Once again the MotorSport Vision Racing season surpassed its
best-ever year and hosted no fewer than 37 events in 2013. With a
growing portfolio of some of the country's best club championships,
MSVR's 2013 produced some of the closest racing on the best
circuits in the UK. MSVR visited Castle Combe and Zolder for the
first time, and introduced three new series to much acclaim.
We're taking a look back at all of the winners, starting with
the saloons.
Andrew Aldridge's near-perfect season in the 8v
class of the Touch of Mojo Mk2 VW Golf
GTi championship helped him wrap up
the overall title ahead of the squabbling 16v class front-runners
at the final event of the season. Five victories for VLN racer
Jamie Martin couldn't stop the late charge of four-time race winner
Harry Vaulkhard to the class win. Former WTCC and BTCC racer
Vaulkhard's season turned around at the championship's first ever
overseas round at Spa-Francorchamps and the former Bamboo Racing
Engineering driver won twice before adding two more wins including
one at the final round to take second in the standings.
James Bark, Ian Carvell and Jason Tingle all visited the top
step, but it was Bark's front-running pace that elevated him to
third in the class standings.
Aldridge's Class 1 campaign was impressive, collecting eight
wins from 12 races. Simon Tomlinson and Adrian Ward took a win
apiece while Alex Nuttall claimed a double around the Brands Hatch
Grand Prix circuit.
Another who benefitted from the front-runners taking points off
one another in another class was Shane Stoney of
MINI Challenge. The near-unbeatable Cooper Class
racer made his return to the championship and won all but five of
the 18 races he contested. He wrapped the title up in the first
race of the three-race Donington Park-hosted final event and opted
to sit out the last two races.
Ex-Clio racer Jake Packun looked as though he was going to be
difficult to beat in the early throes of the JCW season, winning
twice and then retiring twice from promising positions at
Snetterton. Championship rivals Chris Smith and Chris Smiley picked
up the fortunate wins before Packun returned to the front with a
hat-trick of wins on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. Reigning
champion Lee Allen then dominated the Mini Festival for the second
year around the shorter Brands Hatch Indy, winning twice before
Smiley won the third.
Smiley collected a third win of the season at a sunny Oulton
Park and was denied three wins in a row when he retired from the
lead allowing Packun to return for the final time in 2013. Smiley's
season turned after that misfortune, and the Northern Irishman was
only beaten once in the remaining seven races to ease to the class
title. Smith bettered Smiley after the eventual champion had
claimed race one at Castle Combe, and Smiley claimed all three wins
at Zandvoort before doubling up at Donington Park. He, like Stoney,
sat out the final race after securing the crown, and up-and-comer
Jono Brown led from lights to flag for a maiden win.
In the non-turbo charged Cooper class, the fight behind Stoney
was fraught. Josh Gollin, Gideon Cresswell, Hamish Brandon and a
pair of wins for Ollie Walker filled the top step gaps Stoney
failed to fill.
A titanic battle was played out in the Marangoni Tyres
Production BMW Championship in association with Kwik Fit,
but it was Matt Parkes who eventually reigned
supreme. Double wins at Oulton Park, Silverstone and Donington
Park, and a win at the final round at Castle Combe wrapped up the
title in a year when rarely more than a few seconds covered the top
six.
Four drivers shared the first eight wins to set up a season-long
battle for the title but it was Stuart Waite who began in the best
possible fashion. He picked up a double at the season starter at
Snetterton and then a third win at Brands Hatch GP before Liam
Crilly took race four. Parkes' Oulton Park brace brought him into
contention and Tovey became the season's third double winner at
Cadwell Park.
Five wins from the final races ensured Parkes sealed the title
at Castle Combe before Tovey added to his win haul in the final
race of 2013.
It was another bumper year for the Project Eight Racing
Saloons series, and again a BMW was the car to be in for
the outright wins. Karl Catliff picked up both wins on offer
at Snetterton before the wins on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix were
shared by the Sheldons: Matt beat dad Peter in the first before the
roles were reversed in race two. Stephen Pearson claimed the first
of his five wins during the season at Oulton Park and Adam Sharpe
picked up his first win in race two.
The Cadwell Park and Silverstone rounds belonged to Pearson, who
won four comfortable races on the trot. When the action went to
Donington for the final two rounds of 2013, Matt and Peter Sheldon
collected their second wins of the season.
The SuperPro VAG Trophy classes combined to
create a thrilling climax, and James Dowding did
just enough to defeat Josh Caygill. Caygill collected five wins in
2013, a double at Cadwell Park and at the final round at
Snetterton, plus a win at Brands Hatch on the Grand Prix
circuit.
Paul Taylor and Dan Rose took a win apiece at the season's
opener at Donington Park after the planned Oulton Park round was
lost to the snow. Caygill's Cadwell double followed before Aaron
Mason and Ken Lark split the wins at the championship's first visit
to Snetterton.
2013 featured the first trip abroad for the VAG Trophy and
Stewart Lines claimed both wins around the iconic Spa-Francorchamps
and when the championship returned to England, Richard Morgan
claimed his first ever podium by making his way to the top step. He
followed that up with a second in race two behind Caygill, who
finished the year unbeaten but for the invitational class returnee
Aaron Mason, fresh from wrapping up the VW Cup.
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Photos courtesy of Az Edwards and James Bearne.
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