| Race report by Mirage |
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It was another great team effort by Mirage drivers at round four of the Schumacher BTCC; the meeting had a strong entry with many drivers using the event as a warm up for this weekends BRCA Touring Car national.
In modified it was local driver Olly Jefferies who set the pace on the drying tack, Olly continued to press home his advantage as qualifying moved on to round two, XRAY's Ben Cosgrove was Olly's closest challenger at this point and it was looking like these two would dominate the class.
In Pro Stock it was another Jefferies was making the most of home advantage, after the first two rounds of qualifying it was Olly's brother Tom who was highest placed Mirage driver holding an excellent third place. |
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The last round of qualifying was the round that would decide the grid order with times toppling as the track started to give its best traction, Ben took FTD in modified with a dumping Olly having to settle for second, also having a good run in the last round was Phil Chambers with his XRAY T2'008, Sam Smith left it late but sneaked his T2'008 into the A with a do or die last run.
In Pro Stock Tom dropped to 7th in the last run, Tom was slightly hampered by a lack of new tyres while around him most of the opposition went for new rubber in the last run, new Mirage recruit Glen Westwood was another using the meeting for practice and he lined up just behind Tom in eighth.
The first of the modified A finals was all about Ben and Olly, Ben was under incredible pressure from the off and did not have time to relax throughout the whole race as Olly crawled all over the back of the XRAY but Ben held out and Olly kept it clean. A great race for those watching with Ben taking the first leg win.
Luke Hobson narrowly missed out on an A final place but made up for it by winning leg one of the Pro Stock B final while the first leg of A final saw Tom Jefferies well and truly savaged in the early part of the race, Glen fought through to a strong 4th early on but unfortunately had a few issues and finished in 9th. |
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Leg two of the Pro Stock B final was a classic and showed off the talents of the new Mirage young team driver Ayrton Anderson, he and Luke Hobson had a classic race with both XRAY drivers taking turns to lead, Ayrton managed to have a seriously impressive race to beat the experience of Luke and the watching crowd showed their appreciation for what was a really gripping contest.
Pro Stock leg two of the A was very similar to leg one, Tom got hit off early on and Glen climbed up the field from his eighth place on the grid. It was a bit of the same luck for Glenn, showing a strong start but a few accidents caused a few problems and saw him retire.
Leg two of the modified A final was a repeat of the first until at halfway Olly lost control, spinning and crashed heavily, Ben was able to cruise to the win leaving Olly well down, once the results were added up Olly was surprised to get third with Ben taking with win from Chris Kerswell.
So another great weekend for Mirage drivers, all now head back to Kemble for this weekends national confident their cars are working well, Olly needs to sort his dumping issues and Ben now has now moved into serious contention for the win. Andy Moore makes his 2008 national debut and Jonny Bowden is also back hoping to repeat his good result here last year. Elliott Harper is another driver who is going to be in the frame, so on paper Mirage look very strong for this weekend, watch this space............... |
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Modified top 10
1. Ben Cosgrove - XRAY T2'008
2. Chris Kerswell
3. Olly Jefferies
4. Brian Eldridge - XRAY T2'008
5. Phil Chambers - XRAY T2'008
6. Sam Smith - XRAY T2'008
7. Mark Stiles
8. Adrian Bidewell
9. Mark Gilliland - XRAY T2'008
10.Andrew Robson |
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