It was a four car line-up for RAW Motorsports, as the delayed annual trip to Spa Francorchamps brought down the curtain on another successful Radical Challenge year for the Banbury based team. Chris Short had secured pole in the SR3 Class and hoping to finally break his duck as a Radical winner. It didn’t go as planned at the start however, “I got hit by Chris Preen at La Source on the first lap, got pushed out wide and recovered fifth in class,” he explained.
Elliot Goodman headed the RAW quartet at the end of the opening lap in eighth overall, with Short ninth, Rod Goodman 13th and debutant Ben Stone 14th.
The leading RXC Spyder and SR10 were clear at the front, so it was third overall and the lead of the SR3’s that was the main interest.
“I had a great battle with Elliot until I finally got him,” said Short after ousting his team mate from second in class on lap six.
Jason Rishover was his next target, but his cause was aided by a short safety car intervention. “Then Jason made a mistake at La Source and we came out for run to Eau Rouge almost side by side, before I decided to back out,” he said. He was still a solid second, with Goodman dropping to fourth behind Andy Lowe on the last lap.
Stone held seventh from lap six and Rod Goodman was ninth. Short had pole again for race two, but lost out to Rishover as they turned into La Source. “I got him back the second time though, down the inside and then just tried to stay consistent,” he said. He led the rest of the race and comfortably headed Rishover at the flag to secure his first SR3 victory.
“After three years of waiting I finally got the win,” he enthused.
Elliot Goodman had been fifth on the opening lap, but was an early retirement, while Stone and Rod Goodman were came home fifth and sixth on the road, before being promoted a place each after track limit penalties were added.
With the safety car out on the opening lap of the final race, there was only one racing lap before the pitstop window.
Short pitted from third having led the class from the start. “I had a good restart from the green flag, but found some sand on the track from a previous incident. I got a slide on and both Rishover and Preen got by,” he explained.
It was Stone leading the way for RAW after the stops in a tremendous second in class, which despite a track limit penalty, he retained to the finish. Elliot Goodman was fifth home, but a 15 secs penalty dropped him to seventh, from where his Dad Rod gained to be classified fourth.
Short had pitted early but got held up rejoining. He was sixth on the road, but acquired 20 secs of penalties, dropping him to eighth in class.
It was another Championship winning year for RAW, with Matt Bell confirmed as 2021 Radical Challenge Champion in his absence, following in the footsteps of Dominik Jackson, Steve Burgess and Oliver Barker.
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