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Over the weekend, Cadwell took place; where those from Roadsport, 270R and 310R Championships competed. Below you will find Caterham's official write-up of the event
Let’s call Cadwell Park in April a ‘bold’ choice for the first round of the Championships. Technical, extremely fast in places, and if that wasn’t enough, there were mixed weather conditions thrown in as well. I think our coordination team were just about as nervous as the drivers as the cars rolled into assembly for qualifying. Despite these challenges, Caterham drivers rose to the occasion, for the most part, displaying fantastic car control and race craft throughout.
Roadsport qualifying was a damp and fractured session with red flag stoppages playing their part. We had some familiar names towards the top of the time sheets alongside some drivers out of place from where they would have expected to be. It was Mitchell Fasanya who rose to the top with a comfortable gap at the end of the session and one that had on several laps been multiple seconds clear. A drying track played its part in race one where Richard Davies fought to the front and in no exaggeration of the word ‘dominated’ the race winning by over 11 seconds. Kyle Townend finished a solid P2 and Matt Fox had a brilliant recovery drive to third after qualifying further down than I’m sure he would have liked. Spurred on by his first win Davies went out in race two determined to repeat the feat but this time the rest of the grid were defiantly not going to let him break away. There was a fantastic race between Richard and Matt Fox for the lead which often featured Oliver Smith and Kyle Townend. We held our breath in race control after witnessing some race craft way beyond the years of experience that our Roadsport drivers have underneath them, but sadly tensions boiled over on the last lap when multiple cars within the lead group were involved in an incident at the hairpin. After judicial proceedings, our results stood at P1 – Richard Davies, P2 – Kyle Townend and a special mention for P3 – Oliver Smith who was on the receiving end of some robust driving a couple of times over the weekend meaning he didn’t get to stand on the initial podium, however very much deserved the trophy.
Another damp and interrupted qualifying session for our 270R drivers and one in which Caterham HWM sales manager Ollie White capitalized on, storming to pole position after finding some clean space and a nice slipstream in the closing stages of the session.
A dry race one saw multiple race winner Brian Thornton storm through from 7th on the grid to take the win. Spotted the previous evening outrunning several members of the Caterham team (including myself) on a run of the circuit. Brian clearly has the bit between his teeth for this year. Ollie White came home second in what was a very popular and long overdue first Caterham Motorsport podium, pushed all the way to the line by Bruno Van Dyke whose driving was entertaining as ever. Bruno also secured the fastest lap of the race.
Brian Thornton took another impressive victory in race two, this time followed home by 270R Championship returnee and previous Academy Champion Paul Oggelsby. Ollie White got his second successive podium leaving his supporters wondering what he’s been playing at over the last couple of seasons not getting one sooner.
Race three saw a wet track and played host to a truly titanic battle between Paul Oggelsby and Bruno Van Dyke. After an early mistake from Oggelsby it looked like Bruno would drive away from the field, often very fast in damp conditions. However, Paul regrouped and got his head down, eventually repassing Bruno and holding on for the win. Scott Helme came home a well deserved third place after battling his way into the podium positions.
Qualifying had some extra spice for our 310R drivers. With this years swap to Nova tyres, there are options for wet and dry running. Mixed conditions saw nearly a 50/50 split of ZZS & ZZR shod cars. ZZR’s turned out to be the correct choice on the drying track and Charles Harris utilized his well to secure pole position. Fastest Am driver was Ben Lopez-Appleton in second overall and keen to reclaim his Pro-Am status.
Despite Charles setting the pace in qualifying, it was his brother Will who drove to the front in race one with a five second margin at the line. Charles secured second for a Harris 1-2 and Multiple Caterham race winner Paul Goldstien rounded out the Pro-Am podium. In Am it was a win and second overall for Ben Lopez Appleton. Second was Alex Vincent with a great recovery drive after a qualifying penalty for accidently using a set of someone else’s tyres. Steve Lancaster had a successful return to the grid with third in the first race of the year.
Harris supremacy continued in race two with once again Will taking the win from Charles in Pro-Am. We are just waiting for Steve to join them up there . Third in Pro-Am was Paul Goldstien who knows how to win a championship bringing home consistent front running results. Am winner and an impressive second overall was Alex Vincent followed home by another great drive from Steve Lancaster in second and a Sam Parker podium in third! A fantastic result after her step up from Roadsport for 2026.
We only just got race three for 310R after a big incident and considerable clear up time was required in the proceeding Junior Saloons race. Drivers were sent to the grid whilst the BARC clerking team and I had a fight with the circuit officials after they tried to stop us from starting as it was past 6pm. We won. King of Cadwell William Harris completed the triple and looks hard to beat at the moment taking another win in Pro-Am. Paul Goldstien never let him get far away in second and after a first corner incident Charles Harris recovered to third. Alex Vincent once again displayed impressive pace taking the Am win followed by a first Caterham Motorsport podium for ex Mazda racer William Chadwick in Head Office, Factory & Registered Office Unit 10 Rennie Dr, Dartford, DA1 5FD, UK T. +44 (0)1322 625 800 Company number 117 1408 VAT registration number 210 299 196 caterhamcars.com second. Chadwick had a challenging weekend with some bad luck playing its part, but his pace and bold tyre decisions have our established runners taking notice for sure. Third, completing a hatrick of podiums was Steven Lancaster.
Well, that write up was longer than anticipated. Testament to the excitement of the action. I hope you all enjoyed the event and look forward to seeing you again very soon.
