Apologies for the late race report. On Monday 8 May, the Clubman-E racers battled it out at Round 4 of the Clubman 2 series. The Bank Holiday round was missing some of the series favourites with series leaders Dave Hanson, Phil Roberts and Chris Sock all missing. We hear that Roberts has suffered a nasty injury, we hope he has a speedy recovery and is back racing soon.
The round also featured some Bank Holiday fun challenges to mix up the qualifying heats. It was Ryan Keeton setting an early pace on the fast flowing layout. Richard Wheeler was also looking fast in second. For round 2 Steve Baggley and Christopher Sale joined the front of the field after suffering problems in the opening round. By the final round of qualifying it was Ryan Keeton who found a fast clean run to take his first Clubman Pole. Both Sale and Baggley were very close though to make it an promising A final.
In the Finals, Wheeler skilfully controlled the B with a lights to flag victory. Calvin Hadley looked fast but suffered an unlucky failure allowing James Gratton-Smith into second with Damien Levers in third. The A final was the action packed race we'd expected. Baggley had a great start from the back but messed up a pass on Sale causing them to both lose time to Keeton. While Baggley struggled to heat his tyres up, Sale made a mistake to make it easy for him past. After that Keeton was managing his lead well until the last quarter of the race where he got tangled up with some of the cars from the 1/12th Mini class. This allowed Baggley onto his wing, it was a slight clip on the piping that allowed Baggley to take the class lead. From there he was unpassable with the control tyre at full temp. Keeton finished with a class second while Sale finished third.
With just two rounds left of the championship, its now looking very tight. Richard Wheeler leads the series after taking strong finishes at every round. He looks good for a top placed finish, but he's probably going to need a win if he wants a chance at the title. Baggley moves into second and looks the favourite with two wins, however those wins will mean he's the only racer with the Handicap tyre. Third placed Dave Hanson struggled on the handicap tyre but is potentially the fastest racer without it. He definitly has a chance at being champion. Keeton is also another hopeful for the title, he's getting faster with every round and has been very unlucky not to take a win yet. Phil Roberts also has a strong score to challenge with, we just hope he can recover enough to make an appearance. The final racer we feel has a shot at the title is Christopher Sale, he currently sits in 9th but that's after only two scoring rounds. If he can take a win in one of the remaining rounds he could really surprise a few of the top contenders.
Booking in is already open for the 5th Round of the series. Spaces are limited so please make sure you are booked in via the following link: https://www.sheffieldrcracing.co.uk/index.php/booking-in-2/new-entry-list-2
