Radical Challenge Championship leader Matt Bell continued to show his pace with a win and two third places at Silverstone.
The RAW driver was just 2/10th’s off pole after qualifying for the first race, but weather conditions had changed when it was time to go racing.
The track was wet but drying and Bell opted to take his lead from Poleman Jerome De Sadeleer and stay on full wets.
Team mates Chris Short and Rod Goodman stayed on wets too, but John Macleod and Elliot Goodman went for slicks and started from the pitlane.
“I followed Jerome’s lead but from the first lap I was bursting to come in and change, but knew I couldn’t,” said Bell.
He led the first three laps from De Sadeleer; before they were swept aside by eventual race winner
slick shod James Sweetnam.
Despite staying on wets Bell still held onto second until the penultimate lap. “It was an epic stint on those wets, but I couldn’t stop Mark Richards in the end,” he said after retaining a clear third.
Short had been third initially but his wets saw him slip down the order too.
Macleod and Goodman both confirmed they made the right decision, with Goodman up to fourth by lap seven, only to be pipped by Macleod a lap alter, retaining fourth and fifth respectively to the flag.
Short eventually came home seventh. “I decided to stay out, but knew I should have come in for slicks,” he said.
Bell spent the early part of race two right on De Sadeleer’s tail, piling on the pressure and waiting for a mistake. “It was a much harder race, but he made one mistake at the Hairpin and that was all I needed and I took it,” Bell explained after slipping by on lap six.
The gap stayed close however and at the flag it was still only 0.693 secs.
Short’s hopes of a good race were thwarted on the
opening lap, “I was punted off into the gravel at the Vale,” he explained.
Macleod however was a solid sixth from the opening lap, before hunting down Jason Rishover to claim fifth from lap six, while Elliot Goodman was ninth by half distance, with father Rod 12th. “Just not quick enough,” Elliot reckoned.
In the final race of the weekend Bell was chasing an early duel between De Sadeleer and Richards from the start.
“I lacked pace at critical times, but thought I had got Jerome at the start, until he blocked me. With the success penalty at the stop, third was the best I could have expected,” Bell admitted.
Short took a while to get past Chris Preen for fifth in the first part of the race, but after jumping Rishover at the stops, he finished a clear fourth, “That was a good race with Chris, but I waited too long to get by,” he admitted.
Elliot Goodman also had a strong second half to consolidate sixth, with Rod just missing a top 10 finish in 11th.
Macleod however dropped from an early fourth when throttle problems left him sidelined.
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