Caterham Festival exceeds expectations

Race day sees 300 entries for 18 races

A fantastic celebration of the world's most-raced car was the verdict on the 2004 Caterham Festival, held at Brands Hatch over the weekend (9/10 Oct).

With nearly 300 entries for 18 races and eight championship titles to be decided, the Festival - the third to be held since the event's inception in 2000 - provided plenty of thrills.

The rain held off and the racing was every bit as close and exciting as expected. "It's been a fantastic event," said Caterham Cars managing director Simon Nearn. "I don't think I've ever seen so many happy smiling racers and spectators. They've all enjoyed some spectacular races and some really great battles. It's the drivers who make Caterham racing a world leader and they deserve the praise for putting on such a great show for us all."

The event also marked the successful race debut of the new Caterham CSR, the first track example of which was handled with success by Japanese drivers Yoshikazo Suzuki and Takeshi Ito.

The Festival excitement began on Saturday, with evo Caterham Academy championship victories for Patrick Scharfegger and Guy Harrington, and Academy race wins for Luke Dimsdale and Jeremy Ellis. In the Autosport Caterham Eurocup Jon Barnes secured the R400 class title and Chris Reynalds the Roadsport class crown, and Clive Richards ended his season on a high note with twin race victories.

Sixty members of the Caterham Graduates Club were in action on Saturday also, with race victories for Martin Amison in the Mega-Graduate category, Toby Briant in the Graduate class and Andrew Adshead in the Super-Graduate division.

The French and German domestic Caterham championships entertained the Brands Hatch crowds also; Jean-Francois Piau won the Coupe de France Caterham Sprint event while the French endurance honours fell to Jean-Luc Fortunati.

In the first of the Caterham Hankook Masters Germany races, British R400 driver Peter Ratcliff took victory ahead of the Caterham CSR of Suzuki, with Rudiger Vortisch the German class victor. Vortisch triumphed again in his class in the second German race, with David Knox's R400 the outright victor.

Twin wins on Sunday for Tom Ferrier in the Powertrain Caterham R400 Challenge set the seal on a superbly successful season for Team Parker Racing, with Luke Stevens clinching the drivers championship.

A highlight of Sunday's entertainment was an all-comers Open race, won by a gnat's whisker by the R400 of Mike Cantillon, ahead of Jamie Constable and Kevin Williams to make it a Hyperion Motorsport 1-2-3. Simon Summerville's Caterham Blackbird was the winner of the class for smaller-engined cars.

It was Blackadder's championship win which provided the most excitement, with the title fight going down to the final lap of the final round and with a single point separating the top two in the final standings.

Blackadder's progress to the crown was a nail-biting affair: in the first of the day's races the 38-year-old from Henley-on-Thames spun out of the lead down the Brabham Straight, narrowly avoiding heavy contact with the pit wall, and Mike was left to hobble home 21st and last on the road.

But one of his rivals for the crown, John Aylott, was in trouble also - he spun at Druids while contesting the lead and finished 14th. With the third man in the title hunt, Neil Fletcher, pipped for victory by five-thousandths of a second by Nick Potter, the scene was set for a dramatic final-round encounter between the three championship protagonists.

And so it proved, but it was a mid-field accident which eliminated several cars which helped Blackadder to the crown. Mike had started from the back of the grid with little hope of catching Fletcher and Aylott but the crash brought out the red flags and Blackadder was able to pick his way through from 11th place to fifth at the chequered flag, enough to secure the championship by a point from Fletcher, who finished third in the race behind Potter and Anthony Poole. Aylott's chances were crushed by a puncture.

Fletcher paid tribute to his rival: "Mike's a great guy and he deserves the championship." Blackadder's prize is a free upgrade for his Roadsport to Inter Class specification for the 2005 season.

The Roadsport A championship battle was between three drivers also: Bromley, Graham Fennymore and Chris Nicholas. Fennymore crossed the line in front in race one but was later stripped of his victory in the scrutineering bay; devastating news for him but just what Bromley needed, for James's Autotrader-backed car ended its race in the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap. Nicholas was awarded the win, ahead of Nathan Bell and Mike Richards.

Kingston, Surrey-based Bromley did everything required of him in the Festival-closing second Roadsport A race, charging through from the back of the grid to take second place, by just five-hundredths of a second, behind his Arrowstar team-mate Nicholas.

James won four races on his way to the title; he started his track career in 2002 in the evo Caterham Academy and went on to win the Roadsport B championship title last year.

Said Bromley: "I knew I had to try to win the race so I just went hell for leather and made a few moves that I was probably quite lucky to get away with. I asked a lot of the tyres and in the closing stages I just didn't have enough left to get past Chris." James, whose championship prize is a free swap of his Roadsport for an R400 for the 2005 season, plans either to contest the R400 Challenge next year or the new Cosworth Caterham Masters.

Inter Class newcomer Malcolm Barnett claimed victory in both races, with Derbyshire's Clark close behind in each to secure sufficient points to ensure his championship win and his prize of a Roadsport A upgrade for 2005.

The Roadsport Challenge enjoys the backing of Motorsport News, Arch Motors,
Bilstein, Comma, Cooper-Avon Tyres, Fairmont Insurance, Harrington Generators International, MG XPOWER, Mitchell Cotts, PTP, Powertrain Ltd and Stack.

Provisional final championship placings
Class A
1 James Bromley, 202 points
2 Chris Nicholas, 199
3 Nathan Bell, 170
4 Mike Richards, 151, etc

Inter Class
1 Douglas Clark, 212
2 Stephen Rowden, 197, etc

Class B
1 Mike Blackadder, 198
2 Neil Fletcher, 197
3 John Aylott, 186
4 Andrew Beaumont, 163, etc

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