 finish up until when 5 minutes to go there was confusion as the leading 63 car didn't come round. sure enough it appeared back onto the Indy part of the Brands Hatch track witch a flat left tire. The car made its way back into the pit lane but not without dropping outside the top positions. This handed the lead to David Ashburn and Nick Tandy, 2nd place back to Ahmad Al Harthy and Micheal Caine with 3rd being gifted to the 2nd Motorbase run car of former BTCC racer Jeff Smith and Rory Butcher. The last 5 minutes saw the chaos calm before the Checkered flag fell with the top 3 in the above order.

Trackspeed's winning Porsche

GT4 saw a lights to flag victory for the Beechdean AMR team who had a much better day than their sister team.

Final Results - Top 15

1. #31 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 R                                2:00:54.103
2. #4 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3         +8.511

3. #5 Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3         +8.672
4. #79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 GT3                                   +37.471
5. #29 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT3                               +40.784
6. #6 PGF - Kinfaun AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3        +40.941
7. #21 Strata 21 Aston Martin Vantage GT3                        +54.705
8. #18 FF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT3                               +54.932
9. #63 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 R                               +1:03.8
10. #88 Triple 8 BMW Z4 GT3                                           +1:04.7
11. #80 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN Nissan GT-4 GT3 +1 Lap
12. #3 Rosso Verde / Hector Lester Ferrari 458 Italia GT3   +1 Lap
13. #22 Preci -Spark McLaren MP4-12C GT3                    +2 Laps
14. #28 HorsePower Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3      +2 Laps
15. #38 MP Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage GT3            +2 Laps

Pictures by James Clarke. Find the full album here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/125463799@N02/sets/72157646692255660/