Armed Forces Race Challenge
Race 2 Report — Cadwell Park
Race Summary
Jack Ijewsky (No. 99, Honda Civic) won a thrilling Race 2 at Cadwell Park, leading the first seven laps, losing out to Jasmin Norman’s faster Audi TT for three laps in the middle of the race, then hitting back to retake the lead on lap eleven and hold on to win by just 0.736 seconds after twelve laps and 26.24 miles. It was a notable result: Ijewsky’s Class C Honda Civic was more than two seconds a lap slower, at best, than Norman’s Class A Audi TT — the fastest car in the field — yet racecraft and track position kept the quicker car behind at the finish. John Cobley (SEAT Ibiza Cupra) completed the podium in third. Further back, Ian Cooper (No. 51, Daewoo Nexia) produced the standout drive of the race, climbing from twenty-second on the grid to ninth at the flag. The race ran the full distance under green-flag conditions in bright, dry conditions — an improvement on Race 1’s cloud cover — with 24 cars taking the start.
Grid and the Start
Mark Jones (No. 95, Renault Clio 200) took pole position with a 1:45.953, sharing the front row with Jack Ijewsky (No. 99, Honda Civic). Kieran Lambourne and Paul Waterhouse lined up on row two, with Jasmin Norman and John Cobley on row three. Three drivers who had featured in Race 1 failed to make the start this time: Phil England (No. 8, Subaru Impreza), John Lyon (No. 40, Caterham Super 7 HPC Evo) and George Harvey (No. 15, Mini Cooper S), leaving 24 cars on the grid.
Ijewsky made the better getaway from the front row and led from the end of lap one, with Cobley, Jones and Lambourne filling the places behind. Norman, starting only fifth, was already on the move.
The Race for the Lead
Ijewsky controlled the opening laps from the Honda Civic, building a lead of over four seconds by the end of lap one and holding station through the first third of the race as Norman picked off Lambourne, Jones and Cobley to move into second. From there the gap fell steadily: 4.8 seconds on lap four, 2.5 seconds on lap five — a lap on which Norman set the fastest time of the entire race, a 1:42.066 — and down to just 0.666 seconds by lap six. Ijewsky still held on by the narrowest of margins at the end of lap seven, 0.162 seconds clear, before Norman’s pace finally told: the Audi TT took the lead on lap eight and led for three laps, never by more than about a second.
Ijewsky was not finished. He closed back onto Norman’s gearbox and snatched the lead again on lap eleven, this time by 0.629 seconds, and controlled the final two laps to take the chequered flag 0.736 seconds clear — the whole lead battle from lap seven onward decided by fractions of a second each way. It was a result built on racecraft as much as pace: Norman’s best lap was more than two seconds quicker than Ijewsky’s, yet the Honda Civic crossed the line first.
Behind the lead pair, John Cobley brought the SEAT Ibiza home third, just 0.6 seconds clear of Kieran Lambourne’s BMW E46 330ci in fourth — the pair’s fastest laps separated by only 0.014 seconds all weekend. Pole-sitter Mark Jones slipped from the front row to fifth by the finish.
Class Battles
Jasmin Norman’s runner-up finish was also a lights-to-flag Class A win, with Andrew Holmes — whose MGB V8 was reclassified from Class B to Class A after Race 1 — again the class runner-up in twelfth overall, ahead of Sean Graham a lap down in fifteenth. With George Harvey a non-starter, Class B contained only John Cobley, whose third place overall was an unopposed class win. Alexander Martin (No. 11, Mazda MX5) led every lap of Class D on his way to tenth overall, and Matthew Welford (No. 231, Toyota MR2) did the same in the Invitation class, finishing sixth overall well clear of fellow INV runners Richard Dales and Andy Williams.
Class C was the closest contest of the supporting classes by virtue of doubling as the outright lead battle — Ijewsky headed the class from start to finish, with Lambourne, Jones, Gareth Moss, Harry Townsend and Ian Cooper filling out the class order. The BMW 116i one-make contest went the other way from Race 1: Jamie Brackley led every lap this time to win the class, ahead of Joe Turrell, Charlie Honeywood and David Inglis.
Progress Through the Field
Ian Cooper’s drive from twenty-second on the grid to ninth at the flag was the standout of the race — a gain of thirteen places, achieved with a run of consistently quick, low-1:49 laps through the second half of the race and a best lap of 1:48.787 on lap nine. It continues a pattern from earlier in the day: Cooper gained sixteen places in Race 1 from a comparable grid slot, making the Daewoo Nexia’s charge through the field a theme of the whole meeting.
Peter McNicol also made strong progress, from the back of the grid in twenty-seventh to sixteenth at the finish, a gain of eleven places, while Sean Graham (No. 134) rose nine places to fifteenth. At the other end, pole-sitter Mark Jones lost four places to finish fifth, and Lee Kenealy dropped six places to finish twenty-first.
Two cars failed to finish: Paul Waterhouse (No. 230, Peugeot 306 GTi-6) retired before completing lap one, while Thomas Sykes (No. 29, BMW 330ci) went out after nine laps having been on course for a solid points finish.
Fastest Laps
Jasmin Norman set the outright fastest lap of the race, a 1:42.066 (77.13 mph) on lap five — quicker than her own best from Race 1. John Cobley and Kieran Lambourne set the next-fastest laps, separated by just 0.014 seconds: 1:44.178 and 1:44.192 respectively, both on lap five. Matthew Welford’s best of 1:47.124 led the Invitation class, Alexander Martin’s 1:48.728 the Class D runners, and Charlie Honeywood’s 1:55.023 the BMW 116i class. Across the 24-car field, the race covered a combined 264 laps and 577.4 miles.
Race 2 Classification
| Pos | No. | Class | Driver | Vehicle | Laps | Gap | Grid | +/− |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 99 | C | Jack Ijewsky | Honda Civic | 12 | Winner | 2 | +1 |
| 2 | 277 | A | Jasmin Norman | Audi TT | 12 | +0.736 | 5 | +3 |
| 3 | 47 | B | John Cobley | SEAT Ibiza Cupra | 12 | +7.798 | 6 | +3 |
| 4 | 7 | C | Kieran Lambourne | BMW E46 330ci | 12 | +8.398 | 3 | −1 |
| 5 | 95 | C | Mark Jones | Renault Clio 200 | 12 | +18.953 | 1 | −4 |
| 6 | 231 | INV | Matthew Welford | Toyota MR2 | 12 | +47.968 | 9 | +3 |
| 7 | 26 | C | Gareth Moss | Mazda MX5 | 12 | +57.450 | 11 | +4 |
| 8 | 64 | C | Harry Townsend | Peugeot 306 GTi-6 | 12 | +58.412 | 12 | +4 |
| 9 | 51 | C | Ian Cooper | Daewoo Nexia | 12 | +1:16.542 | 22 | +13 |
| 10 | 11 | D | Alexander Martin | Mazda MX5 | 12 | +1:19.973 | 10 | 0 |
| 11 | 147 | INV | Richard Dales | Toyota MR2 Roadster | 12 | +1:24.991 | 16 | +5 |
| 12 | 72 | A | Andrew Holmes | MGB V8 | 12 | +1:30.521 | 13 | +1 |
| 13 | 30 | INV | Andy Williams | Toyota MR2 Roadster | 12 | +1:31.181 | 18 | +5 |
| 14 | 43 | D | Dean Fletcher | Ford Fiesta | 11 | +1 lap | 14 | 0 |
| 15 | 134 | A | Sean Graham | Sultan Locost | 11 | +1 lap | 24 | +9 |
| 16 | 14 | D | Peter McNicol | Mazda MX5 | 11 | +1 lap | 27 | +11 |
| 17 | 69 | 116 | Jamie Brackley | BMW 116i | 11 | +1 lap | 17 | 0 |
| 18 | 18 | 116 | Joe Turrell | BMW 116i | 11 | +1 lap | 20 | +2 |
| 19 | 305 | 116 | Charlie Honeywood | BMW 116i | 11 | +1 lap | 23 | +4 |
| 20 | 39 | 116 | David Inglis | BMW 116i | 11 | +1 lap | 21 | +1 |
| 21 | 6 | C | Lee Kenealy | Citroen Saxo | 11 | +1 lap | 15 | −6 |
| 22 | 34 | D | Sean Storey | Mazda MX5 | 11 | +1 lap | 25 | +3 |
Gap is time behind the winner (or laps down for cars not on the leader’s lap); Grid is starting position; +/− is places gained (+) or lost (−) from grid to finish.
Non-Finishers
| Result | No. | Class | Driver | Vehicle | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DNF | 29 | C | Thomas Sykes | BMW 330ci | 9 laps completed |
| DNF | 230 | C | Paul Waterhouse | Peugeot 306 GTi-6 | Did not complete lap 1 |
Not started: Phil England (No. 8, Subaru Impreza), John Lyon (No. 40, Caterham Super 7 HPC Evo) and George Harvey (No. 15, Mini Cooper S).