The form book is turned on its head when the BackMarker Brigade decide to get racey…

GPO’s Sprint category has been going from strength to strength as more and more contenders are stepping up to the mark to put themselves in contention for top 5 results, as seen at Spain and Monaco with two new Sprint race winners in Michael Folcher and Dave Carr-Smith.

The grid turned up at Barcelona with a record 19 strong field and a GRIDline lock out of the top 5 grid slots. Sven Hesse took the pole from Stuart Fields, Folcher 3rd ahead of Michael Pieneman and Nick Oldenhuis. Alex Cooper, BackMarker Brigade’s latest charge lined up an impressive 6th ahead of title leader Malcolm Rice down in a worst ever 7th ahead of Maurice Zondag, the ever improving Kai-Uwe Borgstadt and Craig Johnston rounding out the ten. It also great to see Ken Hunter back on the grid after an injury in 16th and a debut from Ryan Walker for Millennium Racing in 18th.

At the lights however it was a shock to see Alex Cooper blast from 6th to 1st in a monumental get away to lead the first lap for BackMarker Brigade! Hesse slotted in behind with Folcher, Oldenhuis, Zondag, Rice, Pieneman, a troubled Fields down from 2nd to 8th, Simon Smith and Borgstadt rounding off the order.

Cooper clung onto the lead for the opening two laps but a mistake on lap 3 dropped him down to 7th letting the lead gaggle of cars passed. Hesse now was busy under pressure from Folcher as the pair moved away from the titantic scrap from 3rd down to 9th with Stuart Fields busy disposing of cars left, right and centre – including several three wide moments providing fantastic racing for the fans. By lap 5 Stuart Fields had risen to 3rd much to Maurice Zondag’s annoyance as he made a mistake and slipped to the back of the gaggle.

However all eyes were up front as the Sven Hesse vs Michael Folcher battle commenced as Folcher tried every which way but loose to find a way pass, eventually slipping through on lap 8 initially only to find Hesse would not take it laying down and blast back passed again on lap 11. He’d stay there until the pitstops were Hesse would pit first, letting Folcher have an extra three laps in clear air before he pitted on lap 18 emerging just ahead of Sven. Stuart Fields and Michael Pieneman would lead one lap each before their pitstops would place them back down the order and Folcher would gain the lead he’d hold all the way until the chequered flag – chase like a rabbit on a dog track by Sven Hesse.

It was a fantastic race from lights to flag and a well deserved first win for Michael Folcher. Sven Hesse would be looking for revenge at Monaco just two seconds behind the winner. Stuart Fields was just eight seconds further back in third and had he not have been caught up in the start drama he had, he’d have been a prominent figure in the lead battle. Still it was more points moving him up the order!

All had worked out well for Malcolm Rice too for 4th place at the flag minimising damage to his championship lead. He had been in a battle all race with the GRIDline’s of Michael Pieneman and Nick Oldenhuis until with 11 laps to go, the two teammates collected eachother and both retired from the race which was a great shame for the duo. However what that had done is promote Alex Cooper into an eventful 5th on his debut just a few seconds shy of Rice. Kai Uwe Borgstadt came home a personal best 6th only a minute off the leaders after his best race to date. He had passed Smith with ease early on and then ran a lonely race from there.

It was also another best ever for Patrick Wier for the sixth GRIDline car coming home 7th after bolting on hard tyres and not taking a pitstop! This unusual strategy had worked perfectly as he was able to avoid all the early trouble, keep up with the one stoppers and net the positions as everyone else pitted. One lap down but pleased was James Scanlan who had been busy battling with Craig Johnston all race. The battle was unresolved until lap 24 when Johnston made a mistake and dropped behind the Australian who drove his most convincingly professional race of the season by far and continues to move forward by leaps and bounds. Craig Johnston grabbed another couple of points for 9th after a busy race while Simon Smith came home 10th for the final point scoring position after losing his 7th when he sped in the pitlane and had to come straight back into the pits for a stop/go penalty.

Myles Dixon finally finished his first grand prix in 11th 2 laps adrift and so progress was on the cards for the Brit while Ken Hunter came in 12th and last, 3 laps adrift as he got back into his racing rhythm again and having to pit three times, with only one being scheduled!

The retirements were unfortunate. With the GRIDline pair of Pieneman and Oldenhuis taking eachother out, it was a cluster of separate accidents that wiped out most of the rest of the drivers. BMB drivers Maurice Zondag and Maurice Willems both had the same accident at the same corner but 12 laps apart. Willems had not felt comfortable all weekend but was on for 11th when he piled into the barriers, while Zondag had once again been a shoe in for a top 6 when he lost it just before the new chicane. Ryan Walker had done well on his debut but crashing out on lap 12 ended his race early while Lee Massey didn’t even get round lap 1 before he binned his Pacific Williamson Dynamics car. The only technical retirement was Rich Tranter who had qualified and ran last before his DNF on lap 5 but at least he was keeping it on the black stuff!

The circus then turned to Monte-Carlo and the glorious streets of terror and danger at every split second. BackMarker Brigade had bought along their Monaco specialist Dave Carr-Smith for a one off performance who came in and dutifully took pole position by half a second! While the rest of the field gulped, they were all in very close proximity to each other behind him. Sven Hesse grabbed 2nd on the grid ahead of Barcelona winner Folcher, Jack Nicholls making his sprint debut in 4th ahead of teammate Stuart Fields with leader Malcolm Rice in 6th ahead of Pieneman, Zondag, Cooper and Borgstadt rounding off the top 10 in qualifying. Debutant Dan Hemmings started 15th of the 17 starters.

At the lights it was very Noah’s Ark as the field kept their positions into St. Devote except Fields overcooked it and dropped from 5th to 8th and then exiting Casino Square Alex Cooper spun a 360 causing trouble behind him as everyone took avoiding action. Everyone had made it round lap 1 however with the exception of Patrick Wier whom had a bizarre problem getting stuck in the pits and being unable to join the track! Ken Hunter too would be gone on lap 2 with technical gremlins.

As the field divided into clumps of drivers in bottleneck groups, Carr Smith began to edge out into a comfortable lead for the BackMarker Brigade team, leading in a grand prix for the second race in a row and hardly able to believe their luck! Behind the battles were raging. Hesse had Folcher all over the back of him in a repeat of Spain but this time there was no where for Folcher to get passed as the two battled furiously. Behind them Jack Nicholls, Michael Pieneman, Maurice Zondag and Stuart Fields were in a train until Maurice Zondag’s bad luck struck when he lost connection thus ending another very promising drive from the Dutchman.

Then disaster struck Jack Nicholls. As he came round to lap Dan Hemmings, Hemmings had span exiting Casino and Nicholls collected the errant Hemmings. Hemmings had already been in trouble with the heavily damaged James Scanlan who stopped on that same lap as his car was undriveable after playing ping pong with the barriers.  With three cars out on the spot and debris everywhere it left the order as Carr-Smith, Hesse, Folcher, Pieneman, Rice, Fields, Borgstadt, Cooper, Smith and Johnston rounding out the point scorers. Kai Uwe-Borgstadt would be the next retirement with a crash on lap 16 promoting Myles Dixon the last remaining runner into the points.

The battle over 2nd now was at boiling point and somehow Folcher had found a gap on lap 17 to pass Sven Hesse! That made Sven see red and so began the imfamous wheel bashing and dramas that eventually led to Michael Folcher being bashed out the way by Hesse and then Folcher just driving straight into Hesse ending both of their races. With emotions boiling over, it would be hot topic and heated debate as both drivers fell foul of GPO’s gentleman’s racing rules. What it did do was place Dave Carr Smith into a massive lead with Michael Pieneman moving into second and Malcolm Rice in third having placed one of only a few overtakes in the race on Stuart Fields at the same time the Folcher/Hesse clash took place. It had became apparent that those who had pit for tyres (Carr-Smith, Rice and Cooper) had a couple of seconds advantage over those trying to cling on with their single set (Pieneman, Fields and Smith). As a result Rice dived passed Fields and Alex Cooper then also dived passed Simon Smith to take 5th after Cooper had to make a second stop for a new front wing.

Dave Carr Smith it was then who took a memorable first win for himself and for BackMarker Brigade. Michael Pieneman grabs an excellent second by the skin of his rear wing as Malcolm Rice returns to the podium again in third after a spirited drive and thus extends his championship lead to 20 points over Stuart Fields who came in a lapped fourth. Alex Cooper despite two spins and a nose cone change came in for another 5th placed finish ahead of Simon Smith who maintains his 100% finish/scoring record which only Malcolm Rice, Stuart Fields (including challenge) and Drazen Cokor (challenge also) can say they have maintained with only one bizarre spin at Rassecasse causing concern. Seventh was a pleased by lonely Craig Johnston who pitted twice and despite having good one lap pace, was unable to reel in Smith for a battle. The final finisher was Myles Dixon some 4 laps down but in triumph over scoring his first GPO points in what is probably the toughest race of the season.

So now to Turkey… who will take the win with all the trimmings?

Don’t forget to tune into our Xfire broadcast of GPO’s first official practice session or if you fancy getting in on the action yourself, head on over to the forums where you can meet the community!

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