Event: 2016 Silverstone Classic - JET Super Touring Car Trophy

[Steve Holmes]

Race 6: JET Super Touring Car Trophy

Evoking memories of the BTCC races of the nineties, the JET Super Touring Car Trophy was another crowd-pleaser coming immediately after the Masters Historic Formula One event.

Pole-sitter Colin Noble Jnr, running a Vauxhall Vectra from 2000 (when Jason Plato partnered Vincent Radermecker) started well and opened up a gap to James Dodd’s Honda Accord and Frank Wrathall in his ex-Emanuele Pirro Audi A4. Dodd, though, soon settled in and began to reel Noble Jnr back in.

Once he caught the leader, Dodd’s ex-Peter Kox Accord darted left and right in search of a way past, but the youngster kept a cool head in front and held his own to take a narrow but well-earned victory.

Craig Davies led the Group A runners in his flame-spitting Ford Sierra RS500, while two-time Bathurst winner Tony Longhurst – in his 1994 Australian Manufacturers’ Championship winning BMW 320 – finished just inside the top 20 after a race long battle with 1985 European Touring Car Champion, Gianfranco Brancatelli.



Colin Noble Jnr (Vauxhall Vectra) 9 laps
James Dodd (Honda Accord) +0.206s
Frank Wrathall (Audi A4) +9.824


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Sunday race report:

Race 7: JET Super Touring Car Trophy

The fourth and final Tin Top Sunday showdown starred themuch-loved Super Tourers from the nineties. The enthralling battlebetween the Vauxhall Vectra of Colin Noble Jnr and Honda Accord of James Doddwas one of Saturday’s highlights and there were high hopes of a repeat onSunday.

Noble Jnr held the lead at the start, though Dodd was challengedby his father Graeme, in another Accord, this one a 1999 example raced by JamesThompson in period.

Graeme soon fell back into the clutches of those behind however,as Jason Minshaw’s 5-cylinder Volvo S40 (Rickard Rydell’s race car from 1998)made its way past, but later ran wide at the Loop and lost a spot to NeilSmith’s ex-Stefano Modena Alfa Romeo 156. The pair then swapped places twicewithin the space of a lap as they duelled hard for the final place on thepodium.

With Noble Jnr fending off Dodd so effectively yesterday, heseemed set for a second victory again, but a slight mistake with four minutesto go handed the advantage to the Honda.

The final lap was typical BTCC with the two pacesetters bashingdoors all around the circuit. The pair were still side-by-side approaching thelast corner with Dodd being somewhat rumbustiously forced off track andspinning across the kerbs. He recovered, though, to cross the line in second asSmith also found a way past Minshaw on the final lap for what looked like thefinal podium position.

Noble’s actions however would land him in hot water with therace stewards, and he was later excluded from the meeting.

1. James Dodd (Honda Accord) 8 laps
2. Neil Smith (Alfa Romeo 156) +20.668s
3. Jason Minshaw (Volvo S40) +21.138