Another testing track design this week provided some great racing in the usual three qualifying and one final round.

Qualifying
GT12 Class
James Hart was quickest in round 1 with Steve Donald second a lap down, Chelle Snowden was in third place just ahead of Bob Harley. James managed an extra lap in round 2, Steve holding onto second place with Louis Parker moving up into third place ahead of Chelle. James put in yet another lap in the third round to take pole in the A final, a good run by Louis assured him of second spot, Chelle moving up into third.
Matt Popejoy was the top F2 driver with Jordan Leavis second and Stephen Deacon third.
Jason Leavis was highest placed in F3 followed by Courtney Orme and John Stringer.

Club Mardave Class
Mike Simpson was fastest in all three qualifying rounds, Paul Galbraith was in second place after two rounds with Roy Matthews third and Harvey Forster fourth. In round three Jordan Galbraith set the fastest lap time and moved up into second place with Paul Galbraith third and Nathan Marshall fourth.
In F2 Alex Forster was fastest followed by Roy Matthews and Harvey Forster – well done Harvey a great performance.

Finals
The Mardave final was first up, Mike Simpson leading the field away from pole position and car 2 Jordan Galbraith in hot pursuit. These two built up a gap from the other drivers and Jordan took the lead on lap 11, a great race followed with Mike trying his best to get back on terms but Jordan maintaining his advantage. A mistake by Jordan on lap 20 gave Mike a chance and with two laps to go only a few inches separated the two drivers with Jordan holding on to take the win by 8/100th of a second – what a finish!
Paul Galbraith finished in second place, Alex Forster was the best placed F2 driver followed by Roy Matthews and Harvey Forster.

The GT12 C final saw an emphatic win from David Snowden starting from fifth place on the grid, Jason Leavis was second just ahead of Jack Walsh, all three drivers having a good drive.

Jordan Leavis made a good start from pole in the B final and had a convincing win over Stephen Deacon in second place with pole position driver Matt Popejoy finishing third.

In the A final James Hart lost his pole position advantage when Louis Parker overtook him on the first lap, James gradually made up ground on Louis and there then followed several minutes of racing at its best with James pressurising Louis who held on to his lead driving superbly for what seemed forever until James eventually got past and went on to win the race. Meanwhile Steve Donald was also putting in a great performance to take third place a lap ahead of Chelle Snowden in fourth. What a race to finish the evening with, it does not get any better than this!

DONT FORGET THAT THERE IS NO RACING NEXT WEEK DUE TO THE HALL NOT BEING AVAILABLE – The next club meeting is on TUESDAY 23rd MAY which will be the Spring League Round 5.

A tighter track design than usual put a premium on accurate driving.

Qualifying
Louis Parker was the top qualifier in the GT12 class a lap ahead of both Gavin Maciver in second place and Bob Harley in third.
In F2 Matt Popejoy was quickest, two laps better than Daniel Lacey in second and Stephen Deacon in third place.
Courtney Orme was the best placed F3 driver, John Stringer was second on the same laps and Jason Leavis third a lap down.
In the club mardave class Mike Simpson was first with Jordan and Joshua Galbraith second and third both a lap down.
Wes Wray was the top F2 driver followed by Alex Forster and Roy Matthews.

Finals
Mike Simpson made a good start in the mardave final to take an early lead with Jordan Galbraith dropping three places down the field on the first lap. He recovered well from this and on lap 15 caught an passed Mike to lead the race. However Mike began to make up ground again and some very exciting racing followed for several laps before Mike retook the lead on the penultimate lap to be first to the finish and win by less than a second from Jordan, Paul Galbraith finished third, two laps down.
Alex Forster was the top F2 driver once again finishing in fourth place with some consistent driving, his brother Harvey was fifth and Roy Matthews sixth.

In the GT12 C final Paul Galbraith won, Isaac Donald took an excellent second place racing GT12 for the first time – better watch out Steve he will soon be catching you up!. Jason Leavis was third and Alwyn Hodges fourth.
Daniel Lacey won a great B final, behind him Stephen Deacon and Jordan Leavis were fighting it out for second and third places, Stephen set the fastest lap and eventually finished two seconds ahead of Jordan. Courtney Orme was best F3 driver finishing in fourth place.

As usual the last race of the evening was the GT12 A final where pole position driver Louis Parker got off to a poor start on the first two laps after changing his transmitter from the qualifying, letting Gavin Maciver build up a lead. Louis came back strongly to win, Gavin was second and Steve Donald third – all on the same lap. A great race to finish the evening.

Three wins out of three rounds so far for Louis, can he make it four consecutive wins next week?

The second of six rounds in the 2017 Superleague with each drivers best five round scores to count.
Qualifying
After the three qualifying rounds James Hart was quickest with Louis Parker and Mark Deacon two laps down in second and third places respectively.
Steve Donald was the best placed F2 driver (only F2 for the Superleague!) being fourth overall followed by Daniel Lacey and Stephen Deacon.
In F3 David Snowden was best, John Stringer second and Jason Leavis in third spot.
Mike Simpson led the way in the club mardave class, Paul Galbraith was second and Jordan Galbraith third. Alex Forster was best in F2 with Roy Matthews second and Wes Wray third.

Finals
First up was the mardave class where Mike Simpson won from pole position, just managing to hold off Jordan Galbraith who finished second ahead of his Dad Paul third and brother Joshua in fourth place. In F2 it was “Team Forster” who led the way with Alex being best placed followed by Harvey who finished ahead of Roy Matthews – well done Harvey!

Jack Walsh finished second in the Gt12 C final to be second fastest overall in F3, only being beaten by David Snowden in the B final, Alwyn Hodges finished four laps adrift of Jack and was third quickest.

Daniel Lacey won an exciting B final to be top F2 driver, Jordan Leavis finished two laps behind Daniel in second place with David Snowden third.

The pace in the A final was very fast, James Hart took the win with Louis Parker second. Steve Donald finished in third place, Bob Harley fourth and Mark Deacon fifth, all three of these drivers being separated by just a few seconds.

So after round 2 only James Hart is on maximum points in the GT12 class, with Mike Simpson and Alex Forster also unbeaten in the mardave F1 and F2 classes, a long way to go yet, lets see what happens in round 3 which will be held in June.

An ordinary clubnight giving chance for drivers to experiment with their car set-up ready for next weeks superleague round 2.

Qualifying
Louis Parker was the top qualifier with Mark Deacon snatching second place from Gavin Maciver in the last qualifying round.
Paul Galbraith was four laps clear in the club mardave class, Alex Forster was in second place and Jensen Wray third.

Finals
Paul Galbraith had a convincing win in the mardave class, Roy Matthews finishing in second place after sorting out a few issues with his cars receiver. Alex Forster was third and Jensen Wray fourth beating his dad again!

Paul had a second win in the GT12 C final and Alwyn Hodges finished second, just ahead of third place driver David Snowden. Well done Alwyn!!!

Congratulations to new member Jordan Leavis who won the B final, Mike Simpson finished second in David Simpson’s Atom (yes David it is still in one piece, even if the paintwork does not look quite the same! – back to the mardave class next week with reverse), Richard Sherwin took third spot.

An exciting A final to complete the evenings racing with Louis Parker in control from start to finish to win, Mark Deacon once again set the fastest lap time but finished in second place, Steve Donald was third and Gavin Maciver fourth.

A very competitive evenings racing with trophies to be won in the finals.

Qualifying
Louis Parker won all three rounds of qualifying to take pole in the A Final, Mark Deacon was in second place and also set the fastest qualifying lap. Darren Ford was in third place followed by Gavin Maciver, Steve Donald and Bob Harley completing the line up for the A Final.
In the club Mardave class Paul Galbraith was the top driver, Mike Simpson second and Wes Wray in third place making an excellent start in his quest to win his first trophy.

Finals
In the Mardave final Paul Galbraith made a slow start and lost his pole position on the grid advantage to Mike Simpson who went into the lead on lap 1 with Wes Wray in third place. Mike and Paul pulled away from the rest of the field an a very close race followed with Mike fighting to hold onto his lead. Paul reduced the gap to less than half a second by lap 21 but could not catch up and overtake the leader. Things were looking good for Wes half way through the race until disaster struck when his transmitter lost power forcing a long pit stop. Meanwhile Alex Forster moved up into third place and retained this to the finish being a comfortable two laps clear of Roy Matthews in fourth place. A win for Mike and second place for Paul in one of the best Mardave races for some time.

Visiting driver Jason Leavis was on pole for the GT12 C final with Paul Carter car 2 and McKenzie Wallace car 3.
McKenzie made a great start and took the lead on lap 1 with Jack Walsh car 4 in second place. Paul moved up into second place on lap 2 with McKenzie starting to pull away from everyone and extend his lead. There was a fine race between Jack, Courtney and Paul for second, third and fourth places. It went right to the wire with Paul taking second, Courtney third and Jack fourth just a few seconds between them. McKenzie went on to win by two laps – a great performance in his first trophy meeting – well done.

The line up for the B Final had the makings of a great race and we were not to be disappointed! Daniel Lacey starting from pole was leading after lap 1 and went on to win the race by one lap with some fast and accurate driving. Nick Wallace starting from position 5 on the grid made a great start and quickly moved up into second place but was overtaken by Matt Popejoy a few laps later. Stephen Deacon was just a couple of seconds down on these two drivers as they all tried to keep pace with Daniel and eventually finished a few seconds apart, Matt second, Nick third and Stephen fourth.

In the A Final Louis Parker was the leader after the first lap with Mark Deacon second and Gavin Maciver moving up into third spot with Darren Ford fourth. Gavin overtook Mark on lap 9 only for Mark to regain second place on lap 24. Louis drove an almost flawless race, Mark set the fastest lap time but could not catch Louis. Then on lap 33 Mark’s speed controller cut out for a few seconds and Gavin moved up into second place until on the last lap Mark got past him again to take second by 0.28 seconds – what a finish to end the evenings racing!

Afterwards the trophies were presented by Chelle Snowden.

Some exciting racing in Round 2 of the current league despite the number of drivers being lower than normal.
The winter league trophies were presented before the finals, congratulations to all of the winners.

Qualifying
Louis Parker made an excellent start in round 1 to set the fastest time with Mark Deacon second and Steve Donald third. Despite winning both rounds 2 & 3 Mark could not match Louis’s round 1 time and had to settle for second place on the final grid, Steve taking the third spot.
In GT12 F2 Daniel Lacey just got the better of Matt Popejoy with Rob Hambridge third struggling with his cars setup.
It was a head to head between Courtney Orme and Alwyn Hodges in F3 with Courtney being best with a 2 lap advantage.

In the club mardave class Mike Simpson won all three rounds with Paul Galbraith second and Joshua Galbraith third. In F2 Wes “I still have not won a trophy” Wray was 3 seconds quicker than Roy Matthews and was the top driver followed by Roy with Alex Forster third.

Finals
The mardave final resulted in another win for Mike, Paul was second and a great drive from Alex Forster earned him third place and top in F2 after a close battle with Roy Matthews who finished just over 1 second behind, followed by Harvey Forster.

Alwyn Hodges won the GT12 C final with Courtney Orme having a few issues with his car.

The B final was a super race, Bob Harley, Matt Popejoy and Daniel Lacey were all very evenly matched and in with a change of winning. As expected the result was close, Bob winning the race, Matt second and Daniel third.

Just the A final left and Louis Parker made a great start with car 2 Mark Deacon in hot pursuit and Chelle Snowden quickly moving into third place ahead of Steve Donald. A slow lap 17 from Mark let Chelle by into second place but he fought back well to regain position on lap 24 by a very narrow margin. Chelle got past Mark again on lap 27 and retained her position to finish in second place behind Louis. The excitement was not over yet as on the very final lap Steve Donald overtook Mark to take third place leaving him to finish fourth after such a fine start. Did his car let him down or was it the shock of winning a trophy in the winter league? Well done Louis, another excellent result.

The start of a new league on a “Bob Harley” built track – could it give him an advantage in the racing?

In the GT12 qualifying Ashley King was quickest after two rounds but Louis Parker went a lap better in round 3 to take pole in the final, Ashley being in second place closely followed by newly promoted Steve Donald in third place.
Darren Ford was the leader in F2 with Stephen Deacon second and Daniel Lacey third.
David Snowden had a commanding lead in F3 over John Stringer in second place, Courtney Orme was third.
The Club Mardave class was a little depleted Mike Simpson being top in F1 ahead of Paul Galbraith.
In F2 Wes Wray was fastest, Alex Forster second and Jenson Wray third.

The Mardave final Paul Galbraith got ahead of pole position driver Mike Simpson but Mike eventually caught up and passed him to take the win. It was a “Team Forster” battle for third and fourth places with Alex getting the upper hand – better watch out though Alex as Harvey is getting quicker every week!

Paul Galbraith won the GT12 C final, Courtney Orme finished in second place after a close race with pole position driver John Stringer, but the top placed driver in F3 was David Snowden who was fifth in the B final.

Matt Popejoy was the quickest driver in the B final but it was Chelle Snowden who won the race with Matt and Daniel Lacey having a great race for second place – it went to Matt by a margin of just over half a second.

A great race to finish the evening followed which saw Louis Parker take an impressive win, Ashley King being second after a close battle with Steve Donald and Darren Ford taking fourth place.

So after round 1 there are four drivers with maximum points in the league – Mike Simpson, Louis Parker, Darren Ford and David Snowden. Can they all retain their 100% record next week?

An ordinary clubnight this week following the completion of the winter league last week.

Qualifying
In the GT12 class Richard Hicklin set the pace in round 1 of qualifying with Louis Parker second and Mark Deacon third, both a lap down. Newly promoted to F1 driver Steve Donald, Bob Harley and Chelle Snowden took the next three places a further lap off the pace.
In the Club Mardave class Paul Galbraith was quickest followed by Roy Matthews and Alex Forster.

In round 2 Louis Parker took over the lead just over 4 seconds ahead of Richard Hicklin with Chelle moving up into third place, Mark fourth and Stephen Deacon fifth. Could it be two Deacons in the A final this evening????
Paul Galbraith improved on his first round time to retain the lead in the mardave class with Jordan Galbraith moving into second place ahead of Roy Matthews.

Louis retained his lead in the final round to take pole in the A Final, Steve Donald had a good drive to move into third place, Chelle was fourth and Mark fifth.
In the mardave class Joshua Galbraith moved up into third place to line up on the final grid behind his dad Paul and brother Jordan – could they make it a clean sweep 1-2-3 in the final???

Finals
The mardave final was first and with all three Galbraith’s keen to be the top driver of the evening it was going to be an exciting race. Pole position driver Paul had a poor first lap and found himself down in third place by the start of lap 2 behind Jordan and Joshua. These two were consistently lapping quicker than Paul and extending their lead. At the finish Jordan was the winner narrowly beating Joshua and 3 laps ahead of Paul with Roy Matthews finishing in fourth place. Yes it was a Galbraith 1-2-3 but not quite as Paul had planned it!

Paul Carter after just being promoted to F2 won the GT12 C Final after trailing in the early stages and having a great race with Rob Hambridge who finished second and fast improving Jack Walsh third.

Bob Harley and Nick Wallace were lapping the quickest in the B Final with Alun Forster also going well. A close race and it was Bob who was the winner, Alan taking an excellent second place and Nick finishing third.

The last race of the evening was the GT12 A final where Louis Parker led the drivers away from pole position, it was car 2 Richard Hicklin who took and early lead after lap 1 with Louis second, Mark Deacon third and Matt Popejoy in fourth place. Louis and Richard were both lapping very quickly with Louis retaking the lead on lap 9 leaving Richard to try and chase him down again. A great drive from Louis gave him the win with Richard having to retire on lap 28. This left Mark Deacon and Steve Donald fighting for second and third places, it was a close thing but Mark finished 3 seconds ahead to take second. Matt Popejoy was fourth and Stephen Deacon an excellent fifth – yes there were two Deacons in the A Final for the first time at Burton.

Next week sees the start of the Spring League.

Louis Parker wins a thrilling A Final beating Gavin Maciver by 0.55 seconds with Mark Deacon taking third place and Steve Donald fourth.
Jordan Galbraith dominated the club mardave class being 2 laps better than everyone in qualifying and winning the final.

Track
A new James Hart design this week was excellent

Qualifying
GT12
In round 1 of the qualifying F2 driver Steve Donald put in a great drive to be fastest followed by F1 drivers Gavin Maciver and Mark Deacon. Daniel Lacey was in second position in F2 followed by Javier Jimenez.
Paul Carter was the leading driver in F3 a lap ahead of David Snowden.
Mark Deacon put in a stunning drive in round 2 to take the lead just ahead of louis Parker with Steve Donald unable to improve on his first round result and dropping down into third place. We were looking forward to a final round shoot out this week for League third place trophy between Ashley King and Mark but with Ashley not racing it was not to be – was the pressure too much?
In the last round of Louis Parker hit the front finding an extra two laps to take pole in the finals, Mark was second and Gavin third. Steve Donald was fourth and best in F2 with Daniel Lacey second and Matt Popejoy moving up into third place.
Paul Carter headed F3, David Snowden was second and John Stringer third.

V12 Mardave
Mike Simpson won round 1 with Alex Forster in second place and Roy Matthews third, in round 2 “Team Galbraith” sprang into action with Joshua, Jordan and Paul taking second, third and fourth places – was the evening to be a Galbraith 1-2-3 finish in the final?  Roy moved ahead of Alex in F2 with Wes Wray third.
In the last qualifying round Jordan moved up a gear to have a runaway victory by two laps to take pole with Mike second and Joshua third.

Finals
Jordan Galbraith started from pole on the mardave final grid and had a great drive to set the fastest lap and win by a clear lap. Behind him things were much closer between Mike Simpson, Joshua and Paul Galbraith. In the end Mike finished second just managing to hold off Joshua who finished third. Roy Matthews was the best in F2 ahead of both Harvey and Alex Foster.

Courtney Orme after having a few issues with his car earlier in the evening came good in the GT12 D final to win with Callum Howard, Keith Sutherland and Alwyn Hodges all finishing on the same lap in that order.

The C final saw David Snowden have a good win with Rob Hambridge finishing second after a bit more tweaking to his cars setup. Jack Walsh finished in third place.

Bob Harley took the B final and the best lap time, Matt Popejoy was going very quickly but had to retire from the race leaving Daniel Lacey and Javier Jimenez to fight it out for second and third places, it was a great battle with Daniel finishing ahead by just 0.3 seconds.

The A final had a dramatic start with car 3 Gavin Maciver moving straight into first place on the opening lap closely followed by Louis Parker, Steve Donald and Mark Deacon. Louis was chasing Gavin hard and on lap 10 overtook to take the lead only for Gavin to regain it 2 laps later. Steve was holding on to third place despite Marks best efforts to catch him. Louis was lapping the quickest and gradually eating into Gavin’s lead but could he catch and overtake him. Mark finally moved ahead of Steve on lap 26 to finish in third place. The battle between Louis and Gavin continued and with everyone watching intently got ahead of Gavin on the penultimate lap to win by half a second. Wow, what a finish to a great evenings racing!

Congratulations to all the league winners

The penultimate round of the winter league produced an excellent evenings racing on a great track design.

Qualifying
In the GT12 class James Hart was quickest after round 1, but in form Louis Parker took over the lead in round 2 and consolidated pole position for the final with another fast run in the last qualifying round. Darren Ford was also flying and took second place ahead of James in third, setting up the prospect of a great final.

Steve Donald was the best placed F2 driver with Stephen Deacon eventually getting the better of Daniel Lacey in round 3 to take second place, Daniel being third.

In F3 David Snowden and Paul Carter were four laps ahead of everybody else, David being quickest, Paul second and Courtney Orme third.

In the mardave class Mike Simpson qualified for pole position in the final with Roy Matthews second and Alex Forster third.

Finals
The mardave final produced the closest finish of the evening, Mike Simpson was the winner and with just over a minute of the race remaining Roy Matthews was in second place with a five second advantage over Alex Forster in third spot. All this changed on lap 21 when Roy encountered a problem with his car and Alex shot into second place with a 4 second lead. Roy pulled this back to under 2 seconds with a lap to go, Alex made a minor error on the last lap resulting in a wheel to wheel race for the finishing line which Alex won by 2/100th of a second to claim second place by half a wheel – what a finish! – well done Alex.

John Stringer won the GT12 D final, Keith Sutherland still working on his new cars setup was second and Callum Howard was third, a close race this with all the first three drivers finishing just a few seconds apart.

David Snowden had a good drive in the C final to take the win, league leader Paul Carter was second and Courtney Orme third.

The B final was a good race with all the drivers evenly matched for speed, Steve Donald and Gavin Maciver had a great battle with Steve eventually taking the win with Gavin a couple of seconds down. Stephen Deacon (the only “Team Deacon” driver this week) was also on good form and took third place.

Louis Parker was on pole position for the A final and made a good start, James Hart got ahead of car 2 Darren Ford on lap 3 and set his sights on trying to catch Louis. The race for the win was between these three drivers, Louis had his car set up well and was lapping very quickly and kept James at bay until lap 10 where he eventually took the lead and went on to win the race. Good stuff to watch this, great performances from all the drivers.

So with just one round of the league left several of the league positions will be decided next week . In the GT12 F1 Mark Deacon has a slender advantage on just 3 points over Ashley King for third place. In F2 a good result by Matt Popejoy could see him snatch second place fro Daniel Lacey and in F3 it is still possible for John Stringer to push Courtney Orme out of second place.
Finally in the mardave F2 Alex Forster leads Roy Matthews by just 3 points – on this weeks results this will definitely be close at the end of the evening. So roll on next week – no pressure drivers!