Wins for Jac Constable and Jenson Brickley in Croft TCR UK action

Jac Constable claimed his first TCR UK win of the season in the opening race at Croft on Sunday, with series rookie Jenson Brickley following up with a maiden victory in the reverse-grid second encounter.

Race one

At the start, Carl Boardley got the jump on pole-sitter Constable to lead at the first corner, with the CUPRA driver holding station thereafter.

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley jumped from fifth on the grid to third, also at the first corner, with the reigning champion aided by a slow start from Bradley Kent from third on the grid.

Constable was keen to get the lead back and on the third lap he tried a late move into Tower, but Boardley stood firm, muscling the Audi driver onto the grass exiting the corner.

But whilst Boardley went on to win on the road by just over four seconds from Constable, the CUPRA racer was handed a five-second time penalty for track limits exceedances, controversially giving the win to Constable.

Boardley had opened up enough of a gap to hold on to second, whilst the podium was completed by Essex & Kent Motorsport’s Bradley Kent.

Smiley held third for the first half of the race, but as the Northern Irishman continued to circulate with intermittent flashes of the headlights on his all-new Honda Civic FL5, it soon became clear all was not well.

Smiley eventually pulled off the circuit on lap 11 with an electrical issue, curtailing his weekend chances.

In a relatively quiet race, fourth went to JH Racing’s Callum Newsham, ahead of the second Gen II Audi of Joe Marshall in fifth.

Adam Shepherd was sixth in his Hyundai, ahead of Bruce Winfield – who had half spun on the out lap due to the damp circuit – in seventh.

Jenson Brickley’s CUPRA, Bradley Hutchison’s Audi and Alex Ley’s Hyundai completed the top ten.

In a disappointing race for Bert Taylor’s Restart Racing outfit, Scott Sumpton also retired his Honda after 12 laps, having pulled off the circuit at Tower bend with technical issues.

Race one results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	11			Jac CONSTABLE	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	25:18.482	1:22.784	1
2	41			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	0.862	1:22.972	2
3	4			Bradley KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai Veloster N TCR	18	4.649	1:23.345	3
4	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	5.525	1:23.323	4
5	99			Joe MARSHALL	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	8.535	1:23.505	6
6	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	12.369	1:23.848	8
7	37			Bruce WINFIELD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	13.346	1:23.960	10
8	246			Jenson BRICKLEY	Jenson Brickley Racing	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	15.632	1:23.929	7
9	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	16.492	1:23.890	11
10	76			Alex LEY	Area Motorsport with Daniel James	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	29.553	1:24.078	9
11	14			Daniel KIRBY	Zest Racecar Engineering	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	33.865	1:24.539	15
12	98			Oliver COTTAM	Paul Sheard Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	38.268	1:24.231	12
13	21			Andy WILMOT	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	38.453	1:24.306	16
14	31			Matthew WILSON	JWB Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	45.743	1:25.149	17
15	223			Garry TOWNSEND	Townsend Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	1:22.328	1:24.377	14
16	50			Darelle WILSON	DW Racing	Vauxhall Astra TCR	17	+ 1 LAP	1:25.602	18
17	35			Steve GALES	MPHR	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	17	+ 1 LAP	1:27.663	20
R	27			Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	12	DNF	1:25.074	13
R	1			Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	DNF	1:23.350	5
R	285			Darron LEWIS	Darron Lewis Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	DNF	1:26.538	19

Race two

With Ley finishing in tenth in race one, the Hyundai Motorsport Junior Driver secured pole position for the partially reverse-grid second race, with Hutchison alongside.

When the lights went out, once again the pole-sitter lost out, with Hutchison taking the lead from Ley’s Hyundai by the first corner, as Brickley slotted into third.

Hutchison’s lead would prove to be short lived – exiting the chicane on the second lap the Audi driver went wide, bounced across the grass and slipped to third by the next corner, with moisture and mud on his tyres.

That gave Ley the lead – but only for a lap, as Brickley muscled past at Tower a lap later to move into a position he would not lose thereafter.

Hutchison, meanwhile, was slipping backwards, with Shepherd muscling past at the final corner to claim third, before Winfield began to challenge the Audi, but it ended up being Marshall who stole fourth on the fourth lap of the race.

Having lost the lead, Ley slipped to third at the end of the third lap as Shepherd assumed second, fixing the order at the front.

On lap five, Winfield made contact with Hutchison, demoting the Audi driver to eighth behind the Hyundai trio of Winfield, Kent and Newsham.

The race was going to be neutralised on lap six when Dan Kirby crashed his CUPRA into the tyre barriers at the complex, but when Kirby was able to quickly get his car into the pits, the safety car was cancelled, resulting in some confusion, before racing continued at full pace on lap seven.

The main action thereafter came on lap nine, when Constable attempted to pass Ley for seventh heading into the Complex.

Constable knocked Ley into Kent’s Veloster, leaving the latter skating across the grass, whilst Ley limped to the pits and out of the race with a broken car. Kent continued in 12^th for a few laps before he too came into the pits.

Brickley eventually won by over three seconds from Shepherd, with Marshall completing the podium.

Erstwhile championship leader Winfield brought his Hyundai home in fourth, ahead of Boardley’s CUPRA in fifth.

Constable was sixth, ahead of Newsham and Hutchison. The top ten was completed by Smiley’s recovering Honda and the Paul Sheard Racing Audi of Oliver Cottam.

Garry Townsend and Darelle Wilson were the race’s only other non-finishers, the pair having made contact at the mid-point of the race.

Race two results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	246			Jenson BRICKLEY	Jenson Brickley Racing	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	25:33.672	1:23.165	3
2	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	3.014	1:23.463	5
3	99			Joe MARSHALL	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	4.466	1:23.541	6
4	37			Bruce WINFIELD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	11.673	1:23.913	4
5	41			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	11.883	1:23.369	9
6	11			Jac CONSTABLE	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	13.640	1:23.622	10
7	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	13.854	1:23.796	7
8	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	18.486	1:24.421	2
9	1			Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	18	23.130	1:24.125	19
10	98			Oliver COTTAM	Paul Sheard Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	27.211	1:24.245	12
11	21			Andy WILMOT	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	28.782	1:24.962	13
12	27			Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	18	34.311	1:25.135	18
13	31			Matthew WILSON	JWB Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	36.989	1:25.090	14
14	285			Darron LEWIS	Darron Lewis Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	47.389	1:25.572	20
15	35			Steve GALES	MPHR	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	1:09.469	1:26.778	17
16	14			Daniel KIRBY	Zest Racecar Engineering	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	17	+ 1 LAP	1:24.639	11
R	4			Bradley KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai Veloster N TCR	14	DNF	1:24.779	8
R	223			Garry TOWNSEND	Townsend Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	DNF	1:25.661	15
R	76			Alex LEY	Area Motorsport with Daniel James	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	DNF	1:24.789	1
R	50			Darelle WILSON	DW Racing	Vauxhall Astra TCR	9	DNF	1:25.221	16