The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Spalding speedster Andy Molsom had to settle for second place in the Caterham Graduates Championship after a thrilling finale to the season at Silverstone.
Molsom took two second place finishes at the Northamptonshire circuit, finishing behind series champion Toby Briant on both occasions.
The South Holland pace ace, who finished eight points behind Briant in the overall standings, admits that he is now considering his Caterham future after 14 years of racing.
Molsom said: “Rockey Racing did a great job preparing the car, and sorting the fuel pressure regulator that caused the problems at Snetterton.
“The car was faultless all weekend. It was a great weekend to finish the season. Close racing with no contact, and challenging for the win in both races.
“It is going to be a long winter, but after 14 years owning my Caterham, maybe I need a change for next season.”
Molsom started race one 12th on the road (third in class) and, after a great start, he had made his way through to the top of his class and fourth on the road.
A race-long battle then commenced between Toby Briant, Barry White and Molsom for the class lead, with positions being swapped. That changed when lapping the slower Classics class, as
Molsom couldn’t get past the class leader until after Stowe corner, which immediately gave Briant a two-second advantage.
With White constantly looking for a way past, Molsom was chasing Briant while defending for his life.
Briant was caught by the last lap, but the South Holland ace wasn’t able to get past.
Still, he held onto second place, with Briant taking the win and the Championship by just over a second.
Molsom started race two in 13th place, while Briant and White started in tenth and seveth on the grid among the Mega-Graduate Caterhams.
The Spalding race again had a great start, making a few places on the first lap.
By the end of lap two he was behind Briant and chasing hard.
But both Briant and White made good starts, with the latter leading the class for the first five laps.
However, lap six saw Briant take the lead and Molsom made his way into second on the road.
By lap ten, the charging Molsom overtook Briant and a Mega-Graduate into Village corner, taking the class lead and fourth on the road, just 3.3 seconds behind the overall leader.
He then began chasing and catching the Mega-Graduate leaders, maintaining the class lead until the last lap.
But there was a sting in the tail as Molsom, who was defending from Briant on the inside into Vale, left the door open on the inside into Club and his rvial slipped past to take the chequered flag by the narrowest of margins.
Next month sees the Championship Awards Night, where ex-F1 driver and F2 champion Geoff Lees will be handing out the trophies at the Brooklands Museum in Surrey.
