Colards Motorsport's Clive Richards and Optimum Motorsport's Mark Davies continued their successful 2011 FUCHS Ginetta Challenge campaigns by taking a win apiece during the latest rounds at Rockingham in Northamptonshire.
A very wet race one saw HHC Motorsport's Richard Sykes get ahead of Davies at the start, but his lead was short-lived as he outbraked himself going into the Deene hairpin, recovering to fifth. This gave Davies the lead ahead of Total Control Racing's Mike Robinson, though lost the place at Chapman Curve on the opening lap to Richards.
Robinson held third ahead of Rory Bryant, the recovering Sykes, his team-mate Rick Parfitt and Academy Motorsport's Sean Huyton. Parfitt was on a charge though and passed Sykes at Deene on lap two, while ahead, a mistake by Davies on the standing water at Tarzan allowed Richards to nip ahead into the lead.
Parfitt continued his charge by grabbing fourth on lap two, before drafting past Robinson a lap later for third. He then set about chasing down multiple race winner Davies, sliding past at Tarzan hairpin to bad second place, before continuing the drive of his life by closing down and passing leader Richards at the Chapman on lap eight.
There was to be heartbreak for Parfitt though, as he soon struggled on a drying track and spun two laps later at Tarzan, dropping to fourth, before spinning twice more over the remaining laps. This gifted the experienced Richards the win, with Davies and Robinson completing the podium. Graham Johnson took fourth ahead of Ryan Ratcliffe and Huyton, with Parfitt recovering to seventh place.
Race two took place on a drying circuit and a good start by Davies saw him lead the pack into the first corner. Behind, Richards chased him into the first left-hander but a loss of traction caused him to spin into the concrete wall on the outside of the circuit, leaving him to rejoin a long way back.
A strong opening lap for Huyton saw him work his way into second ahead of Robinson, the latter soon losing third place to Sykes on lap three. HHC's Sykes was on a mission and grabbed second from Huyton from Tarzan on lap five, but was unable to catch Davies over the remainder of the race.
This meant Davies took the win from Sykes and Huyton, with Ratcliffe a good fourth for Piranha Motorsport. Optimum's Lee Mowle took a seasons best fifth, with Robinson sixth, while Richards could only work his way back to a fourteenth place finish.
