TWO WINS FOR DAVIES AT SPA

Mark Davies continued his tremendous season in the Texaco Havoline Ginetta Championship by winning two of the three races at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium, over the weekend and secured the inaugural Ginetta G20 Eurocup Trophy as well.

Davies powered into the lead of the opening race but was passed by former champion Matt Nicoll-Jones and Andrew Smith on lap two. MN-J, in his first race of the season, was in customary dominant fashion and he soon pulled out a gap of five seconds over the pack, while Davies had a spin at the fast, downhill left-hander of Pouhon on lap three. That allowed Andrew Smith and Matt Bell up into second and third and, working together, they pulled back onto the tail of the leader.  Starting the last lap, Smith was ahead but Bell and Nicoll-Jones were chasing hard. Benefitting from a massive tow, MN-J surged past to retake the lead coming out of Eau Rouge. Bell tried to repass later in the lap but contact was made with both cars spinning. That gifted the win to Smith ahead of Dominic Pettit and Swedish Champion Ola Nilsson in third place. Fourth fell to Sean Huyton ahead of Bell and Nicoll-Jones, while a second spin from newly-crowned champion Davies consigned him to 12^th place.

 Race two was run on a wet track and was led by Davies into La Source on the opening lap. Smith ran second ahead of Bell, while Pettit and Freddie Hetherington were both early casualties with mechanical gremlins, Cheshire driver Hetherington not even making it past the green flag lap. Davies built a handy lead as Nilsson overtook Bell for second place at La Source. Nicoll-Jones worked his way up to fourth by lap five but was attacked by Mats Nilsson. MN-J just held onto fourth behind Davies, Smith and Ola Nilsson.

Race three was also wet and lost Andy Smith on the green flag lap. Davies made a break and built a cushion over Bell and Ola Nilsson but Ola sneaked past Bell on lap four for second place on the run from Blanchimont to the Bus Stop chicane. Behind them, Nicoll-Jones and Mats Nilsson continued their race one duel with the Swede defeated once more. The final order was Davies, Ola Nilsson, Bell, MN-J and Mats Nilsson, while the combined results secured the Eurocup Trophy for Davies with Ola Nilsson taking second and Matt Bell third. Rookie Bell was delighted to have finished behind the British and Swedish champions after just a part season of racing.