LOWER UP ON THE TOP STEP TWICE
2022 is a big year for all drivers graduating up from the Academy championships into the Caterham Roadsport series for their second year of racing. This is a season for all drivers involved to take the lessons learned from 2021 and put them into practice to develop further throughout their year as sophomores. With both of last year’s champions on track against each other in points paying competition for the first time, there’s always an air of anticipation.
Green Group champion Geoff Newman battled again with the man he’d stolen the title from at the final rounds, Freddie Chiddicks, through the first few laps, the pair switching places on more than one occasion, while behind them a number of drivers were involved in incidents further back in the pack. All of this saw the safety car called, but as it headed on track on the Cooper straight, William James misjudged the cars in front braking to slow down and hit the back of Newman’s car as a result, damaging his front end. Eventually, the race was red flagged to clear the stricken cars, and on the restart the safety car was thrown again just moments in for more cars off at Paddock Hill Bend. When racing did restart again until the end, Newman managed to hold the lead but came under late pressure again from Lower, but even so he was unshaken as he took victory – on the road, at least. A 10 second penalty for a false start pushed Newman down to 9th in the result, giving Lower the win ahead of William James and Paul Woodman, who was delighted with his first podium finish.
A four-car incident at Paddock at the start of Race 2 forced another early red flag to restart proceedings, but Lower made the most of pole to head Woodman at the second getaway, but Woodman would be pushed down the order after a late braking William James made contact with him at Druids, lightly damaging both cars. Meanwhile, Lower was a cut above everyone else this time, keeping Chiddicks and Benja Hedley at arm’s length to comfortably clinch the win – two victories that kicks off his 2022 season perfectly.
