After a long winter the Dutch Supercar Challenge traveled to Silverstone for its first race. With six MT900Rs on the grid the Mosler Challenge was off to a great start.
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The results of Friday's free practice showed the English Mosler teams were the favorites for the podium in both the GT class and the Mosler Challenge. Martin Short was quickest on the drying track, ahead of Kevin Riley and Ben Clucas, all in Mosler MT900Rs. Cor Euser, the nemesis of Short during the last two Dutch Supercar campaigns, had left his famous Marcos LM600 at home to make a guest appearance in a Ferrari F430 GT2, which brought him fourth position. Alex van 't Hoff made his debut in a Mosler on P5, half a second ahead of Berry van Elk, who struggled concentrated on the setup. The Strata 21 Moore Mosler had to settle for twelfth place.
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Qualifying took place Friday afternoon. The typical English spring showers had wet the track again, so times were considerably slower than in the dry practice session. Last years GT champion Cor Euser took pole. Martin Short joined him on the front row in his Mosler. Kevin Riley and ex WTCC driver Jaap van Lagen in a Porsche Supercup car shared the second row of the grid. Behind them were another three Moslers, with Clucas fastest just ahead of Van Elk. The Strata 21 Moore Mosler followed the just a second behind. Mosler rookie Van 't Hoff had to adjust to the wet in his new car and qualified a disappointing twentieths overall.
An awesome Saturday race saw Martin Short and Ben Clucas slugging it out around the circuit in a race that really was edge-of-the-seat stuff.
With Short second on the grid for the 60 minute race against his mean opponent from last season Cor Euser on pole, it looked like it was going to be a race between the current champ and the ex-champ. A fine morning had transformed in typical English Bank Holiday fashion to a wet afternoon. With the track drying, most of the field chose slicks to start. It was a decision which saw some diving in to change to intermediates and full wets, after a couple of laps, which mixed things up again, with Kevin Riley in the KRM Mosler going head to head with Cor Euser for the lead for a while, Calum Lockie in the Strata 21 Mosler of Moore International Racing feathering the car around on his 'tip toes' as he put it, holding in well but sticking resolutely to the slick option until the driver change. " We led the race for a while, and is was fun, we tried it on slicks, but not sure if the gamble paid off" said Lockie after the driver change.
At the driver change Topcats took the decision to leave Clucas in the car for the full race, and with Short just behind him in pit lane, it looked as if Clucas might have enough of an edge and a wide enough Mosler to keep Short at bay. With seventeen minutes left it was still nip and tuck, with Short looking for every opportunity to take the lead off the young nipper, but Clucas holding him just at bay. Eventually, Short saw an opportunity grabbed a chink, took the racing line at Copse, and held on to it for all he was worth, giving Ben a little tap which saw him taking a brief wander across the grass, and the race was sealed for Martin Short, and lapping Berry van Elk in the process.
Behind the front runners, a storming drive from Ian Flux now in the KRM Mosler, was putting in lap time equal to the front runners, but too far back to make any inroads on their lead, but pulling that Mosler up to take third place.
Berry van Elk also drove a great race reaching third position at times during the race, but finally finishing up in 7th, and Paul White driving the second half coming in 8th.
Alex van 't Hoff driving for the Mad and Daring team had an incident in the warm up lap, which seriously damaged the underside of his Mosler, managed to finish in 16th place. For all the damage, he was delighted with how the car went.
There was much delight and celebration back in the Rollcentre camp after the race. ''I was wondering what excuses I could come up with if Ben beat me" said Short, "and then I thought, no, actually I'm not going to let that happen! I saw the line, took it, and thought I had tapped Ben on the way through, but the team were watching it on TV and said it was Ben coming back in close, but great racing, great sport and it was a brilliant start to the season."
With the weather considerably brighter on Sunday for the second race, now over 45 minutes, everyone was looking forward to a rematch between Martin Short and Topcats Racing.
There had been a considerable amount of work carried out at the Mosler Europe workshop overnight to repair the damage sustained to the Mad and Daring Mosler of Alex van ’t Hoff, inflicted by his team mate Rick Arbresh in the warm up lap on Saturday, with the team mechanics putting in yet another long shift to get it race fit.
As the cars lined up on the grid, Short, Clucas and Kevin Riley of KRM lined up in the first three slots, and the BlueBerry Mosler of Berry van Elk in 7th, Paul White taking the first drive in the Strata 21 Mosler and Alex van ’t Hoff starting in 9th.
As the cars completed the warm up lap and swept back through the pit lane straight for the start, the Mosler driven by Kevin Riley speared off to the right and impacted into the wall. The resulting wave of disruption saw the race red flagged, leaving Becketts' corner looking more like demolition derby, Berry van Elk lost the front of the Blueberry, and Paul White trapped upside down in his car for several minutes on the grass. Fortunately, although the damage to some was severe, all drivers were uninjured. Originally thought to be caused by cold tyres, the replay showed Riley was tapped on the rear by Cor Euser, which caused the car to veer violently.
The grid sat patiently while the clock ticked by, waiting for the track to be cleared, and when the race finally got underway it was very shortened due to the live coverage later of the Superleague Formula, with the drivers having just above fifteen minutes to slug it out.
After the restart, the predicted battle between Clucas and Short didn’t really materialise, with Martin Short maintaining his lead throughout most of the race, but with Clucas always in contention, and Cor Euser snapping away at his heels and taking second place in the latter stages.
It was looking like another win for Short as with masterly tactics he seemed to have boxed Euser in with a group of back markers. However, the Mosler suddenly stalled, and Martin could only watch in frustration as Cor Euser pulled away to take the flag, with Mosler Europe Mosler rolling into second. Ben Clucas claimed third place, Alex van ’t Hoff in 9th place in the GT class.
‘’There was absolutely nothing I could do’’ said a frustrated Short afterwards, “I had it all lined up so Cor would be blocked in by the back markers, and suddenly all the power went. It may be rain from yesterday has caused the problem, but we will investigate it back at workshop. It’s is just one of those things.” He added philosophically. “The team did a great job on Alex’s car, putting in yet another long stint last night to the early hours of the morning, repairing the damage to the underside of his car. He has had a very respectable start to the season.”
Video footage of the crash can be found here.
The next race weekend will be at the Nürburgring GP track, Germany on May 1st and 2nd.
The results of Friday's free practice showed the English Mosler teams were the favorites for the podium in both the GT class and the Mosler Challenge. Martin Short was quickest on the drying track, ahead of Kevin Riley and Ben Clucas, all in Mosler MT900Rs. Cor Euser, the nemesis of Short during the last two Dutch Supercar campaigns, had left his famous Marcos LM600 at home to make a guest appearance in a Ferrari F430 GT2, which brought him fourth position. Alex van 't Hoff made his debut in a Mosler on P5, half a second ahead of Berry van Elk, who struggled concentrated on the setup. The Strata 21 Moore Mosler had to settle for twelfth place.
Qualifying took place Friday afternoon. The typical English spring showers had wet the track again, so times were considerably slower than in the dry practice session. Last years GT champion Cor Euser took pole. Martin Short joined him on the front row in his Mosler. Kevin Riley and ex WTCC driver Jaap van Lagen in a Porsche Supercup car shared the second row of the grid. Behind them were another three Moslers, with Clucas fastest just ahead of Van Elk. The Strata 21 Moore Mosler followed the just a second behind. Mosler rookie Van 't Hoff had to adjust to the wet in his new car and qualified a disappointing twentieths overall.
An awesome Saturday race saw Martin Short and Ben Clucas slugging it out around the circuit in a race that really was edge-of-the-seat stuff.
With Short second on the grid for the 60 minute race against his mean opponent from last season Cor Euser on pole, it looked like it was going to be a race between the current champ and the ex-champ. A fine morning had transformed in typical English Bank Holiday fashion to a wet afternoon. With the track drying, most of the field chose slicks to start. It was a decision which saw some diving in to change to intermediates and full wets, after a couple of laps, which mixed things up again, with Kevin Riley in the KRM Mosler going head to head with Cor Euser for the lead for a while, Calum Lockie in the Strata 21 Mosler of Moore International Racing feathering the car around on his 'tip toes' as he put it, holding in well but sticking resolutely to the slick option until the driver change. " We led the race for a while, and is was fun, we tried it on slicks, but not sure if the gamble paid off" said Lockie after the driver change.
At the driver change Topcats took the decision to leave Clucas in the car for the full race, and with Short just behind him in pit lane, it looked as if Clucas might have enough of an edge and a wide enough Mosler to keep Short at bay. With seventeen minutes left it was still nip and tuck, with Short looking for every opportunity to take the lead off the young nipper, but Clucas holding him just at bay. Eventually, Short saw an opportunity grabbed a chink, took the racing line at Copse, and held on to it for all he was worth, giving Ben a little tap which saw him taking a brief wander across the grass, and the race was sealed for Martin Short, and lapping Berry van Elk in the process.
Behind the front runners, a storming drive from Ian Flux now in the KRM Mosler, was putting in lap time equal to the front runners, but too far back to make any inroads on their lead, but pulling that Mosler up to take third place.
Berry van Elk also drove a great race reaching third position at times during the race, but finally finishing up in 7th, and Paul White driving the second half coming in 8th.
Alex van 't Hoff driving for the Mad and Daring team had an incident in the warm up lap, which seriously damaged the underside of his Mosler, managed to finish in 16th place. For all the damage, he was delighted with how the car went.
There was much delight and celebration back in the Rollcentre camp after the race. ''I was wondering what excuses I could come up with if Ben beat me" said Short, "and then I thought, no, actually I'm not going to let that happen! I saw the line, took it, and thought I had tapped Ben on the way through, but the team were watching it on TV and said it was Ben coming back in close, but great racing, great sport and it was a brilliant start to the season."
With the weather considerably brighter on Sunday for the second race, now over 45 minutes, everyone was looking forward to a rematch between Martin Short and Topcats Racing.
There had been a considerable amount of work carried out at the Mosler Europe workshop overnight to repair the damage sustained to the Mad and Daring Mosler of Alex van ’t Hoff, inflicted by his team mate Rick Arbresh in the warm up lap on Saturday, with the team mechanics putting in yet another long shift to get it race fit.
As the cars lined up on the grid, Short, Clucas and Kevin Riley of KRM lined up in the first three slots, and the BlueBerry Mosler of Berry van Elk in 7th, Paul White taking the first drive in the Strata 21 Mosler and Alex van ’t Hoff starting in 9th.
As the cars completed the warm up lap and swept back through the pit lane straight for the start, the Mosler driven by Kevin Riley speared off to the right and impacted into the wall. The resulting wave of disruption saw the race red flagged, leaving Becketts' corner looking more like demolition derby, Berry van Elk lost the front of the Blueberry, and Paul White trapped upside down in his car for several minutes on the grass. Fortunately, although the damage to some was severe, all drivers were uninjured. Originally thought to be caused by cold tyres, the replay showed Riley was tapped on the rear by Cor Euser, which caused the car to veer violently.
The grid sat patiently while the clock ticked by, waiting for the track to be cleared, and when the race finally got underway it was very shortened due to the live coverage later of the Superleague Formula, with the drivers having just above fifteen minutes to slug it out.
After the restart, the predicted battle between Clucas and Short didn’t really materialise, with Martin Short maintaining his lead throughout most of the race, but with Clucas always in contention, and Cor Euser snapping away at his heels and taking second place in the latter stages.
It was looking like another win for Short as with masterly tactics he seemed to have boxed Euser in with a group of back markers. However, the Mosler suddenly stalled, and Martin could only watch in frustration as Cor Euser pulled away to take the flag, with Mosler Europe Mosler rolling into second. Ben Clucas claimed third place, Alex van ’t Hoff in 9th place in the GT class.
‘’There was absolutely nothing I could do’’ said a frustrated Short afterwards, “I had it all lined up so Cor would be blocked in by the back markers, and suddenly all the power went. It may be rain from yesterday has caused the problem, but we will investigate it back at workshop. It’s is just one of those things.” He added philosophically. “The team did a great job on Alex’s car, putting in yet another long stint last night to the early hours of the morning, repairing the damage to the underside of his car. He has had a very respectable start to the season.”
Video footage of the crash can be found here.
The next race weekend will be at the Nürburgring GP track, Germany on May 1st and 2nd.
