The Grid.co.uk the national & club motor racing website - est1998
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Provisional final points
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mail your news to editorthegrid@yahoo.co.uk HAY & RICHARDS SECURE EURO CROWN AGAIN Richard Hay and Clive Richards have successfully defended their evo Caterham Eurocup 'CSR Masters' title, pipping their Anglo-German rivals, Nick Payne and Kurt Hoffmann, to the crown at Magny Cours at the weekend (11/12 Oct). Hay and Richards clinched the championship for a second successive season by a mere point and a half, with Richards' final-race victory in France the decisive moment in the eight-race series. Race one at Magny Cours had brought victory for pole-sitter Payne and the Acre Jean CSR 260. Nick was chased hard throughout by Hay's Colards Motorsport machine and by the battling French cars of Hervé Cordel and Michel Mora. On the final lap Hay made full use of the slipstream to take a brief lead but Payne held his nerve and switched back to out-drag Hay on the run into the final complex. Payne's victory margin was just 0.352s. Behind the lead battle, Cordel and Mora traded places lap after lap, sometimes corner after corner, but it was Cordel who made the break with five minutes remaining and took the final podium spot from Mora by a second. Olivier Guerin and Philippe Simon faded after strong starts to finish fifth and sixth, with Nigel Bent recovering to seventh after stalling on the green flag lap and having to start from the pit lane. Hoffmann's hopes of a repeating his team-mate's success were dealt a blow by a collision in qualifying with a French-entered Roadsport. The Acre Jean crew worked wonders to repair his car in time to race but a back-of-grid start was a handicap from which Kurt struggled to recover. He made it through the pack to third by the end, but Richards enjoyed a commanding cruise to victory from the pole, finishing 11 seconds ahead of second-placed Cordel. Hay was delighted to have taken the title again: "We were beaten to the championship in 2005 and 2006 by the Acre Jean car, so adding this victory to that which we scored last year goes some way towards redressing the balance. Clive drove superbly, all credit to him."
Provisional results Race 1: 18
laps Race 2: 18
laps
R300 VICTORY AT DONINGTON; HOFFMANN/PAYNE TAKE SERIES LEAD
Caterham's latest track challenger, the R300, couldn't have enjoyed a more successful competition debut than it received at Donington Park this weekend (30/31 Aug), claiming as it did a surprise 1-2 outright victory in the rain-hit evo Caterham Eurocup finale. Jon Walker, the first customer to receive an R300, won the Invitation Class in all three of the weekend's Eurocup encounters, his new mount not missing a beat, and in the third race he crossed the line for an historic first victory by a margin of less than four-tenths from James Sharrock's R300. In the all-important CSR Masters division, Nick Payne and Richard Hay won their individual races, with Payne and his team-mate Kurt Hoffmann defeating the Hay/Clive Richards car in the pit-stop race. With only October's French rounds remaining, Payne and Hoffmann lead reigning champions Hay and Richards by a single point. CSR Masters Race two, the start of which was delayed by fog, provided a tantalising battle for victory between Hay and Hoffmann, with less than a second separating the two cars for the duration. Kurt led for a lap ("He was a bit braver than me on the brakes," said Richard) but Hay broke Payne's day-old lap record after repassing and put 1.9s between their cars by the end. Reader took a deserved third, well ahead of Nick Phillips and newcomers Anthony Newman and Michael Jones. Hay led Cunningham all the way to the pit stops in race three, with Hoffmann well in touch in third spot. So well in touch, in fact, that once Kurt had handed over to Nick Payne, the Acre Jean CSR was able to close down the Hay/Richards car within five laps and take the lead with six laps to go. Payne crossed the line nearly 10 seconds ahead of Richards to go a point clear in the standings, and Nick was fulsome in his praise for his driving partner: "Kurt drove brilliantly in his stint, just as he did in his individual race. This weekend was a real joint effort." Reader was third once again, ahead of Cunningham/Newman, Bent/Phillips and Jones. Superlight
Class Denis was a man with a mission from the outset of race three, leading Gormley away in the damp and slippery conditions and taking the fight to the more powerful CSRs. Gormley pitted later than Denis and led after his stop, but Dan repassed for class victory after three laps. Bill Addison scooped second after Gormley's retirement and class championship leader John Barbour took third. Invitation
Class The Invitation Class cars were not required to make a pit stop in race three and this factor, combined with the weather, conspired to make the Walker/Sharrock battle for class honours the fight for the lead also - although neither driver was aware! The R300 duo engaged in a brilliant fight all the way to the line, with Sharrock putting everything into do-or-die last-lap efforts at both the Melbourne and Goddards hairpins. Walker was not be denied his third class win, however. Roadsport
Class
Provisonal results
Race 2
Race 3
SPA THRILLS FOR EUROCUP CHALLENGERS
Reigning CSR Masters champions Richard Hay(pictured) and Clive Richards gave masterclass demonstrations in their individual races, guiding their Colards Motorsport machine to handsome victories in each. But they were swamped by two fast Frenchmen, Hervé Cordel and Loïc Martinez in Sunday's double-hander and then beaten back to fourth by the Acre Jean team pairing of Kurt Hoffmann and Nick Payne, who snatched a brilliant last-lap victory. There was superb action also in the Superlight and Roadsport classes. In the former, John Barbour took twin wins to assume the points lead and in the latter Peter Young was a double victor. CSR Masters Cordel beat off a determined challenge from CSR debutant Simon Crompton to retain second, four-and-a-half seconds behind Hay, with Crompton a comfortable third ahead of Hoffmann despite a last-lap vibration problem. The championship's first Polish competitor, Jaroslaw Wierczuk, took fifth and Martinez sixth. Among the non-finishers was Olivier Guerin, who broke a collar bone when his CSR struck the pit wall five laps from home. Race two provided Richards with the perfect opportunity to show that anything his team-mate Hay could do, he could do better. Clive's lead over his nearest rival, fellow front-row starter Nick Phillips, by the end of the opening lap was 2 seconds, and that was as close as anyone would get. "It wasn't the most exciting race I've ever been involved in," said Richards, "but it was a satisfying win nonetheless." There was plenty of excitement behind Richards, however, as Payne - who had started from row nine after gearchange dramas in qualifying - staged a charge to the front. He made the top 10 on the second lap and overhauled Phillips for fourth on lap 10. Ahead lay Martinez and Cordel, who were despatched within three laps, and then there was just Richards... "It was a long time before my car came right," said Nick, "and by the time I made it to second place Clive was too far away and there was no time left to catch him." Richards crossed the line 6.4s ahead of Payne, with Cordel picking up third after Thoralf Grube and Martinez tangled on the final lap. Fourth fell to Phillips, with Wierczuk fifth once more and Grube recovering to sixth. The third and final race was the best of the weekend, with three cars in contention for victory throughout and a fourth joining the battle right at the end. Richards started from the pole but was unable on this occasion to get away from his pursuers. Martinez it was who held sway initially, before Richards fought back to the front and then Cordel took up the running. So engaging was the battle for the lead, which continued after the pit stops and driver changes, that the progress of the Acre Jean car passed almost unnoticed. Former Caterham Germany Champion Hoffmann drove an excellent first stint to hand the car over to Payne in fifth spot, and Nick wasted no time in moving up to fourth past the Phillips/Bent CSR. With five laps to go Nick had a 7.6s deficit over the leading trio. He halved that gap within three laps and then displaced Hay for third next time around. The final lap was a blur for the young Londoner: "I can't remember for the life of me where I passed Martinez, but I got Cordel on the inside at Blanchimont and just managed to hang on. It was a great race, a lot of fun." His driving partner Hoffmann was overjoyed to claim his maiden win in a CSR. Just seven-tenths covered Payne, Cordel and Martinez at the flag, with Hay in close pursuit for fourth, well ahead of Lionel Vialaneix. Phillips came home sixth to celebrate his 52nd birthday. Superlight Race two brought disaster for Durrant's driving partner, Terry Clark, who crashed out while disputing third with Carl Woodwiss. Young's misfire returned to blight his chances and Barbour lifted the win, well ahead of Patrick Maher, Young and Ron Johnson.
Roadsport Peter Young, younger brother of Superlight man Simon, took the victory in race one, with Andrew Walton, Colin Powell and Lee Moulden in line astern. Dax Humberstone had led but finished fifth, running on not much more than petrol fumes, with Mark Drain sixth. Humberstone received a whack up the rear early on in race two: "I was that mad that I really put my foot down," said the Lancashire ace. He and Young broke away towards the end to finish 1-2, well ahead of Walton, Powell and Drain. Humberstone and Young were once again the chief protagonists in race three, with Powell and Walton taking their turns in front also. At the line it was Young in front once again, this time from Humberstone, Walton, Powell and Drain. Roadsport B driver Paul Fleury was the sole Invitation class runner, and he made it to the end of all but the last race.
Provisional results
Race 2: 15
laps/65.27m
Race 3: 15
laps/65.27m Backers for Caterham Motorsport's UK and European race series include Bilstein, Brian James Trailers, Cooper-Avon Tyres, The Daily Telegraph, Demon Tweeks, evo, HSBC, insuremotorsport.com, Motorsport News, Quaife and Stack.
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A
new triple sprint race/three-class format for the evo Caterham Eurocup
proved a resounding success at Spa-Francorchamps at the weekend (9-11
May) with the many thousands of spectators gathered for the Belgian
circuit's prestigious 1000km sports car race enjoying a triple helping
of dramatic Caterham action.
Barbour
(pictured) won again in race three, but he very nearly didn't.
Having done all the hard work early on to get ahead of his classmates he
let three of them past: "I saw this train of cars bearing down on me in
my mirrors and pulled over to let them past, thinking they were CSRs
lapping me!" he said. It took John only two laps to catch and repass
them; he finished two seconds clear of Addison