Ryan Cunningham expects “a tough time” from the opposition as he bids to stay on top of both the Racing Hondas Championship’s Class C and outright standings at Brands Hatch this Sunday.
The Motion Motorsport driver made it five class victories out of six races with a pair of wins last time out at Cadwell Park.
In fact, two positions and two fastest race laps in class meant the 35-year-old from Wolverhampton achieved a maximum score at the Lincolnshire circuit.
As a result, Cunningham is now 36 points ahead of any of his Class C rivals (that’s equivalent to more than two wins) and 14 clear of nearest outright championship challenger, Class A leader Dan Brown.
Only once has he been beaten so far in 2024, by Sam Linssner in one of Anglesey’s opening rounds.
“The results are a reward for the testing with Motion in the winter and getting the car where I wanted it, so I could push from the opening round,” says Cunningham.
“Anglesey was obviously very good and Sam and I had a fun battle but I had a brush with another car so had to nurse it to second.
“At Cadwell I was perhaps a bit lucky with the grid as there were some Class B cars in between me and the other C runners.
“But I think the signs are there, from Anglesey and Cadwell, that it could be a lot closer at Brands.
“It’s a circuit both Sam and David (Lawrence) know and David was close to me on times in qualifying at Cadwell – it could have been a couple of tight races with him had his engine not failed.
“Spencer (Fortag) always seem to be up there as well so I predict it will be quite wide open at Brands – I’m expecting a tough time from them!”
Cunningham knows that finding a clear lap in qualifying – being contested by 30-plus cars on Brands’s short Indy circuit – will be crucial. So, too, working some of the Class B field.
“It’ll be a very busy track – I was lucky at Cadwell to find a clear lap right at the end and Brands Indy is much shorter.
“Being at the front of Class C inevitably means we sometimes get in among some of the Class B or even Class A cars, but everybody has been really clean – there’s not been anything silly.
“I really like the grid, the community and the wider Time Attack scene.
“Having done a couple of rounds last year, I was always going to be on the Racing Hondas grid – even before Tegiwa announced it was covering the registration fees for everyone. They’ve also done a good job keeping it fair for everyone with the power-to-weight ratio of the cars which is good for everyone.”