2025 Championship Round 1 Cadwell Park with NINEMEISTER
Welcome to a New Season!
And we are off! Yes, we have started another great season of speed events with our first round at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire which took place on Saturday 29th March.
It was quite a long haul from Wilson towers to the Cadwell circuit, around 4 hours allowing for a comfort break and a few detours for roadworks along the way. To be honest I was more than glad to have arrived when the circuit cafe was open as it meant that I could repair the damage done by such a long drive with fried bread and beans plus sausage and egg and a hot tea. Yes, the body is still a temple! Anyway, enough of me and my pre-race health regime! What about the circuit I hear you ask?
Well, Cadwell is a very pretty circuit set in a natural bowl and offering several
elevation changes, a wooded section with tricky bends and a couple of very quick
straights leading to testing braking into sweeping corners. So, it’s a driver’s circuit and one that rewards but can also hurt!
The weather as I arrived was cold, sunny and clear, but the cold air was the most
obvious. While such conditions help engines with air that's denser for power this
is balanced against the lower grip levels possible when tires are operating outside their ideal temperature range.
Our group was 15 strong, a great turnout for the first event of the year, and within it we had drivers using different res, new cars and several new drivers.
David Dyson was now driving a very purposeful GT4RS while Karl Lupton, still using his 944S2 Supercharged car but now on road legal tires was welcomed back after a year away. New drivers, Russell Lloyd and Eoin Card chatted to the regulars, and I was full of expectation as the cars, an impressive group to see, lined up for the practice run.
Practice
In P1 (the 360+hp class) Wayne Helme with his 718 GT4 put in a solid first run getting
to grips with the testing layout while David Dyson and his GT4RS were quickly on the pace and managed the fastest practice me of all of 94.32 seconds. This was with 2% added due to David's car having PDK (Any cars running PDK or similar have 2% added to times due to the performance advantage).
Alongside the experienced P2 (280-360hp) runners of Ian Wadsworth and Karl Lupton we had Russell Lloyd joining us for his first event. Russell showed he has great potential from the off with a swift practice me of 107.88 seconds in his Boxster S. Karl Lupton was quickest in P2 practice with a me of 104.87seconds, just a little ahead of Ian Wadsworth in the 3.0 911 SCRS at 105.09 seconds.
In P3 (220-280hp) we had five cars taking part. Eoin Card, our other new driver wisely took his time on this his first ever run but was still moving along nicely in his road legal 987 Cayman. Chris Milne was quick in his road going Boxster with a first run time of 104.12 seconds but it was Jon Baldock in his modified Boxster that headed up the P3 practice times with great run of 99.57 seconds. Chasing him hard was Geraint Evans in the Carrera 3.0 911 who ended practice with a me of 100.97 seconds.
Six cars from the P4 class (up to 220hp) were taking part. The quickest, quicker than
the modified cars in practice was Simon Cristol who was share driving with his Father Ian in their Boxster. Simon managed a first run of the day in just 100.29 seconds, a brilliant first run and several seconds ahead of the field. Jake Cartwright was a couple of seconds behind in his modified Boxster and Stephen Jory, the reigning Champion in a 944S2 a little behind Jake as the practice session ended and the first scoring timed runs lay ahead.
Scoring Runs
Three scoring runs were to be on offer, with the first before lunch and with the
practice runs fresh in their minds the drivers headed off knowing that errors now
would cost valuable points!
The weather was much as it had been in the morning, in other words really chilly! However, it was dry and the sun (when out of the wind!) did offer some welcome warmth which may have given a li le more grip as the day progressed.
It’s always a good sign when a driver makes incremental improvements during the various runs. It's an indication that reflecting on what is going on during the runs is enabling positive changes. Wayne Helme did just that and across the three runs he improved on every run to a best of 102.68 seconds to end the day second in the P1 Class. However, the experience of David Dyson and the capability of his GT4RS was put to maximum use across several runs in the low Ninety seconds, his best being a very impressive 91.72 seconds (with the 2% PDK penalty added) and in so doing he won the P1 Class.
The three P2 runners all worked through their times, honing away the seconds. Ian
Wadsworth found himself going in the wrong direction in his first scoring run with a
spin. Russell Lloyd reduced his me by several seconds to record a 102.60 to take third in P2 in his first event, well done Russell!
After the second scoring run there was just a couple of tenths between Karl Lupton
and Ian Wadsworth who shook off the earlier spin to manage a great 99.16 second
me. Karl was just a little quicker that Ian going into the third and final scoring run but
then found something extra and was several seconds quicker at the end of the day
with the second quickest me of all the Porsche cars, a 96.47 second me to take the
P2 win. Karl was wondering how the car might feel after swapping slicks for road legal tyres, clearly it felt quick!
In P3 Eoin Card was another driver steadily improving. That said, he made a big leap from 116.48 seconds in practice to the 105 second bracket on his first scoring run in P3 and then went on to record a best of 103.66, another driver to watch in future! Chris Milne in the Boxster S was consistently quick and ended the event with a third scoring run best me of 98.55 seconds, a little over a second quicker than Geraint Evans to take a well-deserved third place in P3. You can rely on Graham Rose to build to a great last run time in his supercharged 924S. Graham went from 100.54 seconds to just 97.53 to take second in P3. However, it was Jon Baldock in his Boxster who with two 97 second runs was clearly on top form. He went on to the class win with his third and final run of 96.96 seconds, the third fastest of any Porsche on the day. Jon on this form looks like another championship challenger!
And so on to the remaining class, P4. Simon Cristol couldn't improve on his practice me but ended the day with a best scoring run of just 100.68 seconds in the standard road legal Boxster, some great driving and third quickest in class. A technical issue meant that Jake Cartwright wasn't able to take his third run but nonetheless he managed an impressive best of 100.23 seconds to end the day a well-deserved 2nd in class. Jake had been battling some challenging electrical problems, so it was great to see him overcome those and grab the second-place award.
Stephen Jory isn't the overall Champion by mistake, and he showed his genuine speed again at the Cadwell circuit by scoring a very rapid best me of 98.36 seconds to take the P4 class win and stake his own early claim to top title in 2025!
So, there we have it, an excellent start to the season with really quick driving, very
close times, new drivers impressing and everyone enjoying themselves at a great, if
cold, venue!!
Cadwell Results Here
Championship points Here
Next Rounds
Our next events are Curborough on April 19th and Mallory Park on April 26th, both
exciting sprints, see you there?
Simon Wilson
Championship Coordinator
Porsche Club GB