Castlerock’s Marty Nutt enjoyed another superb weekend of racing at Brands Hatch, coming away with not only a win and a second place in the two Ducati 848 Challenge races, but also the Championship lead.
 
Riding the Ducati Coventry/JHP machine, the weekend got underway in slightly different fashion to normal with a race on the Friday evening, this time on the shorter Indy circuit but a superb race saw Marty take his second win of the season, taking over the lead after season-long rival Jonathan Railton crashed out at two thirds race distance, the result allowing him to close to within three points of the Championship lead.
 
The action then shifted to the 2.6-mile GP circuit for Sunday’s race and Marty completed the first lap in fourth place, just behind Leon Morris, Mike Edwards and Dennis Hobbs. Moving up to third a lap later, Marty’s progress was then checked with a huge slide through Sheene Curve, one he was lucky to escape. Quickly regrouping though, he maintained his third position over the next few laps before taking over second from Edwards on the fourth lap.
 
A lap later, he took over the lead and despite coming intense pressure from Morris and Edwards it looked like he would hold on and complete an excellent double. However, Morris had other ideas and, combined with another slide for Marty, he pushed him back to second on the seventh lap, the duo crossing the line in that order. With Railton behind him in third though, the results also mean that Marty has now taken over at the top of the Championship table with 162 points to Railton’s 161.
 
Speaking later, a delighted Marty said; “It’s been a really good weekend for me and to take over the Championship lead has been the icing on the cake. For Friday’s race, I opted to go with used tyres to save two new ones for Sunday and when Jonathan took the lead I did everything to close the gap. I pushed hard but it was a bit of a stalemate so I thought we’d have to settle for second only to see him slide off. I knew I had a good gap to second place so I just concentrated on bringing the bike home.”
 
“Sunday’s race could have been similar but I had two huge slides, one on the second lap at Sheene Curve and one near the end at Surtees and I thought I was gone on both occasions! Jonathan then started to close in and I got a bit flustered, hitting a false neutral on the last lap and running wide going onto the back straight so I was very pleased to come home in second. The results have been very pleasing this weekend so we can now head to the break in a real good frame of mind.”
 
Marty now has a three-week break before the next round, with the Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire hosting two more races on August 9-11.
 
Photo courtesy of Glynne Lewis