RACE REPORTS 2001

BARWELL OFF TO A FLYING START IN SEASON-OPENER !

Rounds One and Two at Brands Hatch, April 17th

Barwell Motorsport made a winning-start to its 2001 British Touring Car Championship campaign yesterday, with James Kaye's Honda Accord scoring the Production Class victory in the Feature race at Brands Hatch. This result was a richly deserved reward for the hard-working Barwell crew, who had fought through a tough weekend and overcome various difficulties that restricted our performance during the official qualifying day.

Pre-season testing form had showed that the main opposition to us this year would again come from the powerful Peugeot 306GTis (now being run by team HTML), with the GA/Janspeed Alfa Romeo 156 of Gavin Pyper also proving to be very quick. The HTML Peugeot team had signed two very good drivers in Simon Harrison and Roger Moen, and at the official Brands test these two were 'sandwiched' by our drivers, Kaye and Peter Cate, as James set the pace.

During Sunday's single half-hour official qualifying session, however, we suffered some technical difficulties with the cars which meant that both the HTML Peugeots and Pyper's Alfa leapfrogged Kaye on the official starting grids for both the Sprint and Feature races. Cate, meanwhile, suffered a worse fate as a late-session spin restricted him to a starting position of 10th.

This year our Production Class has a packed entry of 23 cars, which means that we compete in our own Sprint race, without the Touring Class cars. The first ever stand-alone BTC Production Sprint race (over 25 laps) at Brands was an absolute stunner, which included a five-car scrap for the lead in the early stages, and kept the crowd of nearly 20,000 enthralled for its duration. Our man Kaye made a blinding start from the second row of the grid to pull fractionally ahead on the outside of Harrison and Moen, as they blasted three-abreast up to the first corner, Paddock Hill Bend. Just as he was about to surge into the lead, however, James fluffed his gearchange and in an instant he had dropped from first to seventh!

Kaye, now livid with himself, then set about a excellent recovery drive back through the front-running pack of cars. After pulling off some superb overtaking manoeuvres James got himself back into third place by lap 13, and set about catching the leading Peugeot duo of Harrison and Moen. Sadly, however, during his battle back up the order the rear of the Accord had been hit quite hard and the rear exhaust mount had been broken. Thus, just 12 laps away from a secure third place finish, Kaye was forced to come into the pits as the exhaust was now dragging on the ground. Although a quick fix was effected, any chance of a points finish was now gone.

Similar cruel luck befell the sister Barwell Motorsport Honda of Cate, who had any chance of a top finish ruined on the opening lap. Peter made his customary excellent start and immediately surged into eighth place through the first two corners, but was then hit from behind which sent him spinning across the grass at Graham Hill Bend. Unfortunately this contact had ripped part of the rear bumper away from the car and left it hanging loose, which meant Cate had to make a quick pit stop in order to have it taped back on. Luckily, at this time the 'Safety Car' had been deployed to slow the field down due to a big accident at Paddock Hill Bend, and thus Pete was able to rejoin the race at the back without losing a lap.

By lap 11, however, the rear bumper was flapping again, and another visit to the pits was required in order to tear the offending section off completely. Once again, fortunately for us, the Safety Car was out at this time and thus Pete was able to re-commence his fight back up through the field from dead last. This he did in some style, picking off a total of eight cars before he came up against the privately-run Peugeot of 17-year-old Tom Boardman. The former oval racing champion may be young, but he certainly knows how to defend his position in a race, and proved to be our man's nemesis over the final laps. After keeping a cool head during the early race dramas, Peter did well to claim ninth spot on his BTCC debut and his first ever helping of BTCC championship points.

The Feature race was (thankfully!) a much more straightforward affair. Despite the worry of the first ever BTCC rolling start, all of the front-runners negotiated the first corner successfully, and James managed to fight back the advances of fast new youngster Mat Jackson (Ford Focus) and hang on to fourth spot. By lap eight he had closed down and disposed of Pyper's Alfa Romeo, and was sitting right behind the Peugeots of leader Moen and Harrison. It was clear that Moen was holding up both his team-mate and Kaye, however, and on lap 12 Harrison swept past the leader and James made sure that he followed Simon through to take up second place. By this time Cate was also enjoying an almighty tussle with reigning National Saloon Cup champion, Toni Ruokonen (Mitsubishi Carisma), for eighth place. This battle became one of the focal points of the whole race, as the two of them ran side-by-side through many parts of the circuit and swapped places on a regular basis.

We know that our Honda Accord's strengths are its reliability and consistent pace over a long race distance. This proved to be the case as the race at the front became a game of cat and mouse, as Harrison pulled out an early three-second advantage over Kaye which was then being reeled in as the race entered its second half. We prepared ourselves for a 'grandstand finish' as James was on course to catch the leader with just a few laps remaining. With five laps to go, however, the Barwell car took the lead, as the fragile Peugeot shed one of its front wheels. To complete our joy, Pete came out on top of his fight with Ruokonen and pulled away to finish an excellent seventh to give us valuable Teams' Championship points.