CLUB AUTOSPORT
Ginetta GT4 Supercup
HUMBLE PYE
WorldMags.net racing
The voice of club
Breeze switches to HHC for
latest GT4 Supercup attack
Formula Renault Eurocup
Eastwood in Eurocup move
BRDC FORMULA 4 PODIUM
finisher Charlie Eastwood will contest
the Formula Renault Eurocup this year
with Strakka Racing.
The 19-year-old finished 10th in
the BRDC F4 points in 2014, his
maiden season of car racing, and
was seventh in this year’s New Zealandbased Toyota Racing Series.
Karting champion Eastwood will now
turn his attention towards the start of the
Eurocup season following a successful
test with the Silverstone-based Strakka
squad, which is embarking upon its first full
campaign in the category.
“I tested really well and coming to see
the workshop confirmed this is where
I want to race,” said Eastwood. “I just
instinctively knew to sign there and then.”
Team principal Dan Walmsley added:
“Charlie is quick and has a great attitude,
just what we look for in the Strakka family.”
Eastwood showed well
in BRDC F4 and TRS
Renault Clio Cup UK
Mighty Mini ace to Clio Cup
LEADING RENAULT CLIO CUP UK
outfit SV Racing will run triple Super
Mighty Mini champion Ben Seyfried
in 2015 after securing backing from
a sponsor new to the series.
SVR, which won the Clio Cup teams’
title and took Josh Cook to the runner-up
spot in the drivers’ standings last year, has
signed 40-year-old veteran club racer
Seyfried as part of the tie-up with the
Forex trading company CWM FX.
“I’m under no illusions; my undertaking
is huge and I’ll be up against some really
good drivers,” said Seyfried. “I will need to
raise my game and I know there’s still a lot
to learn in the Clio Cup car, but I bring a
cool, calm head and maturity.”
CWM FX, title sponsor of the LCR
Honda MotoGP team for which Cal
Crutchlow will ride this season, said that a
desire to gain exposure on the TOCA
package was behind its decision to enter
into a sponsorship deal with SVR.
SVR Clios will run
in CWM FX livery
Members Meeting at
Goodwood will be
Pye’s first UK event
HAWKINS/LAT
Breeze has won 37 races in Ginetta’s
flagship series’ various guises since
2009, and has never finished lower than
third in the points.
“I can’t wait to get started. This year
will be the first where I will have some
pre-season tests before the first race,
which will hopefully result in a great start
to the year at Brands Hatch,” said the
35-year-old, who raced in the British
Touring Car Championship after his FR
UK success and was also a race winner
in the SEAT Cupra Cup.
“Last year HHC had by far the best
car in the field, so I can’t wait to drive
it and try and win back-to-back
championships for the team. With the
team-mates I have alongside me we
have a really strong line-up, so the teams’
title challenge looks promising too.”
Australian trip signals the
end of a long winter break
A
fter a three-month lull, the
mainstream British racing
season is almost upon us,
and competitors and enthusiasts
alike are gearing up for an explosive
start to 2015 at Goodwood’s 73rd
Members Meeting in a fortnight’s
time. News of world champion
Mercedes-Benz’s participation with
an F1 car and other landmark
machines bearing the three-pointed
star has added a delicious twist to
the unique event, which cleverly
straddles the circuit’s heyday.
A week later, that perennial
champion of affordable motorsport,
the 750 Motor Club, opens its
programme with 11 of its 16
categories – including the highly
competitive BMW Compact Cup,
Honda Civic Cup, Locost and Mazda
MX-5 slipstreamers, ultra-fast
Bikesports and the remarkable 750
Formula – in action at Donington
Park. RGB, Formula Vee, Stock/
Classic Stock Hatch and the
growing band of Renault Clio 182
combatants have another month
to prepare before they get their
seasons under way at Brands Hatch.
Moving into April, the Easter Bank
Holiday weekend still gives loyal
fans and marshals plenty of variety
and choice. The Historic Sports Car
Club’s third Thruxton Easter Revival
takes CEO Grahame White back to
running the BARC’s European F2
rounds at the Andover airfield track
in the 1960s and ’70s, and the
co-promoters’ season opener
should attract its biggest entry yet.
I’ll head from Thruxton to Castle
Combe’s Easter Monday kick-off
– marking the third Howard’s Day,
remembering the Chippenham
venue’s late saviour Howard
Strawford. Registrations for the
CCRC’s FF1600 and Saloon
WorldMags.net
championships, the latter providing
some of the country’s best racing in
recent seasons, are strong, although
the GT and Sports Racing brigades
could do with reinforcements.
Combe devotees are in for a shock,
however, for the centre of the circuit
is now a solar farm!
While domestic events are
looming large, my first fix of 2015
comes this weekend in Australia. My
“My 38th full season
of reporting starts
this weekend at
Phillip Island”
38th full season of reporting for
AUTOSPORT starts at one of the
world’s most spectacular circuits;
much appreciated help from the
Victorian Historic Racing Register
sees me return for the 25th
anniversary of its blue riband Phillip
Island Classic. It’s 12 years since I
last attended the meeting, which, by
coincidence, fell during a family
holiday on the Gold Coast.
Read about it next Thursday, as
the Formula 1 fraternity
re-unites an hour up
the road in
Melbourne...
Marcus
Pye
99
Breeze is no stranger
to Ginetta success
EBREY/LAT
RECORD GINETTA RACE WINNER
Carl Breeze has joined the GT4
Supercup championship-winning squad
HHC Motorsport for the 2015 season.
The 2012 Supercup champion will be
reunited at HHC with race engineer Alan
Mugglestone, who ran Breeze to the
2001 Formula Renault UK title with the
Motaworld outfit.