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News: Thruxton Race Report
GAZ Shocks Production BMW Championship
Rounds 5&6 Thruxton 08/05/10
Winrow dominates shortened Thruxton weekend
Ben Winrow took a clean sweep of Pole, Fastest Lap and Race Victory during round five of the 2010 Production BMW Championship at Thruxton, Hampshire.
Winrow, the 2008 Elf Renault Clio Cup Champion took pole position for round five having dominated qualifying round the fastest track in the UK – the only time in the qualifying session which ducked below the 1m34 barrier was the 1m33.901s set by Winrow. Second on the grid Alan Wileman finished four tenths of a second off – and with forty cars all qualifying, the race was due to be hectic.
Photo: www.snappyracers.com
At the start – poleman Winrow lost out to the fast starting car of Rob Smith, who went through the middle and into the lead at Allard, and held on until the faster sections of the track – when Smith was a little too cautious and dropped back from the lead into third as Winrow and Waite got passed. The lead changed hands again at the Club chicane as Stuart Waite got a bit out of shape and held Winrow up – thus giving the lead back to Smith.
The following lap saw Waite chasing down Smith through the fast corners and making his move at Church – Waite would hold on to the lead for the majority of the race. Meanwhile, pole sitter Winrow was back up to forth after dropping back to fifth at the end of lap one.
Behind the top three, Alex Green suffered brake failure on lap two at the club chicane which held up those behind him including Neil Adams, who dropped to the back of the field.
A driver on the charge was Brian Jones, who started the ten lap encounter on the seventeenth row of the grid. At the end of lap two however – Jones was in 23rd position.
By the half way mark, Winrow was catching race leader Waite and at the end of lap seven the lead had changed and Winrow set about pulling away at building up a gap over Waite, who in turn was pulling a gap over early race leader Smith.
In his pursuit of Waite, Winrow also set the fastest lap – a 1m34.503s, the only driver to break into the 1m34’s during the 10 lap race.
Further back the action was just as fierce and entertaining – a number of drivers had moments at the Club chicane, on lap five Jerry Brown went off and the following lap Simon Bassford did the same – both drivers recovered from their moments to finish the race.
It wasn’t just Club which was catching the drivers out – Church, the fastest corner in UK Motorsport saw Ian Shepherd have a moment, he was able to hone his rallycross skills a bit in the recovery while Village saw Jerry Brown go off the track again on the final lap.
The penultimate lap of the race saw Ravi Ramyead roll out of contention – after taking too much kerb at Club, the car came to rest, facing the wrong way at the exit of the chicane. Ramyead had rolled out of twelfth place after starting at the back due to a qualifying infringement.
Photo: www.snappyracers.com
The final lap saw the retirement of Alan Wileman, who during the early laps of the race had been up with the race leaders – an electrical fault meaning that he wasn’t able to complete the race.
The driver of the day award went the way of Brian Jones after his recovery drive from 34th to finish 17th at the chequered flag.
Race Report by Matt Auger (matt_macau_bmw320si@hotmail.com)
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