The battle for supremacy on the support package of the British Touring Car Championship intensified at Silverstone this past weekend (September 16/17) to set up what promises to be a grandstand finish at Brands Hatch in less than two weeks’ time.
Taking centre stage at the Home of British Motor Racing, thrills and spills played out across a total of four support categories, with one title – the Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain – being wrapped up with a round to spare.
Having been the form driver for much of the season, Team Parker Racing’s Adam Smalley converted his commanding advantage at the top of the standings into an unassailable lead after producing an exemplary performance.
Narrowly missing out on pole position in qualifying, the Porsche GB Junior driver shadowed NAPA Racing UK’s Gus Burton in the opening race – which was hit by mixed weather conditions – to put himself on the cusp of glory.
A few hours later, Smalley clinched things with a measured drive onto the third step of the podium whilst his team-mate Harry Foster led home Huge Ellis to take victory.
Dan Zelos edged ever-closer to becoming a multiple champion in the Vertu Motors MINI CHALLENGE JCW as he guided his EXCELR8 Motorsport machine to a commanding pair of race wins around the 1.64-mile National circuit.
Blasting to pole position in qualifying, Zelos could do nothing to stop Will Orton from reigning supreme in the weekend’s opening bout before he struck back in style during Sunday’s two action-packed races.
Team Parker Racing’s Joe Warhurst was perfection personified in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain as he claimed a stunning hat-trick of race wins to open up a five-point lead at the head of the championship standings.
Proving to be the driver to beat from the get-go, Warhurst hustled his rear-wheel-drive machine onto pole position in qualifying and from there he didn’t put a wheel wrong to claim a remarkable clean sweep.
Rounding out the weekend’s track action – and making its first-ever appearance on the BTCC support bill – were three races from the Avon Tyres Caterham Seven UK Championship.
Concluding their campaign with what was arguably one of the biggest events in the series’ history, the all-action one-make category had the bumper crowd on their collective feet as they served up a feast of wheel-to-wheel entertainment.
Just 0.064s separated Gordon Sawyer and Stephen Lyall in a frenetic opening contest before Aaron Head came to the fore in race two, prevailing from an almighty battle for outright honours which included Jake Swann and Angus Maclaine.
Head was declared the winner in the weekend’s shortened third and final contest too following a sizeable accident just six laps in.
To view the full classification of results from all sessions at Silverstone, CLICK HERE.