Barwell dominate at Thruxton with feature 1-2.

Barwell Motorsport enjoyed its finest hour at Thruxton yesterday, with drivers James Kaye and Peter Cate dominating the Feature race to record a 1-2 finish in the BTC Production Class. Kaye also notched up the equal best ever overall result for a Production class car, with fifth place, behind only the four factory team-run Touring class Vauxhall Astras.

Barwell Motorsport enjoyed its finest hour at Thruxton yesterday, with drivers James Kaye and Peter Cate dominating the Feature race to record a 1-2 finish in the BTC Production Class. Kaye also notched up the equal best ever overall result for a Production class car, with fifth place, behind only the four factory team-run Touring class Vauxhall Astras.

We knew that Thruxton, in terms of out-and-out pace over a single lap, is a relatively weak circuit for our Honda Accord and a strong one for the Peugeot 306GTis. This is mainly due to the power advantage of the Pug, but over a race distance on the highly abrasive Hampshire track the superior handling of our Accord means we can conserve tyre wear and run to a faster pace. We have also improved the set-up of the car for Thruxton a great deal since last year, when it was in its early stages of development.

Sunday's official qualifying session went pretty much according to plan, with James setting the fastest-ever lap time for the car at Thruxton - nearly one second quicker than we went last season. This was good enough to line him up third behind the two HTML Peugeots of his archrivals in the championship, Simon Harrison and Roger Moen, and ahead of the similar TechSpeed Racing 306GTi of Paul O'Neil. Peter Cate, meanwhile, is gaining in experience and performance each time he drives our sister Accord, and qualified in an impressive sixth spot on the grid (these positions stay the same for both the Sprint and the Feature races).

The 15-lap Sprint race proved to be one of the most dramatic and action-packed encounters of recent times, with both of our cars in the thick of it all! Cate made an incredible start to fly straight into second place from the third row of the grid, and shadowed leader Harrison around the opening lap. Moen, however, tried to out-brake Peter into the chicane at the end of the first lap, but got totally out-of-control as he went down the inside of the Barwell Honda. As the Peugeot driver tried to recover control of his car he collided with Peter and, in an incredible scene, our Accord rode up over the side of the 306GTi, put one wheel on its roof and came back down again via the front windscreen!!

Amazingly, Peter's car wasn't too badly damaged, but this clash meant that these two cars were now almost completely blocking the track as the rest of the field queued up behind them. Unfortunately for us, one of the worst affected was James, who dropped from fourth place to 15th in an instant, as he had to stop and perform a 3-point-turn to get round the Cate/Moen blockage! Poor Peter was able to continue, but had to pit next time around to have his front bumper re-attached properly. Despite his car now not handling as it should, he made a good recovery to get back to 10th place and claim the final point.

James was also on the recovery trail, and immediately started a phenomenal drive back up through the order. As quickly as lap four he had latched onto the back of a hectic five-car scrap for third place, and set about scything his way through this pack. Just five laps later he held third spot and was reeling in the second-placed Peugeot of O'Neil just as it pitted with terminal mechanical problems. A superb second place was then in the bag until an unlucky miss-shift damaged the gearbox, and meant James was stuck in fourth gear with two laps to go! Despite this he almost held on, but was powerless to resist the Honda Integra of Nick Beaumont as they went down the back straight for the final time (fifth gear - top - is required for the straights!). With all things considered, third place was quite a relief.

The Feature event, by comparison, was a much calmer affair, although it was an extremely tense time for all of the Barwell crew. Peter again made the better start of our duo, and slotted into fourth place behind Moen, Harrison and O'Neil, and immediately ahead of James. The blue and silver Barwell Accords then had a brief battle at the Complex on lap two, with Kaye using his experience to sneak past his team-mate to claim fourth. This quickly became third as James disposed of O'Neil on the same lap, and started to hassle the two leading HTML Peugeots. By lap four there was only one HTML car remaining, after Harrison suffered a terminal mechanical problem, and Kaye set a storming fastest race lap as he caught Moen and shaped up to take the lead.

As James closed to just 2/10ths of a second behind Moen's Pug, it also suffered a mechanical failure, and he swept past to take the lead. By this time, Peter had come out on top of a brief struggle with the Ford Focus of Matt Jackson, and was only two seconds behind his team-mate. With 12 out of the 30 laps completed, we thus now had a potential Barwell one-two finish on our hands. Kaye and Cate kept pushing hard and established a healthy gap over Jackson during the next five laps, in order that they could afford to back off in the latter stages of the race as the tyre wear became critical.

Stalemate ensued as the entire Barwell squad crossed their fingers, toes and anything else they could find, and prayed for two reliable cars. Both drivers didn't put a wheel wrong, however, and reeled off the laps whilst in regular radio contact with the pits. Although Jackson's Focus put on a spurt in the closing few laps, the situation was very much under control and both Peter and James could have pushed harder if they had needed to. After what seemed like an eternity, the chequered flag finally came out to greet the Barwell Hondas and we could celebrate a job well done.

The next round of the BTCC is at Oulton Park (Cheshire) on May 19/20.

Results:

Top 10 Race Results - SPRINT (BTC Production class) (15 laps):

1. Simon Harrison HTML Peugeot 306GTi
2. Nick Beaumont Team B&Q Honda Integra
3. James Kaye Barwell Honda Accord
4. Dave Allan Synchro Honda Accord
5. Jim Edwards TCR Honda Accord
6. Mat Jackson GR M/sport Ford Focus
7. Richard Meins GR M/sport Ford Focus
8. Ann Templeton Techspeed Peugeot 306
9. John B-and-Q Team B&Q Honda Integra
10. Peter Cate Barwell Honda Accord

Top 10 Race Results - FEATURE (BTC Production class) (30 laps):

1. James Kaye Barwell Honda Accord
2. Peter Cate Barwell Honda Accord
3. Mat Jackson GR M/sport Ford Focus
4. Jim Edwards TCR Honda Accord
5. Tom Boardman TB Racing Peugeot 306GTi
6. Richard Meins GR M/sport Ford Focus
7. Nick Beaumont Team B&Q Honda Integra
8. Ann Templeton Techspeed Peugeot 306
9. John B-and-Q Team B&Q Honda Integra
10. Dave Allan Synchro Honda Accord

BTC Production Class - Drivers Championship - Top 10 (after 4 of 26 races)

1. James Kaye Honda Accord 44
2. Simon Harrison Peugeot 306 37
3. Mat Jackson Ford Focus 33
4. Roger Moen Peugeot 306 26
5. Peter Cate Honda Accord 19
6. Gareth Howell Ford Focus 16
6. Jim Edwards Honda Accord 16
6. Nick Beaumont Honda Integra R 16
9. Gavin Pyper Alfa Romeo 156 12
10. Dave Allan Honda Accord 10

BTC Production Class - Teams Championship (Feature race results for 2 cars only):

1. Barwell Motorsport Honda 46
2. GR Motorsport Ford 26
3. HTML Peugeot 12
4. Total Control Racing Honda 10
5. Tech-Speed M/sport Peugeot 8
5. GA Janspeed Alfa Romeo 8
7. Tom Boardman Racing Peugeot 7
8. Team B-and-Q Honda 6
9. Cranfield Automotive Mitsubishi 3
10. Synchro M/sport Honda 1
11. Collard Racing Renault 0
11. Bintcliffe M/sport Nissan 0

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