Olly Jeffries leads the Chippenham Winter Indoor Championship after Rd. 6

 

Rounds 5 and 6 of the Chippenham Winter Indoor Championship took place on the 2nd of December. With a packed entry list of over 120 entries all faced with a tight technical track to test their skills.

Olly Jefferies was looking for another clean sweep in the boosted touring class. He would face some tough competition in the form of Chris Grainger and Phil Chambers, both making their debut at the CWIC series. A name missing from this round was Dave Allen who is one of the favourites for the mini and 17.5 blinky classes, which meant everything was to play for in these classes for others to take valuable points.

In qualifying for the Mini Formula class, it was Stuart Parnell leading the way to pole for the finals, qualifying over five seconds ahead of second place man, Stewart Woodend with James Millbank lining up third. All three were looking to pick up extra points with Dave Allen missing this round.

Supastox qualifying became one of the highlights of the morning with some great speed shown by Mark Williams (22 laps in 309.44) pipping Mark Giaquinto (22 laps in 309.47) to pole for the finals, with Marcus Askell lining up third and a great run by Joe Keaveney lining up fourth.

For the 17.5 Blinky qualifying it was Dean Jennings that left the others standing putting in an outstanding 22 lap run to line up on pole for the finals, with a close battle between Les Baldry (2nd), Ian Newton (3rd) and James Millbank (4th). Lining up in 5th for the finals and hot on the heels of the guys in front, making his first appearance in the A final was 10 year old Jamie Somerville powering round his Reedy powered Associated TC6.1.

In Boosted Touring qualifying Olly Jefferies also left the others standing on his way to an outstanding 25 lap run putting him on pole for the finals. Phil Chambers put a solid run together in his first appearance at CWIC which would be good enough to put him second on the grid pipping Chris Grainger who had to settle for third. Snapping at the heels of the top three qualifiers was Chris Gunter who put a solid performance together to line up fourth.

On the first leg of the Mini finals Stuart Parnell made a good start and for the next five minutes had a closely fought battle with Stewart Woodend swapping places as they broke away from the field, however it was Stewart who seized first place in the end by 0.64 of a second with James Millbank having a lonely run to third. In the second final, pole man Stuart Parnell had a good start but ended up having to battle hard to finally finish third some four seconds down on second place finisher James Millbank, who in turn finished eight seconds down on Stewart Woodend, who once looked in his mirror but never looked back.

Going into the first Supastox final all eyes were on a close battle between the top three qualifiers. With all three getting a good start it was Marcus Askell making the first move diving past Mark Giaquinto on the opening lap to take up second and start chasing down Mark Williams. After setting consistent fastest laps Marcus passed Mark Williams after he got caught whilst lapping traffic; Marcus went onto lap the whole field on his way to a 22 lap run with Mark Giaquinto in second and Mark Williams battling back to third. In the second final Mark Williams made up for his first final by putting in a solid 22 lap run going onto finish first with Marcus Askell having to settle for second, 1.88 seconds behind, with Mark Giaquinto coming in third, just behind Marcus.

As the first 17.5 Blinky final started all eyes were on pole man Dean Jennings, however after getting a clean start and leading the field for almost the whole five minutes fourth place starter James Millbank had other ideas; chasing him hard, passing Dean in the last few corners of the last lap taking the win by 0.55 of a second. Coming in third was Richard Gorringe making his way up from his sixth place on the starting grid with Les Baldry having to settle for fourth. Holding onto fifth place was young Jamie Somerville. In the second final pole man Dean Jennings made a bad start hitting a corner marker and getting collected by the rest of the field who had nowhere to go, trying to battle back up the field as the race progressed he had to settle for eighth in the end, after breaking his car. This left Les Baldry to drive away from the field on the way to a 21 lap run lapping the whole field; James Millbank had a close fight with Richard Gorringe on his way to settling for second with Richard one second behind in third. Going one better than in the first final Jamie Somerville came in fourth after battling all race long with James and Richard.

In the Boosted touring final leg one, Olly Jefferies got his Associated TC6.1WC off to a great start followed by Chris Grainger whilst second place man Phil Chambers got tagged in the first corner which sent him down the field and battling for the rest of the final to end up fifth. Olly pulled away from the field and set about a faultless run on his way to another A final victory. With the battle behind being close between Chris Grainger and Associated junior driver Kyle Gardner, who got the better of Chris to take a great second place finish with Chris three seconds behind in third, fourth place was taken by Ayrton Anderson at the sticks of his Hot Bodies TCXX. In the second final Olly Jefferies again got a great start and set about putting in another faultless run to take the win from Chris Grainger who settled into a rhythm to try and chase Olly down but had to settle for second position. Phil Chambers again got tagged in the opening corners and slipped down the field; however this proved great viewing for the watching spectators as he powered his way back up to third with a great battle between himself, Chris Gunter and Kyle Gardner. Phil took third in 301.34 with Chris snapping at his heels finishing 0.28 of a second behind, with Kyle finishing just 0.30 of a second behind Chris.

Going into the winter break Olly leads the boosted championship. With another good result at round seven & eight on the 6th of January could we possibly see the first championship of the series sewn up.

 

 

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