CAS - GTC60 IV Round 6 - Castle Combe

A Championship Decided in Traffic and Tension

The last Championship race at Castle Combe No Chicanes produced the finish its season deserved: not a procession for the points leader, but 54 laps of shifting advantage, a crowded leading group and, finally, only 0.190 seconds between Adam Celárek's Chevrolet Corvette 1963 SCCA and Kasperi Sirén's Lotus Elan 26R.

Celárek began the evening with a narrow advantage in the table, but that was scarcely protection once the race settled. The Corvette led the early laps before FMG moved to the front on lap five. Thereafter the leadership passed through FMG, Flashor and Sirén before returning to Celárek on lap 34. It was a race in which the leading place seemed less a possession than a responsibility.

The decisive issue was not settled when Celárek resumed the lead. Sirén remained with him through the closing portion, the agile Elan continually close enough to ensure that the Corvette could not afford a careless lap. Celárek reached the flag first, but the margin was a mere 0.190 seconds. It was the narrowest of conclusions to a contest in which neither driver had been allowed much peace.

Celárek's Return

There was a substantial recovery behind the winner's final success. An incident at Tower Corner on lap 11 dropped Celárek from second to sixth, at a point when the front of the field was still compressed and unsettled. His race might readily have become one of damage limitation. Instead, the Czech driver returned to the argument for victory.

From lap five to lap 19, Celárek, Sirén, FMG, Flashor, meisterJaeger and Potatohedron were all contained within five seconds. The group represented a fine contrast of machinery: the powerful Corvette among Lotus Elans, FMG's Mercedes-Benz 300SL and Flashor's Sunbeam Tiger MkII. It was a crowded and changing affair, with no need for embellishment beyond the constant alteration of the order.

Celárek's route back was completed gradually. He regained sufficient ground to be ahead of Sirén by lap 16, briefly slipped behind again, and then reclaimed the advantage for good on lap 34. Sirén's presence was no formality in the remaining laps. The Finnish driver stayed within two seconds of Celárek throughout the last 25 laps, and the two leaders were still together in all but name as the chequered flag approached.

The Fight for the Last Step

Behind the leading pair, meisterJaeger and Potatohedron conducted a long and resourceful contest for third place. Their Lotus Elan 26Rs were rarely separated by much from the early stages through to lap 39, and the advantage changed hands repeatedly. Neither was able to establish a durable command over the other while the leading group remained intact.

meisterJaeger moved ahead early in the race, Potatohedron won the place before half-distance, and the positions continued to alternate during the middle portion. The German had the final say, bringing his Elan home third, with the American fourth. Their fight did not decide the Championship's first two places, but it gave the podium its proper uncertainty and prevented the race from narrowing into a private duel too soon.

FMG, whose 300SL had headed the field from lap five until lap 21, ultimately finished fifth. The early leader had been central to the shape of the race, keeping the principal runners bunched before Flashor briefly took charge and Sirén then assumed the lead. Those changes gave Celárek's eventual return a greater weight than a simple run at the front could have carried.

The Final Reckoning

The result gave Celárek his third consecutive Championship victory and confirmed him as champion on 197 points. Sirén, after pressing him to the final fraction of a second at Castle Combe No Chicanes, takes second in the Championship on 188. meisterJaeger, whose third place in the race was hard earned, completes the season's top three with 162 points.

Celárek also set the fastest lap, a 1:06.320, an apt indication that the Corvette's victory had been built not merely on survival in a volatile race but on the pace to return after its setback. Yet it was the finish, rather than the lap time, that defined the evening. Sirén had made the champion defend every last yard.