Boardley takes title despite wins for Newsham and Hutchison

Carl Boardley retained his TCR UK title with a defensive day of driving at Silverstone, despite victories for his closest rivals Callum Newsham and Bradley Hutchison.

Boardley had gone into the event as the favourite, with both Newsham and Hutchison realistically having to have a weekend of ‘winning all’ and some misfortune for Boardley to stand much of a chance.

Newsham, already an outsider after his crash last time at Thruxton, was the form man early in the weekend, securing pole position and an emphatic race one win in Saturday’s action.

Race two

JW Bird Motorsport’s Matthew Wilson started the race from pole position after finishing Saturday’s opening race in tenth, with Area Motorsport’s Sam Laidlaw alongside him.

At the start, Wilson moved into a clear lead, whilst further back Newsham, from tenth on the grid, got his Hyundai off to a superb getaway, jumping five cars before the first corner before battling with Bradley Hutchison for fourth, a position he prevailed in at the end of the opening lap.

Ryan Bensley also made a strong start in his Lynk & Co, moving from sixth on the grid up to second, with the Audi of Luke Sargeant just behind.

Bensley made a move on Wilson for the lead into Village corner on the second lap, with Newsham following into second and Shepherd into third as Wilson appeared to be notably cautious on the opening laps with cold tyres.

Wilson lost another place to Sargeant at Club at the end of the lap, before the safety car was called due to Andrew Dyer having picked up damage at the right-rear of his Hyundai, a broken toe link stranding his car on the circuit.

Racing resumed on lap five with Newsham immediately pouncing on Bensley for the lead into Village, and Shepherd once again following through.

Shepherd then took the lead from Newsham into Stowe, but the lead only lasted two laps for the CUPRA racer as Newsham re-passed on lap seven as Shepherd appeared to be struggling with his car once again.

That was confirmed a couple of laps later as Shepherd slowed further, but not before seemingly making an extra effort to baulk championship leader Carl Boardley – with whom he had several controversial battles earlier in the year – in seventh.

Bensley fell off the circuit on lap nine, his Lynk & Co ending up in the wall and out of the race, and with Shepherd’s demise, Hutchison found himself in second ahead of Sargeant.

After a frenetic first half, the race calmed down in the latter stages, with Newsham claiming his sixth win of the season by over 12 seconds ahead of Hutchison, resulting in the duo ending up tied for second in the drivers’ standings, 33 points behind Boardley.

Boardley was fourth, having had to defend from Darron Lewis’ Hyundai in the closing stages. That result means that in the final race of the season, Boardley would only have to finish sixth or higher to clinch a second title.

Lewis took fifth, ahead of Area Motorsport’s Steve Laidlaw in the new CUPRA Leon VZ in sixth.

Alistair Camp tried to get by Laidlaw in the closing stages but had to settle for seventh, ahead of Sam Laidlaw in the second of the new CUPRAs in eighth.

Wilson faded to take the chequered flag in ninth, with championship promoter Stewart Lines completing the top ten.

Race two result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	16	20:16.562	1:06.811	10
2	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	16	12.511	1:07.817	8
3	115			Luke SARGEANT	RS Vehicle Sales	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	16	16.313	1:08.092	3
4	1			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	16	16.520	1:07.721	7
5	285			Darron LEWIS	DLR with JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	16	17.254	1:07.811	4
6	100			Steve LAIDLAW	Area Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	16	18.838	1:07.764	16
7	45			Alistair CAMP	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	16	19.047	1:07.714	5
8	101			Sam LAIDLAW	Area Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	16	20.307	1:07.953	2
9	31			Matthew WILSON	JW Bird Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	16	20.914	1:08.033	1
10	81			Stewart LINES	Maximum Motorsport with Capture Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	16	29.371	1:08.720	12
11	22			Rick KERRY	EDF Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	16	38.612	1:09.048	15
12	12			Cedrich BLOCH	Simon Green Motorsport with Sport77	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	16	52.024	1:09.926	13
13	77			Mark SMITH	Richmond Fire Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	16	1:01.231	1:10.679	14
R	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	10	DNF	1:07.533	9
R	111			Ryan BENSLEY	Motion Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	8	DNF	1:08.345	6
R	15			Andrew DYER	ARK Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	1	DNF	1:20.737	11

Race three

After damage to his Lynk & Co in the earlier race, Ryan Bensley failed to start, whilst technical issues for Rick Kerry and Andrew Dyer also curtailed their races before the lights went out.

Newsham, as the weekend’s top points scorer earlier, started the finale from pole position but the Scot’s challenge faded within a few metres, as a suspected driveshaft failure quickly saw his Hyundai limping to the first corner.

That allowed Shepherd to assume the early lead ahead of Hutchison, with Boardley seemingly going backwards in the race early on.

The opening laps saw the majority of moves coming around Boardley, as the reigning champion clearly adopted a cautious approach to the race and went backwards. On the second lap, Sergeant’s Audi was all over Boardley’s CUPRA, which opened the door to allow Lewis’ Hyundai into the mix.

A lap later, both drivers were in front of Boardley in fifth and sixth respectively, although for Lewis his race came to a premature end on lap eight when he pitted with an issue on his car.

At the front, Shepherd looked to be on course for victory, until his CUPRA once again developed technical issues, suspected to be relating to his fuel pickup, and he retired to the pits.

That handed Hutchison the lead, but with Boardley running in sixth, even victory would not be enough to give him the title.

Hutchison went on to win his third race of the season by over two seconds from Steve Laidlaw, who had been under heavy pressure from Camp in the final laps.

However, Camp was handed a ten-second penalty for exceeding track limits, which meant the final podium place went to Sargeant, as Boardley was classified in fourth ahead of Camp.

That was enough to give Boardley the driver’s title by 20 points from Hutchison, with Newsham ending the year third in the standings after his retirement.

Sam Laidlaw was sixth, ahead of the older CUPRA of Wilson, the first-gen CUPRA of Mark Smith and the first-gen Audi of Cedrich Bloch, with only nine cars finishing the race.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	17			Bradley HUTCHISON	BOND IT with MPHR	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	20:33.275	1:07.673	3
2	100			Steve LAIDLAW	Area Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	18	2.331	1:07.644	9
3	115			Luke SARGEANT	RS Vehicle Sales	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	18	5.595	1:07.915	8
4	1			Carl BOARDLEY	CBM with Hart GT	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	12.053	1:08.143	5
5	45			Alistair CAMP	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	18	12.468	1:07.588	4
6	101			Sam LAIDLAW	Area Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	18	12.844	1:07.661	12
7	31			Matthew WILSON	JW Bird Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	18	29.739	1:08.505	10
8	77			Mark SMITH	Richmond Fire Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	18	58.963	1:10.272	15
9	12			Cedrich BLOCH	Simon Green Motorsport with Sport77	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	18	1:01.360	1:10.479	16
R	117			Adam SHEPHERD	Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	DNF	1:07.467	2
R	81			Stewart LINES	Maximum Motorsport with Capture Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	DNF	1:10.103	14
R	285			Darron LEWIS	DLR with JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	7	DNF	1:07.893	7
R	16			Callum NEWSHAM	JH Racing	Hyundai i30 N TCR	1	DNF	N/A	1
R	15			Andrew DYER	ARK Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	0	DNF	N/A	11
NS	111			Ryan BENSLEY	Motion Motorsport	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	–	DNS	N/A	6
NS	22			Rick KERRY	EDF Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	–	DNS	N/A	13