The Bill Richards Racing team returned to the Brands Hatch circuit for the latest rounds of the Dunlop Motorsport News Saloon Car Championship. This would be the teams first appearance at Brands Hatch since the Clubman was destroyed in an accident at the circuit in April.

Qualifying

The overnight rain had cleared by the time the Clubman headed out for the qualifying session, the team was anxious to get a good number of laps under their belt in the Clubmans return to Brands Hatch to lay any demons to rest ahead of the two races. After scrubbing in the new Avon slicks the Clubman began its qualifying session in earnest.

It soon became clear however that all was not well with the Clubman as the lap times weren’t approaching those expected, the Clubman ducked into the pitlane for the team to assess the situation. The problem was diagnosed as a leaking oil seal that resulted in the clutch slipping and therefore the car was not able to transfer power effectively to the wheels. The Clubman returned to the paddock so that the team could rectify the problem before the first race of the day.

Race 1

Between qualifying and the race the team replaced the defective oil seal and the Clubman was sent out to race with a clean bill of health. The compromised qualifying session would see the Clubman starting from a lowly 19th position. From the rolling start the Clubman immediately set about making progress through the field swiftly dispatching a Peugeot 205 and Renault Megane on the first lap. The second lap was equally impressive with an Integra and Nova falling victim to the rampaging Clubman.

The Clubmans charge through the field continued as the rejuvenated machine reeled in its rivals, next to fall was an Escort and shortly afterwards the Clubman scythed passed a Fiesta to take the class lead. Before the end of the race the Clubman had time to pass a turbo charged Golf, Impreza and Sierra Cosworth. Taking the chequered flag in 9th position overall the Clubman had staged a remarkable comeback with a scintillating performance.

Race 2

Following the Race 1 heroics the Clubman would start the second race of the day from 9th position – directly behind its usual sparring partner – a red Peugeot 205. As the race got underway the Clubman latched onto the bootlid of the French machine and sought a way past. The two cars circulated separated by inches and quickly closed the gap to the Peugeot 306 ahead, the two cars driven on by the intensity of their duel. The 306 was caught and passed as the Clubman remained stuck to the bootlid of the 205.

Only the intervention of the safety car interrupted the dogfight between the two cars, the introduction of the safety car causing some confusion as it picked up the wrong car when it joined the circuit. After several laps behind the safety car and some re-shuffling of the field to position the race leader directly behind the safety car the race got underway once more.

From the restart all the way to the chequered flag the Clubman continually harassed the 205 but was unable to find a way past as the red machine took a defensive line through the corners. The Clubman took the flag in 7th place overall and 1st in class to round off a successful weekend.

Whilst the qualifying session didn’t go as planned the team worked hard to ensure that the Clubman was ready for the races and it delivered in style with two class wins and the fastest lap in class in both races (also setting a new personal best lap time). In addition Bill received the “Driver of the day” award for his performances during the two races. The team will now begin preparations for the next race meeting.