MG LIVE RACE REORT ROUNDS 5 & 6

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MG Cup shared the track with Cockshoot Cup, and 2019 MG Cup champion Richard Buckley (pictured above) continued his 100% record in Class C this year, taking both Silverstone wins outright and making it six class wins from six for him this season.

In both races though he had a close and entertaining battle for first overall with fellow Rover 220 Tomcat Turbo runner Matt Simpson (also pictured), who was back in MG Cup for this event having switched to MG Metro Cup this season.

Simpson got pole for the first race and led. Then Buckley got by on the second tour but Simpson resumed the lead when the order was put back a lap after two cars off at Copse resulted in an early red flag. Simpson again led from the restart and the pair again had a frenzied battle, but Buckley made his move for first permanent after a couple of laps and won by 3.4s, and got Driver of the Race with it.

Fergus Campbell in his ZR 170 won the Class B contest. Campbell had the classes’ chief two championship protagonists Ian Boulton and Iain Dowler close behind, and both of them left the track in their battle on the last lap. Dowler still managed to finish second and Boulton third. Marcus Short continued to dominate Class A with another clear win in his Rover 216 GTi.

Buckley had pole for race two, but Simpson again got ahead of him at the start. The duo again diced closely and Buckley got ahead on acceleration exiting Luffield at the end of the second lap, and eventually beat Simpson home by just under two seconds.

Campbell in Class B this time retired early with an engine failure, having replaced the block between races after developing a problem in race one. Boulton this time won the class, edging clear of Dowler, and Boulton moreover got third place overall from Dave Nixon on the last lap. This all got him Driver of the Race too. Short won again in Class A.

Buckley said: “Pretty good, a little bit difficult with the mixed grid, made it a little bit tricky, but two really good races.

“Racing Matt [was] great fun, nice and close, he’ll get me somewhere, I’ll get him. Came out with two wins, and Driver of the Race as well. I love getting Driver of the Race, because that means you’ve entertained.

“They’re [the Tomcat] pretty fast cars and Matt is really good to race against. We can go so close, mirror to mirror, almost touching each other, never exchange paint.”

Simpson similarly enjoyed his weekend: “It started with qualifying, Rich nicked pole off me on his last lap but I was in front of him so I had one last lap and managed to put in a good time and get it on pole.

“I managed to lead the [first] race, I just run out of tyres, I couldn’t find front-end grip all weekend. Buckley just had a little bit more front-end grip than me. I think I kept him honest.

“Second race, better place to start, I’m already on the inside line going in [to Copse] and backed him up a little bit. Then just try and go, go, go, get past as many Cockshoot cars as I could, and hope that they hold him up. But again ran out of tyres, especially through Brooklands-Luffield complex, and he outdragged me down the straight.

“The Metro Cup don’t run here, although they’ve got some guys that have run it just for fun, so I had always planned to do MG Live! in the Tomcat. It’s suited to the circuit, so it’s got to be used! And when Richard said he was going to do it as well I was like brilliant, got to go out and have a battle with him.”