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News: Brands Hatch (Indy) Race Report
GAZ Shocks Production BMW Non Championship Races
Brands Hatch 27-28/03/10
The two non Championship Production BMW Championship races saw a capacity grid of thirty-two cars take the start, with a mixture of series newcomers and existing PBMWC regulars.
Race 1
Pole position went to the rapid debutant Matthew Swaffer, with series regular Alan Wileman starting alongside Swaffer on the front row. After qualifying problems, five cars started at the back with ten second penalties.
Qualifying was held on a dry track; however the first race saw rain and a wet track which was drying. This meant that the field had a green flag lap to adjust to the different track conditions.
When the lights went out to signal the start of the race, pole man Swaffer failed to take advantage of his grid slot and dropped back several positions, but crossed the line in seventh, having recovered a couple of positions during the lap.
Up front, Wileman was pulling away at the front leaving the chasing pack to swap their positions lap by lap, with Nigel Olive-Jones taking second on lap two before having an off track moment at Clearways on lap four which drops him back behind Clint Bardwell and Stuart Waite.
Behind the battle for the podium positions, Swaffer had recovered to fifth by the end of lap five, and over the next few laps slowly caught up with Olive-Jones; Swaffer couldn’t find a way to take fourth away from Olive-Jones.
Up at the front, Wileman was setting fastest lap after fastest lap on his relentless charge towards the race win, and even slight contact when lapping a back marker couldn’t hamper his charge.
The main excitement in the final laps of the race was between Bardwell and Waite – Waite was applying constant pressure to Bardwell as he looked to pass for second with extremely late braking moves at Paddock Hill bend.
At the end of race one, Wileman took a dominant victory by 2.293 seconds with Bardwell second and Waite third. After his race one mistake, Swaffer finished fifth, three seconds behind Olive-Jones.
Steve Gilbert finished eighth and took pole position for the weekend’s second race.
Race Results:
1. Alan Wileman: 15 laps in 16:00.170s
2. Clint Bardwell @ 2.293s
3. Stuart Waite @ 4.052s
Fastest Lap went the way of second placed Bardwell on lap 13, with a time of 1:02.369s.
Race 2
The second race of the weekend saw Steve Gilbert start on pole position after the top eight drivers were reversed for race two, meaning that race winner Bardwell started back on the outside of the fourth row.
As in the opening race, the weekend’s second race was also held on a wet track, without any rain though.
Within two laps of the race start, Stuart Waite and made his way to the head of the field – having started fifth, Waite completed lap one in second, right on the tail of Ian Berry, who had started third and took the lead on lap two, and crossed the line a full second ahead.
Pole sitter Gilbert dropped down to seventh on the opening lap, and spent the rest of the race trying to recover from his bad start.
Behind the flying Waite, Berry was involved in a three way tussle for the podium with race one winner Bardwell and Ian Shepherd, this battle gave an opportunity to Waite to stretch his legs and build a comfortable gap.
Back in the pack, Tony Smith was climbing his way up the field having started the race down in fourteenth position, and took the flag at the end of the race in fourth, a great recovery drive.
Up at the front, Olive-Jones took the podium position away from Berry on lap twelve, having crossed the line at the end of lap eleven right on the rear bumper of Berry. The clean but fiercely fought fight for third meant that Olive-Jones finished some eleven seconds off Bardwell, with Smith less than a second behind Olive-Jones.
After a strong early showing, Ian Shepherd saw all of his hard work undone as he ended up not finishing the race, having been knocked out of fifth place on lap twelve.
At the end of the second wet race of the weekend, Waite took a clear victory ahead of Bardwell and Olive-Jones, with a stunning performance resulting in fourth place for Smith.
Results of race two:
1. Stuart Waite: 15 laps in 15:04.414s
2. Clint Bardwell @ 2.108s
3. Nigel Olive-Jones @ 13.213s
Fastest lap of the race went to Bardwell in a time of 59.008s.
Race Report by Matt Auger (matt_macau_bmw320si@hotmail.com)
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