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CATERHAM ‘DREAM TEAM’ SET FOR BRANDS FINALE
Ben Corley | October 11, 2007
BEN DE ZILLE BUTLER, 2006 EUROCUP CHAMPION, RETURNS TO CATERHAM RACING
The 2006 Caterham Eurocup Champion, Ben de Zille Butler, is to team up with 2007 title winner Graham Fennymore up for an end-of-season tilt at top honours in Caterham’s premier championship.
The ‘Caterham Dream Team‘ of de Zille Butler and Fennymore will be getting together in a CSR 260 at Brands Hatch next week (19/20 Oct), venue not only for the deciding rounds of the evo Caterham Eurocup but also for the down-to-the-wire conclusions of the Avon Tyres Caterham Superlight Challenge, the Motorsport News Caterham Roadsport Challenge and the Circuit Driver Caterham Academy. Six new Caterham champions will be crowned by the end of the meeting.
Fennymore is on the brink of another major Caterham success: the 42-year-old from Oxfordshire has already netted the Eurocup Superlight Sprint and Endurance championship titles and is poised at Brands to take the Superlight Challenge crown for the second successive season.
He is hoping that his CSR drive with de Zille Butler in the Brands Eurocup triple-header will be the icing on the cake: “Ben and I shared a Caterham last year at Paul Ricard and really enjoyed working together. The aim is to have a bit of fun together but race victory is very much the aim.”
British GT Championship frontrunner Ben concurs: “It’s a one-off to finish this season. Graham asked me to join him in the CSR at Brands. Despite it being a bit of fun we will be looking for some wins along the way.”
The championships to be settled at Brands Hatch are:
evo Caterham Eurocup
Caterham’s flagship series - for the fearsomely quick CSR 260 model and the Superlight - makes its second visit of the season to a UK circuit, having already been to Hockenheim and Nürburgring in Germany, Spa in Belgium, the French circuit of Val de Vienne and Donington Park.
Richard Hay and Clive Richards are poised to clinch the CSR Masters title which has eluded them for two seasons, needing only a handful of points from the three Brands Hatch races to do the job. Their Colards Motorsport CSR has run like a dream all year, while the Hyperion-prepared machine of their closest points rival, Olly Bull, has suffered all the bad luck available. The scoreboard reads: Hay/Richards 10 wins and five seconds from 15 starts; Bull (and his various driving partners) five wins and six seconds.
There’s a battle on for CSR championship third, too, between London-based Italian Michele Tommasi and Sarah Reader, the 2006 third-place finisher (alongside Bull).
With Fennymore having already clinched the twin Superlight crowns he has cleared the way for others to battle for the class victories and championship second. In the Sprint class just six points separates Terry Clark, Clive Coote and Chris Bialan.
Avon Tyres Caterham Superlight Challenge
It’s been another dominant season for the 2006 Superlight Challenge Champion, Graham Fennymore. He joined in late this year, having missed the Easter Oulton Park rounds, but has been on a crushing winning streak ever since.
Fennymore’s Ambitions Racing-prepared Superlight won both races at Donington, Brands Hatch in July, Croft and Rockingham, as well as one of the Silverstone rounds. Graham’s only miss this season was the first Silverstone race, which was snatched from his grasp by the determined Glen Denny at the final corner. Fennymore arrives at the finale needing only a 12th-place finish in the first of the weekend’s races to put his second crown beyond doubt.
Which is not to say that Denny won’t be out to spoil Fennymore’s end-of-season party. Glen - new to car racing this season - has enjoyed a remarkable rookie year and has shone for the Colards Motorsport team.
Denny cannot really hope to prevent another Fennymore championship win but he’s certainly in the thick of a great battle for the runner-up slot with highly experienced Caterham racer (and former champion) Rachel Green and another rookie, Craig Welsher.
Motorsport News Caterham Roadsport Challenge
No fewer than seven drivers have a mathematical chance of taking Roadsport class championship honours, with a further four vying for the Roadsport B crown.
In the Roadsport division, Bromley’s Jeremy Ellis has been on top form all year and collected five race wins to lead the way to Brands by 14 points from Rayleigh’s Mike Richards. Both men have won Caterham championships previously: Ellis the Roadsport B title in 2005 and Richards the Academy crown in 2003.
Their tussle is joined by Effingham-based Mike Robinson; Leicestershire 18-year-old James Davis, who has enjoyed a remarkable late season run of race wins; Tunbridge Wells hair salon owner Toby Dicker; Simon Young and David Pearce.
The four men taking the Roadsport B title battle down to the wire are namesakes Gareth and Andrew Thomas, Chris Legg and Paul Storton, all of whom were frontrunners in the 2006 Academy.
When drop scores are taken into account (drivers may score only their best 12 from the 14 races) the leading quartet are separated by only 26 points. A grandstand finish seems certain. Gareth Thomas is the most prolific winner this season with four victories under his belt. Andrew Thomas has won twice, as has Storton, with Essex-based Roelant de Waard claiming a double victory last time out, at Oulton Park.
Circuit Driver Caterham Academy
Caterham’s novice driver series churns out 40-plus new racing drivers every season, and is always superbly close and exciting: 2007 has been no exception.
In Group 1 Surrey-based Motorsport design company executive Jonathan Walker has enjoyed remarkable success, winning the Donington, Castle Combe and Cadwell Park races and finishing second behind Tommy Keet in the Aintree sprint.
Eighteen-year-old Keet, from Chichester, is the only driver who can prevent Walker from nabbing the title - it’s a tall order, for Tommy would need to win at Brands with Walker 15th or lower. The season’s other event winners are Yorkshireman Andrew Ball and Ireland’s Chris Walne.
There’s a frantically close outcome in prospect in Academy Group 2 between Philip Broad, Magd Mohaffel, JJ O’Malley and James Chan. Leeds-based O’Malley looked to be on his way to the crown after wins at Aintree, Harewood and Mallory Park, but a collision last time out, at Cadwell, cost him dear and he now trails Cadwell victor Broad, the 22-year-old Berkshire-based motor sport student, by seven points and city commodities trader Mohaffel - the only one of the top four yet to win a round - by four points.
Provisional championship placings
evo Caterham Eurocup: CSR Masters
1, Richard Hay/Clive Richards, Droitwich/Itchingfield, 290
2, Oliver Bull, Swindon, 236
3, Michele Tommasi, London, 212
4, Sarah Reader, Stratford upon Avon, 181
5, Kurt Hoffmann, Neuwied, 160
6, Philip Glew, Lincoln, 142
7, Malcolm Johnstone, Moffat, 130
8, Thomas Klein, Neuss, 118
9, Olivier Guerin, Paris, 104
10, Nigel Bent/Nick Phillips, Tunbridge Wells/Abingdon, 98 etc
evo Caterham Eurocup: Superlight Sprint
1, Graham Fennymore, Weston on the Green, 156
2, Terry Clark, Northwood, 109
3, Clive Coote, Barnet, 108
4, Chris Bialan, Broadstone, 103
5, Bill Addison, Stockton, 92
6, John Barbour, London, 82 etc
evo Caterham Eurocup: Superlight Endurance
1, Graham Fennymore, Weston on the Green, 80
2, Chris Bialan, Broadstone, 56
3, Terry Clark, Northwood, 35
4, Clive Coote, Barnet, 33 etc
Avon Tyres Caterham Superlight Challenge
1, Graham Fennymore, Weston on the Green, 196.5
2, Glen Denny, Ipswich, 169
3, Rachel Green, Sawbridgeworth, 166
4, Craig Welsher, Taunton, 157
5, Chris Bialan, Broadstone, 139.5
6, Peter Ratcliff, Tyrrell’s Wood, 138 etc
R400 class
1, Alastair Chalmers, Cheadle Hulme, 182
2, Stuart Dixon, Bideford, 138.5 etc
Motorsport News Caterham Roadsport Challenge
Roadsport
1, Jeremy Ellis, Bromley, 179
2, Mike Richards, Rayleigh, 165
3=, James Davis, Melton Mowbray, 164
3=, Mike Robinson, Effingham, 164
5, Toby Dicker, Tunbridge Wells, 160
6, Simon Young, Henley on Thames, 158 etc
Roadsport B
1, Gareth Thomas, Southampton, 196
2, Andrew Thomas, Henley on Thames, 189
3, Chris Legg, Leeds, 171
4, Paul Storton, Woking, 155
5, David Tansley, Cricklade, 146
6, Paul Latimer, Sawbridgeworth, 132 etc
Circuit Driver Caterham Academy
Group 1
1, Jonathan Walker, Camberley, 111
2, Tommy Keet, Chichester, 98
3, David Townrow, London, 90
4, Chris Walne, Peterborough, 87
5, Stephen Tucker, Downham Market, 84
6, Andrew Stanford, Bridgend, 80 etc
Group 2
1, Philip Broad, Cippenham, 109
2, Magd Mohaffel, London, 106
3, JJ O’Malley, Leeds, 102
4, James Chan, London, 95
5, Mark Figes, Chislehurst, 86
6, John Kane, London, 84 etc
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