OLI WILLMOTT & ANDY LANGLEY SHARE THRUXTON SPOILES
Oli Willmott and Andy Langley shared the race wins in a weather-affected second meeting of the MINI CHALLENGE Clubsport with Airtec Motorsport season at Thruxton. There were also a pair of winners in both the R53 and Cooper classes, with Ben Trundley and Paul Sawyer sharing wins in the former, and the Cooper victories being split between Daniel Truman and Dan Butcher-Lord.
QUALI:
Qualifying early on Saturday afternoon was held in favourable conditions and saw Freddy Hewitt battle his way to pole position ahead of Willmott - who headed into the weekend on the back of a triple win in the Brands Hatch season opener. Adrian Linggi impressed with third and would share the second row with Ian Trundley, with Langley fifth at the wheel of the only Clubman car in the field. Ben Trundley took pole amongst the R53 runners in sixth overall, with Truman edging out Butcher-Lord by just 0.034s to nap pole in the Cooper class in 14th overall.
RACE 1 :
With rain falling by the time the first race got underway, the drivers were given two laps before the start to explore the conditions, with the action getting underway with a standing start with little over eleven minutes of action.
Willmott made a storming start to nap the lead when the lights went out ahead of Hewitt, with Langley jumping into fourth and putting pressure on Linggi throughout the opening lap.
In the R53 class, Sawyer made the best start to move up into the class lead from pole-man Trundley, with Chris Aram leading the way in the Coopers after a strong start only to slip back to fourth by the end of the lap as Truman reclaimed his spot at the head of the class.
Willmott would ease away from Hewitt to make it four wins in a row, with Langley rounding out the podium places having managed to get ahead of Linggi at the end of of lap one - with Linggi unable to keep pace with the top three. He would instead have to settle for fourth place, albeit nearly 20 seconds behind Langley, with Chris Johnson finishing fifth as the winner of the R53 class. Johnson had run third in class in the early stages as Sawyer and Ben Trundley diced for the lead, with Trundley reclaiming top spot on the second lap.
A spin for Sawyer after contact at the end of lap four saw him drop away from the lead battle leaving Trundley looking good for victory until the final lap when he lost the rear of his car going through the chicane and was lucky not to spin. The loss of momentum however meant Johnson was able to nap the class win on the run to the line, with Trundley left to settle for second and Sawyer in third.
Truman would be a comfortable winner in the Cooper class, scoring his first victory of the year in twelfth overall, with Butcher-Lord in second spot having overcome the mid-race attention of Colin Wilmott.
RACE 2:
Conditions were much improved for race two on Sunday morning, with Willmott lining up on pole but Hewitt getting away better to lead the field up to the complex for the first time, where a heavy off into the barriers for R53 runner Johnson saw officials bring out the red flag.
The field re-gridded for the restart and it was Hewitt who again grabbed the lead, with Langley taking second from Willmott going through the complex for the first time. Willmott reclaimed second despite being sideways through Noble but then lost the rear of his car at Church and dropped down the order. That left Hewitt leading the way from Langley and Linggi, with Ben Trundley heading the R53 cars in fifth overall and Truman retaining top spot in the Coopers from Butcher-Lord.
Hewitt held the lead for the opening three laps before Langley got a run going up Woodham Hill and swept around the outside going into the chicane to take the lead, with Ian Trundley then nipping ahead of Hewitt when the former leader ran slightly wide coming out the complex at the start of the following lap. Langley would be left untroubled at the front as he took the overall win ahead of Trundley, with Linggi taking third and Willmott recovering to fourth after Hewitt slowed in the final stages with a fuel surge issue and dropped back down to sixth overall.
In the R53 class, Ben Trundley made it two wins from two in relative comfort in fifth overall, with closest rival Sawyer back in tenth overall having spent the race squabbling with R56 runners James Dudley and John Wyatt. Cooper honours went to Butcher-Lord after he emerged at the head of a huge battle with Truman and Neal Clarke, taking top spot on the second lap and benefitting from the fact that Clarke and Truman would end up squabbling behind - with Clarke managing to get ahead of Truman only for the race one winner to reclaim the spot on the final lap.
RACE 3:
The rain had returned by the time of the final race, with Hewitt making an astonishing start from the third row of the grid to vault into the lead on the run to the complex, with Linggi taking second from Willmott as pole man Langley was slow away from the line. Willmott moved into second before the end of the opening lap and then chased down Hewitt before taking a lead going up Woodham Hill, only to then slide wide at the chicane and give the advantage back to his rival.
A lap later however, Willmott got back ahead and this time around he would stay out front to take his fifth win of the season, with Hewitt having to settle for second. Langley would recover back to third spot by the finish having cleared Linggi for the final spot on the podium - albeit nearly 25 second behind Hewitt - whilst fifth overall was Sawyer as he took a dominant win in the R53 class, leading throughout as he prevented Ben Trundley from taking a weekend hat-trick.
The Cooper fight once again saw Truman and Butcher-Lord go wheel-to-wheel throughout the race, with Truman coming out on top to take the victory and Jacob Heap recovering from a difficult start to the weekend to round out the podium.
