Schumacher BTCC Rd1 – Report

The 2014 Series kicked off in fine style at the superb West London venue, with over 110 drivers booked in for the event. The weather was dry for Saturday which saw many of the drivers use the day for a lot of practice to get their cars fine tuned ready for race day on Sunday. However what greeted drivers all Sunday morning was rain, followed by more heavy rain, the weather was going to make for some very interesting racing. The race classes for this year’s BTCC, following on from a successful Series last year are 17.5T Blinky class, 13.5T and Modified.

Due to the adverse weather conditions the organisers decided on round by round qualifying for the format, so it was the best 2 from 4 qualifying runs that would count towards the overall final position, followed by 1 final for everyone. The rain stopped during the first round of qualifying and throughout the day the track dried slowly. It stayed this way all the way through until the last few finals and then the rain started to fall again. There was some fantastic close racing in the 17.5 Blinky class but it was Dominic Skinner who would line up on pole position just ahead of a very close grid. After the A final had taken place the result was as follows:

17.5 Blinky A-final result
1. Mark Passingham
2. Mark Young
3. Dominic Skinner
4. Chris House
5. Andy Tietjen
6. Dani Young
7. Chris Graco
8. Kris Kennedy
9. Lewis Brown
10.Malc Hall

Moving onto 13.5T and the drivers in this class had a big decision to make, just before the final, the rain started to come down again and drivers were undecided between wet or slick tyres as the rain was very light. Everyone opted for slicks except for pole sitter Zak Finlay who made the brave call to go on wets, it was a decision that would see him go off in the distance having more grip than anyone else in the changing track conditions.

13.5 A-final result
1. Zak Finlay
2. Rob West
3. Daniel Booker
4. Leigh Dibble
5. Lee Price
6. David Usher
7. James Baker
8. Ben Putt
9. Spencer Jones
10.Nathan Wilson

Finally moving onto the Modified class, by now the track was damp so everyone opted for wet tyres from what is known. Olli Jefferies brought home the win in front of James Hart and Colin Price.

Modified A Final result
1. Olly Jefferies
2. James Hart
3. Colin Price
4. John Pape
5. Stefan Chodzynski
6. Matt White
7. Paul Pinkney
8. Brian Eldridge
9. Ashley Wiffen
10.David Hall

The next round of the Series is being held at the Halifax race track on Sunday 4th May 2013, entries are still available, so get yourself booked in here.

Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]