BMW Drivers Cup – Round 2

Sandown Raceway

1st and 2nd March 2008

Report by Stephen Ford

Round 2 of the 2008 TOTAL Network Support BMW E30 Driver’s Championship was held at Sandown on March 1st and 2nd. As Sandown is a CAMS venue E30 and Improved Production raced together with a combined start.  A 31 car grid makes for fun and entertaining racing. 13 of these were E30s. It seemed most of Friday practice was spent attaching decals for various IPRA sponsors and Total Network Support our new series sponsor. (Please support our sponsors because without them we have no series).

Qualifying was very busy with the main challenge to find a clear lap between very fast and oddly slow IPRA competitors. Times were generally quicker than last meeting although the pole time was a little slower with only Steve Ford making it into the 1.28s. Following was last year’s champ Craig Munro then Geoff Bowles with 1.29s proceeded by Oliver Lindsaar, Mat Martin, Simon Watkins and Dr Paul with 1.30s. Then came Gary Pearce, Michael Stillwell (see Mini Challenge), David Levy, Anton Bergman, Rob O’Dea and Trent Price.

Race 1 began with Craig breaking a driveshaft on the warm-up lap. Off the line Serge tried to remove the TOTAL Network Support decal from Steve Ford’s car with his bumper. Steve recovered to lead (the E30s) through turn 4 and held on for a comfortable win from Geoff, Matt and Mr President Oliver.

Race 2 and Craig was back, starting from the rear of the grid his progress through the field was simply amazing. Within 3 laps Craig had made it back to second place finishing only 0.3s behind Steve. A quick look at Craig’s lap times reveal 4 of 8 laps in the 1.28s! 10 seconds behind were Geoff, Mr President Oliver and David Levy quietly working his way through the field.

Race 3 began with a lesson in progressing through traffic from Craig (see You-tube footage) and a fine start from David, 2nd after turn 4. Steve pestered David for several laps until a passing move included a little off roading and dropped him back behind Oliver and Geoff. Several laps of very close racing followed with Geoff and Steve swapping places towards the end. Very close with only 0.6s covering 2nd to 5th in the end.  So it was Craig, David, Oliver, Steve, Geoff, Simon, Dr Paul, Matt, Michael, Anton, Trent, with only 1 IPRA competitor in the mix which ironically was Serge in an E30!!!

Race 4 and as we have come to expect it was Craig off the line to a comfortable victory. Behind that was a little more interesting. Geoff was about 2 coats of paint behind David for most of the race with Steve and Oliver following. At some point Oliver decided it was time to go the other direction at turn 4. The oncoming traffic convinced him this was a bad idea. Geoff continued to pester David until he decided to try the Playstation line and go to the grass at turn 1. In the end it was Craig, Geoff, Steve, Simon and Oliver.

Overall Steve Ford won the round from Geoff with Oliver and Craig tied for 3rd. David led Matt, Simon, Michael, Paul, and Anton. Unfortunately Rob and Gary both had their weekends end with mechanical issues.

Highlights included:

• David Levy’s progress from Qualifying 10th finishing race 1 in 9th race 2 in 5th and race 3 in 2nd
• Stephen Ford having his first race win in only his second meeting in a 325 and his second round win
• The TOTAL network support Decals on all the cars
• A good close race weekend ending with strait cars and no real controversy.

Well done to all and we look forward to seeing everyone at Winton.

Good Luck to Michael Stillwell and Nathan Geier in the Mini Challenge.