Hello and welcome to the VBTCR round two race report. After a fantastic opening round at Donington Park, this time we were off to Brands Hatch in Kent, England. Running on the famous Indy circuit layout presented the drivers with some big challenges and some exceptionally close lap times. As with every round this season drivers were running in the superb Audi RS3 LMS TCR. The VBTCR format runs an open qualifying session followed by two short 20 minute sprint races, with race two being a full reverse grid race!
qualifying
Having over 30 drivers on almost any race track can leave a lack of space, but with just 1.208 miles of the Brands Hatch Indy circuit to play with, qualifying was all about finding some space out on track. Terje Flåten from Luminous Racing was the driver who managed to get himself on pole position with a blisteringly quick lap time of 0:48.938, being the only person able to get into the 0:48’s! Round one’s pole man Martijn Asschert would be joining Terje on the front row with Dan Mould, Hugo Allan and Michael Seale rounding out the top 5. All 5 drivers were split by 0.225 seconds and 1st to 28th by under 1 second!
race One
With such a close qualifying session all of the drivers knew that there was a lot to be gained, as well as lost in this race and after Terje Flåten’s lap one incident in the previous round it looked as though he wanted to stay well clear of any incidents this week as he shot off the line, leaving the second place car over a second behing by turn two! Neil Stephenson was the big gainer on lap one, gaining six positions in such a short opening lap was mighty impressive!
After a fairly incident free start to the race, carnage entailed on the exit of druids corner during lap three. With three or four of the mid pack cars getting tangled on the exit of the corner, this left the rest of the field having to almost gamble a swerve left or right to try their best to avoid the incident. Unfortunately seven cars picked up damage but with a fast repair to use and the revers grid race coming up, there was still plenty of opportunity for points to be gained by these unlucky drivers.
The top three finished exactly as they started with Terje Flåten leading from start to finish, Martijn Asschert coming home in second and Dan Mould rounding out the podium positions. Dan Thornton was the big mover in race one gaining a huge 9 places throughout the first 20 minute sprint.
race two - reverse grid race
Race two meant a full 33 car reverse grid, providing a real challenge for those drivers who were absolutely rapid in race one to now battle their way through the field but also an opportunity for the drivers who perhaps got caught up in that lap 3 incident or just didn’t have the race one they had hoped for.
This put Derek Crowther from Insignia Racing on pole position with Jt Johnston and Alfie McGarrity completing the top three. An incident at the start sent one of the mid pack cars into the wall and bouncing back across the rest of the grid, leaving a lot of cars nowhere to go and meaning that for a lot of drivers their race two was over before they had even reached turn one. The lap one mayhem continued with the 4th, 5th and 6th place cars attempting to go three wide into Surtees which seemingly was never going to happen and resulting in all three cars losing a bunch of positions. Meanwhile Derek Crowther had a dream opening lap and shot off into the distance putting over two seconds between himself and second place Alfie McGarrity and over seven seconds back to third!
At the end of a very chaotic race just 17 cars finished on the lead lap, with Freddie Hewitt taking his first VBTCR win! Terje Flåten unbelievably managed to get his Audi RS3 TCR all the way from the back of the grid and up to second place, a fantastic effort and very nearly a maximum points haul from the Luminous Racing driver! Derek Crowther did a superb job to bring his car home in third and earn himself his first podium finish! Spud Motorsport driver Shane Dunn came ever so close to also getting his first podium, losing out to Terje on the last lap of the race, still a great effort getting his Audi up from 18th place.
summary
VBTCR has continued to provide some fantastically close racing, superb battles and what’s shaping up to be a hotly contested drivers and teams championship! Once again we had a great time running this round and can not wait to head to Silverstone in just under a weeks time. We will be running on the GP circuit, voted in by the drivers this long, super fast track will be a completely different challenge to deal with.
After a near perfect round Terje Flåten is now leading the drivers championship, with Dan Mould dropping down to second and Michael Seale in third. Shane Dunn’s race two progress has promoted him up into fourth with John Siemons on exactly the same points. Ignium Motorsport are still sitting at the top of the teams championship however with a big 20 points lead over second place team Impulse Racing. Spud Motorsport round out the top three. Jack Newell is still the highest placed rookie driver but with Alfie McGarrity closing in, now just 5 points behind.
To witness the full excitement of VBTCR please have a watch of the race broadcast and make sure to come back in two weeks time to see how all the drivers fair at the home of British motorsport, Silvertsone.
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