Chris Smiley and Jessica Hawkins share TCR UK wins in season opener

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley and Area Motorsport’s Jessica Hawkins shared the victories in the TCR UK season opener at Oulton Park on Easter Monday, as the series boasted its biggest grids to-date.

An impressive field of 25 cars entered for the first event of the year in Cheshire, although Hugo Cook would fail to take the start of either race in his Audi due to technical issues.

In qualifying, Northern Irishman Smiley put his Honda on pole position by just over two tenths of a second from the Volkswagen Golf of Isaac Smith.

Smiley is making his début in the series this year after having previously raced full-time in the BTCC for the past five years.

Race one

At the start of race one, Smiley came under early pressure from Smith but was able to eke out a comfortable margin, as Race Car Consultants’ Smith came under increasing pressure from the chasing Hyundai of Max Hart in third.

Smith held out for over half of the race, but on lap nine Jamsport Racing’s Hart got a better run out of Old Hall corner and catapulted into second into the first corner, although Smith did try to fight back.

After the change of position, however, Hart could do nothing to catch and prevent Smiley claiming a first win in his maiden race in the series.

Irishman Hart, now in his third year in the series, claimed second, with Smith completing the podium.

Area Motorsport’s Bruce Winfield stole fourth from Essex & Kent Motorsport’s Lewis Kent on the penultimate lap, when Kent put his Hyundai Veloster slightly wide at Island corner and gave Winfield a better run in his CUPRA.

Kent was fifth, in what is the first outing for the Veloster N outside of Asia or North America.

Power Maxed Racing’s Jac Constable was sixth in his CUPRA, ahead of team-mate Callum Newsham in seventh.

One of the most exciting battles of the race came as a result of the JamSport Subaru of Ant Whorton-Eales holding up the field in eighth early on.

On lap four, Adam Shepherd passed Hawkins’ CUPRA going into the final corner after Whorton-Eales made a poor exit ahead, and the three diced closely for two laps, with Shepherd’s Hyundai emerging in front two laps later, quickly followed by Hawkins with a door-banging move into the Knickerbrook chicane.

Shephewrd later lost power steering and went off the road, dropping him out of the top ten.

Jack Depper then pressured Whorton-Eales before the Subaru retired after eight laps, with Depper ultimately claiming eighth in the race ahead of Hawkins and her team-mate Jamie Tonks.

Andy Wilmot retired from the race after ten laps when he clipped a tyre stack exiting the Knickerbrook chicane and damaged the front-right corner of his car.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	22			Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	15	26:06.182	1:42.714	1
2	101			Max HART	Jamsport Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	15	1.526	1:43.129	4
3	123			Isaac SMITH	Race Car Consultants	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	15	4.654	1:43.231	2
4	37			Bruce WINFIELD	Area Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	15	7.316	1:43.179	3
5	1			Lewis KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai Veloster N TCR	15	8.848	1:43.735	5
6	257			Jac CONSTABLE	Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA TCR	15	9.121	1:43.328	11
7	16			Callum NEWSHAM	Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA TCR	15	12.032	1:43.673	8
8	33			Jack DEPPER	Capture Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	15	32.864	1:44.017	14
9	21			Jessica HAWKINS	Area Motorsport with FASTR	CUPRA TCR	15	35.876	1:44.518	9
10	74			Jamie TONKS	Area Motorsport with FASTR	CUPRA TCR	15	36.972	1:44.878	15
11	31			Matthew WILSON	JWB Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	15	39.091	1:44.244	17
12	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Jamsport Racing with Shepherd Motors	Hyundai i30 N TCR	15	48.840	1:43.632	6
13	50			Darelle WILSON	DW Racing	Vauxhall Astra TCR	15	50.690	1:45.398	19
14	27			Scott SUMPTON	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	15	53.437	1:45.611	18
15	72			Russell JOYCE	Power Maxed Racing with Joyce Design	CUPRA TCR	15	54.930	1:45.915	20
16	35			Steve GALES	Playerlands	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	15	1:42.811	1:47.548	22
17	40			Simon TOMLINSON	Jamsport Racing	CUPRA TCR	14	+ 1 LAP	1:48.785	23
18	47			Kieran GRIFFIN	JWB Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	14	+ 1 LAP	1:47.397	21
19	52			Chris WALLIS	Power Maxed Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	14	+ 1 LAP	1:51.112	24
R	210			Andy WILMOT	Jamsport Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	DNF	1:44.825	16
R	11			Ant WHORTON-EALES	Jamsport Racing	Subaru WRX STi TCR	8	DNF	1:44.987	13
R	5			Bradley KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	2	DNF	1:58.118	10
R	94			Rob BUTLER	JWB Motorsport with Maximum Networks	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	0	DNF	N/A	7
R	17			Bradley HUTCHINSON	BOND-IT with MPHR	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	0	DNF	N/A	12
NS	29			Hugo COOK	Hugo Cook	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	25

Race two

Tonks claimed the reverse-grid pole for race two, with team-mate Hawkins alongside.

Hawkins immediately claimed the lead before the first corner when the lights went out, with Tonks dropping to third as Constable claimed second around the outside line.

Tonks then fell back to sixth over the opening lap, but the safety car was called upon due to an accident where Kieran Griffin and Andy Wilmot squeezed Steve Gales on the startline, pitching Griffin and Wilmot into each other and ending with Griffin in the barriers.

Racing resumed on lap four with Hawkins making a good getaway, but Tonks would drop down to 18^th when he went wide at Cascades, allowing Smiley into sixth.

Another safety car period came at the end of lap five when Gales was hit by Wilmot at the final corner and turned into the gravel, ending both driver’s races.

At the restart on lap seven, Constable in second made a poor restart, possibly hampered by a technical issue which saw him stop further around the lap.

That saw Hawkins enjoy a huge margin, as Hart assumed second with Smith following in third.

It took just two laps for Hart to cut Hawkin’s two-second lead to nothing, but try as he might the Hyundai driver could not find a way through, as Hawkins went on to claim her first TCR win in her first weekend in the series.

For Hart, it was another second-place finish, with Newsham completing the podium after he passed Smith heading into the final corner three laps from the end.

Smith was thus fourth, ahead of Smiley in fifth and Lewis Kent in sixth.

The next TCR UK event takes place at Donington Park on 28 – 29 May.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	21			Jessica HAWKINS	Area Motorsport with FASTR	CUPRA TCR	13	26:11.834	1:43.573	2
2	101			Max HART	Jamsport Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	0.261	1:42.840	9
3	16			Callum NEWSHAM	Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA TCR	13	5.699	1:43.799	4
4	123			Isaac SMITH	Race Car Consultants	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	13	7.126	1:43.859	8
5	22			Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	13	7.288	1:43.514	10
6	1			Lewis KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai Veloster N TCR	13	7.906	1:43.543	6
7	33			Jack DEPPER	Capture Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	13	10.814	1:44.228	3
8	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Jamsport Racing with Shepherd Motors	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	12.547	1:43.849	12
9	17			Bradley HUTCHINSON	BOND-IT with MPHR	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	13	16.874	1:44.950	24
10	31			Matthew WILSON	JWB Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	13	17.818	1:44.993	11
11	72			Russell JOYCE	Power Maxed Racing with Joyce Design	CUPRA TCR	13	21.030	1:45.103	15
12	27			Scott SUMPTON	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	21.307	1:45.043	14
13	74			Jamie TONKS	Area Motorsport with FASTR	CUPRA TCR	13	21.863	1:44.946	1
14	11			Ant WHORTON-EALES	Jamsport Racing	Subaru WRX STi TCR	13	24.177	1:45.262	21
15	37			Bruce WINFIELD	Area Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	13	30.506	1:43.858	7
16	40			Simon TOMLINSON	Jamsport Racing	CUPRA TCR	13	45.368	1:48.303	17
17	52			Chris WALLIS	Power Maxed Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	13	48.538	1:48.061	19
18	35			Steve GALES	Playerlands	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	+ 1 LAP	1:48.333	16
R	50			Darelle WILSON	DW Racing	Vauxhall Astra TCR	10	DNF	1:45.366	13
R	94			Rob BUTLER	JWB Motorsport with Maximum Networks	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	10	DNF	1:45.022	23
R	257			Jac CONSTABLE	Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA TCR	6	DNF	1:44.544	5
R	210			Andy WILMOT	Jamsport Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	DNF	2:33.827	20
R	47			Kieran GRIFFIN	JWB Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	0	DNF	N/A	18
R	5			Bradley KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	0	DNF	N/A	22
NS	29			Hugo COOK	Hugo Cook	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	–	DNS	N/A	–