The former Minimax kart champion in only his first season in car racing, bids to become the youngest ever winner of the T-Cars Championship and simply needs to finish in the top six in the final two rounds at Rockingham in a months time to do so. In yesterday’s penultimate rounds, Adrian struggled to find the form that has seen him take six wins from nine rounds, severe understeer hampering his progress. Nevertheless, in both races, he drove sensibly, with a maturity that belied his relative inexperience to take fourth, and fifth place finishes.
The Sackville School pupil qualified eighth for the two races and in the first race, a now customary lightening start saw him up to fourth, when the race was prematurely halted after three laps. With the race restarted over nine minutes and the grid positions determined by the finishing positions after two laps, Adrian lined up fourth and at the lights, catapulted off the line and into the lead into the first corner.
With the handling problems not improved, he eventually went on to record fourth at the flag, after enjoying a race-long battle with triple race-winner Jack Timpany to pick up 15 valuable championship points. Race two again had Adrian eighth and another great start moved him up to fifth, where he wisely elected to stay, determined to take another useful haul of points as the season nears its final event.
"I didn’t get a very good start in race two, I didn’t get enough heat in the tyres and managed to hold Laddiman round the outside and kept with them for about half the race but then my car went off half-way round. The changes we made worked early on but then I started losing time to everyone. So I was just looking in my mirrors and making sure they didn’t try and catch me. I was driving very much for the championship now and head into the final rounds at Rockingham feeling quite confident."
Adrian’s BRSCC T-Cars campaign concludes with the final double-header rounds at Rockingham Motor Speedway, in Northamptonshire on October 8/9.
Results of race 1 – 9 minutes (10 laps)
| 1. |
Ryan Borthwick |
9:14.101 |
| 2. |
James Williams |
9:14.304 |
| 3. |
Jack Timpany |
9:17.513 |
| 4. |
Adrian Quaife Hobbs |
9:18.272 |
| 5. |
Alex MacDowall |
9:19.623 |
| 6. |
Daniel Laddiman |
9:19.852 |
DNF:
Fastest lap:
| |
Borthwick |
54.314sec 89.48mph 144.00kph |
Results of race 2 – 20 minutes (17 laps)
| 1. |
James Williams |
15:41.977 |
| 2. |
Jack Timpany |
15:44.090 |
| 3. |
Max Chilton |
15:44.390 |
| 4. |
Ryan Borthwick |
15:44.550 |
| 5. |
Adrian Quaife Hobbs |
15:45.630 |
| 6. |
Daniel Laddiman |
15:49.295 |
Fastest lap:
| |
Williams |
54:246sec 89.59mph 144.18kph |
Championship points after 16 rounds
| 1. |
Quaife Hobbs |
256 |
| 2. |
Williams |
255 |
| 3. |
Timpany |
236 |
| 4. |
Borthwick |
226 |
| 5. |
Laddiman |
216 |
| 6. |
Lammas |
198 |
Adrian Quaife Hobbs has one hand on the 2005 BRSCC T-Cars Championship trophy after a solid performance at Mallory Park, Leicestershire yesterday. The 14 year-old from Tonbridge, Kent has strengthened his lead at the head of the points table, which although is down to one point, when dropped scores come into play, has been extended to 15.
