(Photo: Roger Jenkins)
Richard Jepp drove the #65 Team Northbrook Racing Peugeot 107 to its second victory in the Student Motorsport Challenge at the Snetterton opening weekend triple-header.
In a repeat of the first race, Joshua Jackson, at the wheel of the #27 QE Motorsport Citroen, finished second in class ahead of Jack Wheeler in the #57 East College car and Brady Pollock in the #12 West Suffolk Toyota.
South coast-based Jepp finished second overall after a close battle with the #18 Toyota Aygo of Stuart Bliss. Despite pushing the Autobliss driver throughout the 15-minute contest, Jepp could not find a way past and had to settle for second place overall for the second time this weekend.
In a race that was praised by the BRSCC’s Lyndsay Close for being well driven with no incidents, Student Motorsport Challenge entries took six of the overall top ten finishing positions.
Jepp in the #65 car got away to a good start but Stuart Bliss in the pole-sitting #18 car just had the edge over the TNR driver.
“Stuart has got that little bit extra in terms of pace,” said Richard Jepp. “There were a few places where I was a fair bit quicker than him but Stuart managed his race well. I could catch him mid-corner but then he would pull away on the straights. It will be different in Race Three where I’ll be starting P9 and Stuart will be starting P10 and we will have a bit of work to do to get back up to the front but it should be a lot of fun.”
Joshua Jackson was delighted with his second podium finish of the weekend in the Challenge class.
“It was great to finish second in the Student Motorsport Challenge,” said Jackson. “I wish I hadn’t dropped places on the overall grid at the start but, apart from that, the race went well. The group of cars I was with were very competitive and I was trying to get the slipstream and get by but everyone was defending well.”
West Surrey College’s Brady Pollock finished fourth in only his second race in cars while Haydn Payne, at the wheel of the #72 West Suffolk College Citroen finished fifth in class and ninth overall.
James Reilly in the #11 Barracksport entry completed the overall top ten finishers and was sixth in class.
Rory Pickles, also making his Student Motorsport Challenge debut in Norfolk, finished in seventh in class and 16th overall, improving his overall finishing position by three places from Race One.
Pickles was followed in class by Ari Barker in the #87 TNR entry, Andrew Payne in the #73 West Suffolk College entry and James Smith in the #49 Barracksport GSR car.
Completing the Student Motorsport Challenge finishers was Nick Abbott in the #34 Boston College Racing entry followed by the two City College Norwich entries driven by Glenn Bee and Leon Wilde. The CCN squad had worked flat-out throughout the evening and early morning to change the engine in Team Principal Leon Wilde’s entry after its engine blew following qualifying on Saturday. A cheer went up from the Challenge paddock as the car moved under its own power for the first time on the Sunday morning.
“The team has worked very hard over the last few hours,” said Leon Wilde. “They’ve been very busy to get the engine in, making sure it was running properly, setting up the clutch and getting it ready to race. I’m immensely proud of the team. They worked hard late into the evening last night and then got stuck in really early this morning so yes, it’s brilliant to be back and it’s all down to the team.
The final race for the BRSCC Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup Championship, incorporating the Student Motorsport Challenge Presented by P1 Graphics, gets underway at 2.10pm on Sunday April the 7th.
