Social Race 5 - Sutton Circuit (reverse)

There were a few raised eyebrows at UBMRC going to the same track back for back to social races but a change of format, and more importantly a change of circuit direction made those eyebrows go right back down. Mastering the reverse layout of Sutton Circuit was all that stood between our drivers and social race silverware. The format today featuring a qualifying session that would determine your position/final for two races. The first being based on qualifying order, the second being a reverse grid to spice things up and make drivers have to work hard if they wanted to come home as a winner.

The qualifying groups were as follows:

Group 1 - Aaron Johnson, Alex Wilson, Max Wade, Emmanuel Asare, Oliver Morris, Adam McGuinnes, Mr White [special again it seems] and Zac Weitzkorn.

Group 2 - Oscar Leahy, Tegan Reynolds, Ismaail Khoyrattee, Ben Horne, Joseph McLaughlin, Marcus Hesketh, Ben Boros, Jack Finch and Kevin Chua Zhi Jie.

Group 3 - Fred Lee, Khalil Ibrahim, Jahed Ullah, Nathan Styles, Jamie Thornton, Taige Cheng, Sarah Smith, Tunveer Mangat and Harjot Sahota.

Fred wasn’t able to make the race but can we just mention how stacked group 3 is? Sarah, Fred, Nathan, Jamie and Tunveer all made the A final last time at Sutton Circuit and now they were in the same group? It’s a shame the finals were based on qualifying times rather than heats as 5 drivers battling for the top 2 positions would have been a sight to see…

The C final was more of the same in the sense that Oscar dominated the standard layout of Sutton Circuit and also dominated the reverse layout, storming to a comfortable 5 second victory and claiming fastest lap along the way. Ben H and Tegan would finish 2nd and 3rd to cap off the final podium positions. Special mentions to Taige, Emmanual and Jahed for completing their first races with UBMRC.

The reverse B final saw Marcus pull a prime Sebastien Vettel as he led from start to finish, secured the fastest lap by far and was like a metronome pumping in fast lap after fast lap to win by over 9 seconds, ahead of Adam and Aaron. Aaron’s 3rd place was hotly contested the entire race by Sarah and Ismaail with there being not much between them in terms of pace or finishing time.

Last but not least, the reverse A final saw some very questionable standards of driving. Max was already disqualified from the first race which saw him start from the back for the reverse grid final but from lights out it seemingly got worse. Lap 1 saw Josh receive a very heavy bump from Ben going into the hairpin, while Nathan took to the grass after feeling as though he was bumped by Josh, who also took out a barrier while going side by side with Max. Ben, not content with just bumping Josh, would “accidentally” take out Nathan into the final corner ruining Nathan’s race but freeing Ben up to make his way to the front for a comfortable win. Jack and Josh would finish 2nd and 3rd with Josh’s 3rd being closely fought with Max the entire race.

Our thanks go out to Sutton Circuit for hosting us with UBMRC sure to return to Sutton Circuit.