Fox Motorsport are to compete in the new Lotus Cup UK rounds run by the Lotus on Track Elise Trophy.
The Championship run over 7 rounds is a new concept added to the calendar by series organiser Paul Golding.
The Championship will field 2-11's, Exiges, production cars, and invitation cars.
After the success of the 1,000km Fox Motorsport decided that Endurance racing is something they would want to concentrate on in 2011 and are set to enter their race winning Exige.

The Championship dates are as follows:
19/20 March Snetterton 300
17 April Silverstone Arena GP
25/26 June Snetterton 300
22/24 July Brands Hatch GP
13/14 August Donington Park
2 October Spa Francochamps
22 October Brands Hatch Indy

Fox Motorsport will take delivery of the new 458 Challenge early next year and are set to compete in the Ferrari Open and GT Cup.
Fox are likely to be one of the first teams in the UK to receive the much anticipated car.
The Challenge car is based on the 458 road car, less the luxuries of a radio, aircon, carpets, sound proofing and will come with a full FIA cage fitted as standard. The car will also be availble for hire, please contact us for further info.

The famous 1,000km race was last held at Brands Hatch back in 1988 when the Silk Cut Jaguar XJ-R team driven by Martin Brundle stormed to victory.
The Fox Motorsport Exige driven by Paul McNeilly, BJ Chong and BTCC star Paul O'Neill completed 520 laps in 9 hours of racing on the Indy circuit to take the honours.

O'Neill qualified well in wet conditions to put the car third on the grid. With the race starting at 9am, the circuit was still damp, and O'Neill quickly moved up to second place and an hour long battle with Jamie Stanley for the lead kept the crowd entertained.

With the circuit drying by the half way mark the lap times tumbled, and O'Neill managed a staggering 51.2s to build up a lead knowing that refuelling the Exige would take an age compared to the other front runners.

With 300 laps completed the front running Exige driven by Cruickshank, Stanley and Sherwood retired with engine problem, and Fox took the lead with BJ Chong at the wheel to keep up the steady pace.

As the afternoon moved on Fox were running in first place, and it was upto McNeilly to complete the final 100 laps, whilst maintaining a two lap lead over second place team Hoffmans.

With almost 9 hours completed, McNeilly brought the car home in the dark to grab the top step of the podium.

"An unbelievable race, our aim at the start of the race was to finish, we never thought we'd have a chance of winning, absolutely fantastic.' said Chong.

View the Autosport Article

TV Motoring Journalist, Vicki Butler-Henderson, raced Fox Motorsport Ferrari F430 onto the podium in both GT Cup races at Brands Hatch yesterday.

She drove the Ferrari F430 Challenge, run by FF Corse, to a second place in the first 25-minute race, and a third in the next, following an impressive qualifying session in the rain on Saturday.

"I have achieved a lifetime's ambition to race a Ferrari, and to come home with a couple of trophies is beyond my craziest hopes! The car is a dream to drive, the team is so talented and I'm eternally grateful for the chance," says the Fifth Gear presenter. "It was sweaty work, but enormous fun."

Vicki has been racing since she was 12 years old in karts. She has raced cars from the age of 17, but has never competed in a whole championship. Her most successful one-off race was a win in the Maserati Trofeo in 2004.

Vicki was filming her exploits in the 495bhp 4.3-litre mid-engined supercar for Fifth Gear Web TV and for her Absolute Radio podcast, and will be writing about them for the Ferrari magazine, Auto Italia, and Country & Town House magazine.

View the Ferrari Racing article
View the Auto Italia article
View the Country And Townhouse article

Speedworks motorsport duo Jamie Stanley and Christian Dick overcame a barrage of obstacles to claim the 2010 Avon Tyres British GT Championship G4 class title at Brands Hatch last weekend.

After qualifying first and second for the two encounters on the historic Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, Stanley and Dick faced a number of challenges during both races in their Fox International-backed Ginetta G50.

In the weekend’s opening encounter, Stanley started from pole position but lost a place to the Barwell Motorsport Ginetta in the hands of Daniel Lloyd on the opening lap, before the race was briefly interrupted by a safety car period.

At the restart, Stanley set about overturning his rivals advantage – narrowing the gap to just two tenths of a second at one stage – before receiving the cruel blow of a drive through penalty, after the team was deemed to have overtaken another vehicle under the safety car.

However, the squad remained undeterred as Christian Dick took over the Ginetta from third in class following the penalty delay, and the Cheshire racer turned in an impressive performance. Dick passed Osborne Racing’s Ginetta G50 to resume second place before reeling in the Barwell Motorsport machine. Unfortunately, time was not on Speedworks’ side and the team crossed the line just 3.3s away from overall class victory.

In race two, Dick made a strong start from second place to overtake Century Motorsport’s Nathan Freke and gain the G4 class lead by the end of the second lap. The two enjoyed a close battle, during which Freke regained first place as Christian began to suffer gearbox problems, but Dick stayed in touch with his rival during the opening stint before handing over the Fox International-backed Ginetta to Stanley during another safety car period.

As the team pitted under the safety car, Stanley was given strict instructions to nurse the car’s gearbox during the latter part of the race and Jamie determinedly coaxed the Ginetta G50 through the remaining laps to clinch third in class.

Although they faced several setbacks, Speedworks’ persistence granted them a sufficient points haul to secure this year’s G4 class title with a race in hand, and the team were overjoyed with their performance in front of a supportive crowd.

“I’ve been working towards this for the last ten years and now I’ve now realised my dream,” said Stanley. “It’s thanks to the hard work of all at Speedworks Motorsport and our sponsors Fox International that we’ve been able to achieve this success and we’re hoping to go on to even bigger and better things next season.”

Speedworks Motorsport will be vying for honours in the two-hour season finale of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Donington Park on 16 October.

Words by Chelsea Reay and images courtesy of Jakob Ebrey

Round 4 of Lotus Cup Europe took place on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, supporting the World Touring Car Championship.
For the first time this season Fox Motorsport would have 3 cars on the grid, an Elise and Exige in the Invite Class and an Elise in the Production Class.
Qualifying went well for Chong and Fox in the invite class, putting the cars first and second in their class with McNeilly qualifying 7th in the production class.
The race was frantic from the start and Fox was caught in a battle with the production battle for 3rd place, McNeilly swapping positions with Proctor in the final few laps with proctor claiming 3rd and McNeilly coming home 4th, his best result of the season.
Chong and Fox finished a superb first and second in class, adding more silverware to the collection.

Many thanks to GT4 and SW Lotus for their support.

Round 5 of Lotus Cup Europe heads to Zolder on 1 September.

Leon Price took a fantastic win in race one at Spa-Franchorchamp and immediately dedicated the race win to his friend and team-mate, Jeff Leadley.

In an emotional outing for FF Corse and Fox Motorsport, Leon took pole position for both Ferrari Open races and scored a dominant win in the first race in his Ferrari F430 Challenge. Cliff Fox, also driving his F430 Challenge, qualified a superb 5th place on a grid of 39 Open and Classic Ferrari's. Unfortunately Cliff's luck ran out and he failed to start after suffering an overnight sickness bug.

Leon Price staged a remarkable come-back drive in the second race of the Ferrari Open at Spa, recording a 3rd place finish and his second podium position of the weekend.
Cliff Fox also recorded a fourth place finish from the back of the grid to round off an excellent race weekend for the FF Corse drivers and team.

The second race took place in mixed conditions, the rain started falling in the second lap and the previously drying line rapidly disappeared. Unfortunately, Leon spun on the first lap and then forged a remarkable come-back drive (on Slicks!), setting the fastest lap of the race on a charge through the pack.
After being unable to start the first race Cliff started from the tail of the field and forged his own remarkable fight back. Following Leon's spin, Cliff quickly lapsed onto his tail, following him through the field with increasing confidence. The deteriorating weather made for a very tricky final few laps and Cliff, having correctly gambled on wet tyres, was the fastest man on the track and catching the leaders. The final result was an amazing 4th position finish on his Ferrari debut race.

Round 4 of the Elise Trophy headed to Snetterton for the Lotus Festival, some 15’000 spectators were expected over the weekend and again large grids promised some exciting racing, as Fox Motorsport entered 3 race cars for the event.

Paul McNeilly unfortunately suffered electrical gremlins in the production Elise whilst exiting the pit lane for his opening qualification lap and had to park the car up on the infield at Sears. As Paul had not competed a full lap this meant that the back of the grid beckoned.

BJ Chong and Cliff Fox had more luck, and managed a respectable 9th and 22nd on the grid respectively for the Lotus Cup Europe event.

First up was the Elise Trophy race, as the cars lined up on the grid the rain fell, and Paul McNeilly managed to capitalise on the spinners who left the track at Sears and Riches on the opening lap, by the end of the first lap McNeilly had made up seven places and was continuing to hunt the remaining pack. By lap 9 McNeilly was up to an impressive 19th having overtaken 20 cars and was closing in on Baumhardt, unfortunately all of McNeillys hard work was to be eliminated as David Hay out broke himself at the Russell chicane and made contact spinning both cars, Hay retired and McNeilly continued to finish in 28th place. Marcus Jewell came first, with James Knight in second place.

The Cup Europe round took place in drier conditions, and was split into three categories, the 2-11 Class, Exige Class and Invitation Class for modified Lotus’s of which Fox and Chong would be competing. Chong had an impressive race finishing in 2nd in class, Fox unfortunately spun on the last lap and still managed to finish an impressive 4th.

The second Elise Trophy race was also dry, McNeilly again starting at the back of the grid began picking of the competition one by one, McNeilly again up to 19th position and chasing Chauhan hard on lap 10 came into the Russell chicane to find Paul Baker had spun and was parked across the track, contact was made with McNeilly swiping the front of Bakers car and pushed on to the grass along the main straight, Baker not so fortunate as he was eventually hit by Stothert as the rest of the pack entered the chicane, this brought out the red flags and the race was stopped, with McNeilly finishing a credible 22nd. “A fantastic weekends racing, the car felt great and we definitely had the speed down the Revett straight, if we’d qualified well who knows a top 10 finish would have almost been possible” said McNeilly.

The second Cup Europe race was to run over 30 minutes and would be a rolling start. Chong and Fox started well, and regularly put in respectable lap times and kept out of trouble. The more powerful 2-11’s managed to keep out of contention and Chong and Fox got their heads down and put the laps in. As the chequered flag waved on the half hour mark, Chong crossed the line first in class and Fox second, Fox Motorsports first 1 – 2!

Many thanks, to Steve Williams at SW Lotus and Stephen Docherty at Track-Club for their support, the next Elise Trophy round heads to the Brands GP circuit on 17 – 18 July.

Jamie Stanley and team mate Christian Dick blazed a trail to victory in the 5th round of the British G4 Championship in the two and a half hour endurance event on the legendary Spa Francochamps Circuit.

With the Avon Tyres British GT Championship making its annual pilgrimage to the legendary circuit the championship adopted a single endurance race over the usual two one hour races. The British championship would be joined on the Grid by the Belcar Championship making a whopping 63 car strong grid.
In qualifying this made getting a clear lap very difficult but fortunately the Foxint.com backed G50 qualified pole in class just 0.058 seconds clear of championship rivals Rory Butcher and Benjamin Harvey.

Christian Started the race and pulled out a considerable lead by the midpoint where he handed over to Jamie who controlled his pace and escaping a clash with a GT3 Ferrari eventually brought the car home a lap clear of the chasing KTM Crossbow. Speedworks have now won four of the first five races this season and now puts the FOXINT.COM Speedworks team eight points clear in the G4 Championship.

“its a dream result for us and is great news for the championship Speedworks worked really hard all weekend and im so chuffed for them and FOXint.COM” Said Stanley.

The pair will return to championship action on July 18th at Rockingham where they will hope to build on their championship lead.

Round 3 of the Lotus on Track Elise Trophy headed to Castle Combe and attracted a grid of 42 cars.
Steve Williams set the pace in qualifying with a lap time of 1:17.046 putting him on pole, Paul McNeilly set an impressive lap time of 1:19.207 beating many experienced drivers to put him 20th on the grid, the 1.8s difference showing how competitive the Elise Trophy has become.

With large crowds at the circuit the first race started under cloudy but warm conditions, the field got away well until they reached Quarry, when a spinner caused the rest of the field to take avoiding action. The race then settled down and Paul McNeilly managed to finish an impressive 18th overall. The race won by Mark Speller, with Steve Williams second and Craig Denman 3rd.

Race two proved the more exciting, with Paul McNeilly starting 20th on the grid and the first ten positions reversed it was John LaMaster on pole. The race started well, but at Quarry it was Ben Pitch who spun and collected Paul Harding and Mark Funnel. The race settled down but it was on lap 8 when Dave Carr made a move on Paul McNeilly at Camp corner for 19th place, Carr then lost the back end of the car on the inside and spun almost collecting McNeilly in the process, Neil Stothert then approached the corner at speed to find a spinning Dave Carr in the middle of the circuit and took to the grass to take avoiding action, causing himself to spin down the start / finish line. Paul McNeilly finished 20th overall, his final race as a novice. The race won by Mark Speller, Jon Wolfe second and Craig Denman third.

Photo courtest of Jon Bryant. Snappyracers.com

Jamie and Christian continued their winning ways at Knockhill with a superb double win. The Fox sponsored Speedworks team have now won 3 out of 4 races, and currently leading the G4 points standings.

Jamie and Christian enjoyed a trouble-free, if lonely run to G4 Class victory in race one after qualifying frontrunner Chris Bialan suffered gearbox trouble on the opening lap and retired. Another likely challenger, the KTM X-Bow of Benjamin Harvey and local hero Rory Butcher, also retired.

In race two Nathan Freke’s Century Motorsport Ginetta led G4 to the stops, but it was class points leaders Christian Dick and Jamie Stanley who took the win – ahead of the KTM of Rory Butcher and Benjamin Harvey.

Speedworks head to Spa Francochamps for round 3 on 5 June.

Marcus Jewell fought his way to wins in both the Elise Trophy races at Silverstone, supporting the F2 Championship. With experienced karters Gavin Kirby and Luigi Valentino Mazza squabbling over the lead in the first event, Jewell caught the pair and picked them off as James Knight and Simon Phillips also closed in. An optimistic move in the Becketts complex from Knight also eliminated Kirby with the unfortunate Phillips having nowhere to go. With Kirby and Knight stranded and Phillips only just able to continue, the race was red-flagged, with Mazza joining Jewell and Phillips on the podium.

Second time out Jewell made the most of the reverse top ten as Mazza broke through into second, with Russel Hill third. Phillips hauled his hastily-repaired car to fourth just behind.

Fox Motorsport driver Paul McNeilly qualified 27th and managed to finish 21st in race one and 25th in race two adding two more signatures to his novice license. Paul ended up in a close battle with Elise Trophy regular Tess Howell for the final 4 laps of race two, which made for some entertaining racing. The battle went to the wire and Paul unfortunately spun on his final approach out of the Luffield complex whilst trying to pass Tess. "I was on the power too early trying to get a good run on Tess, but I guess the tyres weren't up to it! But hats off to Tess, she drove very well" commented the Fox Motorsport driver.
The Elise Trophy heads to Castle Combe on 31 May.

Thanks to SW Lotus for their support.

Photo courtesy of Snappy Racers.

Jamie Stanley made a sensational double victory in round one of the Pirelli Ferrari Open Series at Snetterton.

The Fox Motorsport F430 GT3 made its debut in the series, with round one being the first round where F430 Challenge, F430 Challenge GT, F430 GT2 and F430 GT3 are all now eligible.

Jamie took outright victory in the GT3 and Leon Price finished second in both races.

Jamie and Leon qualified 1st and 2nd on the grid, but did not have it all their own way. Despite careful planning at the start, the more highly modified Le Mans specification Ferrari 360GT2 managed to overtake Leon in the run-up to the first corner in both races, only for Leon to successfully return the favour during the opening laps each time.

The next round of the Pirelli Ferrari Open Series is at Spa-Franchorchamps on the weekend of May 29th & 30th.

Many thanks to FF Corse for their support.

Jamie Stanley and Christian Dick steered there FOXINT.COM backed Ginetta G50 to the Top of the Avon Tyres British G4 Championship this weekend with a stunning win in race one and a solid second in race two.

In race one Stanley started and built up a 10 second lead over the ABG run KTM XBOW after the stops the XBOW began to close down the Ginetta and with just a few laps left to run Christian Dick drove the widest car on the circuit to fend off the KTM of Rory Butcher to score a very popular win.

In Race two the XBOW had the legs in the early stages and after the stops the Ginetta was able to close the Gap but not enough to mount a serious challenge for the lead. The overall result means that Speedworks Motorsport and ABG Motorsport are tied for the Championship lead of the G4 Class of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship.
The Championship resumes at Knock Hill in Scotland on May 8/9 for more information visit www.britishgt.com images courtesy of Jakob Ebrey and Mat Acton.

For 2010, the LoTRDC series concentrates solely on the production class with an expanded field of cars including new entries with the latest Toyota powered Elises and Exiges all looking for outright honours.

The season opener kicks off at Brands Hatch where the Fox Motorsport team has entered 3 drivers. BJ Chong is joined by Fox Motorsport MD, Paul McNeilly for the season whilst Cliff Fox enters in the one off invitation class driving the exciting Fox Motorsport Honda powered paddle shift Exige.

With full 4 Grids and some 64 cars entered, the weekend promised some very close and competitive racing.

Qualification
The pace of development and competition has continued unabated in the LoTRDC series and despite the fact that the team knew that the Fox Motorsport entered Elise would require further development work to be competitive, both drivers set off to qualify as high up the grid as possible.

For Race 1, Paul McNeilly qualified with a very pleasing 57.08s in only his second race which was good enough for P21.

For Race 2, BJ Chong managed to qualify with a fastest lap of 55.89s which would see him start from P10 in race 2.

Meanwhile, in the Invitation Class, Cliff Fox qualified the Exige with a fastest lap of 58.9s to set his personal best around the circuit.

At the end of qualification, all 3 drivers were pleased with their performances. The data collected on weight and fuel loads will be used to help to improve the car technically as the season develops.

Race 1
Heavy downpours before the race made the track extremely challenging for all the competitors. McNeilly puts his karting experience to good use and manages to make up 4 places by the end of the first lap. Running strongly in the mid-pack, McNeilly finishes unscathed with a very creditable 19th place overall.

In the Invitation class, Cliff Fox unfortunately suffered minor electrical gremlins in the final laps of the race and was forced to nurse the car home to the chequered flag. A quick re-set of the ecu ensures that the Exige is ready for Race 2.

Race 2
Race 2 would start on Sunday and with a dry track Chong starts cleanly before settling down to several defensive battles to fend off faster cars. Chong managed to find enough clear air to finish the race in P6 and posted his fastest lap of 55.3sec.

In the invitation class, Fox drove his rejuvenated Exige to the finish line without incident posting a new personal best of 57.62s on the way and collecting another well deserved race signature for his licence.

Race 3
BJ Chong was out again for Race 3 with a shuffled up grid comprising of the top 12 finishers from races 1 & 2. Starting from row 6, it would ultimately prove to be a frustrating race with Chong unable to find the pace he had earlier. Without any clear air, Chong slowly dropped down the order as more powerful cars in the mid-pack were able to pick their way past on the straights. Chong finally finished in P19 before handing the car back to Paul for Race 4.

Race 4
Starting also from row 6 of the shuffled grid, Paul McNeilly; suffering from the onset of tonsillitis; valiantly climbed into the driving seat and drove to the finish after several close battles to finish in 16th place. In the heat of competition he also set his personal best lap time of 56.50secs which cheered him up as he was promptly consigned to his bed for the rest of the week!!

We leave round 1 with some thoughts from Paul McNeilly on the weekend, “A superb weekends racing, the car was slightly under power but we still managed some credible results, with a bit of tweaking we should be back on the pace for Silverstone, a fantastic weekend though and looking forward to round 2."

Next round Silverstone GP 16th April 2010
Fox driver Paul McNeilly will be contesting round 2 of the LoTRDC series on the famous Silverstone GP circuit and the team hope to be able to continue to improve the performance of the engine and climb up the order as the series moves to the faster circuits.

Meanwhile, Fox driver Jamie Stanley; high on confidence after his dominating performance in the modified class of LoTRDC last year; will be contesting the opening round of the British GT 2010 series at Oulton Park in the Fox sponsored Ginetta G50 on 5th April. Race report to follow.

Fox Motorsport are pleased to announce that Jamie Stanley will race in the 2010 Avon British GT Championship for the Speedworks Ginetta team, partnering Christian Dick.

The team will field a Ginetta G50 in the GT4 class of the championship and will contest in all eight events, which includes trips to major international circuits such as Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Spa-Francochamps with the aim of securing the Avon Tyres British GT4 Championship title.

Dick, who is also team principal and co-founder of Speedworks, showed front running pace during the teams two appearances in British GT last year, while it will be Stanley's first experience of the series after winning 11 out of 15 races in the ultra-competitive Lotus Elise Trophy in 2009.

"It's a natural step up for me after my success in the Lotus", said Stanley, who already has some GT racing experience after racing the Fox Motorsport F430 in Britcar at Snetterton last year. "The Avon Tyres British GT Championship is an international-level series with a good reputation internationally. I'm confident that it is the best place for me to take the next step in my career with such strong support from Fox International."

The Sandbach based outfit made two successful appearances in the championship, which features exotic machinery from Ferrari, Aston Martin and Porsche in 2009. Dick believes that the speed shown by the team, which will also continue to race in the one-make Ginetta G50 Cup this year, in its 2009 Avon Tyres British GT Championship appearances prove that it will be able to take GT4 victories.

"It's a a great move for the team to race in a major international championship, and we take a lot of confidence into the season after our performance last year" said Dick. "It's a competitive series with a lot of strong drivers and teams, but the team has had an enormous amount of experience and success in running the Ginetta G50, and Jamie is a strong driver, so we hope to be fighting for race wins and the title".

The Avon Tyres British GT Championship kicks off at Oulton Park in Cheshire on April 3/5, with the season finale at Donington Park in Leicestershire on October 16/17.

Brands Hatch will host its first 1000km race in more than 20 years this November, as the Lotus on Track Elise Trophy will end its 2010 season with an endurance event at the Kent circuit.

The 1000km epic will be run in conjuction with MSVR, MotorSport Vision’s racing division, and will feature more than 500 laps of the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in a race that will end in the dark.

This new event follows three hugely successful seasons for the Elise Trophy, as the MSVR-run series has attracted capacity grids and the club also hosted its first 90 minute endurance race in 2009.

MotorSport Vision Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer welcomed the new event to Brands Hatch: “Lotus on Track’s racing programme is already hugely successful and deservedly attracts impressive grids of real enthusiasts.

“The 1000km event with 500 laps of the Indy circuit is an exciting new challenge for them and will be sure to throw up some dramas and excitement!”

Fox Motorsport will run two cars in this popular event and will be looking for drivers to compete in either an S1 Elise or Exige. Please contact paul@fox-motorsport.com for more info.



The 2010 Lotus on Track Elise Trophy also starts its season on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit this March. There are new fewer than five visits for the series to Brands in 2010 with the Elise Trophy again supporting World Touring Cars & F2 on the Grand Prix circuit in July, back to the Indy circuit in September as support for DTM and of course Elise Trophy cars can compete when Lotus Cup Europe visits the Grand Prix circuit in August with Super League Formula & Group C.

Autosport magazine have voted Jamie Stanley as the 8th best club driver in 2009. A great season in the Elise trophy saw him pick up 10 wins from 15 starts.

Jamie Stanley took the Fox Motorsport Elise to second place in the final round of the Elise Trophy at Brands Hatch. In a change to the usual sprint format this race would see all the drivers taking on the challenge of a 100 minutes race with some drivers sharing cars and others doing the whole event solo. Each team would still need to make the one mandatory pitstop.

Stanley endured a difficult qualifying session with changeable conditions and a very busy track finding space to get a qualifying lap was always going to be difficult and come the sessions end would see Stanley start from 4th place.

At the start the track was still very wet from the earlier down pour and Stanley wasted little time and moved into second place by the time the field emerged from druids. The lead pair of Scott Cruikshank and Stanley pulled away from the chasing pack and were locked together for several laps before a mistake from Cruikshank allowed Stanley through.

At the mid way point Stanley led from Cruikshank by 7 seconds and pitted for the mandatory six minute stop. As Stanley rejoined and the rest of the pitstops began to unfold it was clear that victory was out of reach as the lead car of Mark Gooday and Mark Speller had pitted under the earlier safety car period and now led Stanley by three laps.

At the flag the Stanley followed home Speller by three laps and 15seconds clear of Rob Fenn.

“that was fantastic scott pushed me really hard at the start and was great racing with him its just s shame we didn’t quite get the pit stop right or we could of been fighting for the win” said Stanley.

This marked Stanley’s most successful season to date taking the foxint.com elise to 13 podiums 10 wins from 15 starts. Stanley now turns his attention to trying to secure a drive in the British GT Championship.

“we are talking to a number of teams about next season and are hoping to be able to confirm our plans very soon. Id like to thank all my sponsors for there support this season as without them this wouldn’t of been possible and hopefully next year will be even bigger and better for them too” added Stanley

Image courtesy of Sanppyracers.com

Race 1
After two years spoilt by the best of the Ardennes weather, we had light drizzle on Saturday morning, leading to a greasy track. Off the rolling start Stanley held the lead, whilst spinning at Eau Rouge were Headlam and Deacon, the latter ending with a heavy shunt into the barrier.

Stanley pulled away whilst Cruickshank fought to second, with Bicknell third, Pitch fourth, Damoiseaux losing out and falling to fifth. Meanwhile Jewell was leading Production from Edwards. On the run to Pouhon, Verheist spun into the barrier ending his weekend and was later joined by Gary Broad, also falling foul of the slippery conditions. Scraping the barrier, he made light contact with Verheist before neatly parking in front of the 2-Eleven.

The first five remained constant throughout the early stages, then Damoiseaux started to make his moves, first demoting Bicknell, as up ahead Stanley continued to assert his authority. Damoiseaux then started attacking Pitch, who had earlier displaced Bicknell, and the two enjoyed a fine battle, the 2-Eleven driver taking the advantage as the three of them caught Cruickshank at La Source to start the final lap.

In a close tussle, Damoiseaux passed Cruickshank on the run to Eau Rouge, then Pitch also found a way past the Scotsman for third place. In the end Stanley's advantage was only 10 seconds and behind the three-way battle for second, Bicknell confirmed fifth place. They were followed half a minute later by the European trio of Lisandre and the Rasse brothers, Gregory 8 seconds ahead of John. Close behind were Gooday, Headlam, Holzleithner and David Seear.

In Production, Jewell was dropping Edwards as they lapped amongst some of the Lotus Cup Europe cars. Edwards, however, would fall down the order, promoting Williams to second and Driver to third. The three finished close together and Peter Driver was only just ahead of Pete Storey at the flag.

After a couple of quiet rounds for the faster cars it was great to see them put on a show and whilst the lead was never in doubt, the fight for second stood up to some of the series' best races.

• Race summary - 40 starters, 37 finishers.




Race 2
If the drivers had been concerned about the conditions on Saturday, then Sunday was another matter altogether, as heavy drizzle drenched the circuit and showed no sign of abating. A rolling start was declared for the thirty minute race and Stanley converted pole once again into the lead as Bicknell and Damoiseaux disputed second, to be settled in the 2-Eleven's advantage. Headlam, Cruickshank and Pitch tracked Bicknell closely as the leaders started to break away. Cruickshank and Headlam made it past by the end of the first lap, with Pitch ready to attack. In Production, Williams held a handy lead over Rob Myers and Phillips.

Clearly Bicknell was suffering and he lost several places whilst the others made inroads in the leading pair, themselves separated by several car lengths. Behind them, Gregory Rasse and Olivier Cunat were disputing LCE Exige honours and Production was still benefitting Williams, but with Myers and a fighting Phillips still keeping him honest. Jewell and Driver weren't out of the picture at this stage either.

Headlam and Pitch were unable to make further progress, falling back into Rasse's clutches as he dropped Cunat. Whilst Pitch was able to break away into a lonely fourth place, Headlam held off the Exige class leader, keeping just enough distance to save him from attack. Meanwhile up at the front Cruickshank was ready to make this a three-way fight for the lead as he was catching Damoiseaux. Production was a matter of Williams getting amongst the faster cars and using them as a buffer. By this point Jewell had dropped out of contention.

With ten minutes to go Cruickshank was right with Damoiseaux and we were in a close finish as they were also closing on Stanley. Cruickshank took a look at Pouhon, if nothing other than to signal his intent. They continued to battle and even Andrew Napier and Dan Norris-Jones spinning as they were about to be lapped failed to put the Scotsman off but clearly the additional minutes were taking their toll on some of the drivers.

On the last lap, Cruickshank backed off , whether he had a problem or was content with a podium, the net effect was that Damoiseaux was off the hook but that didn't stop him posting his fastest lap, a second quicker than his pursuer. The pair finished behind Stanley, who paced the race well, never letting his challengers get close enough.

Some way back Pitch and Headlam followed them to the flag, then Gregory Rasse, Cunat and John Rasse, the three well-separated but taking the podium places in the Exige class. Seear finished in ninth and Robert Montgomery tenth and the third 2-Eleven home. Just behind him was Production winner Williams, two places ahead of his nearest class challenger, Greg Noble. Myers and Phillips had fought a fierce battle but they both suffered in the conditions, eventually switching order and finishing behind Driver.

Another entertaining race and one in which the drivers all displayed considerable bravery in the conditions.

• Race summary - 35 starters, 30 finishers.