SEAT Cupra Finale at Brands Hatch will Decide £100,000 First Prize

30 September 2005

Two of Britain’s best up-and-coming young touring car drivers, 21-year old Tom Boardman (Forton, Lancashire) and 24-year old Mat Jackson (Henley-in-Arden, West Midlands), will go head-to-head at the Smartnav SEAT Cupra Championship finale at Brands Hatch on Sunday 2nd October – but only one of them will win their team the £100,000 first prize and follow Rob Huff and James Pickford as the third SEAT Cupra Champion.

Mat and Tom have each won seven races this season, but while Mat made a slow start to the series Tom dominated the early stages. The pair were inseparable at the previous race meeting at Silverstone, each winning a race and setting the fastest lap. Technically Mat (Whale Tankers/Jackson Motorsport Leon Cupra R) can still win the title providing Tom (Special Tuning UK/Triple R Leon Cupra R) gets excluded from the race meeting or has points deducted for a technical infringement. Mat’s aim at Brands Hatch will therefore be to continue to push for poles and race wins, while Tom’s tactics are likely to be more cautious, as for once winning races isn’t his primary concern.

Tom said: “I’ve got to be extra safe at Brands Hatch and just do what I need to do to win the title. I’m not going to go for race wins, I’m just going to try and stay out of trouble. I would have loved to have gone to Brands Hatch with the Championship sown-up so I could just enjoy myself and put on a bit of a show, but it’s not quite there yet and I can’t afford to let my guard down.”

Mat said: “I did a two hour Britcar race around the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit at the end of 2004, so I know the track really well. There are still two rounds of the SEAT Cupra Championship left, the title is not decided yet and I’m going to keep fighting because it’s never over until it’s over. If we’d started the season off in the form we’re in now I don’t think anyone would have been able to touch us, but back then everything was so new and a week before the first race we didn’t even have a transporter to get the race car to the circuit. If it turns out that we don’t have the title, I want to make sure that we’ve got the most amount of wins.

”The top four drivers in this year’s SEAT Cupra Championship will each win a test drive in a SEAT touring car, be invited to represent the UK in the SEAT Leon European Masters Race in Turkey on November 26th and win their team a share of £190,000 in prize money. It’s unlikely the current top four positions will alter, which means Boardman and Jackson will be joined by Tom Ferrier (Darwin/Team Parker Racing Leon Cupra R) and Carl Breeze (Blue Chip Group/Barwell Motorsport Leon Cupra R) as the Brit-pack go head-to-head against the top four SEAT Cupra Championship drivers from Spain, Germany and Turkey at the Otodrom Circuit on the outskirts of Istanbul.

The fight for 5th place in the series (and the last prize of £10,000) is wide open, thanks to Alan Blencowe (Blue Diamond/Barwell Motorsport Leon Cupra R) having 25 points deduced from his score after a technical infringement at Silverstone – a fate which also befell his Barwell Motorsport stable-mate Breeze. Henry Taylor (Mortgage Strategy magazine/Total Control Racing Leon Cupra R) is now only three points behind Blencowe, whilst brothers Ian and Adrian Churchill in their pair of Bedford Battery Co-backed Churchill Motorsport Leon Cupra Rs and flying Scot Jonathan Young (Commercial Vehicle Direct/Triple R Leon Cupra R) could steal the money.

With over £200,000 of prize money and huge opportunities to showcase your touring car talent up for grabs, the final two rounds at Brands Hatch will be an exciting climax to the Smartnav SEAT Cupra Championship.

It’s not the first time the SEAT Leon Cupra Rs have raced on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit, as the first Holiday Inn SEAT Super Prix took place there in September 2003. The race was won by Julian Westwood and Stefan Hodgetts holds the lap record of 1:37.925 (95mph). None of the current SEAT Cupra Championship drivers raced there two years ago.

Two 20 minute qualifying sessions for Rounds 17 and 18 of the Smartnav SEAT Cupra Championship will start on Saturday 1st October at 09.30 and 14.30. Both races take place the following day, with the first 11 lap race around the 2.623 mile Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit beginning at 12.10. The final round of the series starts at 17.40.

See series calendar for SEAT Cupra Championship 2005

Related Story 08.09.2005 - Churchill Brothers Aim for Their Finest Hour at Silverstone in SEAT Cupra Championship