It wasn’t the best of weekends for SR1 Cup Championship leader Theo Micouris, but he still managed to consolidate his lead in the title race.
Having qualified on class pole in the latest round of the Hagerty Radical Cup UK at Silverstone, he was straight into the lead on the opening lap of race one. “I had never done a race start here before, so was just hoping for the best,” he said.
His lead began to grow substantially and by the end was over five seconds clear. “I just avoided a first corner incident, but had to back-off briefly mid-race, to let a slower SR3 through. “He was stressing me, so I let him by,” he said.
But by the flag his lead had continued to grow to over five seconds.
It had started well in race two as well. “It was a great start, but when I got to Club I couldn’t change down and was stuck in fifth gear,” he explained,
Despite his problems he persevered and was still 10th in Class and remained on the lead lap.
Penultimate place on the grid for the last race, was made worse as the rain started to fall and just got heavier.
Up to sixth after four laps, he was still in sixth into the final laps. Fourth over the line, but with the first two home, both receiving penalties, fourth became second.
“That was fun, starting at the back and a 20 seconds penalty at the stop. I made a lot of places off the start and just carried on. It was close with Brookes at Luffield on the last lap and we went across the line almost side by side,” he said.
Amir Feyzulin was back in the RAW camp too, but brought with him Alim Geshev for his Radical UK debut.
Gulf Championship frontrunner Geshev had qualified 14th, with Feyzulin 16th, but had to take avoiding action into Woodcote at the start of the first race, to avoid spinning cars.
Feyzulin was up to 11th, but Geshev was recovering well and they were virtually together mid-race fighting for 12thplace.
Geshev got ahead after seven laps and they were finally classified 11th and 12th.
“It was Ok I held my place and the car was good too, but I hope to improve over the weekend,” said Feyzulin.
In race two Geshev was in contention for a top 10 finish from the lights out. He was in 11th when the safety car came out, but was one of the beneficiaries of another clash from the restart.
For the second half of the race he gradually consolidated a fine sixth place, with Feyzulin snatching 11th from Headlam on the last lap.
It was a new experience for both drivers when the rains came for third and final race. Once again Geshev was in contention from the start, but from an early eighth, he started to slip back and pitted for his stop from ninth.
A spin at Brooklands after a massive overshoot dropped him down the order a little, but at the flag he was 11th, just 1.293 secs ahead of Feyzulin.
“Neither of them had ever raced in the wet before, they both did remarkably,” concluded RAW boss Rob Wheldon.
Published by Peter Scherer for RAW Motorsports, July 31st 2023