The inaugural event in the new GPVWC Megane Trophy, held on the Ahvenisto track in Finland, produced two intense races rich in overtaking maneuvres, off-track shunts and heated battles. Liam Hatchell proved just how competitive he can be in this series by clinching pole position and a fine win in the 30-minute feature race, while Joe Consiglio, back at the wheel after his Superleague triumph, emerged winner in the 20-minute sprint race.
Despite a technical, narrow and - at least in certain parts - downright tricky circuit, all the 18 participating drivers brought on a display of fair driving, a further proof of the constant improvement of quality within the GPVWC.
In Race 1, Hatchell retained the lead at the start, but a later error put him behind of Consiglio before a battle for P1 ensued. Turn 1 on lap 16 put an end to the struggle, however, with the two drivers colliding in a purely racing accident: the Look Alert driver went on unscathed, while Consiglio lost contact enough to leave his rival's maiden win unchallenged. Debutant Tom Parker had a solid performance to clinch third for Triple-Double Engineering in front of Hatchell's team-mate Adam Rouse.
Race 2 saw inverted grids, with the leaders from the previous race needing something special to battle their way through the field in just 20 minutes. The start was chaotic, due to a small gearbox glitch leaving Mike Phillis's car stranded right in the middle of the grid and causing massive displays of evasive action from the other drivers. Mark Stanton, brilliant in qualifying but out on lap 1 in the Feature race, had the advantage of a front start and quickly took the lead, as behind him Consiglio, Hatchell and the other front-runners faced increasing traffic. The Maltese Constant Racing driver fared better than anyone else in the pack, and was able to close his gap to team-mate Stanton just as the latter did a mistake, relinquishing the lead. The English driver, however, was able to mantain a 4 second cushion over Hatchell and close the race in 2nd position.
The results of the first two successful GPVWC Megane Trophy races leave Joe Consiglio on top of the Drivers' Championship, one mere point in front of Liam Hatchell and 12 ahead of Tom Parker. In the Team standings, Look Alert and Constant Racing share the top spot, comfortably ahead of Nordsjoen Racing.
The GPVWC Master Series will return next week at the Russian track of Domodedovo, near Moscow.