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Thursday Night League – Milton Keynes
SODI
In the third round of the SODI Night League, 22 drivers competed on the Linkback circuit at Daytona Milton Keynes, making for a healthily crowded grid.
Daytona veteran Barry Morris took the pole position by just two tenths from Rhys Matthews in second. Noah Willis emerged third on the grid, followed closely by Dom Zaremba and Alex O'Donnell in fourth and fifth. The competition for third came down to a mere tenth of a second between the three drivers.
During the race, Morris got an excellent start as did Matthews, which led to a challenge for the top spot in the opening few laps. Close behind, Zaremba was keeping Jude Lillyman and Willis behind to hold onto third.
The battling at the front of the field allowed Zaremba and Lillyman to catch up to the two leaders, with both drivers overtaking Matthews for second and third respectively. Morris however, managed to hold on and take the race win just in front of Zaremba in second who took the fastest lap of the race with Lillyman not to far behind in third. Matthews finished in fourth with Willis round out the top five.
DMAX
Nathan Boyle started the race from pole with James King alongside. Jamie Tiley-Gooden lined up alongside Ashley Mayston-King on the second row.
The front four had a strong start and pulled away from the pack in the first couple of laps before battling it out between each other.
Further back, Paul Granger had made up a few places and was beginning to close in. Towards the halfway point Boyle still led Mayston-King, however, Tiley-Gooden made a great move to snatch it back before Mayston-King regained the place a few laps later. It wouldn’t last long as Granger also got involved.
In the mid-pack Ash Chivers was holding eighth. Harley Brewster made a bold move having started in sixteenth to get past the defence at the bottom of the circuit and climb up over half the field. As the race drew to a close, it was Boyle who took victory less than 0.2 seconds in front of Tiley-Gooden, who took the fastest lap point. Granger took the last podium position 2.5 seconds back, with Mayston-King sliding down to fourth. Mayston-King dropped off the front but still kept a small gap to those behind, finishing in fifth. Zach Watson kept Feisal Meejaun behind in sixth. Brewster took eighth in front of Chivers with Michael Bowles taking the last point.
Thursday Night League – TAMWORTH
With the championship fight starting to materialise, two very healthy grids returned to Daytona Tamworth for the third round of Thursday Night League.
N35-ST
Chris Cleaver topped a very close qualifying session, with Sam Chaplin just a tenth of a second behind. Nihal Joye and Kristine Kolodziejski provided some strong competition, with the gap between the final four finishers being as little as four tenths of a second.
Into the race, Cleaver was able to build a commanding lead in the early stages, consolidating this strong start with eventual victory of just under four seconds. There was an intense battle behind, where Kolodziejski and Chaplin fought hard throughout the entire twenty minutes to decide the second spot. At the end of the twenty, it was Kolodziejski who utilised backmarker traffic to just about hold on to her spot, Chaplin having to settle for third
DMAX-GT
We were treated to another very close DMAX qualifying session, and the gap at the front of the field was just three hundredths of a second. Luke Inglis snatched pole position ahead of championship hopeful Ben Foden, with Amelia Wolf looking very strong in third. They would all have a bit of hassle from Jack Whitehouse, however, he was only a few hundredths behind in fourth.
During the race there was a dramatic fight between all the top four. Foden had to dig deep to overcome Inglis’ early lead, something he was able to do after a slight mistake from Inglis a quarter of the way into the race. Foden went on to build a very comfortable lead, winning the race by a second ahead of Inglis, who made a dramatic overtake in the closing stages on both Whitehouse and Wolf for that second spot. Whitehouse finished third.
We look forward to welcoming drivers back in two weeks’ time for round four of Thursday Night League.
Thursday Night League – SANDOWN PARK
SODI
Drivers made a return for round three to a largely overcast Thursday evening, plenty of familiar and fresh faces lined the grids. This early in the season it was clear all drivers knew there was plenty to play for. With the floodlights on, the 20 SODI drivers were first to take to the circuit.
In an immensely competitive qualifying session, just over a second separated first to tenth in their qualifying lap times. For those nearer the front there was plenty of opportunity to score a podium. Frederick Burden took pole position with a blistering fifty one followed closely by Thursday night league veteran Alfie Shrubb. Rounding off the front two rows were Joshua Gerritsen and Rafael Blanco-Bush. With plenty of drivers touching distance pace wise from the front of the grid it was bound to be an exciting race start.
Five red lights and a green flag signaled the start to the second Thursday Night League round on alternate as all drivers barreled down towards alternate turn one. Plenty of fantastic moves from drivers, particularly into the very harsh braking zone of turn six. There were many fantastic battles from drivers all over the grid. Plenty of drivers tenths behind the other as they took the chequered flag. Shrubb took the race win with a fantastic and consistent performance on a layout known very well to him. Joshua Gerritsen, with a great drive, finished narrowly behind in second followed by Blanco-Bush. Noah Gerritsen with a fantastic performance up from sixth, narrowly missed out on the podium by less than half a second.
Overall, a fantastic performance from all. The alternate layout always presents some brilliant racing and the drivers made sure to keep up this reputation with great wheel-to-wheel racing across the entire race. Many drivers gained valuable points for their title charges with nine rounds to go.
DMAX
Moving over to the star-studded DMAX grid, plenty of prior championship winners and podium sitters lined up for round three. The second round on the new Dunlop KE-1 tyres, drivers did not disappoint as they made their way out onto the alternate layout for the second time this season.
Archie Bullard took pole position with a fantastic 46.2 followed narrowly by last season's rival Steve Hannon. Newcomer to the DMAX championship Jack Redfern, was the last to join the podium after many great seasons in our SODI championships this round marked the start of him making a name for himself in the DMAX fleet. Ian Del Pizzo, Daytona championship veteran at Daytona, rounded off the front two rows.
As the drivers trickled down the final few corners, Bullard amongst Hannon got a fantastic start and pulled away from the rest of the pack immediately. All drivers skillfully handled the alternate layout on the fresh rubber with the top nine drivers all setting lap times in the forty six seconds. Hannon took the fastest lap by the race's conclusion, beating Bullard's best time by less than three hundredths of a second. Bullard, however took the race win followed by Hannon narrowly behind and Del Pizzo rounding off the top three. Luka Nik had a fantastic recovery drive. Recovering from seventh after a rocky qualifying back up to fourth place and narrowly missing out on the podium.
An amazing Thursday night as always with some incredible racing. The first of the rounds in cooler more unfavourable conditions but as season continues amidst the autumn months the drivers will find themselves more acclimated to more challenging conditions. Regardless, there are still plenty of rounds left for the drivers to challenge for the season win. Once again thank you all drivers for continuing to race at the highest level week in week out and we look forward to seeing the racing continue over the coming weeks.
Photos:
For all Daytona Championship photos and more, please click here.