Tag Archives: Andrew Tibbs

2016 Snetterton Race Report

2016 K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship, Rounds 7 & 8

Words: Josh Barrett
Featured Photo Credit SJN Photography

The fourth meeting of the 2016 K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship was affected by rain with a sodden track on Saturday and light drizzle on Sunday catching drivers out.

Round 8

A very slow start for pole man Patrick Fletcher dropped him to sixth before he’d even entered the first corner.  That allowed championship rival James Bark to head the field, although he was hit by a late-braking George Williams.  Bark held a big slide and continued to lead.  Williams continued to have an eventful race with some slides and a spin at Coram before finishing fifth.

Bark held off a charging Phil Wright to win.  The recovering Fletcher came third, just a couple of seconds behind the winner.  Andrew Tibbs grabbed fourth with Williams and Nick Garner behind.  Garner passed Scott Sharp on lap two, the latter fell down the field to 12th after being muscled off the circuit at Oggies.

Round 9

Fletcher and Bark were well clear of anybody else in race two after Wright retired with an engine issue. The pair ran nose-to-tail for the majority. With drizzle falling for the last couple of laps both ran wide thanks to slides but Fletcher held on – giving the two main championship rivals a win a piece in Norfolk.

A crazy battle occurred behind. Williams was the first victim as he went off the track at Hamilton into retirement.  Don De Graaff duly moved from sixth to third with Scott Sharp chasing.  Sharp lost out to Nick Passmore at Brundle on lap three with Passmore making a great move around the outside.

Sharp didn’t fancy staying fifth for long so reversed the positions at Montreal on the following lap.  Both were quickly made aware of Tibbs – who had started 11th.  By the end of the sixth lap he had passed them both.  He challenged De Graaff into Riches but the ever greasier surface caught him out.  The pair made contact with a pair of retirements being the unfortunate consequence.

Sharp came through to claim his first Clio podium with Trevor Gregory chasing him to the flag.  Passmore had dropped back, which helped to gift Nick Garner and Martin Ward a top six finish.  Simon Donoghue was also involved in the battle for third and claimed a career best finish of seventh.

The next outing for the 2016 K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship is at Anglesey on 16th/17th July 2016.

Original content from 750 Motor Club

2015 Cadwell Race Report

The K-Tec Racing Clio 182s bought a 25 car grid to the Lincolnshire Wolds for rounds 5 & 6 of the championship.  In qualifying James Bark exploited his local knowledge to secure pole, some 0.7 seconds faster than Matt Digby.  The rest of the frontrunners were more evenly matched with Phillip Wright, Patrick Fletcher and fellow ex-Stock Hatch driver Nick Carter split by a scant 0.03 seconds.

Round 5

Unusually for the Clio 182 Championship, the race was a largely processional affair, Bark lead throughout extending the gap over Matt Digby to three seconds by the end of the race.  Fletcher completed the podium having taken third place from Phillip Wright on the opening lap.

Round 6

Race two saw Bark repeat his dominance, the Alford driver finishing over two seconds ahead of Patrick Fletcher who jumped Matt Digby in the opening stages of the race.  Pete Morgan enjoyed his best race of the year rising to fourth place having started sixth.  Andrew Tibbs who had been leading the championship on arrival at Cadwell struggled once again finishing 14 seconds down on the race winner in sixth behind the ever consistent Wright.

Original content from 750 Motor Club

Cadwell Photo: Big Hairpin Photography

Rounds 5 /6 of K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship from Cadwell.

NB : all images are copyrighted protected and must not be used without written permission from Big Hairpin Photography.

Croft Race Report

The K‐Tec Racing Clio 182s bought a strong 27 car field to North Yorkshire for rounds 3 & 4 of the championship, after a busy 15 minute practice session held in bright sunshine, the top 10 were covered by less than 2 seconds with Patrick Fletcher taking pole position by half a second from Andrew Tibbs.  Former TOCA package star (in Ginetta Juniors and Clio 197s) Aaron Williamson was next up in a one off outing whilst George Williams took a career best fourth.

Round 3

In race one, Fletcher was in dominant form taking a comfortable lights‐to‐flag victory after making an early break from the squabbling pack. After losing out at the start Andrew Tibbs snatched second on lap five and was able to hold off series newcomer Williamson for the rest of the race.  Matt Digby, the ever consistent Phillip Wright and Andrew Harding completed the top 6.  George Williams lost out after an early race incident eventually finishing well down in the pack.

Round 4

In the second encounter Tibbs beat Fletcher off of the line but was never able to establish a gap.  Williamson moved ahead of Fletcher on lap seven to challenge for the lead but Tibbs produced a fabulous defensive drive to take the win by a scant quarter of a second.  Fletcher kept hold of third from Matt Digby with Brands winner James Bark and Phillip Wright trailing by a further couple of seconds.  Williams had some recompense for his race one troubles,
recovering to finish seventh.

Original content from 750 Motor Club.

Croft Photo: Michael Barrett

Rounds 3 / 4 of K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Championship from Croft.

NB : all images are copyrighted protected and must not be used without written permission from Michael Barrett.

Brands Hatch Race Report

Brands Hatch hosted the second 750 Motor Club meeting of the year and the paddock was full to bursting with eager competitors. All 11 categories racing over the course of the weekend boasted a healthy grid with three formulas needing to race in groups due to being over Brands’ grid capacity.

Round 1

The K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Series became a championship for the first time in 2015, and of the 34 cars that came to Kent, 20 were separated by a mighty impressive 1.75 seconds in qualifying.  Pole man Matt Digby led the early stages of the opening encounter but fellow ex-Stock Hatchers Patrick Fletcher and Andrew Tibbs (in his first Clio race) dived through with a great move at Paddock Hill Bend on the sixth lap.  Fletcher broke away through traffic to take the victory with Tibbs and Digby chasing.  James Bark, moving over from Golfs, took fourth after a race long scrap with Jeff Humphries.

Round 2

Round two was greeted with damp conditions and a very slippery circuit.  Fletcher, starting from pole this time, couldn’t find any grip off the line and fell immediately to fifth with Digby heading Humphries at the front.  Bark was a man on a mission though and was quickest to get to grips with the conditions perfectly.  He passed Humphries on the second lap and chased down Digby.  The leader controlled a big slide at half-distance at Clearways while Bark had a trip through the gravel dropping him back to fourth.
It only took Bark another three laps to get back to second and as Digby got stuck in traffic through a yellow flag zone the pair were back together.  The Clio newcomer had a better run out of Clearways on the final lap and just pipped Digby across the line.  The margin was so small between the pair that race control had to revert to a photo for clarification.  Meanwhile, Tibbs had passed Humphries behind to take third with Fletcher in fifth.

Original content from 750 Motor Club and available here.