Going into the final round Mike Gardiner, Paul Fenton and Moore Racing only required 13 points to be sure of winning the inaugral MSA Production S1 Championship. With Mike racing the teams Dodge Viper at Silverstone, the driving was left to Paul for the 50 minute race.
Qualifying was cut short with a diff warning light after only 10 laps of the Brands Hatch indy circuit. With no testing this yielded a lowly 7th in qualifying with the team spending the time trying to diagnose the diff issue, which is tricky with no further opportunity to test the car pre-race.
Just as the cars were forming up in the holding area the rain that had been threatening all day arrived. The race was promptly declared wet and the grid returned to the pits for wet tyres. Even with the crew split between Brands and Silverstone the slicks were rapidly changed for wets and the car back on the grid, more than most teams managed.
With the need to secure the championship the start was taken with the utmost care. Once things settled down Fenton started to pick his way cautiously up the grid gaining places one by one. At this point whilst pursuing the 996 Cup car in the invitation class Paul outbraked himself into Graham Hill losing all the places gained in the grassy moment. With a number of other close calls overtaking other cars with inexperienced drivers and nothing to lose it was time to be more cautious.
Suitably chastised the M3 settled down gaining places as opportunity arose and pitting just after half way for the mandatory pit stop. Just after the pitstop and with a drying track the diff temperature warning from qualifying reared it's head again. With nothing to be gained by pushing hard and destroying the diff Paul settled for 6th and the championship victory for Mike Gardiner, Paul Fenton and Moore Racing.
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Contact: Richard Moore - 07939 569027 or Paul Fenton - 07801 417931 |