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2023 Bahrain GP

The opening race of the 2023 F1 season was dominated by the RedBull team and the defending world champion Max Verstappen. His teammate Sergio Perez and the resurgent Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin followed him home.

The race start. Image courtesy of RedBull Content Pool

From the start Verstappen led away Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari, into turn 4 the Aston Martins came together but avoided damage after Stroll out-braked himself and clipped Alonso. This incident let the Mercedes drivers through to settle into P5 and 6.

Once the field had settled down Alonso started to close on Russell in the Mercedes, by lap 13 he had closed it completely and had a great battle with the British driver and eventually came out on top.

Further behind the McLarens weren’t having the greatest start to the season, Piastri retiring on lap 15 and Norris having issues meaning he had to pit numerous times and leaving him at the back of the field.

By lap 20 the first stops were completed and the field settled down. During the stops Ocon served a time penalty for a start-line procedure breach, unfortunately, he then gained another penalty for not serving the penalty correctly.

Verstappen was now leading by over 10 seconds but carrying on with soft tyres whereas every other team had moved to the hard compound.

Perez was now catching Leclerc and by lap 26 he was ahead of the Ferrari and moving to P2. Sainz in the second Ferrari was 4th but had fallen further behind and didn’t seem in the fight all weekend.

Mercedes tried to pit early to try and keep Alonso at bay but once the stops were over Alonso quickly caught Hamilton and after a great 2-lap battle the Spaniard pulled ahead and started to pull away in search of Sainz in the Ferrari.

Ferraris reliability issues then struck again with Leclerc stopping on track causing a brief VSC.

Once that was cleared Alonso set after Sainz and overtook him shortly after to move up to P3 and into the podium positions.

After 57 laps Max Verstappen crossed the line to take win 36 of his career, Perez second ahead of Alonso completing the podium. Behind them came Sainz, Hamilton, an impressive Stroll racing with two fractured wrists and a broken toe finished sixth.

Seventh was Russell in the second Mercedes, then Bottas, Gasly and Albon an impressive tenth in the Williams.

Eleventh was Tsunoda ahead of Sergeant, Magnussen, De Vries and Hulkenberg. The last two finishers were Zhou and Norris.

The only retirees were Ocon, Leclerc and Piastri.

After such a dominant performance RedBull will be confident they can once again dominate the season but with Aston Martin making big gains and Mercedes planning a big upgrade already, we will have to wait and see how the season progresses.

Round 2 is in Saudi Arabia in 2 weeks, Can they start to catch up already, we will have the answers in 14 days’ time.

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Round 2 WorldSBK, Mandalika, Indonesia, Race 2

Mandalika always seems to throw plenty of drama, and talking points into the mix, and Sunday was no exception, with drama from start to finish.

WorldSBK Mandalika, Round 2, Race 2 Picture courtesy of WorldSBK

The earlier Superpole race was full of incidents, and it was Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team) who was able to avoid them all and secure the win, followed by fellow team mate Andrea Locatelli in 2nd, with Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in 3rd rounding out the podium. Championship leader Alvaro Bautista crashed out for his 1st DNF of the season.

Before the start of race 2, Loris Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) was declared unfit to start, due to suffering a fractured leg in contact with Lowes in the superpole race. Remi Gardener (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) however was able to start after his illness.

Lights out then for race 2, and it was Toprak with the hole shot into turn 1, followed by Yamaha team mate Locatelli in 2nd, Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 3rd, Bassani (Motocorsa Racing Ducati) 4th, Lowes 5th and Vierge (Honda HRC) 6th. Lowes made a move on Bassani briefly taking 4th, before the Italian was able to snap back to retake the position. Bautista was down in 8th.

On lap 19 of the 21, Bassani who had an incredible start and was looking very aggressive, was now in 2nd, and blasted past Locatelli to take the lead. Toprak however had been mugged, and now found himself down in 5th. Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) also had a great start and was moving through the field. Positions were as follows: 1. Bassani 2. Rinaldi 3. Rea 4. Lowes 5. Toprak 6. Vierge 7. Locatelli 8. Bautista 9. Redding (Rokit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 10. Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team).

Next lap and Rinaldi continued his forward advance, and now got through on Bassani to take over the lead for the first time. Lowes also went through on Rea into 3rd.

With 17 laps remaining Bautista was now up to 7th, after getting through on Locatelli who was in 8th. Toprak dived under Rea into turn 10 to take 4th. Meanwhile Bassani was instructed to drop 1 position for dangerous riding.

Next lap and it was Rinaldi with the new fastest lap time a 1:33.0, and he held a gap of 0.8s to Bassani. Bassani then eased off the throttle to allow Lowes through, however Toprak snapped up the chance also coming through. Bassani lost 2 places and was in 4th.

WorldSBK Mandalika, Round 2, Race 2 Picture courtesy of WorldSBK

With 15 laps of 21 remaining Rinaldi was looking at ease in front, and set another fastest lap this time a 1:32.668. Meanwhile further back however, it was utter carnage, with firstly Lowes running off track, then both Rokit BMW’s crashed, and Oettl (GoEleven Racing Ducati). The German collided into the back of Vd Mark, sending the Dutchman high siding with a nasty crash, both were out, then Redding lost his BMW into a corner and he was down. It was absolute mayhem! Meanwhile Bautista had got through on Rea, and was up to 4th.

Then with 14 laps left, and unsurprisingly, the race was red flagged. The new race distance after the restart would be 14 laps with Rinaldi in pole position, Toprak 2nd, Vierge 3rd, Bautista 4th, and Rea 5th. Both Lowes and Redding were able to restart.

Lights out for the 2nd time in the race, and Rinaldi got the hole shot into turn 1, followed by Toprak 2nd, Bautista 3rd, Vierge 4th, Rea 5th, Bassani 6th, Locatelli 7th, Redding 10th, and Lowes 14th.

With 12 laps left, it was the other Ducati setting the fastest lap, this time it was Bautista with a 1:32.5, and he was all over the back of Toprak looking for the pass. Rinaldi held a gap of 0.8s out in front.

Next lap and not to be outdone by his team mate, it was Rinaldi with the fastest lap a 1:32.3, and was pulling away from Toprak behind, the gap now at 1.3s. Bautista then made his move on Toprak with a super move into turn 15, slicing under the Yamaha R1 to take 2nd. Bassani then got through on Rea into turn 1 to take 5th, Rea now in 6th.

Just over half race distance, and positions were as follows: 1. Rinaldi 2. Bautista 3. Toprak 4. Vierge 5. Bassani 6. Rea 7. Locatelli 8. Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Ducati)9. Lecuona (Honda HRC) 10. Gardner.

With 8 laps to go, Rinaldi held a gap of 1.1s to Bautista. Bautista in turn held a gap of 1.2s to Toprak behind in 3rd.

Next lap and Rea cut under Bassani into the penultimate corner to take back 5th. Then drama for the 6 times world champion a few corners later, as he lost the front end into the high speed turn 7, sliding out, and his race was over. Another disappointing race for Kawasaki, as Lowes was down in 14th and not looking comfortable.

With only 5 laps remaining positions were as follows: 1. Rinaldi 2. Bautista 3. Toprak 4. Vierge 5. Locatelli 6. Bassani 7. Petrucci 8. Lecuona 9. Gardner 10. Redding.

Last 3 laps and Bautista had now caught his team mate, looking like he had a lot more tyre grip than Rinaldi. Toprak was still in 3rd, but out of contact for the race win.

Next lap and Bautista took Rinaldi into turn 10, and was looking good for the win.

Last lap and Rinaldi had lost his race rhythm, he overshot turn 10 going wide and lost places. However his team mate would make no mistake, and crossed the line to make it 5 wins out of 6 races this season. Toprak 2nd, Vierge 3rd, Rinaldi 4th, Locatelli 5th, Petrucci 6th, Gardner 7th, Bassani 8th, Lecuona 9th, Redding 10th.

WorldSBK Mandalika, Round 2, Race 2 Picture courtesy of WorldSBK

Result top 5:

  1. Bautista (Aruba.it Racing Ducati)
  2. Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team)
  3. Vierge (Honda HRC)
  4. Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing Ducati)
  5. Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team)

Championship top 3:

  1. Bautista – 112 pts
  2. Razgatlioglu – 75
  3. Locatelli – 70
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Formula 3 2023 Round 1 Bahrain Round-Up

Image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports The Formula 3 Season Kicked off in Bahrain this week for the first of 10 rounds.

Qualifying
Qualifying started  the first competitive session for the Formula  3 season of 2023. In a tough battle against each other, a shock result saw Mini take his first pole in his first ever Formula 3 qualifying session in the Hitech Pule-Eight car. Bortoleto qualified P2 in the Trident with Saucey qualifying P3.
Sprint
The first race of the Formula 3 season kicked off with Colapinto on the front row and the pole sitter Mini stall on the grid and go from P12 to P26. Colapinto managed to maintain P1 but then by lap 2, Villagmonez crashed into the wall which caused a safety car to be deployed. Collapinto managed to maintain the lead after the restart. Lap 7 saw the HiTech car of Luke Browning stop and cause a Virtual Safety Car to be released. O’Sullivan then went over the kerbs on the outside of 8. Lap 14 saw Pepe Marti close in on the leader Colapinto and he makes the lead on lap 14, turn 4. Marti took his first race win in Formula 3 with Colapinto finishing P2 and Collet finishing the podium positions.
Feature
The Feature Race saw Mini start on pole after he qualified there on Friday. Saucey and Mini were fighting on lap 3 and 4 before Mini finally gets the move done by lap 4. The car of Hugh Barter picked up a puncture on lap 5 caused after a slight piece of contact with an MP Motorsport and he had to go to the pits. Tommy Smith had a spin on lap 7 which saw the safety car deployed. By the time the safety car was brought back to the pits, O’Sullivan and Aron got into a bit of a scrap further on and Montoya was able to pick up the pieces in order to get up to p10. Within laps 15 and 16 saw Goether make his way up to P3 and Browning up to P6. Montoya began to close in on Aron by lap 18 and eventually get the Prema driver by lap 19. Smith collided with another driver on lap 21 which brought out a safety car and brought the race to an end.

While Mini did cross the line first, he got a 5 second time penalty and dropped to P8. That  meant that Bortoleto took his first Formula 3 race victory in his first ever Formula 3 Feature Race. Goethe took P2 and Beganovic concluded the podium places.

Formula 3 returns to our screens in 4 weeks time for the first ever weekend behind held in Australia.

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Classic Sports Car Club Winter Warmup – Race 6 (Part 2)

Whilst Kevin Bird and David Harrison were putting on a great advertisement for German engineering in their Porsches, club newcomer and 20-year army veteran William Ashmore was determined to put his Ferrari F430 Challenge in with the Porsches. Also enjoying some close fighting with Dylan Popovic in his Ginetta G50 and David Griffin in his BMW M3 E90, both cars had already been seen in the day, and are regularly seen fighting each other at various CSCC events in the past. Further back was Harry Petch in the family Ginetta G50, who had an unfortunate moment upon exiting the holding area expecting too much from his cold tyres and ended up facing the wrong way. Petch was engaged in combat with the Andrew & Michael Jordan-prepared Porsche 996 GT3 Cup car of Simon Evans, along with Warren Tattersall in his 350HP Seat Leon Cupra TCR Turbo.

Pitstops and driver changes concluded, Clarke had moved aside Mathew Evans to take over the Lamborghini, but so had Mustill given the Volvo to Dolby, who had set the lap charts alight with purple as not only did he obliterate the fastest lap of the race, he beat his own qualifying time that was already nearly four seconds faster then Clarke in the Lamborghini. With the Volvo being in the new “High Capacity” class, for cars that are expected to be considerably faster than the A1 class that the Lamborghini currently led, this meant that the Volvo had an additional 15 seconds in the pitlane to serve, but by the time that Evans had left the pitlane because Dolby was lapping 10 seconds faster than anyone else on track, the Lamborghini had no answer to Dolby, so much so that the Volvo passed Evans on the outside of Becketts.

Bird and Harrison continued their Porsche battle for the last podium spot, now being joined by the Mark Smith & Arran Moulton-Smith shared BMW M3 Evo E36, a car that is 30 years old and still able to make the modern machinery work, and also adding to the advertisement of German automotive might. Another pitlane visit for Ashmore saw a flurry of activity around the Italian stallion, as the F430 had gone into limp mode, yet the cause wasn’t clear. Ashmore was sent back out but was soon back in the pits with the problem requiring more attention, causing the team to retire the army-built car.

At the flag, Dolby would have victory by over 30 seconds over Evans in the Lamborghini, who was given an additional 30-second penalty for pitting outside of the pit window. The efforts of Clarke and Evans were not undone by the penalty, as they still had eight seconds in hand over Smith, who had not only caught the Porsche battle of Harrison and Bird but left them behind by over five seconds. In the end, it was Harrison that won the duel with Bird but only by a quarter of a second.

The Slicks series was a great way to end a wonderful, if bitterly cold, days racing at the home of British motorsport, which marks the 20th year of racing for the club. Happy birthyear CSCC, we look forward to many more years of exciting club racing.

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Classic Sports Car Club Winter Warmup – Race 6 (Part 1)

The final race of the day, the Liqui Moly Slicks Series, is the youngest category in the CSCC portfolio. A home for all saloon, hatchback, sports and GT cars of any age, the series was first introduced in 2020 (ironically the maiden voyage of the Slicks Series was at a wet Thruxton, so they had to run racing wets instead of slicks), and the series has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in that time. Numerous names through the grid had already been seen in the day, but the lion’s share of attention was drawn to the front row. Starting in 2nd was the first time a Lamborghini had been seen in a CSCC grid, Mathew Evans sharing the Super Trofeo spec Huracan ST LP620-2 with hugely experienced Kevin Clarke. Whilst their efforts in qualifying were amazing, they were still beaten to the pole by nearly four seconds by, of all things, a Volvo. There isn’t much from Sweden on this car, as it houses a seven-litre powerhouse with owner Nigel Mustill sharing the duties with the amazing talent of stunt driver Craig Dolby.

Of the 25 qualifiers, 22 took the start, and with the tyres requiring a lot of work to get into the ideal operating temperature, and the weather, whilst dry, being very cold (and the temperature was dropping by this point), the grid had two rolling laps to conduct, and to ensure that the proper curfew was adhered to, the racing clock started at the end of the first rolling lap. At the end of the first rolling lap saw the first retirement. Chris Everill brought the 6.2 litre Chevrolet powered Ginetta G55 into retirement with electrical issues causing the dashboard to turn into a light show of warnings and flashing lights, and soon afterwards, Dominic Malone was found stranded at the trackside for the second time, as the issues he had from the New Millennium race had reared their head once more, leaving the BMW E90 WTCC trackside once more.

Clarke was quick to deploy his right foot in the Lamborghini to take the lead from Mustill, the almost angelic notes of the Italian Burro being drowned out by the earth-shattering roar of the Volvo behind. Kevin Bird, bearing the number 1 on his white Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, having formerly raced a BMW M3 GT4 E92 in the CSCC, was locked in an intense duel with fellow Porsche 911 GT3 Cup runner David Harrison for 3rd place early on. The pitlane was soon visited by Open Series winner David Harvey in the Lotus 340R, sounding extremely unhealthy with either a major misfire or an exhaust issue. Soon after the Lunar Lotus was in, Jasver Sapra was in the pits with his troubled BMW. Bryan Bransom had experienced difficulties with the new paddle shift system in the car in the New Millennium race earlier in the day, and now owner Sapra had to retire the car as 5th gear no longer wanted to work. Also found out in the Northamptonshire countryside was the Severs’ new toy, the Ginetta G50.

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WorldSBK Round 2 Mandalika Race 1

Scorching hot temperatures on track for the Superpole of 60 degrees Celsius. And it was the factory Yamahas of team mates, Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team), and Andrea Locatelli who claimed a 1, 2. Toprak claimed top spot with an unbeaten time of 1:32.037, and rounding out the front row was Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing Ducati) in 3rd.

WorldSBK Round 2 Mandalika Race 1 Picture courtesy of WorldSBK

It was still blazing hot for the start of race 1, and the infamous Lombok thunderstorms, were yet to make an appearance to the relief of the grid. Most of the riders went for a harder rear tyre, the SC0, while the Ducatis gambled on the softer SCX, would the gamble pay off? Unfortunately both Gardner (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team), and Granado (Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team) were declared unfit to start due to illness.

Lights out then for race 1, and it was Toprak with the hole shot into turn 1. Drama on the first corner for Rinaldi (Aruba.it Racing Ducati), who over cooked it and ran into the rear of Bassani (Motocorsa Racing Ducati), sending Rinaldi down and out of the race.

Next lap and positions were as follows: 1. Toprak 2. Bautista 3. Bassani 4. Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Ducati) 5. Locatelli 6. Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 7. Vierge (Honda HRC) 8. Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 9. Redding (Rokit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 10. Gerloff (Bonovo Action BMW).

With 19 of 21 laps remaining it was Locatelli with the fastest lap of 1:33.7.

With 17 laps to go, and after a poor start Rea was steadily making progress in 6th, and then cut under Petrucci to take 5th. Meanwhile further ahead, Bautista had enough of sitting behind Toprak and cut up the inside of the former champion into turn 15, to take the lead for the first time. It was a Ducati 1, 2 followed by the Yamaha team mates of Toprak and Locatelli, and then the Kawasaki team mates of Rea and Lowes.

With 15 laps remaining Bautista was slowly extending his lead with the gap at 0.6s. Meanwhile further back Vd Mark (Rokit BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) was up to 9th, ahead of team mate Redding 10th, and Baz (Bonovo Action BMW) was 11th.

Next lap and it was Bautista with the new fastest lap, a 1:33.1. Would Toprak, who was unbeaten here last year, be able to respond?

With 13 of 21 laps remaining, Bautista again put in another fastest lap of a 1:32.975. Meanwhile further back, Baz got though on Redding to move into 10th. The Kawasaki’s were not having a good start to the weekend, and both were now losing contact with the 4 riders ahead.

Next lap and it was the 6 times world champion who was holding his team mate up, Lowes eventually had enough and got past Rea to move into 5th. Meanwhile at the front Bautista held a gap of 0.8s.

With 11 laps to go, Locatelli who was having a great start to his season, got through on fellow Italian Bassani into turn 10, to move up into 3rd. Meanwhile Rea was still dropping like a stone, and had former MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci all over the back of him now.

Just over half race distance, and Bautista was managing the softer rear tyre to perfection and had now pulled the gap out to 1.1s. Disaster again for poor Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Puccetti Racing), who has to retire once again due to a mechanical issue. Meanwhile Lowes was having a second wind, and cut up the inside of Bassani into turn twelve to take 4th briefly, before the fiery Italian snapped back to retake the position. A bad day for Scott Redding who comes into pit lane visible seething, smashing his screen off, before storming back into the BMW garage, having to retire due to a mechanical issue.

WorldSBK Round 2 Mandalika Race 1 Picture courtesy of WorldSBK

With 8 laps to go, Bautista was showing no signs of grip loss, and put in another fastest lap of a 1:32.803. Meanwhile Petrucci used all of his racing experience and got through on Rea to move into 6th. A struggling Rea had to continue to defend as he had Xavi Vierge all over him now.

With 6 laps to go Vierge finally made his move on Rea getting by to move into 7th. The six times world champion was now in 8th, and it wasn’t going well. Petrucci continued to make up places, and then went through on Lowes to move back into 5th. Excellent ride for the former MotoGP rider considering he’d never been to this track before. The defending continued for Rea, and next up it was Vd Mark eyeing up a sorry looking Kawasaki. Meanwhile at the front, Toprak held a gap of 1 second to his team mate behind in 3rd.

With 4 laps left, Aegerter (GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was finding great late race pace, and was now up to 10th, and gaining on the riders ahead of him. The Dutchman Vd Mark eventually got past Rea to move into 8th, and now the Swiss rider Aegerter was all over the back of Rea. A terrible day for both Kawasaki’s as Vierge also went through on Lowes to move into 6th.

With only 3 laps to go positions were as follows: 1. Bautista 2. Toprak 3. Locatelli 4. Bassani 5. Petrucci 6. Vierge 7. Lowes 8. Vd Mark 9. Rea 10. Aegerter.

Next lap and Vd Mark was having a great ride, and moved first past Lowes and then past Vierge and up into 6th.

Last lap and Domi Aegerter in a fantastic move, took both Kawasaki’s into turn two to move into 8th. Safe to say a disaster for factory Kawasaki with Rea in 9th and Lowes in 10th. However the same could not be said for Alvaro Bautista, who came across the line to take the win, unbeaten so far this season with 4 out of 4 wins. Toprak 2nd, Locatelli 3rd, Bassani 4th, Petrucci 5th, Vd Mark 6th, Vierge 7th, Aegerter 8th, Rea 9th, Lowes 10th.

Result top 5:

  1. Bautista (Aruba.it Racing Ducati)
  2. Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team)
  3. Locatelli (Pata Yamaha Prometeon WorldSBK Team)
  4. Bassani (Motocorsa Racing Ducati)
  5. Petrucci (Barni Spark Racing Ducati)

Championship top 3:

  1. Bautista – 87 pts
  2. Locatelli – 50
  3. Razgatlioglu – 43

 

 

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Verstappen takes Bahrain GP pole

Max Verstappen will start the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on pole.

The Dutchman beat team-mate Sergio Perez by just over a tenth of a second, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz taking out the second row for Ferrari.

Fernando Alonso’s exquisite pace in practice only translated to fifth after Ferrari and Red Bull opened their toolboxes, while Mercedes endured a disappointing evening; George Russell will start sixth ahead of Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Lance Stroll will start eighth – his injured wrist appeared to show during qualifying – before Esteban Ocon and the returning Nico Hulkenberg rounded off the top 10.

It took less than five minutes of the opening session for the red flag to be deployed when some debris flew off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and ended up on the racetrack.

After things got back underway, the lead swapped hands a number of times, with just over three tenths of a second separating the top five.

Further down though, it was not looking so good for McLaren. Oscar Piastri were eliminated in the first session, joining Pierre Gasly, Nyck de Vries, Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant.

Gasly’s deleted lap time at the end of Q1 sent him down to last, while Sargeant set the same time as Lando Norris, but set it later. That meant the American agonisingly missed out on a Q2 appearance to the lead McLaren.

Sargeant’s team-mate Alex Albon did exceptionally well to make it into Q2, but could not put a lap time on the board after suffering with understeer.

Norris almost made it into the top 10, but was pipped by Lance Stroll, as Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda also missed out on the top 10 shootout.

Verstappen’s pole in Bahrain was his 21st in Formula 1.

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Classic Sports Car Club Winter Warmup – Race 5 (Part 2)

The only time Alex Taylor lost the lead was during the pitstop phase, as Matt Spark was pitted later than the Tuscan, but normal service was quick to resume in the top three, with Patrick Scharfegger having handed the 3rd place Boxster over to Steve Cunniffe. Throughout the entire race, there were battles everywhere, and post-pitstop this theme was to continue. Stuart Jefcoate in his Porsche 993 was running very similar pace to Raymond Barrow in his Chevrolet Camaro, Luke Plummer in his Ginetta G20 enjoyed the company of the Charlie Fulk and Ben Richardson shared Porsche Boxster, and also making comparatively quiet progress through the field was Richard Harman in his Porsche 944 Turbo, who came 3rd in last years Silverstone meeting on the National circuit, and was looking to repeat the feat as he closed in on Cunniffe.

Tom Barley in his BMW 328i E36 had been part of the group that consisted of the Neal and Hayes cars before their pre-pitstop parlay, and during that time, the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus of Geoff Beale was also in the quartet. With the impact between Neal and Hayes separating this group, Barley and Beale continued their fighting. The Phil Seaman-tuned Talbot has been in the hands of Beale since 2012, and whilst Barley has raced several different BMWs with the CSCC since 2016, this battle wasn’t showing any signs of dispersing, and adding to the mixture was the shared Porsche 911 993 RSR of former army Major David Whelan and Aidan Farrell

The BMW 323i E21 of long-time CSCC member Matthew Irons, shared with grandson Jake Severs, was also always found in a group of cars at various stages of the race, but the BMW veteran decided last year that 2023 was to be his final season of racing, either selling the BMW at the end of the year or returning it to a road car. One of the few, if not only, Grandfather Grandson combinations look set to see the year out in fine style if this race is anything to go by.

As the flag was set to fall, Taylor remained untroubled at the top, with Spark a distant, but still well-deserved 2nd, Harman a lonely 3rd, and as usual, the fighting waged on behind them. Barrow, Plummer, the Fulk & Richardson car and Jefcoate all on near identical pace, and joining that group was David Sharp in his Lotus Elise S1, affectionally nicknamed “ee-or” (the car, not the driver). Cunniffe, Beale and Farrell were almost on top of one another in the closing stages, with Barley looking on ready to pick up any pieces. A suspected fuel leak saw the Warren McKinlay and Chris Pruden shared Boxster retire with one lap to go.

On Taylor’s last two visits to Silverstone with the Tuscan, he had won the race, and he would not be denied this time either, nearly 2 minutes ahead of Spark, who had discovered early in the race that they were down a cylinder, otherwise they were confident they could have made Taylor work harder for the win. With the Modern Classics win going to the Tuscan, it was 3rd place Harmans Porsche 944 taking the Future Classics win. Only eight cars were to finish on the lead lap, such was the incredible performance of the winning Taylor Tuscan.

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Classic Sports Car Club Winter Warmup – Race 5 (Part 1)

Race 5 had a little more of a classic feel about it, with the Advantage Motorsport Future Classics catering to cars from the ’70s and ’80s, and the Modern Classics giving a home to cars from the ’90s. These two groups tend to be put together when grids are combined, and this led to another huge grid, this time with 41 cars taking to qualifying, 39 of which took to the grid. The Titanic Taylor Tuscan, in the hands of Alex Taylor, was the pole sitter in the Modern Classics division, alongside former Caterham racer Matt Sparks new car, the Porsche GT3. Taylor and Spark had come together during qualifying, but this didn’t stop the Tuscan from being two seconds faster than the Porsche. The top Future Classics car was long-time Porsche racer Tony Blake in his Tuscan Challenge five-litre monster, starting in 3rd.

Once again, the field contained an eclectic mixture of cars and engines, from a six-litre Jaguar XJS of the Coppock family to a 1.8-litre Ginetta G20 piloted by Roger Hamilton, from a newer Jaguar S-Type to a somewhat outgunned MG B Roadster, the variety of the grid perfectly demonstrates what the CSCC is all about, motorsport for all ages and almost any kind of car. With the lights out, the roars and screams sang their symphonies to signify the start of the race, but it wasn’t long before there was trouble, and it again involved Taylor’s tail, this time it was Blake that had damage (somewhat ironic as Blake offered to help with the repairs to Taylors Tuscan following qualifying). Taylor was able to continue, but the reshaped Tuscan of Blake was to retire at the end of the lap, as was the Norfolk-based fast Ford collector Martin Reynolds with his Mustang Mach 1, being brought straight through to pits and on to the trailer with electrical problems.

As Taylor was confident that his mighty Tuscan, complete with body restyling, was behaving, he would continue unchallenged up front, with Spark unable to answer but keeping his new Porsche strong in 2nd place, with a superb start from fellow former Caterham racer Patrick Scharfegger, putting his Porsche Boxster into 3rd. The podium trio didn’t have too much to worry about in the early stages of the race, but behind them, it was a busy battlefield, consisting of various-sized groups from two to six-car battles for positions all through the field.

One of the more unusual entries was the Powerbell-run Jaguar S-Type, driven by Paul Last. This is the equivalent of a pool car you would be given when you take your car to be serviced, this S-Type has been seen in the hands of several Powerbell customers. We normally see Powerbell boss Colin Philpots Jaguar XJS doing battle in this group, but sadly he was not out to play. Whilst Last didn’t live up to his name, the big cat sadly retired after three laps. The next car to park was the Porsche 911 964 of James Neal and Neil Harvey, James bringing the car into the pits at the end of lap six with significant rear left damage requiring more than “gentle persuasion” to get back into shape. Richard Hayes in his Toyota Celica GT4 turbo had some damage to the front, and with Neal marching over to Hayes to have a chat during the pit stop, it was easy to deduce the cause of the collision. Hayes was able to continue in the race, the Porsche however did not fare so well.

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Classic Sports Car Club Winter Warmup – Race 3 (Part 1)

The third race of the day combined three series together to form the biggest grid of the day. Co-Ord Sports continue its support of one of the most popular series in the entire CSCC, the Tin-Tops. Lohen are a new sponsor on board to support the Turbo Tin Tops this year, with the third category being the Puma Cup. A near-capacity 52 entries took to qualifying, of which 46 would take the start, and the pole spot was taken by six seconds over the second fastest time. You might think that this was a Turbo Tin-Top on pole, but six of the top seven qualifiers were naturally aspirated Tin-Tops. Again, a mixture of fresh faces joined the racing aces for the monster grid ready to do battle.

Danny Cassar was the man responsible for the blistering pace at the top, with fellow Honda pilot Manoj Patel alongside him. The fastest Turbo Tin-Top was in third place Phiroze Bilimoria in his VW Scirocco, and the best Puma was Luke Johnson starting in 36th place. There were some drivers who had just completed the previous race in the New Millennium class, pole sitter Cassar being one of them, having just jumped out of the 2.3-litre Integra into the Tin-Top spec two-litre car. Patel retired from the aforementioned race but did manage to take the start of this race.

As Cassar & Patel led the field to the lights (the back of the field can’t actually see the lights turn green, such is the length of the grid), it was clear that not all was well with Patels Civic as he was soon plummeting through the field, and retired the car, unable to downshift. Cassar extended his lead from anywhere between four to nine seconds per lap over the rest of the field, and no matter where you looked on the circuit, there were groups of cars all arguing for position.

Adam Brown, who had shared the other of the Nigel Ainge owned Civics in the previous race with Cassar, now in his own Fiesta ST, was battling hard for 2nd place with Russell Hird in his Honda Integra, and with the Turbo Tin-Tops leader Bilimoria, the three of them displaying excellent punch and counter-punch moves repeatedly in each lap. In fact, it would be possible to write a university dictation on the amount of battles going on. Very few cars didn’t have a playmate, either through a mistake or retirement, though there were a couple of cars that were simply out-gunned in this field, the works-liveried MG Metro of Ray Kershberg and Daniel Goldberg in particular. Though they were lapped quite early in the race, this didn’t stop them pushing the little Metro to it’s limit, and they are just as welcome in the CSCC as the top guns.

If you can imagine how busy the track was, it was organised chaos in the pitlane when the pitstop window was opened, yet the well-disciplined drivers of the club were able to navigate everything and everyone without incident. A few cars had fallen by the wayside, the Guntons Ford Focus ST225 didn’t make it to the pitstop, Robert Chittocks Polizia liveried Alfa Romeo 147 returned to the paddock, and the Warburton VW Golf GTI didn’t last very long after it’s stop before grinding to a halt.

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