Whiteline 22B.com Sprint Series – Castle Combe 2016 Report

The third round of this season’s Whiteline 22B.com Sprint Series at Castle Combe saw Olly Clark record the fastest time of the day and claim victory in Class S3. Driving his Type R Impreza, the Subaru specialist set a time that gave him an advantage of more than second from his closest rival George Rigby in his Spec-C Impreza, who was closely followed by Tim Bedford in his WRX version.

In the other classes the competition proved even closer and it was Clive Fulcher in his RA Impreza and Alan Tait in his WRX who took the spoils in S2 and S3 respectively. But at the beginning of the day the story was all about the weather.

When drivers arrived for round three of the popular Subaru-centric sprint series at Castle Combe circuit in the heart of Wiltshire, it looked as though the whole day was likely to be a wet one. In fact, during the three practice runs in the morning, the times were so erratic because of the extremely slippery conditions, it looked as though the results would be decided on the basis of tyre choice and a significant slice of luck.

However, just before the competitive runs were due to start, the rain stopped and as soon as it did, a dry line around the 1.85-mile course began to emerge. Initially it was Rigby who set the pace, but as the levels of grip increased as the surface water began to disperse, Clark began to push ahead.

It was then the turn of Bedford to take up the chase, who went ahead of Rigby after the fourth run. But by this time, other than a couple of patches, the racing line could now be regarded as dry and consequently, the pace had significantly increased throughout the field.

While it was still wet, S2 was the domain of Joe Cross in an Impreza RA, but by the third run he was edged out of the category top-sport by Fulcher, who went on to post his quickest time on run four and as soon as the circuit had dried out.

Likewise, it was the eventual class runner-up Adrian Bradley that initially led the S1 charge in his Impreza until Tait went quicker on run four and then went on to set his class-winning time on run seven – albeit just 0.5s faster than Bradley.

Clark, however, saved his best until last and, with a 1:06.43 not only secured the Class S3 victory, but set the fastest time of the day in the process. But that wasn’t his only activity on the track during the day. The Roger Clark Motorsport team had also brought the Time Attack winning and Goodwood hill climb record-holding ‘Gobstopper II’ Impreza with them and used the ocassion to test the car before this year’s Festival of Speed.

There’s now an eight-week summer break for drivers and teams before the fourth round of the series that takes place around the Lotus test track at Hethel in Norfolk on Saturday 13th August.

The 2016 Whiteline 22B.com Sprint Series is sponsored by: Whiteline Performance Suspension, AS Performance, Chevron Motorsport and Area 52 Autosport.

Increasing the series’ profile this year is the addition of live commentary and video filming at every round that will be broadcast throughout the season on social media.