Cadwell 2018

Last weekend saw the team take the trip into Lincolnshire to the amazing Cadwell Park. A really narrow technical track which often leads to damage but the cars came away unscathed after a great set of races.

Drivers Update

In the Mk1 Championship 3 more drivers joined the team for the Cadwell Park round. James Love who had completed some races with the team in 2017 and newcomers Jonathan Fieldsend and Christopher Ginn. Jonathan had raced in 2017 with another team.

The Circuit

Cadwell Park is an extremely technical track with 18 corners over the 2.19 mile lap. It has the nickname of Britains Nurburgring due to the number of corners and changes in elevation. It is also quite narrow as it’s predominantly used for Bike Racing so overtaking can be tricky and any error can easily see a driver take a trip into the barriers. As a result the chance of damage at Cadwell Park is high.

For a good fast lap around Cadwell Park the key is to be brave and take Turn 1 flat out and carry a lot of speed into the blind Gooseneck. Lastly getting the car correctly balanced into a pendulum effect through Hall Bends gains a lot of time.

Qualifying

For both groups the Qualifying sessions on the Saturday morning. There had been overnight rain over Friday evening so the early groups out would have a drying track to contend with affecting the Mk3 Super Series the most.

Championship Mk1 – 2 of the drivers qualified in the A Group (Charlie Burge P7 and Lewis Cannon P20). The other 6 drivers qualified in the B Group (Adrian Burge P7, Christopher Ginn P12, Clive Chisnall P17, Bruce Robinson P19, Jonathan Fieldsend P20 and James Love P21).

Super Series Mk3 – With only one group the drivers all qualified well (Joshua Jackson P1 and Matt Pickford P7).

Race 1

Championship 1A – The Top 3 cars made a big break from the rest of the field and finished 5 seconds ahead of P4. 1.5 seconds split P1, 2 and 3 saw Pole sitter Mike Comber take the win, P2 starter Will Blackwell Chambers finish P2 and P3 starter Sam Smith finish P3 showing that the narrow nature of Cadwell Park makes it difficult to overtake. BC Cars Charlie Burge made up one place to take the best finish for the team in P6. Lewis Cannon would be handed a 5 second penalty by the stewards for exceeding track limits which meant he would be dropped from P17 to P18. As a result Lewis would take the drop to Race 2B.

Championship 1B – A great scrap between Courtney Milnes and Paul Bateman for P1 and P2 would eventually see Paul the victor by 0.3 secs at the Chequered Flag.

Last step on the podium was taken by Christ Stapleton. Adrian Burge was the best BC Cars finisher in P5. The rest of the team all finished with Clive Chisnall in P10, Bruce Robinson in P14, Christopher Ginn P16, James Love P17 and Jonathan Fieldsend in P18. Adrian would be promoted to Race 2A.

Super Series – Joshua Jackson took P4 after an incident on Lap 1 with contact from Thomas Collins after starting on pole. Josh would claim fastest lap as a consolation. Jake Bailey would take P1, Nicholas Dunn P2 and Thomas Collins would round out the podium in P3. Matt Pickford would finish where he started in P7 again showing the difficulty in overtaking.

Race 2

Championship 2A – Another close race would see the same 3 faces from Race 1A on the podium in a slightly different order. Mike Comber would again claim P1 but Sam Smith would take P2 and Will Blackwell-Chambers P3. A Safety Car was required on Lap 1 after Marcus Bailey went off the track into a barrier in a dangerous location requiring recovery before racing could re-commence. After the re-start Charlie Burge dropped a place to finish P7 and Adrian Burge finished P18 which meant he would be demoted to Race 3B. Courtney Milnes who had raced so well in Race 1B would see her weekend come to an abrupt end with a big crash writing off her car in the process on the last lap. Luckily the Mazdas are strong cars so she walked away with only a few bruises. We hope to see Courtney back racing soon.

Championship 2B – Lewis Cannon would bring home what would turn out to be the only silverware of the meeting when he completed a Lights to Flag P1 and also claim fastest lap. Matt Pollard would take P2 and Martin Tolley P3. BC Cars Clive Chisnall would finish P9, Bruce Robinson P16, Christopher Ginn P17, Jonathan Fieldsend P18 and James Love in P19.

Super Series – An incident through Hall Bends on Lap 1 would see Nicholas Dunn left facing the wrong direction and later retirement. The win would be taken by Thomas Collins with Jake Bailey in P2 and Simon Fleet in P3. BC Cars’ Josh Jackson would finish P5 and Matt Pickford P7 for the second time.

Race 3

Championship 3A – John Langridge decided to upset the party in the last race by taking the win after starting P5. Will Blackwell-Chambers would finish P2 and Mike Comber in P3. Charlie Burge had an excellent race and finished P4 missing out on the podium by less than 0.3 seconds. Lewis Cannon suffered a DNF after contact on Lap 6 forced an early retirement.

Championship 3B – Adrian Burge started in Pole but after a bad start lost 2 places. After 2 more incidents during the race he would eventually finish P5. The win was taken by Marcus Bailey with Callum Greatrex taking P2 and Christopher Stapleton in P3. Clive Chisnall finished P7, Bruce Robinson P15, Christopher Ginn P17, Jonathan Fieldsend P18 and James Love P19.

Super Series – The last race was pretty uneventful. Josh Jackson would move up one place to finish P4 and a mistake by Matt Pickford locking up at the bottom of the Mountain would see him finish P8.

Take a look at our video for some of the Action!