Patrick Watts wins second Super Touring race of the weekend
Patrick Watts completed a double for former BTCC drivers at a damp Thruxton Easter Revival for the second Super Touring Car Championship race of the weekend.
The heavens opened earlier in the day to create a potential leveller around the Hampshire circuit, but race one winner John Cleland made the most of his pole position to pull out a slight lead over the first couple of laps.
Meanwhile Watts battled with the Williams-built Renault Laguna of Simon Garrad for second position, a duel that would continue for the remainder of the 20 minute race, to no avail for the Renault driver.
As the race progressed, Cleland’s Vauxhall began dropping back and found himself being caught and subsequently passed by Garrad’s Renault and Watts’ Peugeot.
“As we were pushing the car to the start I noticed that the steering was off slightly,” Cleland told TouringCarTimes. “After we got up to speed it started getting worse and I was struggling to make it round the right handers in the complex. I kept checking my mirrors and I couldn’t see anyone so I thought I’d stay out and try to hold on to third. If I saw there were people there I probably wouldn’t have risked it and called it a day.”
While the top three minded their own business, a four-car battle for fourth ensued between David Jarman and Keith Butcher’s Nissan Primeras and the Honda Accord of Stewart Whyte and the Alfa Romeo 156 of Neil Smith, both of whom had come from the back of the grid.
Eventually Whyte and Smith dropped the Primeras and continued to dice for fourth as the race drew to a close. No matter how hard he tried, however, Whyte couldn’t find a way past the Alfa and had to settle for fifth.
Following the weekend’s results, Patrick Watts now leads the championship by two points over John Cleland, taking 15 out of a possible 18 points from the two races.
“It’s a good start to the season,” said Watts to TouringCarTimes. “It’d be nice to be able to win a race and get this high up without other cars having issues, but we won’t say no. It’s going to be a very tough season because there’s a lot of other quick cars out there.”
“This result was totally unexpected,” added Garrad, who was racing his Laguna for the first time. “It’s a lovely car to drive, to take a fourth and a second in our first weekend in it is amazing. It’s going to get tougher when the other cars start to come out but we’ll keep learning our car and get quicker with it. I’m over the moon.”
Meanwhile, Nick Whale completed a clean sweep of GA Class victories in the BMW M3, beating Mark Wright’s Zakspeed Escort MkII for the second day running.
“That was a much better drive,” said Whale, who told TouringCarTimes following the Saturday race that he wasn’t pleased with his performance. “The car was on the limit today, it suited an ex-rally driver like myself. It was great fun.”
The weekend was also regarded as a success by series organiser, Jonny Westbrook, who was incredibly impressed with both the cars and their drivers.
“I’m ecstatic,” he told TouringCarTimes. “This weekend was fantastic, the racing was clean, the cars looked great, and I’m sure the fans loved it as much as I did.”
