Around the British Championships: First champion crowned in 2022

Monday 25 July 2022

Fans have had plenty of motorsport action to enjoy over the last few weeks with drivers showcasing their skills and delivering at a plethora of British Championships.

Let’s take a look around what has happened Around the British Championships in the last couple of weeks:

British Autotest Championship – South of Scotland

Alastair Moffatt has claimed a record-breaking eighth British Autotest Championship, becoming the first driver to claim a British title in 2022.

Moffatt took victory at South of Scotland Car Club’s Maximum Attack Autotests on 16 July, his fourth victory in six championship events in 2022.

Moffatt’s drop of 26 points from the opening round means that Willie Keaning, in second overall, cannot overhaul him heading into the final event. Keaning has also secured second in the 2022 championship, but it is still all to play for third with Christopher Chapman currently sitting on 127 points, and Richard Pinkey and David Fox both on 111 points.

The final round of the championship this season will be Loughborough Car Club’s Autotest on 11 September.

Drift Pro Championship – Oulton Park

Drifting fans received a treat on a scorcher of a day at Oulton Park as the Drift Pro Championship visited the venue for the first time. The challenging layout put the competitors’ technical skills to the test in what was the fifth round of the championship.

The sun began to set as the top eight went head-to-head to crown the podium finishers on Saturday 16 July. Ollie Evans and Josh King faced off in the final with Evans taking the title, his third trip to the top step of the podium this season. King settled for second while Haydn Cruickshank overcame Lwi Edwards to take home third.

At the end of this round, Evans holds the lead by a solid 65 points over Edwards. King and Cruickshank are tied third in the Championship.

The next round of the Drift Pro Championship is being held at Donington Park on 29 August.

British Hillclimb Championship – Bouley Bay and Val De Terres

The battle for the 2022 championship is still all to play for after the Channel Islands double header weekend. There is a close-knit battle between the top three drivers: Wallace Menzies, Alex Summers, and Scott Moran; with Menzies only eight points clear of the lead as the championship moves into the last four events of the season.

Summers has zero points to spare at this point in the season thanks to a fuel pump failure at Harewood, meaning the battle between Menzies and Summers is neck and neck.

Scott Moran broke the existing record at Harewood in the second run-off and now sits third in the overall championship, nine points behind Summers.

Trevor Willis scored good points to consolidate fourth place.

The next round will commence on 30 July at Wiscombe Park.

British Sprint Championship – Lydden Hill

Lydden Hill played host to the British Sprint Championship on 16 July, for round eight of the championship.

Terry Holmes took the lead in his Lola Tegra Judd with a time of 65.88s with Matthew Hillam only milliseconds behind Holmes in his Dallara F399, completing the run in 65.93s in the first round of the weekend. It was Hillam’s turn to take the lead in round 14 as he completed the run in 65.66s with second place being awarded to Steve Broughton in his Dallara F399, completing a time of 66.19s.

The next round of the British Sprint Championship will be taking place on 6 and 7 August in Kirkistown.

British GT Championship and GB3 Championship – Spa

Nick Halstead and Jamie Stanley scored theirs and Fox Motorsport’s first GT3 Championship victories as they managed a fault-free performance at Spa-Francorchamps over the weekend just gone. The McLaren 720S GT3 beat Seas Motorsport’s James Cottingham and Lewis Williamson by just 5.2 seconds after Halstead cleared around the outside of the Mercedes-AMG at Eau Rouge.

RAM Racing’s Jules Gounon and Ian Loggie completed the podium to extend the teams championship lead.

Josh Miller and Jamie Day repeated their victory from Snetterton just two races after their history-making win at the Norwich circuit. This has pushed the 16-year-olds into GT4 title contention. Marco Signoretti had promising results during qualifying, but dropped from pole to sixth during the opening lap. Team Parker Racing’s Jamie Orton and Seb Hopkins took home second with Team BRIT’s Aaron Morgan and Bobby Trundley completing the podium for GT4.

The next rounds of the British GT Championship will be taking place at Brands Hatch from 10-11 September.

In the GB3 Championship , Hitech GP’s championship leader Luke Browning completed a near-perfect weekend having taken home the win during the first two races at Spa-Francorchamps. Having started from pole during race one, Browning lost the lead to championship rival Joel Granfors on the first lap at Les Combes. But thanks to an early safety car during an opening lap incident, Browning fought back at the same corner and ran away from the field. Race two was another strong victory for Browning, as he finished 1.5 seconds ahead of Granfors with Max Esteron taking third.

Carlin’s Callum Voisin claimed his third victory of the season during the third race of the weekend for the GB3 Championship. The race was red flagged during the third lap following an incident involving David Morales at Blanchimont. After a delay, the race was restarted under safety car with the grid being formed by the running order at the red flag.

Starting the restart from third, Voisin passed the front row starter Zak Taylor at Les Combes on the restart lap and then put in a fight with Tommy Smith to make his way to the front of the pack.

The next round of the GB3 Championship is Silverstone from 30-31 July.

Looking Forward:

 

British Touring Car Championship – Knockhill

After what has felt like months of waiting, the British Touring Car Championship is back after their mid-season break for rounds 16 – 18 in Knockhill. The championship returns with Tom Ingram in the lead by only three points.

Closest rival Josh Cook will be aiming to strip Ingram of that lead over the weekend. However this championship is still very much to play for with Colin Turkington only nine points off Cook.

The Scottish circuit was first raced in BTCC in 1992 and has a length of 1.27 miles, and with it being the only visit to Scotland for BTCC, it is an obvious favourite for Scottish fans and drivers alike.

The first race of the weekend will commence at 12.08 on Sunday 31 July.

ROKiT F4 British Championship Certified by FIA – Knockhill

The ROKiT F4 British Championship will be joining BTCC up in Knockhill for rounds 16 – 18 after their mid-season break.

Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne still leads the way by 51 points from Carlin pairing Ollie Gray and Ugo Ugochukwu, but his rhythm out front was disrupted last time out at Croft on a character-building weekend for the Irishman.

Mercedes-AMG junior Daniel Guinchard and leading JHR challenger Georgi Dimitrov sit tied on 96 points apiece. Both have shown flashes of pace and have a reverse grid win each but will need more consistency to stake a claim for a top five spot in the standings.

JHR driver, Joseph Loake scored a first podium since Brands Hatch back in May at Croft a few weeks ago. As one of the pre-season title favourites, he will be looking to use that as fuel as he aims to put together a charge up the order in the second half of the campaign.

The first race is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 16:15. The second, featuring a partially reversed grid, is at 10:20 on Sunday.

The ITV4-televised finale to the weekend, race three, is at 15:45 on Sunday afternoon. This will round out an event that, with a passionate local crowd and a rollercoaster circuit layout, always promises to be one of the highlights of the year.