Penalties rain down on TCR UK as both on-track winners penalised

Penalties rained down on the TCR UK field at Donington Park on Sunday, as Adam Shepherd and Alistair Camp emerged victorious after both drivers who crossed the finish line first in both races were penalised.

In race one, first past the chequered flag Jenson Brickley was given a one-place penalty for gaining an unfair advantage, after the CUPRA driver took the lead when the safety car came out at the end of the opening lap.

The pole-sitter had fought tooth-and-nail with Shepherd for the lead around the first half of the opening lap, but when the safety car was called due to Darelle Wilson’s stricken Vauxhall, Shepherd had been back in front.

However, Brickley passed him before they caught the safety car, with the field slowing, and never gave the position back.

When the race resumed a lap later, with Wilson out of the Redgate gravel, Brickley romped clear to a ten-second win over Shepherd, but the stewards took a dim view of how he gained the lead and demoted him behind the Hyundai racer.

Victory for Shepherd, his first of the year, came at the same circuit where he claimed his maiden win in the series last year.

Brickley was classified in second, his fifth podium result of the season, with Rob Boston Racing’s Jac Constable completing the rostrum, the Audi driver having a relatively uneventful run to third.

Championship leader Carl Boardley put in a determined drive to take fourth, having gained a place on the opening lap from tenth on the grid before steadily rising up the order thereafter.

Crucially, on lap five, Boardley passed title rival Bruce Winfield for what was then sixth with a clean pass exiting Coppice, completing the move into the chicane at the end of the lap.

The CUPRA racer then followed reigning champion Chris Smiley for five laps, before diving through at Redgate with a clean pass on the Honda driver. Three laps later he had caught and passed Callum Newsham for fourth.

Winfield was fifth, having benefitted two places when Alex Ley dove down the inside of Smiley three laps from the finish at Redgate corner, with Ley’s move sending the duo wide and allowing the Hyundai to slip down the inside.

Ley was thus sixth, with Smiley crossing the line in seventh ahead of Brad Hutchison’s new CUPRA.

The top ten was completed by series returnee Camp’s Hyundai and Restart Racing’s Scott Sumpton.

Early retirements in the race were Joe Marshall and Bradley Kent, who made contact on the opening lap when the field was slowing due to the safety car intervention.

Race one result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	25:58.104	1:09.102	2
2	246			Jenson BRICKLEY	Jenson Brickley Racing	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	21	25:58.041	1:08.932	1
3	11			Jac CONSTABLE	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	21	2.538	1:09.271	3
4	41			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	21	2.734	1:09.408	10
5	37			Bruce WINFIELD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	10.475	1:09.776	8
6	76			Alex LEY	Area Motorsport with Daniel James	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	12.575	1:09.653	16
7	1			Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	21	13.272	1:09.670	6
8	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	21	14.318	1:09.433	20
9	45			Alistair CAMP	Pro Alloys Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	22.232	1:09.880	21
10	27			Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	21	26.234	1:10.056	11
11	31			Matthew WILSON	JWB Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	21	26.874	1:09.974	12
12	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	21	36.040	1:09.429	9
13	223			Garry TOWNSEND	Townsend Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	21	36.817	1:10.822	14
14	50			Darelle WILSON	DW Racing	Vauxhall Astra TCR	21	38.562	1:10.413	15
15	72			Rick KERRY	Team AFM Racing	CUPRA TCR	21	49.592	1:11.234	17
16	19			Jeffrey ALDEN	Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing	Opel Astra TCR	20	+ 1 LAP	1:15.021	19
17	98			Oliver COTTAM	Paul Sheard Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	19	+ 2 LAPS	1:09.958	7
18	115			Luke SARGEANT	Area Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	18	+ 3 LAPS	1:10.157	13
R	77			Mark SMITH	Richmond Fire Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	11	DNF	1:12.008	18
R	4			Bradley KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai Veloster N TCR	3	DNF	2:06.825	5
R	99			Joe MARSHALL	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	2	DNF	N/A	4

The second race saw rain arrive with Sumpton starting from the reverse grid pole with Camp alongside, but it was Hutchison who stole the lead going into Redgate for the first time, with Smiley tucking in behind in second.

Camp, meanwhile, had dropped to fifth after the opening corners, but gained one place back at Coppice when Ley went wide in the slippery conditions.

At the front, it looked like Hutchison was set to claim his maiden win in the series in only his first weekend in CUPRA machinery, with Smiley on the podium for the first time since the season opener.

But the duo were excluded from the result after the race for failing the post-race ride height check, handing Camp, who had got past Sumpton for then third on lap five, the victory on his return to the series.

Shepherd was second, making late-race progress including a pass on Ley on the spring to the finish line.

Ley thus completed the podium, just two tenths of a second behind fellow Hyundai racer Shepherd, with Marshall classified in fourth following a superb drive from the back of the field.

Sumpton was fifth in his FK7 Honda, ahead of the Hyundai of Newsham in sixth and Jac Constable’s Audi in seventh.

The top ten was completed by Winfield, Luke Sargeant and Carl Boardley, the latter having looked like he was struggling all race with the wet weather set-up on his car.

Brickley, who was the on-the-road ‘victor’ in the opening race, retired to the pits after 15 laps when running in tenth with an issue on his CUPRA.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	45			Alistair CAMP	Pro Alloys Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	25:13.195	1:18.252	2
2	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	6.411	1:17.801	10
3	76			Alex LEY	Area Motorsport with Daniel James	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	6.628	1:18.563	5
4	99			Joe MARSHALL	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	19	12.038	1:17.603	21
5	27			Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	19	12.445	1:18.856	1
6	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	12.654	1:17.653	12
7	11			Jac CONSTABLE	Rob Boston Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	19	13.730	1:17.618	8
8	37			Bruce WINFIELD	Area Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	19	20.281	1:17.466	6
9	115			Luke SARGEANT	Area Motorsport	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	19	21.306	1:17.899	18
10	41			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	19	24.634	1:18.916	7
11	31			Matthew WILSON	JWB Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	19	30.551	1:18.095	11
12	98			Oliver COTTAM	Paul Sheard Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	19	37.000	1:18.153	17
13	223			Garry TOWNSEND	Townsend Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	19	39.364	1:19.125	13
14	4			Bradley KENT	Essex & Kent Motorsport	Hyundai Veloster N TCR	19	43.441	1:18.002	20
15	72			Rick KERRY	Team AFM Racing	CUPRA TCR	19	47.128	1:19.242	15
16	19			Jeffrey ALDEN	Matrix Motorsport with DW Racing	Opel Astra TCR	19	1:05.783	1:21.127	16
EX	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	19	25:07.156	1:18.123	3
EX	1			Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	19	25:12.368	1:17.807	4
R	246			Jenson BRICKLEY	Jenson Brickley Racing	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	15	DNF	1:19.273	9
R	50			Darelle WILSON	DW Racing	Vauxhall Astra TCR	4	DNF	N/A	14
NS	77			Mark SMITH	Richmond Fire Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	–	DNS	N/A	19