Summer Solstice Marks Midway Point of a Fantastic Motorsport Season

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Category: Home Page Editorials

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

The post race atmosphere was as electric as you'd expect and as we all retired to the members club we were treated to the rain-plagued, delayed and, in the end, utterly incredible Canadian Grand Prix, Jenson Button giving all of the attendant Brits reason to cheer and proving that F1 is finally getting back on track.

Back at home, things are equally exciting. Our own crowd-puller, the British Touring Car Championship is also slap bang in the middle of its season, the three rounds at Croft preceding its traditional 'summer break'. As things stand, Honda racer Matt Neal is at the top of the table thanks to two wins at Croft, but hard-charging Mat Jackson is only 9 points below, having claimed the third round win at the North Yorkshire circuit. Reigning champ Jason Plato is 40 points shy of the chase to retain his title thanks to his dramatic smash at Donington Park in April, and the controversial performance parity measures which he's been in a little trouble for criticising.

The other big National race weekends feature the pairing of the British GT Championship and British F3 International Series. It's a package which never seems to attract its fair share of the crowds, but which provides all the thrills and spills of its ToCA counterpart.

British F3 has the facts to back up its claims of being a stepping stone to Formula 1. Three of its recent champions - Sergio Perez, Jamie Alguersuari and Daniel Ricciardo - all have roles within F1 teams, and many of the drivers of the F1 grid have passed through here. Hoping to join them is this year's current championship leader, Brazilian Felipe Nasr, who has taken four wins this season, including a brilliant drive in treacherous conditions at Brands Hatch at the weekend. Nasr sits 50 points clear of second place Lucas Foresti, but it's by no means a one-horse race - there have been six different winners in the 12 races so far, and with a further 18 races left to run, the crown is far from settled.

Sharing the headline status with F3 is the British GT Championship, a series which seems to have a growing fanbase, but always feels like it should be more popular. This season is a vintage one, with a number of new and spectacular arrivals including the monster Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 of the Jones brothers and an influx of stunning Ferrari 458 Italia GT3s, all adding to the tale.

With three of its UK events done and another three to go, plus a flyaway round at Spa, the 'top' GT3 class is being led by the Audi R8 LMS of Matt Bell and Mike Guasch. Their lead has been cut to only 7 points however, after an opening lap departure into the barrier and gravel at Brands Hatch left the car badly damaged. The duo now have work to do after missing out on points in a higher-scoring 2 hour race (1.5x points compared to the normal double-header 1hr races). Glynn and Jim Geddie are sitting in second spot in the first of the Italias, but the Ferrari 430 of Hector Lester and Allan Simonsen plus David and Godfrey Jones' SLS are only 5 points adrift.

The GT4 class is a battle of the lightweights, with the Belshaw/Clutton KTM X-Bow currently marking its territory on the top step, while the Norstrom/Clarke Lotus Evora continues to hold off the Wakefield/Rattenbury Ginetta for second place. The two main classes are close-run with battles throughout the field and if you've not caught the championship in the flesh, it's a place to get close to some fantastic looking, and sounding, machinery with the type of action that's made it an MSportUK favourite for over a decade.

With the three main British championships set for a dramatic climax, a wealth of hard-fought club championships and some big international series visiting these shores, not least the Le Mans Series race at Silverstone, the second half of the season looks to be continuing the fantastic trend set so far.