Witt sees off Cioci challenge in Pirelli-supported GT CupGT Cup leader Jordan Witt saw off the challenge of guest star Marco Cioci to complete a hat-trick of outright wins in the latest round of the Pirelli-equipped series at Rockingham.
Bentley Continental GT3 driver Witt controlled the opening two races of the weekend ahead of his regular rival Richard Chamberlain, but when the Porsche 935 dropped out of the pit-stop race, the Ferrari 458 GT3 became the main contender in the hands of Cioci.
The experienced Ferrari pilot was standing in for Aaron Scott (who was competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours) and took over John Dhillon at the pit-stop and set about cutting the gap to Witt, but the Bentley driver had enough in hand.
Paul Bailey swept the GTC class in another Ferrari, escaping contact with Ross McEwan’s Porsche in race one assisted by Andy Schulz in the finale. Tom Webb managed the same achievement in GTB in the BMW M3 GTR he shared with brother James, even though he was spun around at the start of the first race. Daniel O’Brien took two wins in GTA, but a first-lap incident in race two helped fellow Ginetta driver Brent Millage to win.
The next round of the GT Cup takes place at Oulton Park on July 23.
Cronin fights back on Pirelli tyres in DonegalKeith Cronin claimed maximum Irish Tarmac Rally Championship points on the Donegal International Rally ahead of fellow Pirelli drivers Sam and Josh Moffett.
Citroen DS3 R5 driver Cronin had fallen to fifth among the championship scorers at one point on the opening day, as Alastair Fisher led the Moffett brothers and Jonny Greer. He produced a superb fightback however over the remainder of the three-day rally – which took place in mixed weather conditions – to finish top of the pile and just half a second behind the overall event winner driving a faster World Rally Car.
Fisher took points for fifth to remain at the head of the championship, now tied on 54 points with Sam Moffett. Cronin is up to third on 49.5, with Josh Moffett on 48 with the four Pirelli drivers heading the title fight.
The next round is the Ulster International Rally on August 19-20, also part of the British Rally Championship.
British drivers battle on the streets of Baku in Pirelli-backed GP2The inaugural GP2 event on the brand new Baku street circuit was a bruising one for many of the drivers, but British racers still had some good results between them.
As in the past round in Monaco, Renault Sport Academy member Oliver Rowland was in the fight for victory in the feature race, this time finishing in fourth. The sprint race was marred by messy restarts, and although Rowland briefly led after one of these, he was then spun around at the next and eventually stopped.
A strategy error from his team when deciding when to pit to change Pirelli tyres cost Jordan King a shot at the win in the first race, but the Manor F1 development driver was able to charge up the order to finish fourth in the sprint race despite being knocked into a spin when attempting to pass another driver.
Alex Lynn was eliminated from the feature race along with several other drivers in first-corner contact, but the Williams development driver was able to recover to ninth in the sprint race and is only 13 points behind the leader moving on to the next round at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on July 1-3, when GP2 will be rejoined by GP3.
Barbour’s winning return in Pirelli-equipped Time AttackAt the third round of the Pirelli-supplied Time Attack Championship at Brands Hatch there was a winning return to the series for Andrew Barbour.
He posted a time of 48.506 seconds in his Mitsubishi Evo IX, half a second quicker than closest Pro class rival Andy Demetriou, a single-round entry in a Porsche 911.
There was an extremely close battle in Club 4WD, with Subaru Impreza driver Josef Calleja edging out the Audi R8 of John Kane by just five thousandths of a second. There were new lap records for Classic & Retro from Jeff Alden and his Vauxhall Astra, for Clubman from Honda Civic driver Jordan Carr and in Clubman+ from Alex Bones in a Mitsubishi Evo V.
Former ‘Stig’ Ben Collins made a special guest appearance in the Project Cars Ford Fiesta ST and came third in the Pocket Rocket class.
Pirelli ace Bogie’s new look for home round of BRCDavid Bogie will start among the favourites for this weekend’s Scottish Rally and sport a bold new orange livery on his Pirelli-equipped Skoda Fabia R5.
Five-time Scottish champion and 2011 BRC winner Bogie lives just outside the rally’s host town of Dumfries. Keen to make the most of home advantage, he will deploy his joker, allowing him to score double points. “We put in a good performance last time out in the ŠKODA Fabia R5 on the Pirelli Rally, so I see no reason why we can’t win and double up a maximum points-score this time out,” he said.
“Dumfries is my home town and the stages are only twenty to thirty miles away from my house, and even though there have been some new bits added to the route, I know the stages reasonably well. I’ll have a lot of family and friends out watching the event, so I’ll be trying my best and aiming for victory.”
The BRC standings are led going into the one-day gravel event by Bogie’s team-mate in the Pirelli-supplied CA1 Sport team, Fredrik Ahlin.
Coming up next week: British Superbikes head to Knockhill and the F3 Cup travels to Spa-Francorchamps
