Two Speedy Weeks in the Life of Caterham Motorsport

08 September 2005

Caterham Motorsport and in excess of 120 competitors are set for a record-breaking frantic fortnight of motorsport both at home and abroad.

The speed frenzy begins next Friday, Saturday and Sunday (16-18 Sept), on the sweeping curves of the Dijon circuit in France, which will play host to double-header rounds of the flagship Cosworth Caterham Masters and the Autosport Caterham Eurocup.

Meanwhile in Leicestershire the Motorsport News Caterham Roadsport Challenge will be wowing the Donington Park crowds with four separate races for the Roadsport Inter and Roadsport B classes.

And then, just a week later (23-25 Sept) at Brands Hatch in Kent, the Powertrain Caterham Challenge will be one of the chief supporting events on the prestigious bill for the inaugural A1 Grand Prix 'World Cup of Motorsport'.

Cosworth Caterham Masters in association with Autosport
Dijon, France 16-18 September

With only the two Dijon rounds and October's twin-race finale at Monza remaining, the battle for Masters glory is gearing up for a fantastic finish.

Just three points separates two British teams at the top of the championship table, the vastly experienced pairing of Richard Hay/Clive Richards enjoying a slight edge over young guns Luke Stevens/Jon Barnes.

Hay, 41, and 44-year-old Richards have shown superb consistency in their Colards Motorsport-prepared Caterham CSR 260, claiming a win and top-three finishes from six out of the eight rounds held so far, while 23-year-old Stevens and Barnes - who will celebrate his 22nd birthday a couple of days after the Dijon races - have proved dramatically quick, racking up four wins, three pole positions and four fastest laps for the Acre Jean/Hyperion Motorsport team.

Neither team can be assured of victory at Dijon, however, because the local talent will be out to prove a point: nine French-driven CSRs are expected on the grid for the two one-hour races, including a car for Nurburgring and Valencia victor Francois Desprez and another for Spa rainmaster Damien Toulemonde, 20.

Autosport Caterham Eurocup
Dijon, France 16/17 September

Erstwhile Eurocup R400 points leader Oliver Bull badly needs to get his season back on track at Dijon after crashing out of the running last month at Spa-Francorchamps.

Twenty-eight-year-old former Caterham Academy Champion Bull slipped from first to fifth in the points standings after the Belgian rounds, with Mike Cantillon and Spa double victor Ben Dezille Butler moving to the top. But Oli - thanks to the three race victories he scored at Hockenheim and the Nurburgring - maintains a very slight championship advantage when dropped scores are taken into account.

Cantillon and his Team Parker Racing running mate Jamie Constable are, along with Dezille Butler, likely to provide the stiffest opposition to Bull's hopes of further Eurocup glory, but there are plenty of other quick runners looking to get in his way, including 21-year-old Sarah Reader, twice a podium visitor this season; former German Caterham champion Ralf Schmid; multiple saloon champion Simon Crompton; and a multi-car Hyperion squad led by Danny Mitchell and featuring Eurocup returnee Steve Frost.

The Eurocup R400 runners will join a two-class grid of runners from the German Caterham championship, the Caterham Hankook Masters, for two 16-lap races at Dijon.

Motorsport News Caterham Roadsport Challenge
Donington Park, 18 September

There's tension at the top of both of the Roadsport Challenge classes as the Inter and B competitors reach their penultimate meeting of the season.

Just 10 championship points separates the top four Inter drivers - Nick Potter, Guy Harrington, Tony Poole and Bill Addison - after 10 rounds of battle, with Poole, Addison and 18-year-old Harrington each having claimed a brace of race victories.

There have been no fewer than seven different winners already in the 2005 Inter races, with Neil Fletcher, Gary Brown and Andrew Beaumont also having sampled the victory champagne, and at least a further three drivers - Mike Blackadder, Potter and Mike Richards - who have come close enough to get a whiff. Any one of the above could make it to the top at Donington Park…

In Roadsport B, five-time race winner and points leader Jeremy Ellis can't quite guarantee championship victory - that will have to wait for October's Brands Hatch finale - but he can of course try to do everything possible to stretch his lead over Patrick Gormley, which currently stands at 23 points.

Mason Gormley - a four-time victor - will be doing everything possible to chip away at Ellis's advantage, with Henry Fletcher hoping to get back on to the top of the podium, where he hasn't stood since April's opening round at Oulton Park.

Powertrain Caterham Challenge in association with Autosport
Brands Hatch, 23-25 September

Many of the Eurocup R400 drivers will be joining their UK championship colleagues for the rare and exciting opportunity to race on the legendary Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch, and not only that but to support the all-new A1 Grand Prix series at its inaugural event.

The Brands bonanza is set to be the second-biggest motor race meeting of the UK season, and Caterham is delighted to be on the bill. "It's a great honour to have been chosen to support A1GP," said Caterham director of motorsport Magnus Laird, "and it's very pleasing that we will have a really competitive grid for our premier British races."

A field of approaching 30 R400s and Roadsport As will be in action at Brands, led on parade by R400 class championship leader Will Mitcham in his Taylor's Foundry Motor Sport-prepared machine. Will's won three times this season to amass a 23-point series lead over Hyperion's Nick Payne, who has yet to win at the wheel of an R400 but who comes closer with every outing.

Thruxton double winner Ben Dezille Butler will be among Mitcham's biggest threats, along with Rachel Green, who this year became the first female race victor at the wheel of an R400, Snetterton winner Matt Blyth and reigning Roadsport A champion James Bromley.

Eurocup regulars Mike Cantillon, Jamie Constable and Simon Crompton will add spice to the mix, as will returning veteran Gerry Taylor and 18-year-old newcomer Charles Bateman, who steps up to R400s with Team Parker Racing after gaining Academy and Roadsport Inter experience.

In the Roadsport A class, Graham Fennymore will be looking to put championship matters beyond doubt and cement his 12-point advantage over Malcolm Barnett. Fennymore has won the class an astonishing seven times from eight starts, deprived of a perfect score only after a clash with another car last time out, at Snetterton, where Barnett seized his opportunity.

Backing for Caterham's motorsport activities in the UK and Europe comes from Arch Motors, Autosport, Bilstein, Cosworth, Comma, Cooper-Avon Tyres, HSBC Insurance Brokers, Mitchell Cotts, Motorsport News, PTP and Stack

See series calendars for all 2005 Caterham Championships

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