The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s band of support series produced some exhilarating racing this past weekend at the unique Croft circuit in Yorkshire to head into the six week summer break on a high.
Here at TheCheckeredFlag.co.uk, we’ve picked out the drivers we feel stood out from the pack in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Ginetta Junior Championship, Renault UK Clio Cup, Ginetta GT4 Supercup and MSA Formula.
Find out who we’ve picked for previous meetings here.
Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Ginetta Junior Championship – Jamie Caroline
Just like at Oulton Park three weeks prior, Caroline was untouchable across the Croft weekend. Two victories make it four in a row for the new championship leader, as he starts to show the sort of dominance that former champions Seb Morris and Harry Woodhead did on their way to the title.
While he may have missed out on pole position, Caroline stormed into the lead before the first corner in race one and led throughout, before a truly dominant race two victory saw him lead from lights to flag and win by a mammoth twelve seconds.
Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
MSA Formula – Ricky Collard
Consistency is the key to any successful championship challenge and Collard continued his charge with a pair of podium finishes at Croft to continue his record of being the only driver in the series to finish on the podium at every meeting so far this season.
An opportunistic move during a dramatic end to race one saw him clinch third place, before he recovered from having to start race two from the pitlane to get in the points in twelfth. Putting that behind him, he produced a slick move to get second place in the final race to retain his points lead.
Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Ginetta GT4 Supercup – Tom Oliphant
HHC Motorsport had previously dominated proceedings in the Supercup this season, but Oliphant and Century Motorsport turned the tables in Yorkshire with a dominant performance to thrust themselves right back into title contention.
Pole position by over eight tenths of a second was a hammer blow to the competition, which Oliphant confidently converted to a double race win. Were it not for an engine cut out in race three it could well have been a hat-trick, with his sheer raw pace shown by a stunning climb from the back of the grid to third.
Credit: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Renault UK Clio Cup – Ashley Sutton
Sutton’s championship challenge took a blow with a retirement last time out at Oulton Park, but the Team Pyro racer bounced back in style with a podium double at Croft to gain some ground back in the title hunt.
After taking a pair of front row starts in qualifying, a storming launch off the line in race one gave him a lead he wouldn’t relinquish en-route to his second race win of the season, which he followed up with a second place in race two to make it seven podiums so far in his maiden Clio campaign.
Credit: Malcolm Griffiths
Porsche Carrera Cup GB – Dan Cammish
How do you stop Dan Cammish? That must be what the rest of the Porsche field will be asking themselves throughout the summer break after the Redline Racing man took another dominant victory double at Croft to make it six wins in eight races so far.
While he didn’t top the timesheets in Friday practice, when the real action began over the weekend he was unbeatable, turning two pole positions into a pair of dominant lights-to-flag victories to further extend his championship lead.
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Who else impressed?
Bradley Smith and namesake Josh Smith took their maiden wins in the Ginetta Supercup and MSA Formula respectively, while Kyle Hornby (Junior), Ollie Jackson (Supercup) and Louise Richardson (MSA Formula) also enjoyed podium breakthroughs over the weekend.
Ash Hand made it five wins in the last eight races in the Clio Cup, Sophia Floersch took a couple of trips to the podium to move up to third in the Junior points, while Josh Webster and Michael Meadows maintained their Porsche title bids with double podiums of their own.
