The SuperCup cars charge into Copse. All images courtesy of Jon Elsey
A thrilling opening weekend to the 2015 SuperCup…
The eagerly awaited start of the 2015 Mazda MX-5 SuperCup took place at Silverstone over the Easter Holiday weekend. With a record entry of 30 cars for this year’s season opener on the short National circuit, very close and frantic racing was expected throughout the grid and the SuperCup drivers did not disappoint!
Testing on the Friday before the meeting was held in very wet conditions with only a handful of laps being driven in the dry, making the available track time of limited use to drivers looking to set-up their cars for the dry conditions forecast over the race weekend. Leaving everyone guessing as to who would be setting the pace when the times really start to count.
Practice
As predicted the rain had cleared by Saturday morning, presenting the drivers with a dry track to practice on but track temperatures were still very low. Times were extremely close throughout the field as drivers pushed to find the limits in the dry conditions, with the times steadily dropping as the drivers lapped the circuit.
In the middle of the session, newcomer to the championship Alan Henderson who finished as runner up in last year’s Mk1 MX-5 championship just managed to dip under the 1.10.0 barrier with a time of 1.09.9. This was to prove the fastest lap of the session as the other drivers continued to improve throughout, most setting their fastest lap in the dying minutes of practice but no one else able to slip under the 1.10.0 mark. The session finished with Liam Murphy just 0.150 seconds slower than Henderson’s best time, followed up by great performances from circuit racing novices Ben Webster and John Munro.
Qualifying
With the sun having crept through the clouds at points during the day, ambient temperatures were now slightly higher as the drivers lined up for Qualifying in the afternoon. With rubber once again being laid down on the circuit through the morning after the previous days rain, the drivers would now be able to work their tyres harder and really press on to try and take pole for Race 1.
Drivers looking for a tow along the Wellington straight
Crucial to getting a good lap around the Silverstone National circuit is getting in the slipstream of another car to maximise straight line speed. Cars jostled around on the circuit during the session looking for another car to get a tow off to gain those final tenths of a second. Following closely behind James Blake-Baldwin, Garry Townsend made contact with the rear of Baldwin’s car for which he was later excluded from the qualifying results meaning he would line up last on the grid.
Alan Henderson was again fastest in the session, putting in a stunning time of 1.09.16 to take Pole from Liam Murphy by 0.360 of a second against Murphy’s time of 1.09.52, ahead of Jonathan Clements in third on a 1.09.54. A great qualifying for the Blendini Motorsport Scholarship winner, Jack Harding saw him lining up fourth on the grid, with drivers throughout separated by minute fractions of a second and the top 19 drivers all within 1.5 seconds of the pole time!
A tough start to reigning BRSCC Porsche champion, Jonathan Greensmith’s SuperCup challenge saw him only manage to complete 4 laps in qualifying due to a minor technical problem with his car. He would only line up in 20th on the grid for Race 1.
Race 1
Unfortunately despite the best efforts of the Paul Sheard Autos mechanics, Autosport Magazine Editor Edd Straw was not able to get the seat correctly positioned in his car and was unable to get out on track over the weekend, but this still meant a grid of 29 MX-5 Mk3 cars taking the start in Race 1 on Sunday, the largest ever grid of Mk3 cars in the UK!
As the lights went out on the start of the 2015 SuperCup season, Alan Henderson made the best get away of the two front row men to hold his lead into Copse corner, ahead of Murphy with Clements challenging closely in third. As the leaders approached Beckets, Clements made a late move on Murphy for second resulting in a spin for Murphy as he took avoiding action and Clements going out wide onto the run off, both dropping back down the order. George Line having started just inside the top 10 took a very wide line into Beckets, spinning on the exit and spearing back across the circuit in front of the charging pack. An unsighted Michael Lawson lost control while attempting to avoid the stationary car of Line, hitting the rear of Annalese Ferrari and ending her race prematurely.
All the commotion behind Henderson allowed him just enough gap to break away from the chasing group so he could get his head down and focus on extending his lead. Jack Harding was now the man in second place, attempting to defend against reigning BRSCC MX-5 Mk1 champion James Blake-Baldwin.
Henderson leads at Silverstone
Baldwin managed to take second place from Harding but was soon caught by the recovering Clements who then began a great scrap with Baldwin over second and third positions. Behind them were the cars of Aspinall, Goddard, Davies, Harding and Chappell, all fighting over the middle of the top 10. At about ¾ distance into the race, Baldwin was beginning to slow due to gear selection issues and this dropped the pace of the fight for second so that Goddard, Aspinall and Davies were able to close. There was briefly a 5 car train for second before Baldwin was forced to retire from the race due to his mechanical issues on Lap 15.
There was close fought racing going on all the way through the race, with Jonathan Greensmith having a great battle with the likes of Daniel Irving, John Munro and Ben Webster in the midfield, Greensmith getting up to 12th by the end of the race.
Greensmith under pressure from Wesbter
As the race neared its end, Henderson had steadily been pulling away from the squabbling groups behind, setting consistently fast lap times to build his lead to almost 10 seconds at the chequered flag. It was Goddard who managed to get the best of Clements to take the second placed spot on the podium while the recovering Liam Murphy was able to overtake Davies and Aspinall for fourth at the flag. While George Line after his first lap spin was able to move through the packs to seventh place, setting fastest lap along the way.
A perfect start to the season for Henderson who had a lonely race up at the front, but the battling behind made for a fantastic opening race and was just a sign of things to come in Race 2!
Race 2
Race 2 for the SuperCup was to be the final race of the weekend at Silverstone and got underway in the bright early evening sunshine. Off the start it was again Henderson who got the jump on second placed man Goddard, with both Clements and Murphy able to beat Goddard on the run from Copse to Beckets, while Aspinall followed them in fifth. Behind Brindle was challenging Davies for 6th place at Beckets as the pair went side by side through the corner, while Line got a clean run onto the straight and was able to slip up the inside of the pair of them as they braked for Brooklands, closely followed by Chappell.
As the leaders crossed the line, Henderson and Clements had broken away from Murphy in third as he was being forced to defend from Goddard. Line had got alongside Aspinall on the run along the start finish straight and lent on him on the entry to Copse to move ahead into 5th with Chappell again capitalising on the opportunity and going into 6th.
Clements was pressing Henderson hard for the lead of the race, the pair just inches apart over the whole of the lap and separated by less than 0.200 of a second over the line! Murphy was still being closely followed by Goddard who himself was now coming under pressure from Line in fifth. Line made a robust lunge on Goddard at Brooklands and was able to scrape through into 4th. Behind them was a group of 6 cars led by Will Chappell all fighting over the remaining positions in the top 10 of the race.
On Lap 6 of the race, with Davies now in 6th position Harding in 8th attempted to dive past both Caird in 7th and Davies on the brakes into Brooklands. Harding taking a tight inside line was slow in the middle of the corner and received a slight nudge from Caird which sent him sideways. Chappell in 9th place, entering the corner at full speed was left with nowhere to go and collected the car of Harding, the multi-car incident resulted in the retirement of all 3 drivers from the race.
Collision at Luffield between Harding, Caird and Chappell
On lap 9, the relentless pressure from Clements finally paid off and he was able to slip ahead of Henderson and take the lead of the race. Henderson did not give up though and pushed Clements hard all the way to the chequered flag, Clements winning by a margin of just 0.134 seconds at the finish line! George Line took the final spot on the podium, just ahead of Simon Goddard and Liam Murphy, the three drivers covered by less than half a second at the finish.
Clements with Henderson right on his Bumper
It was a brilliant start to the new season for the MX-5 SuperCup at Silverstone with a record grid size and incredibly close racing right down the field, confirming that the SuperCup is going to be one of the most hotly contested club championships in 2015! The teams and drivers now look forward to the next rounds of the championship which take place at Rockingham on the 2nd/3rd of May, as a support race to the British GT Championship.
