Norwich’s James Blyth Takes Pole Position in the latest Mini Challenge Event
James Blyth (Norwich) was in blistering pace for the 8th and 9th rounds of the Mini Challenge held at Thruxton, Hampshire at the weekend. Coming away with pole positions, points and a podium to his name, he lies 2nd in the S Class Championship, having made further inroads into the leader’s points tally.
This was James’ first visit to the ultra fast Thruxton circuit not that his qualifying performance gave any hint of a newcomer as he set fastest laps to record pole position for the weekend’s double header event. Indeed in his Advent Motorsport (Norfolk) prepared S Class Mini, James was set to be the pace setter all weekend coming away both race fastest laps.
Whilst much of the country suffered abysmal weather it thankfully stayed dry in Hampshire where James made a good start from his first Mini pole position. With fierce and extremely close racing from Arthur Forster and Carl Bradley paint was swapped and the sprint race was all action. Despite the knocks and bumps, James ably hung on and battled to a well deserved 3rd spot to claim his third podium in a row.
For the second race there was a bit of grid shuffling with the stewards issuing grid penalties to many drivers after the boisterous action in race one. Starting from 5th on the grid, James made another strong start and was again putting in the fastest laps. An exciting battle for 3rd place followed with James at its heart but disaster was to strike when one of his back tyres suffered a puncture. Some good fortune was the blow out occurred just metres from the pit entrance and James was able to dive in for the Advent Motorsport team to perform a lightening quick tyre change. With only a quarter of the race left James sped back into the action and was quickly making up places to finish the race in 10th position.
“The weekend had been perfect to the second race” said James who is backed by MiniPro.co.uk, Carlyle Finance and MiniPirate.com. “The most encouraging thing was to be the quickest car out there all weekend so it’s just disappointing that the puncture in race two stopped us translating that pace into another podium but these things happen in motor racing!”
James’ next outing is on 4-5th August at Donington Park in Leicestershire. The event will be particularly special for Mini enthusiasts as spectators arriving in a Mini will be able to get a 2 for 1 ticket offer and take there own car on track to be part of a, hopefully, world record breaking parade of Minis. Hopefully some Norfolk Mini drivers will make the journey and cheer James on whilst they are there!
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