BOURNEDawson’s car was written
off after brake trouble
triggered nasty crashMOTORSPORTIMAGES22 AUGUST 2019 AUTOSPORT.COM 67NATIONAL NEWS CLUB AUTOSPORTEPPS’S LAST-MINUTE DEAL
Ginetta GT4 Supercup podium
finisher Mike Epps made a late switch
to the G55 usually raced by Team
Hard team-mate Tom Barley at
Thruxton last weekend. Epps looked
set to miss the round due to budget
issues but stepped in when Barley
dropped out because of his own
budget constraints. With Epps’s car
already pressed into service in the GT
Cup meeting at Silverstone, he took
over Barley’s machine and scored a
best finish of fourth in race three.GULF WINNERS GET UK RACE
Radical Gulf Cup winners Jeff Curtis
and James Edmeades made their
debuts in the Radical Challenge
Championship at Silverstone last
weekend as their prize drive for
last year’s Middle East success. The
Radical Works Team-run pair finished
20th and 21st on Saturday, but were
running in a much more promising
12th before having to retire the car
at Farm in the finale on Sunday.COOK TO RACE TVR GRIFFITH
British Touring Car Championship
race winner Josh Cook will switch to
historics this weekend to share the
TVR Griffith of Mike Gardiner in the
Guards Trophy race at Oulton Park.
Cook will take the drive normally
occupied by Dan Cox, who is
temporarily out of action having
broken a couple of ribs in
a mountain biking accident.COMBE ASTON CELEBRATION
The 60th anniversary of the 1959
Le Mans victory for Aston Martin will
be celebrated during the Castle
Combe Autumn Classic on 5 October,
topped by the second-placed
DBR1/4. A special Le Mans-themed
display will he headlined by the car
that finished second with Maurice
Trintignant and Paul Frere (below).
Other classic Astons will be present,
including an example of the Nimrod
Group C project, which ended in 1984
when both cars were badly damaged
in one fiery accident at Le Mans.IN THE HEADLINES
BRSCCFiesta Championship drivers James Waite
and Jake Dawson were uninjured despite
a dramatic opening-lap collision at
Anglesey last weekend.
Dawson lost his brakes heading to
Rocket and, after running wide to try
and halt his momentum, collided into
the left-front of second-place runner
Waite, forcing a lengthy red flag period.
The impact pitched Dawson into
the air, his car rolling over twice and
coming to a stop the right way up.
“I’d been suffering with my brakes the
whole weekend,” Dawson said. “When itFiesta drivers escape injur y
after dramatic Anglesey crash
came to the corner they just went.
I tried pulling left to slow down but
it was too late and I couldn’t avoid it.
The car’s a write-off, a next-year job.”
While Dawson was out, the Jamsport
team worked through the night to repair
the car of championship leader Waite.
“It’s pretty much the whole front
end [that was damaged],” said Waite.
“Gearbox, driveshaft, chassis leg,
half the engine, practically, but it’s
looking like we’ll need a new car.”
Despite getting Waite back out,
a snapped fan belt cut short his race
two and he was seventh in the finale.
DOM D’ANGELILLOMONOPOSTONASCAR Euro Series
teenager Ben Creanor made
his debut foray into single-
seaters at Silverstone last
weekend in Monoposto.
The 16-year-old Brit has
been competing in his maiden
Euro NASCAR season this
year but, in a bid to gain more
experience on his CV, secured
a drive with the Spirit
Motorsport squad driving
a Formula Renault.
“I saw an ad on Facebookand I thought, ‘What’s the
worst that can happen?’” he
said. “The aim is to get a feel
in a single-seater because I
haven’t done it before and need
to get some experience. This
weekend is a learning curve.”
Creanor took 20th in the
first race but coped well with
the tricky wet track for 14th
in race two of the mammoth
48-car grid.
While the Silverstone
weekend was a one-off,
Creanor hopes to have more
outings in the future.Spirit Motorsport team
boss John Cowan said he was
impressed with Creanor’s
prowess behind the wheel,
given Friday testing was held
in the wet and the car’s lack of
action in the last 16 months.
“Ben’s performance has
blown us away,” he said.
“For him to come in and
drive a single-seater in those
conditions and be on it straight
away is very impressive.
It shows the ability of Ben
and his feeling of the car.”
JASON NOBLEFrom NASCAR to Formula Renault