Home to Hethel – Round 3 Report
Friday 8th May 2015
Round 3 of the Lotus Cup UK Speed Championship took place on Saturday 2 May at Hethel, the home of Lotus.
The day started off very grey and wet and the rain continued to fall as the first cars from the Production class were called up for their practice run, which covered just over two laps of the Lotus test track. The single-seaters in the previous class were clearly struggling with the wet conditions, and several of the light, slick-tyred cars spun as they struggled for traction.
With proceedings delayed, the first Lotus runs began shortly before the rain began to abate, but with the third timed runs now cancelled, all of the drivers would also have to cope with a gradually drying track.
Newcomer Mark Swarbrick, in his Orange S2 Exige, took third place in his first run, but had a spin on his second. Nevertheless his efforts were enough to earn him the ‘Driver of the Day’ award.
Blue skies appeared in time for the second timed runs and with the track mostly dry, drivers were pushing to the limit. Incidents included Swarbrick’s spin, and John Dunn, who had an off near the pit wall.
Dave Mann emerged as the SuperSport winner after a fine performance, and it looked as though category pace-setter Xavier Brooke would only take third place, but a re-run gave him the chance to topple Tony Pearman from second.
In the Production class, Philip Stratton-Lake took the spoils, driving his race Elise for the last time, having sold it to Martin Scarfe, who took fifth place in the same car. Stratton-Lake was followed closely by Jez Braker in second, and Graeme Foley in the ES Motorsport rental car, with his son Simon taking 7th in the same car.
A notable performance came from Adam Ruck, who took fourth place in the Production class with the standard 118bhp S2 Elise that he shares with Karen Harvey, beaten only by former Lotus on Track Elise Trophy racers.
Words & pic courtesy of Karen Harvey.
Final standings top 3: SuperSport | Final standings top 3: Production | |||||||||||||||||||
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Full results: Click Here
Championship Standings: Click Here
