April 19th saw the first CSLCup races take place at Rockingham Motor Speedway. The international circuit hosted Race 1 & 2 of the CSLCup series. Qualifying saw Dan Stringfellow take the Modified class Pole Position just ahead of Jamie Martin. In Standard class John Harrison took Pole from Darren Humphrey, who was just ahead of Stuart Clarke.

                                                                                                                                   

April 19th saw the first CSLCup races take place at Rockingham Motor Speedway. The international circuit hosted Race 1 & 2 of the CSLCup series. Qualifying saw Dan Stringfellow take the Modified class Pole Position just ahead of Jamie Martin. In Standard class John Harrison took Pole from Darren Humphrey, who was just ahead of Stuart Clarke.

Qualifying Class Results
Modified Class
3	Dan Stringfellow	E46 M3	1:28.878
5	Jamie Martin	E46 M3	1:30.734
22	Geoffrey Steel	E46 M3	1:31.134
99	John Thorne	E46 CSL	1:42.697
Standard Class
4	John Harrison	E46 M3	1:32.879
8	Darren Humphrey	E46 M3	1:42.488
21	Stuart Clarke	E46 M3	1:42.554
Invitation Class
24	Martin Webb	E46 GTR	1:26.528
25	Garrie Whittaker	E30 M3	1:29.275
23	Keith Webster	E46 4DR	1:32.681
20	Anthony Howarth	E36 M3	1:33.462
56	Adrian Watt	E36 M3	-:--.---

 

 

Race 1
After a night’s tinkering with the cars, all competitors lined up on the grid for the inaugural CSL Cup race. Unfortunately, Martin Webb was unable to join the grid due to technical difficulties.

Stringfellow led from the start, with Whittaker and Martin tussling for 2nd place. Into lap four Martin took 2nd place, only to find Humphrey retired at Turn 2 due to an unlucky spin into the wall.

At the end of lap 6 Stringfellow had a lead of 1.7 seconds over Martin, who was escaping Whittaker in 3rd. In Standard class Harrison was taking charge in 1st, with Clarke trailing off the pace with technical difficulties, this didn’t stop him setting the fastest lap for Standard Class on lap 2. On lap 6 Clarke seemed to struggle for pace and eventually retired on lap 9. This left Harrison to take victory in Standard Class.

Meanwhile, back in Modified class and up with the leader, Whittaker and Martin continued their battle for 2nd place. Steel in 4th was consistently improving his lap times, but failed to catch the front three. Howarth was eventually caught by the other E36 in the Invitation class, Adrian Watt who finished 5th overall. Following Howarth in 7th place was Keith Webster who had gained an 8second advantage over Thorne. Thorne’s pace started slow but gained momentum – although unable to catch the rest of the Modified class pack.

 

Race 2
After race 1 the grid for race 2 looked like this: (Unfortunately the damage sustained to Car 8 of Darren Humphrey was too great for him to join Race 2)

 

ROW 6	24 Martin Webb
		8 Darren Humphrey
ROW 5	21 Stuart Clarke
		4 John Harrison
ROW 4	99 John Thorne
		23 Keith Webster
ROW 3	20 Anthony Howarth
		56 Adrian Watt
ROW 2	22 Geoffrey Steel
		5 Jamie Martin
ROW 1	3 Dan Stringfellow
		25 Garrie Whittaker

 

Martin Webb was able to sufficiently repair his E46 GTR so he could join the back of the grid for Race 2. Also joining him at the back of the grid would be Stuart Clarke, whose team Thorney Motorsport were also able to repair his car for start of the race.

The race was then some what processional, but close. Martin Webb fought from the back of the grid to 1st place within 3 laps – expected to some extent, given the specification of his car. Clarke’s troubles from race returned shortly after the race start, sadly Clarke only managing 5 laps before retiring from the race.

Martin & Watt battled for 4th overall throughout the race, Lap 9 brought some controversy as Martin gave an erratic display at Turn 1, weaving twice in front of Watt. Jamie was later called to the race clerk’s office – which resulted in 2 points being appointed to his license.

In Standard class, John Harrison was left as the one remaining entrant and went on to secure the class win. In Modified class, Dan Stringfellow drove a faultless race to secure the class win.

 

 

 

Series Table