Champions were crowned and title battles intensified at Snetterton this past weekend (September 14/15) as the British Automobile Racing Club took centre stage in Norfolk for what proved to be a dramatic two days of track action.
Recent campaigns have seen the annual late-summer visit to the 2.99-mile circuit dish up its fair share of thrills and spills, and this year proved to be no different as no less than six BARC categories wowed the crowds.
The British Endurance Championship in association with Motorsport UK closed out its season with a two-hour race that was comfortably won by the PB Racing with JMH duo of Peter Erceg and Marcus Clutton.
Having been the benchmark team from the get-go in the long distance series, the Audi GT3 pairing capped off a remarkable season by clinching pole position, race victory and the fastest lap around the challenging course.
The cherry on top for Erceg and Clutton was that their victory at the finale was enough for them to secure the overall title for the first time, having gone close to capturing the coveted crown last year.
While there was one clear overall winner in the British Endurance Championship, the Britcar Trophy Championship crowned joint title winners following what was a thrilling crescendo on Sunday afternoon.
Two all-action 50 minute races saw Bryan Bransom and Maurizio Sciglio enjoy a share of the spoils however all eyes were on the teams of Rob Ellick and Mark Jones and also Maurice Henry and Hadley Simpson.
With each pairing tallying a podium in their respective classes, the numbers were crunched post-race and it was declared a tie, making them both 2024 Britcar Trophy champions.
Over in the British Truck Racing Championship there was both agony and ecstasy for a number of title contenders as the battle for supremacy reached fever pitch across Division 1 and Division 2.
Team Oliver Racing enjoyed arguably their best outing of the season to-date as both Michael Oliver and ten-time title winner Stuart Oliver stood on the top step of the podium; Michael – the younger of the two – doing so on two occasions.
In Division 2, defending champion Paul Rivett also suffered mechanical woes as his engine expired in the closing stages of race one which forced him to withdraw from the remainder of the race meeting.
Rivett’s absence opened the door for John Powell and Simon Cole to extend their advantage over the NAPA Racing UK driver, with Powell claiming a clean sweep of race wins while Cole shadowed him home by securing runners-up laurels in all five contests.
Matt Simpson and Dale Gent renewed their fight for outright honours in the Pickup Truck Racing Championship; with the pair leaving Norfolk with a share of the spoils after some hard-fought battles.
Former British Touring Car Championship race winner Simpson made a long-overdue return to the top step of the podium in the opening encounter and had looked to repeat the feat in race two before being hit by a track limits penalty, dropping him to second behind Gent.
With the scores at one apiece heading into the final race of the weekend, Simpson and Gent streaked clear of the chasing pack and served up a captivating wheel-to-wheel fight for those in attendance. In the end, Simpson would prevail by a little over one second.
Daniel Munro continued his rich vein of form in the OT Coupe Cup with Toyo Tires as he powered his way to a dominant double. Ahead of the series’ finale at Castle Combe next month, Munro stamped his authority on the rest of the field with a superlative display.
Mark Ridout pipped Munro to pole position in qualifying by three tenths of a second however it wasn’t long before the tables turned, with Munro blasting into the lead and then onto victory in a breathless opening contest.
Starting in top spot for race two, Munro then fended off the race-long advances of Ridout from lights-to-flag, while last year’s overall winner Luca Staccini Anzanello kept a watching brief back in third.
Closing out the weekend’s track action were three races from the Adrian Flux Insurance MG Owners Club Championship, one of which was being re-run from Cadwell Park earlier in the season.
Multiple champion Steve McDermid was unsurprisingly the driver to beat as he claimed a clean sweep of wins, with races one and two seeing his son Jake McDermid join him on the podium to make it a historic father-son top two.
The Cadwell Park re-run meanwhile saw Andy Preece emerge as McDermid’s nearest challenger in second while Josh Addison completed the podium.
To view the full classification of results from all sessions at Snetterton, CLICK HERE.