Race Report – Reprise IT TTC Brands Hatch 27th October
Rounds three and four of the 2018 Reprise IT Tiedeman Trophy Championship took place on 27th October at Brands Hatch on the Indy circuit. Although it was sunny out, it was bitterly cold all day which caused havoc with the drivers due to the difficulty in getting heat into their tyres.
Qualifying was very much a stop and start process with two red flags being shown during the fifteen minute session. The first red flag was caused on the first lap of qualifying by John Hare who spun, collected the front wing of Rachel Lovett and came to a stop in the middle of the track after Paddock Hill bend. Rachel was able to make it back out after a tape nose was constructed by Team AViT during the stoppage, but John Hare retired home after the incident as he didn’t have the parts he needed to repair his damage. The second red flag of the morning came out after one more lap of qualifying, but thankfully after the session restarted again it was incident free. Alex Fores took overall pole, with Zach Anderton in second and first for the Moto 1000 class. Julian Hoskins took pole of the 1800 class and tenth overall whilst Will Cox qualified fifteenth overall and first for the 1600 class.
Race one got underway and saw the Dallaras in particular struggling to get off the line, resulting in a fair bit of swapping and changing over the first lap of the race. James Drew-Williams broke a drive shaft at the start which saw him retire, having qualified third. Kevan McLurg was mugged by a few Moto 1000s on the start which saw him drop from fourth (briefly third) to sixth overall on the first lap. Nigel Davers had struggled with new Pirelli tyres in qualifying and his struggles continued into the race as a spin at turn one on the second lap saw him stuck in the gravel and out of the race. The safety car was deployed as Nigel was recovered off the track.
After three laps, the safety car returned in and the race got underway again. A fierce battle raged at the front of the grid as Alex Fores defended his lead of the race from Zach Anderton. Alex managed to fend him off well before eventually losing the lead of the race on lap twelve. Zach eventually finished just two seconds ahead of Alex for the overall win. Alex came in second but took the win in the F3 class. Kevan McLurg fought his way back up to third overall and second for the F3 class. Fourth overall and second in the Moto 1000 class went to Peter Lague who was closely followed by classmate, Dave Wheal. Dave had been closing the gap to Peter over the course of the race and finished 0.6 seconds behind him, having been 5 seconds behind just two laps before.
Phil Davis earned the Driver of the Day accolade for this first race by delivering a storming performance. He qualified fourteenth overall and fourth in class, but fought his way up to take the lead of the class and seventh overall away from Julian Hoskins just one lap from the end of the race. Second in class went to Julian whilst George Fowler picked up third place in class in his Reynard SF84.
The grid for race two was determined by the lap times set in race one which saw Zach take pole with Alex Fores behind in second. Unfortunately we were denied another battle between the two as Alex retired on the first lap with a suspected oil leak. This left Zach clear to disappear into the distance, building an eleven second gap from Kevan McLurg by lap three of the race. Dean Warren lost a place to Max Hart at the start of the race, but stuck with him and got past for third overall and second in the Moto 1000 class on the second lap. Max stayed close behind Dean and then was gifted the place back after Dean suffered a break down that saw him parked at the top of the hill at Druids. Due to the position of Dean’s car, a safety car was called.
At the point that the safety car was called, Zach Anderton had built such a gap over Kevan and begun lapping the first of the back markers that the safety car accidently picked up Kevan instead, believing him to be the leader. A state of confusion and some miscommunication followed which saw the safety car switch its lights off and partially pull off the track after a couple of laps. A couple of green flags were shown, whilst the safety car boards, flags and lights were still out around the rest of the circuit. The safety car returned to track to pick up the actual leader but with some cars at race speed and others not, a collision occurred which saw the Leastone 1000 of Gavin Buckley clip the rear of Phil Davis before ending up in the wall opposite the pit wall. This caused the race to be red flagged and the results declared as per two laps earlier. A post race drivers meeting was called where the Clerk of the Course apologised for the unfortunate situation that had occurred.
In the post-race trophy presentation, Dave Wheal received the Driver of the Day award for the second race. He had started in twenty first position and (despite the limited number of non-safety car laps) he drove through to take fourth overall and third in class. Champion of the Day was awarded to Zach Anderton, with Will Cox (1600 class) second overall and Julian Hoskins (1800 class) third overall.
