Stewart Whyte takes sodden Super Touring victory

Stewart Whyte won the second Super Touring race at the Silverstone Classic after a near two-hour delay in torrid conditions.

The race was delayed as a result of incredibly poor weather at the Northamptonshire circuit, with John Cleland going around in the safety car to check for standing water.

The two-time BTCC champion came back with a less than positive report, stating that he did not feel comfortable racing in the conditions. “I’m normally brave,” he told the circuit TV crews, “I wouldn’t go.”

Cleland was not the only driver to feel the conditions were too bad to race, with Simon Garrad, James and Graeme Dodd and Frank Wrathall just a selection of drivers deciding to sit out the encounter.

A number of drivers, including Tim Harvey and Jason Minshaw disagreed, with Harvey stating “You drive to the conditions on the track” and Minshaw saying “We have wet tyres to race in the rain. Get on with it.”

Eventually the race was run, albeit with a depleted grid and at a shortened length of 15 minutes, made even shorter with the need for an additional safety car lap when Adam Morgan, driving Darren Fielding’s BMW 318, was forced to pull off the circuit with mechanical issues on the warmup lap.

Once the race got underway, Whyte stormed ahead, while Jan Bot made a fantastic start, jumping up to second by the first visit to the loop.

It didn’t take long for Watts to make his way past the BMW E30 M3, whereas Neil Smith in the Alfa Romeo 156 could not work his way back past the BMW, spinning off into the barriers while hunting Bot down. The damage was not serious enough to keep Smith out of the race, however, as he rejoined and finished in sixth position.

Ollie Hancock and Harry Whale made the most of the depleted grid to round out the top five, while Paul Rivett took an impressive seventh in his first race in a Super Touring car, despite the terrible conditions.

Steve Dance, Tony Absolom and Mark Smith rounded out the top ten, with Alan Strachan, Jason Minshaw, Andrew Kirkley and Tom Houlbrook the last of the finishers. David Cuff, Tim Harvey and Adam Morgan were the only non-finishers.