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Win for Simon Blanckley in epic race
Class wins for Jason Holmes, Simon Taylor,
Mark Hammersley and Simon Jackson
Jason Holmes closes in on 2006 title
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Rain was forecast for the meeting at Brands hatch, but the weather stayed dry through qualifying and the
rain only started to fall lightly in the last 2 laps of the race. A bumper entry of 8 cars in Class A which included Super Tourers, an ex-DTM Mercedes and a road legal Noble demonstrated the full variety that is
the LMA Euro Saloons series.
Qualifying
There had been much pre-race excitement about Mal Davison's Noble M12 GTR. Would it be quick - could it
keep the Super Tourers honest? Watching it go round Paddock, it didn't look that quick, but it proved to be
pole position quick. That stirred things up, the Noble qualified on pole, just a quarter of a second in front of
Derek Hale's Honda Accord with Simon Blanckley's Accord and Richard Hawken's Nissan Primera on the
second row. Just 0.6 seconds between 1st and 4th - it was going to be a good race. With eight cars in Class A, John Hammersley was going to have his work cut out in his quest for the championship; qualifying
5th and a couple of seconds off pole meant he was in for a tough time.
It all looked equally shady for championship leader Jason Holmes in class B. Ian Craig's BMW M3 was 0.5
seconds and 5 places quicker than Jason's Rover Tomcat, with Dave Roberts' matching Tomcat alongside
him on the grid. With 0.6 seconds separating 10th to 15th, it wasn't just up front that there would be close
racing. Further back too, with 17th to 19th separated by less than 0.3 seconds. Unfortunately Jim Mepham's
championship hopes expired in a cloud of steam on the slowing down lap, he was unable to take part in the race.
Race
A very tightly packed grid came round Clearways in excellent, close formation and as the light went out, Davison's Noble got the drop on the tourers, and led the pack into Paddock with Simon Blanckley moving
up to second and nibbling at the Noble all round the first lap. All 20 cars got round safely, though Mark Hammersley was very sideways through Paddock in his Ford Fiesta near the back of the pack. As the cars
came round to end lap one, Davison had pulled out a two or three length gap, and Blanckley appeared to be pulling away from the rest, but the tourers were much quicker round corners than the Noble, and the front
four soon closed up. Davison set fastest lap of the race on lap 3, one that stood till the final laps. Each lap
followed a similar pattern, Davison would lead across the line and down into Paddock where Blanckley would gain. Going into Clearways seemed to be Blanckley's best spot, or the Noble's biggest weak spot?
By now the front four were running within a second or so and had completely dropped John Hammersley's
Vauxhall Cavalier who in turn was safely ahead of Tony Soper running in 6th. The pace at the front was such
that they were soon lapping backmarkers, and indeed the front four lapped the whole field by the end. Mid race Blanckley finally got through past Davison at Druids, and although Davison gave chase, Blanckley was
looking favourite to win.
A few laps later Derek Hale made his way past the Noble and set about chasing down Blanckley. As more
backmarkers were caught, so Davison and Hawken fell a little back, but up front the chase was on. Hale was taking two or three tenths a lap from Blanckley, culminating in fastest lap and new LMA Euro Saloons
lap record - such was the pace in this race that the front four all beat the old lap record, 3 of them by over a
second! Over the last two laps Hale closed right up on Blanckley, but despite almost touching on occasion, Blanckley held on to win by just 0.174 seconds. Davison took the final podium position having fallen 8
seconds back, but the Noble is still road legal bar the slicks. Traffic meant that Hawken finished 4th, 3 seconds back from Davison.
If the excitement up front wasn't enough, there was plenty going on further back, Dave Roberts got the better
start of the Tomcats and demoted Jason Holmes to third in class B for much of the running. Ian Craig out front in the BMW M3 had opted to run wets - there had been light rain falling in the approach to the race,
although the track was dry at the start. This decision hurt him as he fell back first to Roberts and then to
Holmes. Roberts was having an excellent race on his first visit to Brand Hatch, but around lap 10 Holmes got by at Druids and slowly pulled away. In the chase to get the place back, Roberts missed his braking
point coming into Paddock and ended his race in the gravel. Holmes had played his joker and is now looking hot favourite for the title with 2 races to go.
Near the back of the grid, Dan Modi (Honda Integra), Simon Jackson (Vauxhall Nova) and Mark Hammersley (Ford Fiesta), all in different classes, were running in close formation. The Integra did slowly
pull away leaving Mark and Simon swapping places all through the race. At one point when almost touching on the run down to Druids, they were swamped by the front four - the marshall reported a driving incident
causing Hammersley and Jackson to report to the Clerk of the Course. He had written up a report for excellent driving standards as they both indicated, stayed off line to let the front four through, and then
resumed battle as if nothing had happened! In the end Jackson triumphed over Hammersley by less than a second.
Two races left, Jim Mepham is out of the running for the title, although he's almost got Class C in the bag
from Stuart Jefcoate. At the top its all about Jason Holmes and John Hammersley. Jason's joker lifts him 38
points clear, John is going to need 2 wins with Jason not scoring to take the title, so its looking like Jason's
title, but you never know. Jason has got Class B wrapped up, as has John in Class A. Class D is going down to the wire with reigning champion Tim Morgan-Barrett leading Mark Hammersley by just 4 points,
neither having played their joker yet, while Simon Jackson has won Class E.
Race Result:
Winner: Simon Blanckley (Honda Accord), 2nd Derek Hale (Honda Accord), 3rd Mal Davison (Noble M12
GTR), 4th Richard Hawken (Nissan Primera), 5th John Hammersley (Vauxhall Cavalier), 6th Tony Soper (Alfa Romeo GTV6), 7th Martin Johnston (Mercedes 190 Evo 2), 8th Simon Taylor (Honda Civic)
Class Winners: Class A Blanckley, Class B Jason Holmes (Rover Tomcat), Class C Taylor, Class D Mark Hammersley (Ford Fiesta), Class E Simon Jackson (Vauxhall Nova)
Fastest lap:
Hale 50.488 (85.49mph)
Next race: Oulton Park 23rd September
With support from Mark Fish Motorsport and Alpha Composites
Report by Trevor Nicosia, Car 10 ( www.nyssaracing.com )
Click here for pictures from Brands
Trevor Nicosia has some video of the race on his site at www.nyssaracing.com
There are also some more excellent photographs of the race at :
http://www.snappyracers.com/album/Brands020906/
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