BTCC Rd 5 Mendip

The final round of the BTCC took place this last weekend at the awesomely fast Mendip Raceway in Western Super Mare.

The circuit looked in fine fettle as a new enthusiastic committee have spent a lot of time getting it looking in great shape and it was awesome to be blessed with glorious sunshine all weekend.  
Almost a full complement of national level drivers took part, with a little eye on the final BRCA nationals in two weeks’ time.  With the sun shining it was decided to run round by round qualifying with the best 2 from 4 qualifiers to count and 1 final.

In the Modified class Chris Grainger looked in dominant form with his Mi5evo TQ’ing the first two rounds with Olly Jefferies and Elliott Harper pushing Chris all the way and actually tying on points for second and third.  Olly had the faster time so lined up 2nd ahead of Elliott.

1 Chris Grainger - Mi5evo
2 Olly Jefferies
3 Elliott Harper
4 Colin Price - Mi5evo
5 Ben Cosgrove
6 James Hart
7 Zak Smith
8 Matthew White - Mi5evo
9 Chris Ashton - Mi5evo
10 Adam Catchpole

The watching crowd were treated to an epic battle between Chris and Olly.  The wind had picked up during the back end of the day making the cars very tricky to drive and unpredictable.  A small mistake at the beginning from Chris let Olly into first, whoever won the race would be crowned the BTCC Champion for 2014 and receive the Cecil Schumacher Trophy, so the pressure was on!  Chris pulled his way onto the back of Olly and putting him under intense pressure managed to find a way past right at the end.  Elliott had technical problems so Ben Cosgrove came through to 3rd behind Chris and Olly.

 1 Chris Grainger
2 Olly Jefferies
3 Ben Cosgrove
4 Colin Price
5 Matthew White
6 James Hart
7 Zak Smith
8 Adam Catchpole
9 Chris Ashton
10 Elliott Harper

The top 3 Championship positions were;

1st Chris Grainger
2nd Olly Jefferies
3rd James Hart

In the Pro Stock class Zak Finlay was once again in good form, wrapping up the TQ in the last round of qualifying from the Schumacher quintet of Mark Wallace, Darren Lee, Chris Gunter and Lee Price.

1 Zak Finlay
2 Mark Wallace - Mi5evo
3 Darren Lee - Mi5evo
4 Chris Gunter - Mi5evo
5 Lee Price - Mi5evo
6 Andy Travis
7 Rob West - Mi5evo
8 Mark Giaquinto - Mi5evo
9 Nathan Wilson
10 Tom Jefferies

6 Mi5evo's filled the top 10 places in the Pro Stock class.

Zak got away cleanly at the start of the final leaving the rest to battle behind, Mark Wallace came through the carnage to finish 2nd with Chris Gunter 3rd.

1 Zak Finlay
2 Mark Wallace
3 Chris Gunter
4 Nathan Wilson
5 Tom Jefferies
6 Lee Price
7 Andy Travis
8 Darren Lee
9 Mark Giaquinto
10 Rob West

Zak had already done enough to win the Championship before this round taking home the Robin Schumacher Pro Stock trophy.  A really strong series from Lee Price secured 2nd overall with Chris Gunter pipping team mate Mark Wallace for 3rd overall.

The top 3 Championship positions were;

1st Zak Finlay
2nd Lee Price
3rd Chris Gunter

In the Stock 17.5T 'Blinky' Class Nicholas Snelgrove TQ'ed all but one qualifiers with James Stewart lining up second and Jon Townsend 3rd.

Nicholas got caught out at the start which allowed James to drive away from the field in dominant fashion.  James won from Nicholas with young Bradley Coaker coming home 3rd.

1 James Stewart
2 Nicholas Snelgrove
3 Bradley Coaker
4 Jon Townsend
5 Kris Kennedy
6 Chris Townsend
7 Bradley Bolt
8 Mike Manning
9 Warren Fox

MB Models Michael Ball had already won the championship before this round with 3 perfect scores.  Bradley Coaker pipped Kris Kennedy for second by just 1 point.

So the season has come to an end and its been another great one.  Thank you to the Mendip club for their assistance with this event and to all the drivers who have come to make it possible. 

We'll be back again next year for sure!!