Bradshaw completes perfect weekend in Essay
Image © Fotocar13
The largest grid of the weekend, with 49 Senior X30s on the grid, things were always going to be interesting at Essay.
Thanks to the size of the field, 3 sessions were needed for Qualifying, with the first blow going the way of BMR’s Harry Platten whose time of 49.045 was enough to top the first session ahead of Enzo Leveque and Rueben Moya. It wouldn’t be enough to hold the top spot, as Fusion’s Callum Bradshaw topped the 2nd session with a 49.032 with Dylan Leger just 0.067s behind in 2nd. Suprisingly, Filip Vava could only manage 6th, 2 tenths behind Bradshaw. The final session would be the slowest of the 3, with Maximus Mayer’s 49.112 enough to hold on ahead of Alessandro Ceronetti and Sean Butcher.
Bradshaw would hold his advantage through the heats, taking 4 wins from 4 races to give him pole for the pre-final. Platten managed to bag 2 wins on route to 2nd in the standings with Guy Cunnington taking the final heat win of the day for Strawberry Racing, securing 3rd on the pre-final grid in the process. Vava would make up for his relatively poor qualiyfing with 4, top 5 finishes to give him 6th on the grid ahead of countryman Moya while Caden McQueen would be looking good for a top 5 start until the final heat, where a 12th place finish would drop him to 9th ahead of Jordan Brown-Nutley. Daniel Nogales would also find his way through the field, with a best result of 3rd leaving him 17th in the standings having qualified down in 29th.
Bradshaw would continue his dominant form, taking a lights to flag victory in the pre-final, holding a 1.8 second advantage over Strawberry’s Guy Cunnington when the flag fell. Enzo Leveque moved up to 3rd at the expense of Harry Platten who would contest the final from the 2nd row. Nogales would continue his recovery drive, climbing 8 places to finish inside the top 10 with Brown-Nutley and Thomas Fleming for company. Falling down the order were Moya and McQueen who would start the final in 12th and 13th respectively. The big mover was Sean Butcher, who hauled his KR Sport machine through the field to finish 14th having started outside the top 30.
When the lights went out, Bradshaw swooped across the track to secure the lead into the opening corner as Cunnington tried to squeeze Enzo Leveque out for 2nd place, but ended up finding himself down in 3rd behind the Frenchman and just in front of Dylan Leger and Harry Platten. Platten quickly passed Leger for 4th and set about Cunnington’s podium. He tried to dive down the inside but touched the Strawberry man machine sending him spinning down the order and promoting Tom Fleming and Ayrton Fontecha into the top 5.
As the leaders strung out, the fight for 8th was hotly contested between Maximus Mayer and Caden McQueen. The McQueen initially held the advantage before Mayer made his way through. The Spanish man then set about chagrining after Sam Balota in front, setting the fastest lap in the process. Mayer threw caution to the wind, taking just 3 laps to catch and pass Balota for 7th. The drivers in front weren’t that far away from him, with Cunnington falling away from Leveque and Bradshaw. Fontecha behind could sense a podium with Xenon duo Platten and Tom Flemming close behind. Mayer managed to send his Fusion machine passed Flemming at the half way point before setting out after Platten.
Behind Mayer, another driver, Sacha Maguet was also on a charge, having started down in 26th, the Frenchman was now up to 10th behind Moya and McQueen. Moya defended hard, but ultimately fell to the Frenchman before Maguet set out after McQueen’s 8th place, pulling the move out the bag with a hand full of laps to go. With just 2 laps to run, it looked like the Frenchman could have 1 more place in him. He caught up to Flemming and made his move at turn 2 on the penultimate lap to move up to 7th, making it 19 places gained.
At the front, Callum Bradshaw was untouchable. The Fusion man led from lights to flag to complete a perfect weekend by just under a second from Enzo Leveque with Guy Cunnington completing the podium for Strawberry Racing. Fontecha would have to settle for 4th on the CRG with the top 5 completed by Harry Platten’s Xenon machine.
