Everyone's a Winner at the Caterham Festival
11
October 2004
A fantastic celebration of the world's most-raced car. That's the
verdict on the 2004 Caterham Festival, held at Brands Hatch over the
weekend
(9/10 Oct).
With nearly 300 entries for 18 races and eight championship titles
to be decided, there was never any doubt that the Festival - the third
to be held since the event's inception in 2000 - was going to provide
plenty of thrills.
The rain held off and the racing was every bit as close and exciting
as expected. "It's been a fantastic event," said Caterham
Cars managing director Simon Nearn. "I don't think I've ever seen
so many happy smiling racers and spectators. They've all enjoyed some
spectacular races and some really great battles. It's the drivers who
make Caterham racing a world leader and they deserve the praise for
putting on such a great show for us all."
The event also marked the successful race debut of the new Caterham
CSR, the first track example of which was handled with success by
Japanese drivers Yoshikazo Suzuki and Takeshi Ito.
The Festival excitement began on Saturday, with evo Caterham Academy
championship victories for Patrick Scharfegger and Guy Harrington,
and Academy race wins for Luke Dimsdale and Jeremy Ellis. In the
Autosport Caterham Eurocup Jon Barnes secured the R400 class title
and Chris
Reynalds the Roadsport class crown, and Clive Richards ended his
season on a high note with twin race victories.
Sixty members of the Caterham Graduates Club were in action on
Saturday also, with race victories for Martin Amison in the Mega-Graduate
category, Toby Briant in the Graduate class and Andrew Adshead
in
the Super-Graduate
division.
The French and German domestic Caterham championships entertained
the Brands Hatch crowds also; Jean-Francois Piau won the Coupe
de France
Caterham Sprint event while the French endurance honours fell
to Jean-Luc Fortunati.
In the first of the Caterham Hankook Masters Germany races,
British R400 driver Peter Ratcliff took victory ahead of
the Caterham
CSR of Suzuki, with Rudiger Vortisch the German class victor.
Vortisch
triumphed
again in his class in the second German race, with David
Knox's R400 the outright victor.
Twin wins on Sunday for Tom Ferrier in the Powertrain Caterham
R400 Challenge set the seal on a superbly successful season
for Team Parker
Racing, with Luke Stevens clinching the drivers championship.
A highlight of Sunday's entertainment was an all-comers Open
race, won by a gnat's whisker by the R400 of Mike Cantillon,
ahead of
Jamie Constable and Kevin Williams to make it a Hyperion
Motorsport 1-2-3.
Simon Summerville's Caterham Blackbird was the winner of
the class for smaller-engined cars.
The Motorsport News Caterham Roadsport Challenge provided
real thrills; in the B class Mike Blackadder emerged
a popular champion
by a single
point after two tricky races for him. Nick Potter, one
of the 2003 Academy Champions, won both B races. Twin
wins in
the
Roadsport A division for Chris Nicholas secured him second
place in the
championship
behind
James Bromley, while in the Inter class Doug Clark clinched
the crown.
Further
information is available at the Caterham websites: www.caterham.co.uk and www.caterhamracing.com
Related Story 01.10.2004 - Entries
Flood in for Brands Caterham Festival
