Croft Race Report - 6th & 7th June 2009

Thorney Motorsport take home all 1st place awards..

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So, another weekend, another fantastic couple of CSL Cup races. As Saturday morning approached, eyes fell on the returning car #22 of Geoff Steel with many predicting him to be setting the pace. We also finally welcomed Duncan White to the grid in his standard class M3 entrant, and David Briault – who replaced Nick Foster in the Thorney Motorsport car with Foster being out of action.

Qualifying saw Geoff Steel take pole position, ½ a second ahead of John Thorne with a 1:30.607. Having suffered a fairly severe accident in the Kumho BMW series, Stringfellows car seemed to be down on pace compared to his usual. It was a close affair with the Modified Class guys being separated by just 2 seconds. In standard class, John Harrison, who reported some overheating issues, took pole from Humphrey by over a second with Duncan White on his debut closing proceedings. Unfortunately for Duncan, he span on his 8th Qualifying lap – this was his first time on slicks – and more mysteriously snapped his NSR camber arm clean in half.

Race 1
Off the line Thorne and Steel seemed to stand still as Stringfellow and Martin both got flying starts as the grid made their way down to the turn 1. Stringfellow nestled into 1st, Martin close behind, and Steel completing the first three. Into sunny and Martin just missed his braking point and ran wide on the exit, spinning in the process. As Martin span to the inside of the circuit, Steel was in the wrong place at the wrong time and Martin hit Steel with enough force to send him 6” away from the Marshalls post at the entrance to the complex.

As the race unfolded, Thorne and Stringfellow were inseparable, their lap times barely moving by 2/10ths. Stringfellow held Thorne for 8 laps until on lap 9 Thorne had the run down the back straight, darting down the inside of tower seemingly not have broken. The tussle continued throughout the lap, with both of them leaving the hairpin side by side.

Back in standard class, Humphrey led from start to finish showing much improved composure and confidence. Meanwhile, the battle for 3rd place was heating up between Gill and Steward. Steward had been catching Gill upto Lap 8, where they were side by side into Clervaux. With neither wanting to give an inch, Gill had the inside line, leaving Steward nowhere but the gravel trap to locate himself, managing to maintain his momentum he carried on and mounted a charge for 3rd place. With just 2 laps remaining and leading onto the back straight Gill’s gearbox missed & crunched 3rd, allowing Steward to drive past and take the podium place away. The gap between 1st and 2nd, Thorne and Stringfellow also hadn’t changed, leaving Thorne to take the race win.

Classification

Race 2
The grid for race 2 is as per the finish of race 1, so Geoff Steel, Jamie Martin, and David Briault start from the back of the grid. Thankfully, the Geoff Steel & Thorney Motorsport teams were able to fix both cars to the Scrutineers standards.

In a way that only sods law could bring, it started to rain while the cars were in the assembly area. All eyes were on the clouds as no-one wanted a repeat of the calamitous Castle Combe! (8 Cars having their wheels swapped for wets whilst the organisers wanted to start the race.)

Magically, the rain stopped and all cars lined up on their slicks. Away from the lights, again Thorne made a slow start allowing Stringfellow through to 1st. Martin, with something to prove, shot from the back row to 4th before the end of Hawthorn, and past Gill into 3rd by Lap 3. Steel was also making up for Race 1 setting very consistent lap times and on Lap 7 was just 1.0 second off Gill. Upfront, 1st place was a fierce battle; with less than a second separating Stringfellow and Thorne.

As they came round the Hairpin on Lap 9, Thorne and Stringfellow were on a tangent to the road at an impressive angle, with Stringfellow not holding the slide he spun allowing Thorne to drive on to 1st place. This promoted Martin to 2nd and Steel to 3rd. Unfortunately the track was pretty greasy, and Steel spun in the same place as Dan on Lap 12, with just one lap remaining. Meanwhile back in standard class, Humphrey continued his domination of the weekend leading start to finish and setting the fastest lap on Lap 10.

Thorne then took the chequered flag, earning him the double race win. Martin took 2nd, ahead of Stringfellow in 3rd.

Classification:

Series Table:

Stephen Gill's own in-car Video in HD: