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RACE REPORTS 2006
Race No: 18, Silverstone, 15 October 2006
Full circle for Jackson at Silverstone
Round 18 of the 2006 Blaupunkt SEAT Cupra Championship was a demonstration of the most competitive racing in UK motorsport. It saw Mat Jackson, the 2006 champion take his 11th race win of the season, to bring it full circle, having won the opening round at Brands Hatch in April. Jonathan Adam was second in the final round and takes third in the championship, while Neil Waterworth took a welcome debut on the podium by finishing third.
At the start, it was Jonathan Adam who got away best, from second on the grid but on even more of a mission was Jackson, who simply drove round the outside of Adam to get his nose alongside and try to get alongside Carl Breeze, starting from pole. Jackson then took the inside line for the tight right-hander at Beckett’s and he and Breeze went through side by side, holding a similar formation up the back straight. Entering the Luffield corner, Jackson was now on the outside and he and Breeze touched, sending Jackson wide. Then, on the next lap, Breeze spun at the first corner, Copse and rejoined in last place.
Behind them, Ben Winrow and Alan Blencowe were having a huge battle, with the pair side by side until Winrow ended up claiming the position. He then closed up on Jonathan Fildes and tried several times to get past and close the gap to title rival Fulvio Mussi, who was holding fourth position. However, Winrow was unable to get past Fildes. Winrow then went on to lock his rear tyres on the way into Luffield but he had a sufficient cushion to Blencowe to mean that he kept the position.
However, next time round Blencowe was able to get past on the way into the Complex but a slide then allowed Winrow to re-claim the place. Carl Breeze was starting to make his way up through the field and was battling with Tim Bevan and Harry Vaulkhard, with positions swapping with every corner.
Back at the front, Jackson had resisted the pressure that Jonathan Adam was piling on him throughout the race to take the win, with Neil Waterworth taking third and Fulvio Mussi fourth. Ian Churchill took an excellent fifth place and Jonathan Fildes was sixth. Ben Winrow and Alan Blencowe rounded out the top eight.
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Race No: 17, Silverstone, 15 October 2006
Fast and Frantic at Silverstone
Round 17 of the 2006 Blaupunkt SEAT Cupra Championship was another example of the close racing which has made the series famous this year. Carl Breeze came through to win an action-packed race, which saw no less than three leaders over the course of the 18 laps. Fulvio Mussi was second while Alan Blencowe was third.
As the lights went out, it was Mussi who got the better start from second on the grid and led the field into the first corner. Mat Jackson edged ahead of Blencowe while Carl Breeze also improved on his sixth starting place, passing Neil Waterworth off the line. Breeze then immediately managed to squeeze past Blencowe to take fourth as the field completed the first lap.
Mat Jackson was also on a mission and exiting the complex, was side by side with Jonathan Adam. The pair drag-raced down the start/finish straight but it was Jackson who maintained the advantage, as he had the inside line for the following corner and so took third.
By this point, Blencowe was pushing Breeze hard, who in turn was piling the pressure on Jonathan Adam. Jackson was also challenging Mussi at every opportunity for the lead but the young Essex driver resisted his every move. However, with such close racing, something was bound to happen, and it did. As the field went through the right-hander onto the back straight, Jackson had to lift, which caused a chain reaction behind him, with Carl Breeze hitting the back of Jonathan Adam, causing him to spin out. He rejoined the field last and eventually finished 9th.
Next time around, Fulvio Mussi, having defended so well, ran slightly wide and this allowed Jackson to take the position at the front of the field and he began to open a slight gap. This left Mussi next in Breeze’s sights and when Mussi ran slightly wide again, Breeze was able to get alongside and hold the inside line along the main straight and claim the position at the next corner.
Blencowe was now pushing Mussi hard but try as he might, he couldn’t find a way past. Ben Winrow had now closed up onto Blencowe’s tailgate but again, could not find a way past to close on Mussi, his main rival for fourth in the championship. With just a handful of laps left, it looked like a foregone conclusion, until Jackson slowed on the back straight and pulled into the pits. A bolt had worked its way out of the exhaust manifold and the escaping gases had melted part of the wiring loom, ending his race.
This handed the lead and the eventual race win to Breeze, with Mussi second and Blencowe third. With Winrow fourth and Jonathan Adam ninth, it means that there is a 15-point gap between Alan Blencowe and Adam for second place. But the fight is for fourth in the championship, with Mussi now just two points behind Ben Winrow, heading into the final race of the season.
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