Carl Boardley and Alex Ley were the winners in two exciting TCR UK races on the Silverstone National circuit at the weekend, with Boardley extending his championship lead in the process.
Adam Shepherd had qualified his Hyundai i30 N on pole on Saturday, a mere 0.022 seconds ahead of title contender Bruce Winfield’s Hyundai.
At the start of the opening race, whilst Shepherd assumed the lead, Winfield made a poor start and dropped to third, behind the fast-starting CUPRA of Boardley.
– Advertisement –
As the battles raged in the mid-pack, Shepherd kept his head down and led for the opening 15 laps, until his car’s alternator belt failed on lap 16, seeing him cruise back to the pits and handing the lead to Boardley.
As the battle for second raged on, Boardley was able to open up a lead of over two seconds to record his fourth win of the season.
Boardley’s points advantage was even bigger due to his main rival Winfield retiring from the race on lap eight with a left-rear suspension toe link failure.
Jenson Brickley prevailed in second, after a fierce race-long battle with Joe Marshall, Bradley Kent, Scott Sumpton and Jac Constable.
On lap ten, Brickley had taken what was then third from Sumpton, but a lap later as Sumpton dived back down the inside at Becketts, there was slight contact, forcing Brickley wide and allowing Marshall and Kent back through.
Brickley then bode his time in the final laps, passing both Marhsall and Kent on lap 19 for what was then second.
Marshall completed the podium in his Rob Boston Racing Audi, aided when Kent pulled his Hyundai Veloster off on lap 21 with a front-left tyre failure.
Constable was fourth, having caught the squabbling pack at mid-distance, finishing ahead of Oliver Cottam’s Audi, the latter having been muscled out of fourth and down to seventh on lap nine when Brickley forced him wide into the gravel on the exit of Luffield.
Cottam took the chequered flag in fifth, ahead of Chris Smiley’s Restart Racing Honda in sixth.
The top ten was completed by Callum Newsham, Bradley Hutchison, Scott Sumpton and Matthew Wilson.
Race one result
In race two, it was JWB Motorsport’s Matthew Wilson who started from the reverse-grid pole, with Restart Racing’s Sumpton alongside.
Sumpton got the jump on Wilson at the start, with the latter dropping four places in the first corner.
Going into Becketts for the first time, Brad Hutchison was tagged by Callum Newsham’s Hyundai, which unsettled the Audi and knocked him into the rear of Smiley’s newer-spec Honda.
Smiley speared off the circuit into the barriers and out of the race, whilst Newsham was also out with broken left-front suspension.
After the safety car was initially called the race ended up being red-flagged to allow the recovery of the cars and a full restart to take place.
At the restart, Sumpton held the early lead of the now 15-minute race, whilst Alex Ley claimed second from Wilson at Becketts.
Ley then pounced on Sumpton for the lead at Brooklands on the same lap, and with slight contact he was through, as Sumpton lost nine places with a huge slide he had to fight to recover.
Ley went on to hold his lead thereafter, winning by just over a second from Brickley’s CUPRa at the chequered flag.
However, Brickley was later handed a six-place penalty, dropping him to eighth, after he made contact with points leader Boardley on lap five whilst battling for fifth.
That gave Wislon a first-ever podium in the series with second, whilst Winfield completed the podium in third, despite an incident on lap seven when he hit team-mate Shepherd at Brooklands, resulting in the left-rear suspension on Shepherd’s car breaking.
Hutchison was fourth, ahead of Darelle Wilson in fifth, who claimed his second-best result of the year.
Andy Wilmot was sixth, benefitting when Boardley slowed and lost several places two laps from the end, with Boardley classified in seventh, after Brickley’s penalty.
Sumpton and Luke Sargeant completed the top ten. Jac Constable had to start the restarted race from the pitlane due to a clutch issue, and was ultimately only 11th at the finish.
Marshall spun out of fourth all on his own on the first lap of the restarted race and subsequently finished in 12th.
For the second race in a row, Bradley Kent retired – having just fought his way into second after posting the fastest lap of the race, the Hyundai Veloster driver fell off the circuit at Becketts and ended the race in the tyre barrier.
Also retiring and losing a strong result was Oliver Cottam, who ran in second before his Audi slowed with an issue just one lap from the finish.
Race two result
