Sporting the lastest Procomp suspension upgrades we had high hopes for a good haul of championship points for the club’s second visit to Donington in early September.
We would also be busy at SEWC with Steve racing in Locosts and Matt “Bazra” Price racing in Stockhatch with his Saxo VTR.
Matt “Bazra” Price and the 2012 Stockhatch
With two races in both series, SEWC would be busy with Matt’s Stockhatch as well as the teams Locost. Both cars prepped and ready for Qualifying and the boys perched on the pit wall eager to find out how the weekend would unfold.
Matt put some cracking laps together in the Stockhatch and posted a good time of 1:32.68 for 26th on the grid despite several yellow and one red flag. Steve pushed hard in the Locost to register a 1:28.71 for 10th on the Locost grid.
It wasn’t long before Matt was out for his first race and with the SEWC team on tenderhooks, he brought the car home cleanly and made up places to finish 23rd out of 29 and another all importnant signature on the race licence, one step closer to losing the novice badge.
Next up was Steve in the Locost. Another clean race followed for Steve with all the usual close but clean battling that is associated with the series although a red flag a couple of laps in gave the pack another chance for a restart. Straight away a close battle ensued between Steve and Shaun Brame (#32) which would last for the rest of the race, constantly jostling for position with Steve finally outdragging Shaun to the checkered flag by a margin of just 8/100ths of a second.
First up on Sunday was Matt for the second Stockhatch race of the weekend, starting from 26th with 29 cars on the grid. Again Matt produced a great result in what is still a very undeveloped car, producing a best lap of 1:30.97 and bring the car home cleanly in 24th, after a couple of great battles. Another signature on the licence and a job well done.
Next up was Steve for the second Locost race, again starting from 10th on a full grid of 36 cars, alongside Lee Mcnamara (#65) and just in front of Shaun brame (#32). A reasonable start saw Steve up to 8th at the first corner, keeping pace with the front runners until again a red flag would bring the cars back to the grid for a restart. Lights out, and a poor start saw Steve dropping a place into Redgate, but at the same corner a lap later both Adam Lucas (#22) and Matt Cherrington (#25) would run wide to put Steve up into 6th, just 3 seconds off the leader and fellow Procomp Motorsport driver Alastair Garratt (#33). A fast recovering Matt Cherrington (#25) managed a great tow off Steve down the back straight to slingshot past and take a new lap record 2 laps later. Clean racing followed to the checkered flag with Steve bringing the car home in a creditable 7th place for a reasonable haul of championship points.
With just one event left, thoughts turned to the championship decider at Snetterton on the long trip home, just a month away. Targets for 2012 had already been achieved with Silverware at Brands Hatch, but could Steve manage a solid top 10 championship finish?
Exiting Redgate, being hunted down by Lee Mcnamara and Shaun Brame
Shaun brame with a dab of “oppo” and Steve about to pounce
