Silverstone National Round:DPR Motorsport customers on the podiums at Silverstone
The Silverstone National circuit saw the opening championship rounds for Caterham Roadsport B, Roadsport A and the new Caterham Supersport category based on an upgraded 125bhp Ford Sigma engined race car. DPR Motorsport customers gained top results across all of the grids with the drive of the weekend being provided by James Maclachlan in his eye-catching bright blue Supersport getting pole and two 1sts. DPR Motorsport customer Albert Vella established the first-ever Supersport lap record with a fastest lap of 1:08.268 gained in the first race on Saturday.
Success in Supersport
2010 sees the evolution of the Ford Sigma engined Caterham into the new Supersport category which runs alongside the old Roadsport A Rover K series cars in identical configuration apart from the change in engine supplier. DPR Motorsport team driver James Maclachlan gained pole in Saturday qualifying closely followed by Robert Smith and Paul Begley. The Saturday race was a text book demonstration of close Caterham racing with the top cars of Maclachlan, Begley, Forsyth and novice Fronzoni all having a turn in the lead. However, through bold late braking at the end of the National straight Maclachlan kept the following pack at bay and finished the race with a lead of just 0.115 seconds over second man past the post Paul Begley. |
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For the second race Maclachlan established an astonishing lead of 1.4 seconds by the end of the first lap. Having broken the tow Maclachlan solidified this advantage by consistently lapping in the high 1:09’s whilst the following pack were often struggling to get into the 1:10 lap times. Fastest lap of the race went to Lewis Cook with a 1:09.113 and the final race classification shows a number of other drivers with similar lap times to Maclachlan. However Maclachan’s race consistency took his final lead to 11.480 seconds over second placed Iain Forsyth.
After the race Maclachlan said “I had my work cut out for race one and I had to go for the late braking move at the end of the National straight several times to regain the lead. I realised that I had to adopt a different strategy to ensure a win in the second race. I decided to make a move on the first lap and go flat out off the start. I found that I had broken the tow by the end of the first lap after which I was able to focus on making each lap a qualifying time and this allowed me to move ahead of the in-fighting within the following pack.”
DPR Motorsport team principal David Rowe said “From the results of this first race weekend, the new Supersport category is not going to disappoint in terms of the Caterham race experience. Any one of five drivers could have won race one and it required a bold strategy to get the opening lead in race two. We provided James Maclachlan with a car prepared and set-up to our championship winning benchmarks but it required a driver with real ability to regain control of race one and establish such a commanding lead by the end of the first lap in race two.
Our congratulations also go to our other Supersport customers Iain Forsyth (3rd & 2nd), Nick Fronzoni (5th & 17th) and Albert Vella (8th ,5th, lap record). Nick Fronzoni merits a special mention as this was his first-ever race. In race one Nick Fronzoni provided a serious challenge as race leader before dropping back to 5th.”
Top results in Roadsport B
Whilst Roadsport B requires drivers to race without team support, teams are able to perform servicing and set-ups away from the race weekends. DPR motorsport customers took the top four places in race one and 1st & 2nd in race two. Our congratulations go to the following DPR Motorsport customers in Roadsport B:
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Race One |
Race Two |
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1st. Lee Wiggins 2nd. Ben Whibley 3rd. Steve Day 4th. Jeremy Webb |
1st. Jeremy Webb 2nd. Steve Day 4th. Lee Wiggins 8th. Ben Whibley |
DPR Motorsport podium in Roadsport A
Silverstone International was the first race for DPR Motorsport supported team driver Magd Mohaffel returning to the Roadsport A fray since he had to abandon his 2009 championship due to illness. Qualifying 4th on the grid, Magd Mohaffel finished in 3rd place just 0.582 seconds behind the closely fought battle between JJ O’Malley (1st) and second placed Ian Payne. An on-track encounter in race two resulted in a forced pit-stop to change a punctured tyre which put Magd Mohaffel out of race contention despite lap times on a par with the race leaders.
