Australian driver Luis Leeds scored a breakthrough victory in the British Formula 4 Championship at Thruxton.
The Red Bull junior racer from Melbourne held his nerve through two Safety Car periods to take the chequered flag in Race 2 with a 2.6s margin over Jamie Caroline.
Leeds stormed into the lead after picking off Jack Butel and James Pull on the opening lap.
“I’ve been working so hard and full credit to Arden for setting up the car and turning things around after a difficult qualifying. I hope this is the first win of many,” said Leeds.
“My goal is the championship this year and a win like this helps a lot.”
Leeds finished fifth in the opening race with an eighth place finish in the final encounter.
Fellow Australian Zane Goddard scored a fifth in Race 2 followed by a sixth in Race 3.
Countryman Harry Hayek recorded a pair of 11th place finishes followed by a 12th in the last heat.
Petra Florescu and Devlin Defrancesco shared the spoils either side of Leeds’ triumph.
The victory for Leeds has seen him close to within two points of championship leader Sennan Fielding ahead of the championship’s visit to Oulton Park from June 4-5.
British Touring Car Championship
Motorbase Performance claimed a double victory in an eventful third round of the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton.
Former champion Andrew Jordan guided the Pirtek Racing Ford Focus to victory in Race 2 which was shortened to 12 laps due to concerns over the durability of the Dunlop tyres in unseasonably warm weather.
Jordan held off Rob Collard to take the win by .4s with Adam Morgan in third.
Mercedes driver Morgan had triumphed in the opening race which was red flagged due to a multiple car crash.
A tyre failure for Matt Neal sparked a high speed crash on the pit straight involving MG’s Ashley Sutton and Honda team-mate Gordon Shedden, which led to officials shortening the remaining races to 12 laps.
Mat Jackson ensured Motorbase enjoyed one of the best weekends in their history by winning the reverse grid Race 3 from Neal and Morgan.
Compounding the tyre dramas, the four factory Subarus were withdrawn from the event due to fears over a reoccurring fuel pressure issue.
James Cole suffered a fire due to the fuel pressure problem at the previous meeting at Donington and a fix by Team BMR failed to solve the issue at Thruxton.
Neal and Collard are tied at the top of the standings on 101 points ahead of the June 4-5 visit to Oulton Park.
World Rallycross Championship
Mattias Ekstrom produced a stellar drive to claim his third career World Rallycross Championship victory in round two at Hockenheim.
The Swede led home Toomas Heikkinen in a one-two for Ekstrom’s self built EKS World Rallycross team.
Ekstrom’s victory came while also competing in the DTM at the same event.
“I’ve never been happier in my entire life – to win in World RX and now in front of my loyal DTM fans is a dream come true,” said Ekstrom who is tied at the top of the World RX drivers’ standings alongside Petter Solberg (48 points).
American Ken Block completed the podium behind the wheel of his Ford Focus while reigning champion Solberg struggled with mechanical issues and finished fourth.
Britain’s Liam Doran managed to progress to the final finishing fifth behind the wheel of his Mini, ahead of Swede Robin Larsson.
The championship heads to Belgium for the third round from May 12-13.
World Touring Car Championship
Chevrolet driver Tom Coronel took the opening heat while Rob Huff lead home a Honda whitewash in the final race of the World Touring Car Championship round at Morocco.
Coronel realised his first win after a lengthy drought when he was handed the lead after Hugo Valente received a drive-through for his opening lap clash with James Thompson.
World champion Jose Maria Lopez fought valiantly before conceding and settling for second place.
Honda Racing Team JAS drivers dominated proceedings in the second 22-lap affair.
Huff won the wet race from Norbert Michelisz by .6s with Tiago Monteiro third.
Citroen ace Lopez slipped up after looking a podium threat before settling for fourth.
The WTCC moves to the Nurburgring for the next round from May 26-28.
DTM
In the first race Edoardo Mortara slipped into the lead from turn 1 at Hockenheim and was never headed.
The Audi driver beat Robert Wickens (Mercedes) while Mortara’s team-mate and polesitter Nico Muller was third.
Ex-F1 driver Paul di Resta returned to winning form by winning the second DTM race in the big double-header meeting at Hockenheim that was twinned with the World Rallycross Championship.
Di Resta (Mercedes) took the spoils over Timo Glock (BMW) however the latter was disqualified after it was found that the position of the rear lid on his M4 did not comply with the specifications at a scrutineering check.
The amended places saw Augusto Farfus (BMW) and Maxime Martin (BMW) complete the podium alongside di Resta.
The next round is scheduled for Spielberg from May 20-22.
German Porsche Carrera Cup Championship
Australian ace Nick Foster took a pair of fifth place finishes at second round of the championship at Hockenheim.
After dialling himself into a circuit he had not tested or raced on in the past, Foster (KUS Team75 Bernhard) held tough after receiving some damage after a tight scrap in the opening race.
“I dropped pace slightly but pushed on in P4 for around half of the race. I came under pressure and eventually had to relinquish a position back to P5 however held off the train of cars behind me,” Foster said.
After this team made overnight changes for the second race he fought it out for third in the early stages of the race but then struggled with tyres.
“The start of race 2 was again fairly hectic with a lot of movement and rubbing paint going on inside the top 5,” Foster said.
“I was struggling a little bit with rear tyres and I slowly dropped off the leading pack and had a quiet race to myself.”
Sven Muller (Konrad Motorsport) won the first race while Jeffrey Schmidt (Team Lechner Racing Huber) won the final event of the weekend.
The next round is scheduled for Spielberg from May 20-22.
Blancpain Sprint Series
Christopher Mies and Enzo Ide saluted in what was a Safety Car-induced nail-biting finish at Brands Hatch.
Driving the WRT Audi, Mies was holding the lead when a Safety Car was called with 20 minutes remaining.
However Mies managed to hold out Jules Szymkowiak who had taken over the wheel of the HTP Motorsport Mercedes from sportscar legend Bernd Schneider.
In the end Mies recorded a .5s victory while the Bentley Team M-Sport pair of Maxime Soulet and Andy Soucek claimed third after a storming first half drive by the former.
The next round is scheduled for Silverstone from May 14-15.
Discussion about this post