Around the British Championships: 18 – 19 June 2022
Whether spectating on the picturesque Anglesey coastline, trekking to Glan-Y-Gors in the mountains of Snowdonia, tackling the high-speed Scottish hills of Doune or soaking up the sunshine at Brands Hatch, last weekend proved to be a real highlight of the 2022 British Championship calendar.
With disciplines as varied as karting, hillclimb, drifting and endurance racing all on offer across the length and breadth of the UK, we’ve pulled out some of the best bits to get you up to speed on the action:
British Superkart Championships – Anglesey Circuit
Although denied pole position by 0.2 seconds, Liam Morley proved to be the class of the field in race trim and powered to a hat-trick of outright victories in the British Superkart Championships at Anglesey Circuit.
It would be Lee Harpham who claimed top spot on one-lap pace around the 2.1-mile International layout, but a fast-starting Morley annexed the race lead in the opening stages and went on to build an eventual 6.3-second winning margin in the first of three contests.
That victory gave Morley pole for each of the two subsequent races, and on both occasions, he delivered by 5.5 seconds from Harpham, the pair set to resume their battle for championship honours at Donington Park in September.
Lee Plain and namesake Luke shared the victories in the F250 class between them on a ratio of two to one, with class spoils in F125 heading the way of Jack Tritton, Ross Witherow and Shane Stoney.
Wera Tools British Karting Championships – Glan-Y-Gors
Glan-Y-Gors hosted another action-packed weekend of racing in the Wera Tools British Karting Championships, with both IAME, KZ and Bambino marking the latest chapters in each title fight.
Riley Munro extended his lead in Bambino to 12 points over Chester Forkes with victory in the final, the two split on track by second-placed Omar Austin.
In IAME Cadet, Jorge Edgar closed to within a single point of the championship summit, his victory coupled with fourth spot for current leader Jesse Phillips enough to almost reduce the arrears between them to zero.
A star-studded KZ2 entry list boasting the likes of FIA Formula 2 front-runner Jack Doohan and FIA Formula 3 racers Rafael Villagomez and Reece Ushijima was eventually won by the latter, the Japanese-British driver leading home Morgan Porter and points leader Charlie Turner in the final.
Senior X30 rounds out the action, with Thomas Fleming triumphing ahead of Harry Platten and Gus Lawrence. Fourth-placed Bart Harrison continues to lead the standings from Platten by 7 points.
British Hillclimb Championship – Doune
Three Run-Off victories from a possible four have put Alex Summers 11 points clear at the summit of the British Hill Climb Championship after an enthralling double-header at Doune, the ‘King of the Scottish Hills’.
Summers successfully steered his DJ Firestorm single seater to the quickest time in the opening Run-Off on Saturday, his 34.38-second benchmark enough to put him clear of second-placed home hero, Wallace Menzies, by 0.62 seconds, and a new outright hill record.
Although Scott Moran prevented Summers’ clean sweep with the quickest time in Saturday afternoon’s second Run-Off, a brace of new hill records on Sunday restored Summers to the top of the pile.
Moran was second to Summers on both counts, and a strong points haul now moves him to within four points of Menzies in the race for second in the standings. The series heads next to Harewood on 3rd July.
British Endurance Championship – Silverstone
Wayne Marrs and Tom Jackson, in the Rob Boston Racing Mercedes GT3 took the win on the Silverstone GP circuit in atrocious conditions, finishing ahead of the similar Simpson-run machine of Hugo Cook and Sacha Kakad, who had impressively set a blistering pace in qualifying in their first-ever event in the car.
The BEC Special Achievement award went to ING Sport, who had struggled through qualifying, their BMW Z4 stuck in fourth gear, and had a box full of neutrals just 30 minutes before the start; Kevin Clarke led for many laps mid-race, and Ryan Lindsay brought it home in third place.
Class wins went to Claude Bovet / David McDonald (Race Lab Lamborghini Super Trofeo), The Ferrari 458 of Chris Goddard and Bradley Ellis, the Porsche Cayman of Ian Gough/Euan Hankey, while Ash Woodman and Martin Byford claimed the TCR Class victory in the EDF Motorsport Cupra, and the Porsche of Mark and Jake McAleer took Class F honours.
British Drift Pro Championship – Brands Hatch
Ollie Evans and Paul Cunnington shared a win apiece in the Motorsport UK Drift Pro Championship on a spectacular weekend for drift action at the legendary Brands Hatch circuit in Kent.
Evans, recently selected to represent Team UK at this autumn’s FIA Motorsport Games, took the spoils in the opener in his Nissan Silvia ahead of Josh King and Cunnington.
The latter then struck back in Round 4, winning out against Evans in the final to take top spot, with Lwi Edwards rounding out the podium.
Oulton Park hosts the next chapter in the 2022 title fight on Sunday 16th July.
English Rally Championship – Kielder Forest
Elliot Payne and Patrick Walsh were victorious by the narrowest of margins at the English Rally Championship’s visit to the Northumberland-based Kielder Forest.
The pair steered their Ford Fiesta Rally2 to top spot throughout the six-stage event, beating Tom Llewellin and Ross Whittock in the same machinery by 0.18 seconds.
A difficult run on the first Falstone stage dropped Llewellin and Whittock back to fourth, but they gradually recovered lost ground to overhaul Stephen Petch and Mike Wilkinson for second spot.