28-02-17 Superleague Round 1

New track white markings used for the first time this week for the start of the superleague, with rounds planned to take place during the months of February, April, June, August, October and December.

Qualifying
After the first round James Hart was leading on 42 laps with Mark Deacon making an impressive start to be in second place with 40 laps, Darren Ford and Gavin Maciver both being a further lap down.
In F2 Steve Donald led the way on 38 laps, Stephen Deacon second on 36 and Daniel Lacey in third place with 35 laps. Both “Team Deacon” drivers lying in second place in their divisions – could it be their evening.
David Snowden was leading F3 on 31 laps, Jack Walsh second on 27 laps, just a few seconds ahead of John Stringer.
In the club mardave class Mike Simpson was quickest with 32 laps, Alex Forster second on 26 and Harvey Forster 20.

Round 2 saw Darren Ford take over second place from Mark Deacon who failed to improve on his first round score, club chairman Rob Hambridge racing his new car for the first time moved up into 11th place overall just ahead of Ashley King.

In the final round James Hart improved his time to be quickest, Mark Deacon shot back up into second place a lap clear of Darren Ford, Gavin Maciver and Ashley King who had his first good run of the evening.
Steve Donald was best in F2 followed by Daniel Lacey and Stephen Deacon – could Stephen keep his car performing for the finals after his recent reliability problems?
No change in the club mardave class positions from the first round.

Finals
Mike Simpson won the mardave final, Alex Forster was second and his brother Harvey was third.

Jack Walsh had a great win in the GT12 C final after a good race with John Stringer and Courtney Orme, in the end Jack was almost one lap ahead of John and Courtney a further lap down. Well done Jack!

A very competitive B final produced some close racing between Daniel Lacey, Stephen Deacon and Chris Holmes. Unfortunately Chris had to retire part way through the race with electrical problems. Stephen was slightly quicker than Daniel and was first across the finishing line to take a well deserved win, Daniel was second and Chelle Snowden third. A win for “Team Deacon” set the standard for the evening, could Mark repeat the result in the A final?, we were about to find out.

James Hart made a good start from pole with Mark in hot pursuit, at the end of lap 2 Mark had taken the lead and was keeping ahead of James despite a lot of pressure. James regained the lead on lap 6 but Mark was still challenging hard, his excellent run came to an end however on laps 13 and 14 when first Darren Ford moved into second place and then Gavin Maciver also got past Mark to take third place. They finished in that order, a super race to watch, Steve Donald also having a great race to finish in fifth place just 6 seconds adrift of Mark. Ashley King finished in last place a further 2 laps down.

A great start to the league, remember drivers five scores out of a possible six count at the end of the year.