FUN CUP ENDURANCE 2024 – ROUND SEVEN – BRANDS HATCH – REVIEW
DRAMA AT BRANDS HATCH, BUT OLYMPIAN/GRD MAKE IT FOUR IN A ROW!!
There is always certain amount of drama when Fun Cup visits Brands Hatch, and this years race was no exemption to that.
The Rare Vinyl car of Rob Croydon/Ed McDermott had drawn pole for the four-hour race, with Croydon taking the first stint, sharing the front row with Vapeclub EDF’s Simon Coles.
Croydon retained the lead through Paddock as the race got underway, with Coles in second, from Team Ratters John Ratcliff. But as they exited Druids for the third time Ratcliff led, with Croydon still second, from Coles, UVio/Hofmann’s Farquini Deott, Greenheath’s Paul Turner and Wave 9’s Jason Minshaw.
Turner and Farquini had shared a couple of exchanges, but at the front Ratcliff started to extend his lead, but Croydon slowed exiting Clearways on lap eight and headed pitwards.
Coles had been harassed by Farquini too, but was soon making his move for the lead, leading from lap eight, with team mate Mikey Porter taking the second EDF car into second, as Ratcliff lost out to Farquini and MJ Tec’s Will Abraham too.
Farquini was third out of Clearways on lap 11, but as Ratcliff arrived at Paddock a lap later, he lost his brakes and was launched off the back of the UVio car, piling in to the tyre wall.
As Ratcliff stepped away from the extenisvely damaged car, testimony was once again shown to the strength of the Fun Cup cars, as he was totally unscathed.
“As I tried to brake it was foot to the floor, so I came off, tried again and it was the same. I saw a gap and tried to aim for it, but as it closed I hit UVio hard and I thought I was going to roll, as I hit MJ Tec too,” Ratcliff explained. “He came past my window higher than the car,” Farquini added.
Amazingly UVio had escaped with little damage, apart from a broken left rear wing and became fourth in line as the safety car came out, with Coles, heading Porter and AxiaMetrics Jon Railton, while Olympian/GRD’s Simon Rudd was already in fifth from the back row, as Seed Data’s Jack Noller completed the top six.
There were eight laps under caution, during which PLR’s Ben Pitch made a dash for the pitlane. “We completely lost the dash display, so I came in to try and fix it,” he said.
With the race under way again Porter snatched the lead which soon began to grow, with both Railton and Farquini following a couple of laps later, as Coles had dropped to fourth, before losing out to Rudd and Noller too.
“I made sure I kept it safe at the start, then I saw Mikey coming, let him by and the others had caught and followed,” Coles explained.
Porter’s lead began to come down again and on lap 29 Railton challenged on the inside at Paddock, but Rudd split them a lap later and went for the lead into Druids. Porter fended him off at first, but into Surtees he was through.
The first pitstop window coincided with another safety car intervention to recover Jamie Day’s Xcel car from Paddock after losing drive. So the pitlane soon became a hive of activity.
Olympian/GRD led the train with Chris Dovell, from UVio/Hofmann’s Fabulous Randaccio, Seed Data’s Matt Hogg, Geenheath’s Kristian Rose, Axia Metrics’ Chris Weatherill and Team Morpheus’ Ted Bradbury.
Green from lap 47 Dovell was soon under pressure and Randaccio led into Paddock a lap later, with Rose and Bradbury following as they exited Clearways.
Randaccio had pulled out a 2.896 secs lead at the first hour over Bradbury, with Rose and Red River’s Johnny Mowlem the top four, from Dovell and Hogg.
Rose had been harassed by Mowlem for third, and after they exchanged on lap 58, the order had become fairly settled as the second pitstop window approached.
Bradbury had reduced Randaccio’s lead to just over a second as they both headed to the pitlane together. Farquini emerged first, with Neil Burrough’s second for Morpheus, from Greenheath’s Turner, Seed Data’s Noller, EDF Vapeclub’s Coles and AxiaMetrics’ Greg Evans.
“That was a proper race, we didn’t have to lead all the time, but just be in the fight,” said Randaccio.
The lead pair continued their duel to the halfway point, with Farquini’s lead having grown to over nine seconds. Noller had worked hard to move up to third as he battled with Turner and Olympian’s Riley Phillips. “I had a good first stint after a careful start and just picked them off, then I was in third in the second stint and got pushed off by a backmarker, so then I tried to settle in with Riley after that,” said Noller.
“Jack had real pace, I made a couple of mistakes and lost two places. I could still see them though,” Turner replied. “10 laps and Jack was still there, I couldn’t shake him off,” Phillips added.
So Phillips was in third, from Noller, Turner and Coles, but in seventh was Abraham’s for MJ Tec. “I had been hit on the rear corner in the early incident, we thought we had fixed it and came in again, so did well to catch up,” said Abraham’s, while behind him PLR were still on the lead lap too.
The third stops soon followed and UVio were first in, with Morpheus following seven laps later. Olympian then led for a lap before their stop.
The battle raged on with Randaccio leading the way, but Morpheus had opted to double stint, with Burroughs in for three and four, giving Bradbury the final two to take it to the flag.
At the end of the third hour Farquini was 23.8 secs up on Bradbury, with Noller in third for Seed Data, the only other car on the lead lap.
PLR, Olympian/GRD and Vapeclub EDF were all one lap down, with Signature RV two laps down in seventh, while Red River and GMR/Eco were three down and Black Widows four.
UVio/Hofmann’s were first to make their last stop, as Farquini handed to Randaccio with a 14 seconds lead over Bradbury. Morpheus stayed out for another seven laps, which briefly gave Noller the lead for Seed Data. But with all the stops completed the race was on.
Randaccio was still in front, but the gap was coming down, while in third Hogg was watching his mirrors for Phillips in the Olympian car. “I expected to get caught, so what ever will be, will be,” said a philosophical Hogg.
With 15 minutes on the clock Phillips was being patient, but finally squeezed through on the inside at Clearways and was into third, only for Hogg’s effort to stay with him, sadly ending in the gravel.
The safety car was out again and when the green flag was waved there was just 5mins 42 secs on the clock and all to play for and Bradbury was straight on the attack, trying the inside at Paddock.
Phillips was still third, but had lapped cars between him and the lead duel, so fourth placed Plimmer for PLR and fifth placed Vlad Vassiliev for EDF Vapeclub were directly behind the leaders, while sixth placed Marcus Clutton was joining in too for Signature RV.
On lap 229 Bradbury forced Randaccio wide exiting Druids onto the grass and led, but a lap later they were side by side through Graham Hill and Surtees with Randaccio nosing back in front.
Exiting Paddock Bradbury led again but it all came down to the final lap. Randaccio was forced wide again at Druids and was off at Graham Hill by Clutton, so Bradbury took the flag first, with Phillips snatching second from the recovering Randaccio.
“I was biding my time and reckoned I could have a go at UVio, but then Marcus intervened and there was a lot to do, but it just happened,” said Phillips and I came in second.
“I thought I was in with a chance even before the safety car. Probably my hardest race, but I had to go for it,” Bradbury added.
So the final result was declared with Olympian/GRD the victors, after Morpheus received a post-race penalty, dropping them to third behind UVio/Hofmann’s.
PLR’s Plimmer/Pitch were a lap down in fourth. “We did the whole race without any display, so remarkably clean and not a mark on the car,” said Plimmer.
Clutton snatched a late fifth from Vassiliev, both two laps down, while Red River’s Mowlem/Gareth Williams/Bonamy Grimes, GMR/Eco’s Gracie Mitchell with returnees Ed and Chris Bridle, AxiaMatrics and Wave9’s Minshaw/Mark Burton/Graham Pattle rounded off the top 10.
So what happened to some of the others? Black Widows ended their race when Scrappy Clark inverted it at Paddock in the final stint. “We had a puncture in the fourth stint and spun at Paddock, so that lost us a lot of time,” added AxiaMetrics’ Railton.
Having changed cars before the race Skull Club had broken a driveshaft during Russell Joyce’s stint, while Greenheath strong start ended with a breakage around the rear hub.
So Donington Park is next and can anyone stop Olympian from retaining their title? They go for five in a row!!
Published by Peter Scherer for Fun Cup Endurance, August 19th 2024
