Khera and Cavers dominate; Ambrose new Coppa Shell Champion

The final race of the 2022 Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli UK saw the new Trofeo Pirelli Champion Lucky Khera (Graypaul Birmingham) lead the pack from flag to flag; in Coppa Shell, rookie racer Jason Ambrose (Dick Lovett Swindon), took second place to win the Championship in his first ever year of racing.

Trofeo Pirelli. Even with the Championship title secured in Race 1, Khera kept the pace up in Qualifying 2, setting the fastest lap time of the day to take pole position for Race 2. Behind him, eyes were on H. Sikkens (H.R. Owen London) and Andrew Morrow (Charles Hurst), who came into the session on equal points and joint second place. Sikkens suffered technical challenges and qualifying in fifth place. Morrow was displaced to third position by returning driver John Dhillon (Graypaul Nottingham), who had qualified in second place.

Race 2 started as a clean affair, with all cars making it to the chequered flag, led from start to finish by series champion Khera. Dhillon stayed with the leader for the first half of the race but with 12 minutes of the race remaining, Morrow managed to take the inside line to slip through into second place, his position in both race and championship. 

Also battling for championship points was Sikkens; starting in fifth position, he worked his Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo hard to climb two positions but he couldn’t catch his championship rival Morrow, who would cross the line in second place and accumulate 115 points for a second place championship finish.

There was last minute excitement on track further down the field as Sikkens had a last lap battle with Faisal Al-Faisal (H.R. Owen London) for the final place on the podium. Both were behind Dhillon on track, but two time penalties for track limits demoted Dhillon to fifth place. This left Al-Faisal and Sikkens fighting for third, with the pair door-to-door in the final laps. Sikkens would get the pace on Al-Faisal to cross the line ahead of him but a late time penalty for track limits would demote him to a fourth place finish, giving Al-Faisal his first podium of the 2022 series.   

Coppa Shell. In only his fourth qualifying session of the season, Carl Cavers (Graypaul Nottingham) achieved his second pole of the weekend with a time of 2:04.683. Behind him was championship leader Ambrose, followed by Paul Simmerson (Graypaul Birmingham). Paul Rogers (JCT600 Brooklands), who was sitting in second place in the championship, qualified in sixth position, ending his session early to preserve tyres for the race. 

Having suffered damage in Race 1, when multiple cars came together at the start of the race, Rogers was hoping for a repeat event and to capitalise by passing the pack early on. At the front of the grid, Cavers carved out a commanding lead, finishing the race with a 30 second lead over championship leader Ambrose. Having only joined the series in Round 4, Cavers was not able to accumulate enough points to challenge the championship leaders.

Ambrose drove a clean race and, with Cavers ahead, Simmerson 2 seconds behind and championship rival Rogers 9 seconds behind, he could afford to focus on his driving and reaching the finish line. Ambrose took the second step on the podium for Race 2, where he would be crowned the 2022 Coppa Shell UK Champion. In third place, with his fifth podium finish of the season, was Simmerson. 

Standings. In Trofeo Pirelli, Khera has accumulated 145 points to take the 2022 Championship Title. Morrow finished the season in second place, with 115 points and Sikkens third with 112 points.

In Coppa Shell, Ambrose accumulated 131 points to take the 2022 Championship Title in his first season of racing. Rogers finished the season in second place, with 116 points and Simmerson third with 106 points.

Graypaul Birmingham took the Ferrari Challenge Coppa Dealer title, with 241 points. H.R. Owen London finished the season in second place with 173 points and Dick Lovett Swindon in third with 126 points.