RACING EXPOSURE :: Club level motorsport e-magazine

There is plenty of racing around the country this bank holiday weekend.

Snetterton – British F3, British GT, Formula Ford, VW support races

Oulton Park – HSCC Gold Cup

Mallory Park – CSCC and Monoposto

Thruxton – Great and British

Silverstone – 750MC

Rockingham – Britcar & BRSCC

Castle Combe – A Plant LUX Sportscar Raceday

Lydden Hill – Quaife MSA British Rallycross Championship

And on two wheels…

Anglesey – Hottrax bike racing

Brands Hatch – Thundersport GP Bike Races

Cadwell Park – British Superbikes

Blue skies and a healthy timetable greeted visitors to Castle Combe on Sunday for day two of the Rapid Racking June Summer Racing Carnival.

Mazda

In the Ma5da Racing Championship events which were spread throughout the day, reigning champion Tom Roche had an engine failure on Friday, but managed to get another power plant sorted out in time to take part. Because of the size of the entry list, the competitors are split into three groups A, B & C. Race one was groups A & C in which Roche, and pole sitter Adam Gore both had a poor starts. Roche managed to recover to second position (setting fastest lap in the process) hounding eventual winner Rob Boston to finish just 0.5 seconds behind at the finish. Some 6 seconds further back was Luke Herbert, who took third spot on the podium finishing 2 seconds ahead of Gore.

In the group B & C race, Gore wasn’t able to make amends, starting in second place and finishing third, albeit a lot closer to race winner Paul Sheard – just 0.6 seconds back. Sandwiched in between was Johnathan Greensmith who had started in 7^th place – but managed to make up 3 places by the end of lap one alone. Luke Herbet couldn’t make it second podium of the day, but was only a second adrift and finished in 4^th place.

The final Ma5da race was groups A & B, with three familiar names on the podium. Paul Sheard took his second victory of the day just 0.2 seconds ahead of race one winner Rob Boston. Less than another 0.2seconds back was race one runner up Tom Roche.

Formula Ford 1600

In race 1 of the Formula Ford 1600 events, pole sitter Scott Pye led from lights to flag with Scott Malvern taking the second spot on the podium, after starting 7^th and improving to third by the end of lap 3. Josh Hill, driving in his father’s, and grandfathers, helmet colours of the London Rowing Club had started from the front row, but had dropped to 4^th by the end of lap 3. A brave move into camp corner gave him the final podium position.

Race 2 had the same front row and the same 3 drivers on the podium. This time Hill managed to hold on to his second place starting position, following Scott Pye home by less than a second. In this race Scott Malvern was still the man making moves, all of them on lap 1 incidentally, – finishing third from his 6^th place starting spot.

Toyota MR2

Another lights to flag victory of the day, this time in both of Toyota MR2 races – Alex Gassman taking the honours in both events. He was followed home very closely by Adam Lockwood, with the two of them pulling away from the rest of the grid at a huge rate of knots. Arron Pullan almost was almost on his own in race one, with a 5 second margin over the close fighting Ross Stoner and Mark Scott who finished 4^th and 5^th respectively.

In the second race Stoner managed to go one better, but couldn’t seem to live with the pace of Gassman & Lockwood, and was 18 seconds behind by the end of the race.

Lockwood took the honours for fastest lap in race 1 by 72/1000ths of a second, and Gassman had his turn in race two, claiming it by 21/1000ths of a second.

Another good battle was a little further down the field with Matt Garnham and Philip O’Halloran going side by side into, round and exiting Tower corner, and off as far as I could see, still side by side.

Full Britcar race report to follow…

Words: Alex Ings / Images: Alex Ings.

Ma5da Racing got their 2010 season off to a great start, with 62 cars and 6 exciting races on a sunny Brands Hatch Indy circuit. The new race day format spliting the drivers into 4 groups, with each race consiting of 2 different groups, there was plety of action and overtaking.

Race 1 featured Tom Roche and Jonathan Greensmith’s groups,  Tom won this time, but as ever it was a good close race. Further down the field there was plenty of close racing, with a lot of new cars and new drivers.

Race 2 was Rob Boston’s race, after starting 2nd next to his team mate Dave Connor, he built up a massive, by Ma5da standards, lead of 9s. Charles Plumley was in second place, with new driver Matt Davies had a great debut in 3rd place.

Race 3 was the Blendini Motorsport show, with the green liveried cars of Tom Roche and Charles Plumley leading from start to finish, although Chris Dawkins and Dave Connor were never far behind, but locked in their own battle.

Race 4, the last of Saturday’s races, looked like it was going to be a re run of the last race of the 2009 season, with Rob Boston up against Jonathan Greensmith at the front of the field, however, by the time end of the first lap, Rob had slipped down the field, but had made it back to second, albeit with a large gap, by the time the safety car came out for an incident at Paddock Hill bend. After the safety car came in Rob was able to overtake Jonathan and stay in front for the rest of the race.

Further down the field there was a great 4 way battle for third place with Chris Woodger, Ben Robinson, Mark Pierpoint and Martin Stevinson (finishing in that order) after a lot of overtaking.

Race 5 came after two races which had been red flagged on the first lap (the second one also got red flagged on the restart), so there were a lot of people waiting anxiously for the Ma5das to get round the first lap, all in one piece, they managed Paddock Hill Bend and Druids without any problem, but David Neville span off on the exit of Graham Hill Bend/the Cooper Straight, hitting the armco fairly heavily, causing the safety car and then the red flag to be used. Then all track activity had to stop, for the Kent Air Ambulance to pick up a casualty (not related to any of the on track action). With the amount of delays, it was decided to shorten the afternoons 15 minute races to 10 minutes.

From the restart it was Jonathan Greensmith who led the pack away and won the race, although Charles Plumley was challenging hard for most the race, even taking the lead from Greensmith up the inside at Clearways, only for Greensmith to win the position back and then Plumley to lose a few more positions with a mistake at Paddock Hill Bend. This promoted Adam Gore, on his first race weekend, to the second step of the podium.

Race 6 was the one I’d been looking forward to, Tom Roche and Rob Boston each had two wins each from the Saturday and would be going head to head. The first lap passed without too much incident, only Ben Robinson ending up in the gravel trap at Druids, second time round Gary Hufford and Andy Coombs ended up nose to nose, also at Druids, but managed to escape and rejoin the pack, which was now behind the safety car, after Martin Tolley and Kevin Taylor collected eachother at Paddock Hill Bend.

When the marshalls had cleared up, there was only time for a few laps of the shortened race, which provided an excellent dash to the line, both times Tom and Rob came past me they were side by side, which continued to the finishing line as they were only separated by 1/1000th of a second, with the yellow and black car of Rob Boston just infront.

A full gallery of images from the weekends racing can be found at LewisCraik Photography

Owing to an influx of new drivers for the 2010 season Ma5da Racing, along with the BRSCC, have decided to change the format of race meetings. For the 2010 season, the Ma5das will be spilt into two groups for qualifying, with the qualifying times used to divide the field into 4 groups, with the 1st, 5th and 9th fastest going into group A, 2nd, 6th and 10th fastest into group B etc.

There will be up to 6 15 minute races, consisting of two groups, all groups will have three races, each time with a different group. This is a similar system to the Caterham Roadsports and should ensure plenty of exciting racing.

Ma5da Racing have announced their 2010 season launch day to be held at Brands Hatch on the 30th March, in addition to a briefing providing important information on the championship, there will be testing on the Indy circuit. Testing will be for both mk1 and the new for 2010 mk3 MX-5s.

Even before the main championships have got underway the Ma5da Autumn Championships have been announced, for the mk1 cars this will be a 3 race event at Silverstone, over the Britcar 24 hour weekend, 1st & 2nd October. The mk3 cars will contest their championship over 4 races, 2 at Donington Park on the 30th October and 2 at Brands Hatch on the 13th November.

Tom Roche & Rob Boston, about as far apart as they got at the Ma5da Racing Autumn Championship, Silverstone 2009, by Lewis Craik

The popular MX-5 racing series has also announced its 2010 calendar.

2010 Calendar – Provisional

Please note: This calendar is provisional and although it is not expected to change, Ma5da Racing reserve the right to make changes accordingly.