A promising start for Ladell

WDE Motorsport's Charlie Ladell has had a promising start to his career in the Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup, with the 17 year old finishing consistently in the points since making his debut in the championship at Oulton Park for rounds 7 and 8.

After another strong weekend during rounds 15 and 16 at Rockingham, I caught up with him to find out how he's found the switch from the Fiesta Championship to the Clio Cup.

"It's a steep learning curve" he told me, "the quality of the drivers in the Clio Cup is as high as any other championship in the country so I've had to adapt quickly in order to compete with the rest of the grid, and also the Clio's different to what I've been used to driving in the Fiesta Championship so it's taken me a little while to adapt to it but I'm definitely getting there now and the results are starting to come our way".

With strong results becoming more consistent, Charlie admitted that the turning point in his season came at Snetterton; "My most memorable round so far has got to be Snetterton, I had really good pace there and managed to take a 4th place finish, my best result of the season to date, and I just hope that I can continue to finish strongly and possibly go one step further".

Charlie made his debut in the Clio Cup with WDE Motorsport, a team being run by championship veteran Paul Rivett, but he explained that his partnership with the team has been going on longer than this season. He told me "I've been working with WDE Motorsport since the start of 2012, and I won the Fiesta Junior Championship with the team that same year so I have a great relationship with everyone there, Paul is great to work with too and I definitely benefit from his vast experience, not just from the championship but his race craft as well, and he's really helped my progress as a driver, certainly much quicker than if I was doing it on my own."

After joining the season part way through the championship, Charlie has confirmed that he will be running in the championship full time next season with WDE Motorsport, presumably alongside team mate and manager Paul Rivett, and is hoping that he will be able to battle for race wins over the course of next season. As for the end of this season at Brands Hatch in four weeks time, Charlie's ambitions are more modest; "We've had a great season so far so for the Brands finale it'd be great if we could get in the top 5 in both rounds, I'm confident I've got the pace in order to do it, and if I get the chance I'd love to be fighting it out for a spot on the podium".

Written and interviewed by Alan Faulkner
Photo Credit: DR Hurrell Photographs

Clio Championship battle heats up ahead of Brands finale

The fight for the Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup took another twist during rounds 15 and 16 at Rockingham, with Team Pyro’s Mike Bushell taking the lead in the championship standings with just two rounds left in the series.

The 25 year old came into the rounds at the Northamptonshire circuit in second place in the championship standings, just 19 points behind SV Racing’s Josh Cook, and looked to continue his recent form after a double podium finish at Knockhill. Bushell managed to do exactly that in qualifying, taking pole position for round 15 by just 0.120 seconds ahead of championship rival Cook, and started on the front row again in round 16 behind Cook. However, it was later revealed that Cook had received a 10 place grid penalty from an incident at Knockhill, meaning he would start 12^th for the first race of the weekend.

Bushell took full advantage of pole position, taking a lights to flag victory in comfortable fashion, crossing the line 4 seconds ahead of 20Ten’s Jordan Stilp, another driver who has been impressive during the course of the season, with SV Racing’s Ash Hand taking the final step on the podium. As for Cook, he was only able to manage 10^th in the race, which was soon promoted to 9^th after Westbourne Motorsport’s James Colburn was handed a 5 second penalty for an incident that occurred during the race. Despite the penalty, Cook had dropped to second in the championship behind Bushell, meaning the SV Racing driver would have to take a podium finish at least to close the gap to Bushell.

Cook started round 16 on pole position ahead of Bushell, but a poor getaway off the line seen him drop to 4^th after the first lap, with Bushell taking an early lead and, like in the first race of the weekend, didn’t look back for the remainder of the race. As for Cook though, thing went from bad to worse as he was one of four drivers that had been handed a drive through penalty for a false start, along with his team mates Alex Morgan, Ash Hand and Clio Cup debutant Simon Horrobin – Ant Whorton-Eales being the only SV Racing driver who had not been handed a drive through penalty; and to add further insult to injury, Cook was forced to retire after issues with his car forced him firstly into the pits, and then in the gravel trap with just two laps of the race to go.

With Cook enduring another miserable weekend, Bushell’s perfect weekend meant that he left Rockingham with a healthy 34 point lead from Jordan Stilp, who is now in 2^nd place in the championship standings after clinching a double podium, with Cook two points behind in third place. Stilp had also taken the championship lead in the Graduate Cup standings, just nine points ahead of Ant Whorton-Eales in 2^nd and ten points ahead of third placed James Colburn, while in the Masters Cup Lee Pattison maintained his lead in the standings, 31 points ahead of WDE Motorsport’s Paul Rivett, who had a strong weekend with a 4^th place finish in round 15 and 2^nd place in round 16.

As the Clio’s are missing for the next BTCC event at Silverstone, the stage is set for what will prove to be an intense showdown for the next driver to be crowned the Clio Cup champion of 2014, with 5 drivers mathematically still in the hunt for the title, although realistically it is between three drivers – Mike Bushell, Jordan Stilp and Josh Cook.

Written by Alan Faulkner

Photo credit: Jakob Ebrey Motorsport Photography    

Frustration for Mealin in Scotland

Falcon Motorsport's Chris Mealin endured a weekend to forget at Knockhill during rounds 19, 20 and 21 at the Scottish circuit, after being unable to secure a spot on the podium in the Scholarship class in all three races, and registering two DNF's over the weekend.

The Manxman was optimistic ahead of his maiden visit to Knockhill, a track which has become an iconic fixture of the ToCA package over recent years, but admits that he was left bitterly disappointed with the way his weekend panned out.

"We really don't know what happened at Knockhill; I did a lot of hard work and preparation ahead of the weekend to make sure I was where I needed to be for Friday practice, and with it being a new circuit to me I knew there would be a lot of challenges and techniques I would have to learn. Towards the end of FP1 I made a mistake at the chicane and my rear suspension got damaged which caused me to spin off into the gravel - I think at the time it was called finding the limits".

He added: "The first race was particularly tricky with the weather, as we had short blasts of rain every few minutes just before we went out on track which made tyre choice difficult; in the end we went out with wets on which was the right call at the start of the race, but towards the end half the track was wet and the other half was dry which made it tough, but it didn't help that I stalled at the start of the race, my first bad start of the year. Trying to keep the wets alive for when we hit the water was another challenge, but I was reeling in the pack and just ran out of time unfortunately".

Despite his run of bad luck at recent rounds, Chris is still confident of a strong finish to the season, and aims to bounce back at the next three rounds at Rockingham. "It's a track that holds good memories for me there even though I've never raced around it before, as it's where I completed my maiden test in the Formula Ford Ecoboost car and with my team Falcon Motorsport - I can still remember begging for another go but at the time I couldn't, however one thing lead to another and here we are nearly a year later coming back".

With the season coming down to the last few rounds, Chris explained what he hopes to get out of them and what he is aiming for; "I think the main aim is to have fun, enjoy them and get everything I can out of these last 9 races, it's gone quick but I've learnt so much. We've had lots of ups and downs over the course of the season but the last three tracks are the ones I'm looking forward to the most - Silverstone has to be the special one really with it being my second home race as I live 20 minutes down the road, and after my huge crash at Thruxton earlier on in the season we all know how I bounced back at my local track Oulton Park so who knows what lies ahead".

Written by Alan Faulkner
Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner  

Chris Mealin - half term report

Falcon Motorsport´s Chris Mealin has been reflecting on the first half of his debut season in the 2014 Formula Ford GB Championship, and the Manxman believes that he can build on what has been an impressive season so far.

"We´ve gotten off to a very good start, 10 Scholarship podiums with my first overall podium at Oulton Park in some very tricky conditions is something I would have never thought could happen with my limited experience in single seaters; I set a target at the start of the season to claim my first overall podium before the summer break and I´ve been able to achieve that".

Undoubtedly Chris´s highest point of the season is claiming his first overall podium at Oulton Park, the weekend after his accident at Thruxton, showing that he is more than capable of bouncing back as soon as possible. He added, "winning the Scholarship class has also got to be up there and it´s something that I will always look back on as one of those good times".

Looking back at the five tracks that he has raced at in the first half of the season, Chris admitted that he has loved racing at all of them. "Brands Hatch was a great opening to the season with 3 Scholarship podiums and winning the Scholarship class in the last race, Donington we had better pace but a few things happened which didn´t help and we definitely felt we could have gotten more out of that meeting. I got my best start to a race at Thruxton from 8th to fighting for 3rd at the end of lap 2 but sadly my heavy crash ended the weekend early. Oulton Park was probably my favourite as everything flowed together nicely, a great weekend for sure, and Croft was a good circuit to race at too, very technical and fast but we were on the back foot with every session due to issues with the car".

Despite it being his debut season in the championship, Chris is loving every minute of it and the challenges it brings; "It´s fantastic to be part of the championship, they give a huge help to every young driver that comes up from karting who wants to start a career in single seaters like myself, from the quality of the racing to working with the teams, TV, media, fans and help with looking for sponsorship, it´s just brilliant!"

With the second half of the season starting this weekend at Snetterton, Chris is hoping for more strong finishes and to build on what he has already achieved in the opening half of the season. "As long as I can keep scoring Scholarship podiums in every race and claiming those overall podiums more often now that would be great. In the back of my mind though I´m still after that first race win which I don´t think is too far off from happening, as long as we keep doing what we´re doing and improving every time I go out onto the circuit then who knows what results could come my way".

Written and inerviewed by Alan Faulkner
Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner

BTCC 2014 - the halfway stage

When the entry list was confirmed at the official Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship Media Day back in March, many fans expected this season to be fiercely competitive with a record 31 car grid for the upcoming season, with 7 of those being piloted by current and former BTCC champions from across the years, and the series has duly delivered as we enter the summer break after 15 thrill packed races.

So far the most impressive driver in my view is the championship leader Colin Turkington; the Northern Irishman has taken an impressive 9 podium finishes out of a possible 15 so far this season, converting 6 of those podium finishes into race wins. When you consider that this is his second season in the eBay Motor's BMW 125i since his return after a four year gap, it has shown how he has gone from strength to strength, as has the car which has become more consistent with each race, and also helped team mate Rob Collard to 5th in the points as things stand. Turkington has always been a quality driver since he first made a name for himself in the BTCC, but even by his standards he has had a fantastic first half of the 2014 season, and, depending on consistency, he certainly has the ability to clinch his second drivers title, as long as he and the team pick up from where they left off at a very positive weekend at Croft.

Another driver that has been impressive so far this season in my eyes is one of the series newcomers Tom Ingram, driving the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis. The current Ginetta GT Supercup champion had been tipped for a move up to the BTCC since dominating in the Ginetta support series, starting with the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2010, and made the dream a reality for the 2014 season. He also admitted before the season started that his main target was to  finish consistently in the top 10 over the course of the season, a feat which Speedworks have struggled to achieve since their debut in 2011, and one that has only been accomplished by Paul O'Neill during a guest drive for the team at Knockhill in 2012. However, Tom has proved his critics wrong and has indeed managed to finish regularly in the top 10, getting the best out of the car which at last is showing its true potential. With more consistent top 10 finishes, I believe Tom will be able to go on and achieve great things, and has the potential to be a future champion of the BTCC.

On the opposite end of the scale, there have also been drivers which have been disappointing so far this season. Despite all the hype in the pre-season, I feel a bit let down by the lack of performance from former champions Alain Menu and Fabrizio Giovanardi. Menu has been out of a full drive in the BTCC since 2000, where he drove for Ford in their Mondeo during the Supertourer era, and as a result the switch to NGTC will be a huge change from what he had been used to driving. Still, Menu has been progressing steadily, but perhaps not at the pace as he was expecting, and has had good chances of a strong finish, only for them to be dashed away for numerous reasons, meaning that he will be more determined for strong results in the latter part of the season, especially when he has a strong car underneath him in the BMR Volkswagen CC. On the flipside, Fabrizio Giovanardi has not been progressing as consistently thus far this season, and has been inconsistent in terms of qualifying and race results, which is quite disappointing, especially as he has been out of the series for less time than Menu. Arguably he too has to get used to NGTC machinery, but it also has to be said that the Airwaves Focus is not the strongest car on the grid, but hopefully 'Gio' will be able to get the best out of the Ford and push for strong results in the second half of the season.

It is not just the returning duo that have been disappointing this season. Triple champion Matt Neal has also had a fairly poor season as things stand, and has been caught up in numerous incidents which is unlike him, meaning he too has been inconsistent in his race results. However, Neal has also been inconsistent in qualifying, where he has found himself starting in the middle of the pack and struggling to get near the top of the time sheets. Team Dynamics do have a new car for Neal and team mate Shedden, but both drivers admitted that the Civic Tourer is not much different to the hatchback model they ran for the previous two seasons, so it is hard to find a reason why Neal has been struggling whereas his team mate has fared better, especially when he performed so well when behind the wheel of the hatchback Civic model. 

Looking ahead to the second half of the season, the drivers I believe we should be keeping an eye on are Turkington for definite, especially as he is the championship leader and has been dominant so far this season, it will be interesting to see if he and the eBay Motors squad can keep the momentum going into the later stages of the BTCC season. I also think that Menu and Giovanardi could improve in the second half, which will make for interesting viewing towards the end of the season, as well as Ingram who will be looking to build on a strong start. Another man who can never be discounted is Triple Eight's Jason Plato, who will always have a part to play when the championship comes to its climax towards the last few rounds, and he is also one of the most consistent drivers on the grid so will be looking to get the better of Turkington when the series returns at Snetterton in three weeks time.

One thing is for certain, with 31 drivers all battling for race wins and podiums, there is a long way to go as far as the championship is concerned, and no driver can ever be ruled out or ignored when it comes to touring car racing; it's unpredictability is what makes the series so exciting and what draws the fans in.

Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner 

Mixed weekend for Mealin at Croft

Chris Mealin endured a mixed weekend at Croft in the latest rounds of the Formula Ford GB championship.

The Manxman suffered from a coming together in race 3 of the weekend with Scholarship rival Connor Mills at the hairpin, which put a dampener on what could have been a promising weekend for the 20 year old.

Mealin qualified 9^th for the first race of the weekend and 8^th for the final race going off the second fastest lap times of the session, and was able to secure a 7^th place finish in the first race of the weekend, and finishing 2^nd in the Scholarship Class behind Ashley Sutton who took 2^nd place overall. He managed to achieve the same result in the second race of the day, making it two podiums out of two for the Scholarship, again finishing behind Sutton who won the second race of the day.

However, the weekend ended on a sour note as far as Mealin is concerned; he made a good start to the race, moving up to 6^th after lap 2 and was beginning to show some good pace, but dropped down the order on the same lap after a coming together between him and Mills at the hairpin, as a late lunge down the inside failed to pay off for Mills who caught the rear left of Mealin’s car and sent him into a slide. Fortunately Mealin was able to avoid contact with any other cars and came home 9^th , a result which seen him finish outside the Scholarship podium places, with team mate Ricky Collard taking the final step on the podium in 8^th place.

Despite three top 10 finishes, Mealin was disappointed with how the weekend ended; feeling slightly aggrieved with the result of race 3, but is confident of bouncing back at Snetterton after the summer break. “The last time I saw him in my left mirror [Mills] was on the exit of the right, it’s just that I had the four of them behind me so I knew if I took the wide line in and left the door open I would have been pushed wide by one and they all would have gone through, that’s why I stayed in the middle”.

“He wasn’t even half a car width up the inside when we touched; it was his front right which hit me so I’m disappointed really. This weekend we were aiming to chase down the top 6 but I didn’t have a good qualifying session which then made the weekend a whole lot harder from then on really”.

After an impressive start to his debut season in the Formula Ford GB Championship, Mealin will be hoping to pick up where he’s left off from the first half of the season and will be looking to go from strength to strength in the Falcon Motorsport machine.

Written by Alan Faulkner

Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner

Disappointing weekend for Cook at Croft

Josh Cook has seen his lead slide to just 15 points in the Courier Connections Renault Clio Cup UK, after suffering from contact in round 10 of the championship at Croft.

The 23 year old came into the weekend leading the championship by a healthy 32 points from nearest rival James Colburn. However, despite showing good pace in the free practice sessions on Friday and topping the time sheets, the championship leader was unable to match the pace of Jordan Stilp in Saturday’s qualifying session, with the 19 year old taking pole position for both of the following races, with Cook settling for second.

Cook struggled in the first race of the day, after contact on the opening lap at Clervaux between James Colburn and Paul Rivett dropped him back down the field as he manoeuvred around the collision, and as a result team mates Ash Hand and Ant Whorton-Eales were able to take advantage and get passed on the inside line. After moving off the racing line early on, Cook was unable to recover and had to settle for fourth place after duelling with Whorton-Eales for a podium finish.

After missing out on a podium, Cook was determined to make amends in the second race of the day, again starting on the front row. Unfortunately his race was to be short lived, as Paul Rivett got caught up once again at Clervaux on the opening lap, this time coming together with the championship leader, who in turn collided with the tyre stack at Hawthorn and his Clio sustained significant damage as a result. Despite a brave effort to soldier on, the damage was too much and Cook subsequently received a black and orange flag, forcing him to pit and end any chance of rescuing a point’s finish. 

Cook was clearly disappointed with the way the weekend panned out after a string of good results, but will be hoping to bounce back after the summer break at Snetterton, and will take some comfort about still leading the championship after a poor weekend.

Written by Alan Faulkner

Photo Credit: Darren Hurrell Photographs