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BTCC RACE REPORT- ROUNDS 19 & 20, BRANDS HATCH
Both Barwell Motorsport drivers, Aaron Slight and Tom Chilton, had their race weekends ruined through the appalling driving standards of their rivals in the final BTCC event at Donington Park last weekend.
Aaron’s challenge for the Independents Cup title was completely ruined after he was knocked out of both races on the first lap, and Tom lost out on a potential overall podium finish in both races after being punted into a spin from behind. The highpoint of the weekend, however, was the absolutely miraculous job that the Barwell crew did in repairing the massive damage to the rear of Aaron’s car between the races, after it had effectively been ‘written off’ in the Sprint encounter. This typified the incredible team effort and spirit that has been a feature of our 2002 season.
During Saturday’s official qualifying sessions Aaron held sixth place before going out for his final run, and his dashboard timer was showing that this final lap would be even better when the red flags came out to stop the session because of an accident. In the end he was bumped down to ninth but still only 1/10th of a second from fifth spot!
Aaron’s Sprint race, and his Independent championship lead, was destroyed within two corners of the start, along with the complete rear end of his Barwell Astra. Two cars immediately in front of him had collided and one of them snagged the front of our car, pushing him wide at the same time as he was whacked up the rear by another BTCC challenger. This final impact sent him hurtling into the wall on the outside of the track and completely squashed the back of the car, so that the rear boot line was actually level with the rear wheels!
It looked to the general observer that Aaron Slight’s challenge was over for the weekend and the year, as his car was in such a bad state. However, the team weren’t prepared to admit defeat, and it was all hands on deck in the garage as everyone set about rebuilding the entire rear end. Luckily for us, Barwell's local bodyshop manager was up for day to support the team, and he was very quickly given some Barwell overalls as he set about the task of pulling out the boot along with some help from some key members from a factory BTCC team based closed to Barwell in Surrey! With just on two hours to perform this magic trick, the odds were stacked against Aaron. However, with the aid of about £1000 worth of ‘tank tape’ and some ratchet straps, somehow they managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat and a fully functioning if not very pretty Barwell Astra made it onto the grid in time for the Feature race!
With Aaron now three points behind the Peugeot 406 of Dan Eaves in the Indie Cup battle, the race for the title was back on. Tragically, however, his Feature race lasted little longer than the Sprint as the un-acceptable driving standard of the works Proton of David Leslie smashed into the front wheel of our Astra as they braked for the Esses, breaking the upright and causing enough damage to force Aaron to retire and effectively ended his hopes of wining the BTCC Championship title.
