Caterhams: Race Report - Brands Hatch

R300
Fleury’s fastest, but Fowell’s the master…
 Paul Fleury upset the apple cart on Saturday morning when he put his car on pole ahead of the usual suspects, by just 0.002s.  In fact, just a single second covered the top 21 cars on the grid.

Andrew McMillan made the best start from the front row to take the lead for the early laps, but was overhauled by Fleury and reigning champion Jon Walker.  The Fleury-Walker battle was a fraught, but short affair, the pair removing themselves from the race on the run up to Druids with Walker’s car launching over the top of Fleury as he tried to find his way through an ever-decreasing gap on the inside.  Championship leader Trevor Fowell was an innocent victim of the incident as Walker’s car rolled back onto the track.  After an appeal, Stewards overturned the initial declaration that Fleury was to blame, passing some to Walker (Fleury’s earlier fine was reduced to £100).  With the leaders out of the picture, McMillan Motorsport’s Jamie Ellwood assumed the lead with Ambitions Racing’s Ollie Taylor in close contact and Mark Shaw shadowing them closely.  But behind, Paul Wilson was making his way through the field.  When Ellwood and Taylor tangled, Taylor initially came off worst but Ellwood’s car had damaged rear suspension and he would eventually retire, while team-mate McMillan had his own problems pushing him down the order.  Wilson’s silent charge through the field was rewarded with the lead, while Shaw and a recovering Taylor argued over the remaining podium slots.  Bizarrely, although the battle was between three cars, there was a fourth in the pack on the track – Andrew Harrison-Sleap.  Having recovered from an earlier error, the Trackcars driver found himself amongst the three and pushed hard before it eventually dawned on him where they were in the race.  Fully entitled to un-lap himself and attempt to catch other back markers, Harrison-Sleap stayed with the leaders before dropping behind into ‘fourth’ to watch the lead battle without having a major bearing on it.  Fittingly, he was the fourth fastest car on the track.  Wilson went on to take a well deserved win for himself and SPY Motorsport, with Taylor an impressive second and Shaw at last being rewarded with a podium for his speed this season.  In his brief time on the track, Paul Fleury set the lap record.
 

Sunday’s race looked set for action with Fowell starting at the back of the grid in his newly repaired Fauldsport car, with Fleury just ahead of him and Harrison-Sleap ahead of the pair.  Sadly, neither Ellwood or Walker’s cars was not able to make it out for the second race.  At the head of the grid, Taylor launched past Wilson off the line and the pair would set the early running, with DPR Motorsport’s Jon Packer finding himself battling with McMillan in the thick of things.  A bit of shoving between all the leaders on the exit of Druids resulted in a front left puncture Wilson, but the pressure remained for Taylor with McMillan now pushing hard and Packer still in the frame.  Meanwhile, Fowell was steadily picking off a car a lap, with Fleury (again the fastest man on the track), moving through the field as well, though not quite so effectively.  Things would change at the front when a desperate lunge by McMillan at Graham Hill Bend did nothing other than send him spinning onto the wet grass and out of the lead battle.  Paul Brannan and Mark Shaw now took up the third place fight, while Packer continued to hound Taylor, briefly grabbing the lead, but by now Trevor Fowell had found the lead group and started to make his presence felt.  At the front, Taylor was feeling the relentless pressure and eventually span out at Druids, handing the lead to Packer who had to defer to the skill of Fowell shortly after.  Further back, the flying Paul Fleury pushed a little too hard and span off at Clearways, calling it a day at that point.  With the race settled, Fowell drove to a peerless victory, with Packer close behind in an excellent second for the relative novice and Brannan picking up a welcome third having demolished his R300 in Friday testing.  Series sponsor BookaTrack.com came to the rescue, loaning him one of their hire R300 trackday/race cars for the event.
 

Fowell continues to extend his championship lead over McMillan, while Ellwood, Taylor and Brannan are locked in a tight battle for third.  Walker’s weekend takes him out of the title running.

Supersport
MacLachlan’s proves unstoppable.  Again.

Once again, DPR Motorsport’s James MacLachlan failed to secure pole, suggesting there was a chink in his armour.
 

Paul Begley made the most of his pole position at the start of the race, taking the lead and looking to control the race.  This started a four car lead battle which raged for the duration of the race, MacLachlan displacing Trackcar’s Begley a quarter of the way into the race.  Iain Forsythe had got the better of Keith Ashworth allowing him to tackle Begley for second.  The four extended a massive lead on the Nathan Lindop and Robert Smith battle for fifth, and continued to parry for the remainder of the race but the order remained the same.  MacLachlan won as usual, Forsythe getting the Begley for second and third and Keith Ashworth really deserving an extra place on the podium for a sterling drive to fourth.

Sunday’s race promised much of the same and duly delivered, although the lead battle was closer this time.  MacLachlan got away cleanly from pole to take the lead, Forsyth second and this time Ashworth taking third having passed Begley.  However, the lead four weren’t able to make the break and were joined by several others including Lindop and PIM Racing’s Smith, the only other winner this year.  With so many cars challenging the front, the pace slowed a fraction giving MacLachlan the breathing space he need to make a little gap to second, being hotly contested by Ashworth and Forsyth until the pair touched at Druids and sailed off the track.  Ashworth rejoined smoothly but Forsythe wasn’t so lucky, finding the barrier on the inside side of the track.  With Forsythe out of the picture, the race settled into a fast moving nose-to-tail train, led by MacLachlan and with little change until Rod Arnold starting fighting his way backwards down the order.  MacLachlan took yet another win, with Begley second and Smith, benefiting from the Ashworth-Forsythe clash in third.  Ashworth’s hard work all weekend didn’t go unrewarded as he now hold the lap record.
 

MacLachlan’s lead in the championship looks increasingly unassailable.  Behind him Smith and Lindop remain level pegging with Begley threatening to rob one of a championship podium position…

Roadsport-A
O’Malley joins the title chase, but can’t match Orton in the wet…

In a change from the usual suspects, Anthony Sidney-Woollett put his PIM Racing machine on pole, ahead of JJ O’Malley and an impressive performance from Jason Redding.

Off the line O’Malley instantly slipped into the brilliant form that has taken him to five wins already this year, passing ‘Sid’ for the lead and looking to instantly take control.  However, an early incident at paddock left Robin Ellis’ car in a vulnerable position bringing out the safety car.  O’Malley showed good sense to slow the field past the marshals on track before the safety car could pick up the leader and then made the perfect getaway on the restart leaving SPY Motorsport’s Ian Payne and Sid to battle over second.  Behind them Jonathan Ramsay ran wide at Clearways, making contact with Magd Mohaffel which sent him wider yet, through the gravel ending the challenge that had seen him occasionally in third.  This promoted Ramsay’s Fauldsport team-mate Orton to fourth, where he would eventually finish, only to be penalised ten seconds for not sufficiently slowing down under the earlier yellow flags.  Ahead, O’Malley never looked like anything other than winning and the Trackcars driver crossed the line for victory number six, with Sid in second place – a terrific result for him and a fitting tribute to his late friend Anders Nielsen for whom he bore an Anders RIP number plate.  Pretty much alongside Sid, Payne picked up third place.
 

A nasty surprise greeted the Roadsport-A grid for Sunday in the form of a deluge before the start, though these conditions were to the delight of Orton, shunted back to ninth on the grid thanks to his penalty.  With the race underway he took just a lap and half to get to the front and overcome O’Malley for the lead, then set about building a margin while the top three from race one circulating well behind, with Ian Payne having got the better of O’Malley.  When Richard Boughton’s miserable weekend ended in the Druids gravel, the safety car was treated to another outing and Orton’s massive lead was instantly negated.  To the despair of his challengers, Orton kept his cool and on the restart simply drove off into the distance again with the order unchanged.  Further back, Ramsay and title contender Graham Johnson were making their way through the field from the back, only to plunge themselves into the recently vacated Druids gravel, this time bringing out the red flag.  Orton took a commanding victory ahead of Payne and O’Malley in third.
 

Orton resumes the championship lead, though O’Malley is ahead after drop scores, with former leader Colards Motorsport’s Johnson now third on both counts.

Roadsport-B
Wiggins finds his form again, but is briefly outclassed…

It made a change see Lee Wiggins rather than regular pole-man Steve Day in the top slot, but more impressive was Martin Addison alongside, qualifying just 0.001s behind.  Behind them, championship contender Jeremy Webb was demoted three places for repeatedly putting four wheels off the circuit and gaining an advantage.
 
Addison made the better start but was overhauled by Wiggins within a lap.  However, Addison wasn’t fazed by regular winner Wiggins and set about finding a way past before being retaken yet again by Wiggins.  The resulting epic battle saw the pair rarely separated by more than a tenth or two, Addison ultimately taking command of the situation and doing fantastic work to hold Wiggins off all the way to the line, with Reece Somerfield taking a deserved (if overlooked) third place.  Wiggins broke Gordon Sawyer’s lap record, indicating that the pace at the front of Roadsport-B this year is as quick as the Fowell-Sawyer-Brannan battle of 2009.

Come Sunday and Wiggins wasn’t about to be outdone a second time, helped mainly by Somerfield who was challenging Addison strongly for second, giving Wiggins a small but crucial gap.  Addison’s speed would win through and although he couldn’t quite catch Wiggins, he left Somerfield in the clutches of fourth place man Jeremy Webb, some way ahead of Ben Whibley.  As Webb considered his overtaking options at Paddock, Somerfield gifted him third with a wildly ambitious (much too) late braking move on the inside that sent him flying into the gravel, leaving the way clear for Webb to assume third.  Wiggins crossed the line for the win, Addison a creditable second and Webb third.
 

Wiggins is back at the top of the table, with Webb, Day, Whibley and Addison all to close to call in the positions behind him.
 
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Simon Lambert