Round 12 of the 2008 Elise Trophy held at Brands Hatch 15 November 2008.
Introduction
A final blast round the Brands Indy circuit to round off the 2008 season. With some familiar faces mothballing their cars for the winter, these rounds promised a few surprises, with the overall win expected to be contested between Ben Pitch and last minute entrant Gavin Kirby.
Qualifying
With conditions far better than the week before, the cars set off on a warm if cloudy and windy morning. Ben Pitch immediately set the pace, with Gavin Kirby and Rob Beves behind. Tom Chatterway then set a competitive time in his brand new 2-Eleven, resplendent in stealth black. Pitch and Kirby then put further space between them and the rest, at one point both posting the same lap time. They continued to trade fastest laps, promising a great race later on. Behind them, Chris Headlam and Beves consolidated their second row places.
In Class A, Mick Edwards and Martin Roberts were setting the pace, with Craig Denman and local boy BJ Chong threatening. After chipping away at the times, Roberts and Edwards got down into the 54 second times, Martin lapping faster than Jamie Stanley’s class best from last year.
By the flag it was Pitch from Kirby, both their times staying static from halfway in, from Headlam, Beves and Chatterway. Then the Class A cars, Roberts in 6th from Edwards, Denman, Chong and John LaMaster.
Race One
With a real sense of expectation, the cars lined up on the grid in bright late-autumn sunshine. The front row took off together, with Gavin Kirby taking the lead at Paddock Hill. All hell broke loose at Druids, however, as Tom Chatterway spun and was hit by Tony Verrier, delaying the B/211 competition and bringing out the safety car.
At this point Ben Pitch held the lead from Martin Roberts and Mick Edwards, the A battle holding the most interest at this point. Kirby was back in 8th after spinning away the lead at Clearways and 3 places behind Headlam. Things were far worse for BJ Chong, out of the race after having been accounted for in the first lap melee.
Pitch made good his escape when the safety car came in and left his challengers with it all to do. Mick Edwards also put a lot of space between himself and Roberts, the two class frontrunners determined to make it stick this time. By lap 6 Kirby was up to third, in front of Headlam and the two had displaced Edwards by the end of that tour. However with a 6 second gap and 14 minutes, they would need to put in some fast laps.
Edwards, meanwhile, only had the luxury of 2 seconds over Roberts but his challenge looked to be blunted by Craig Denman, who was determined not to drop him. Nevertheless, they worked together and were gradually hauling the leader in. By lap 13 it was less than a second and up front, Kirby was starting to make serious inroads into Pitch’s lead, down to just under 4 seconds.
However this was distorted by traffic and on the next lap Pitch was 5.7 seconds to the good. Roberts and Denman were also delayed, when the latter tried to take second in class at Druids. When Roberts shut the door, Denman fell down the order, whilst Roberts lost another 5 seconds to Edwards.
In the dying laps the gap to the overall lead see-sawed depending on who was lapping traffic, but Pitch was assured of a well-deserved victory after an impressive season. Kirby finished 2.5 seconds adrift, with Headlam a further 14 seconds behind. In Class A Edwards had an easier time of it, holding a 7 second lead over Roberts to the flag. In between them, Rob Beves fought back to 5thplace. Russell Hill was 7th on his debut, driving Marcus Jewell’s car, followed by John LaMaster, Pete Storey and Paul Pattison.
Race Two
And so to the final skirmish of the 2008 season. The starting grid order was to be determined on the finishing order of Race One, however this meant that we would still have the prospect of a hard-fought battle between Ben Pitch and Gavin Kirby. Starting from the back would be Tom Chatterway, the Full Speed Racing boys working at full speed to patch up the damaged rear end.
With conditions cloudier but remaining dry, Gavin Kirby made the best start. Into Paddock Hill there was heartbreak for Martin Roberts as white smoke bellowed from his exhaust signalling a head gasket failure and he pulled off at Surtees.
Meanwhile up front Pitch got ahead of Kirby, who soon after took the place back. For many laps they circulated as one, enthralling us with the battle they’d promised since practice. Keeping a watching brief in third was Rob Beves, a few lengths ahead of Chris Headlam and Mick Edwards, stalked by Craig Denman. All the while Tom Chatterway was making amends for race one, despite a hastily changed set of toe links, his car handling well.
By lap 8 he was with the B/211 cars, albeit 11 seconds off the lead. Up front, however, Pitch was really trying to wrest first place from Kirby, whilst Beves was getting closer. Lap after lap the Green Elise would feint a move into Paddock but the 2-Eleven would just stay ahead.
Things were rather different in Class A. Craig Denman had the lead at the halfway point, despite starting from the back of the grid after his race one retirement. Edwards wasn’t going anywhere though, and simply applied the same pressure that Denman was giving him before he took the lead.
On lap 19, with both battles at their fiercest, Pitch went in wide at Paddock. Too wide – a twitch on turn-in meant that he lost some ground, giving Kirby space for a couple of laps. It was to be the decisive moment for the lead as Kirby took the flag by less than half a second. Beves finished 10 seconds down, with Chatterway a similar margin back but pleased to post a result. In 5th was Edwards – Denman lost the Class A lead on the final lap, ending up nearly 3 seconds back after his engine briefly cut out. 7th was Paul Patterson, another solid result, from Pete Storey, Simon Phillips and Nigel Ayres in 10th.
Conclusion
A great finish to a fantastic season, with the series going from strength to strength. Next year we look forward to the Lotus Cup Europe in addition to the domestic races.
Race 1 All Classes
| Class A | Class B | 2-Eleven | Overall |
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Race 2 All Classes
| Class A | Class B | 2-Eleven | Overall |
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