FRESH FACES GRACE BTCC PODIUM

GA Janspeed and JS Motorsport have reason to celebrate this week after collecting their first pieces of silverware in the www.theAA.com MSA British Touring Car Championship last weekend in front of a crowd of over 14,000 at Oulton Park.

ROUND 5 - THE SPRINT RACE

The new-look BTCC combined Sprint Race produced the results that BTC Production fans and teams have been waiting for – a clean sweep of the podium by Moen, Pyper and Harrison. Moen claimed the first victory of his BTCC campaign in the HTML prepared Peugeot 306, just ahead of Gavin Pyper’s Alfa Romeo 156. A ten second penalty however, was later imposed by TOCA Tour officials to both Moen and Pyper, producing a revised outcome to the race. The final result handed Harrison the win, placed Barwell Motorsport’s James Kaye in second position and demoted the original winner Roger Moen to third place.

A ten second time differential was all there was to separate the start of the BTC Touring pack and the Production category. The Tourers were forced to play catch up by completing a Race distance of 16 laps as opposed to the 15 lap race distance for the Production cars. The race this weekend however, was always going to be closer than the inaugural combined Sprint at Thruxton two weeks ago. The time differential had been reduced and expectations were that the battle for the podium would all be down to the last two laps of the race.

The best start went to the rear wheel drive Lexus IS200 of Kurt Luby which catapulted at the lights from 5th position on the grid to second place by Old Hall. The ABG Motorsport prepared car has shown remarkable improvements from its inaugural race at Thruxton two weeks ago, but still has some work to do before it is reeling in the Vauxhalls.

Championship leader Jason Plato made a disappointing start after experiencing clutch problems. He commented: “I had a very bad start as I struggled with the clutch and had to stall the engine as I thought I was going to jump the start. Luckily for the second race, we have a rolling start as we won’t be able to get the clutch out of the car in time.”

The Production teams started ten seconds later with the three cars of Pyper, Harrison and Moen battling it out for the places from the first lap. Harrison lost the lead to team-mate Moen and the GA Janspeed Alfa Romeo of Gavin Pyper. Moen held on to take the win with Pyper securing second. The result was later reversed due to driving standards infringements. Harrison now closes the gap in the Production driver’s Championship to just two points between himself and Championship leader James Kaye.

ROUND 6 - THE FEATURE RACE

The Rolling start of the 30 lap Feature Race saw all four Vauxhalls cleanly through Old Hall. Muller retained his pole position lead but the main battle was for fifth. The return of Tim Harvey to the series in the JS Motorsport Alfa Romeo renewed a rivalry of old between himself and former team-mate Steve Soper in the Peugeot. It was clear that both cars were fairly evenly matched, with the second Peugeot of Dan Eaves also involved in the equation. Eaves managed to hold off the Alfa for 10 Laps before Harvey got the better of the 406 at Cascades. The pit stops would be crucial.

Muller pitted first for the Vauxhalls, followed on the next lap by Plato. It was Plato’s stop that was the quicker of the two and the Brit took the lead after emerging from the pit lane fractionally in front of his team-mate.

Peugeot ran into trouble with their stops with both drivers stalling their 406 Coupés. Harvey went ahead and moved up to third position after the Vauxhalls of Bennett and Plato withdrew due to mechanical failures.”

A delighted Tim Harvey said afterwards: “It was good racing and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to be able to pass and re-pass which we didn’t use to be able to do in Super Touring. There’s also a lot more to come with the car but it had great grip and balance today and it’s good to know that we had the Peugeots and Lexus beaten on shear speed.”

Muller went on to claim his second victory of the day giving him a 12 point lead in the Championship over James Thompson. He said: “It was a tough race because of the braking and the traffic and I also had somebody on my back for a long period of time, so I just tried to keep enough gap between Jason and myself and not make any mistakes.”

The BTC Production Race produced a maiden Feature Race victory for GA Janspeed’s Gavin Pyper in his Alfa Romeo 156. Having led from the start, he finished some twenty eight seconds ahead of second placed finisher Gareth Howell. This now places the young Scot in third place in the BF Goodrich Tires Production Drivers Championship.

Pyper said: “The car was consistently quick but I wanted to just drive at a pace which would make sure I lasted the race distance and win. I’ve waited a long time for that podium place and it felt fantastic!”

HTML’s Simon Harrison achieved his goal of topping the Drivers Championship this weekend and now leads second placed James Kaye by seven points.

Today’s crowd favourite was 17 year old Tom Boardman who thrilled spectators with an outstanding display of defensive driving. The Preston based youngster has wasted no time in making himself at home amongst his more experienced counterparts and looks certain to be a name to look out for in the future.