The penultimate race of the 2022 TCR UK Touring Car Championship witnessed Chris Smiley take his second year of the year as he took a controlled drive in what were very difficult racing conditions at Snetterton, as Isaac Smith powered his way forward to make sure that the title fight would go to the last round.
The race began behind the Safety Car as the rain came down harder at the Norfolk venue, with the grid running ins single file whilst getting the cars ready to go racing, which happened on the second lap of the race. Adam Shepherd, due to start from eighth on the grid, joined the race one lap down after starting form the pitlane whilst Scott Sumpton did not start.
As racing resumed on the second lap, Smiley began to work on building a lead out front ahead of Bradley Hutchison in the Bond It with MPH Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR second ahead of Bradley Kent in his Essex and Kent Motorsport Hyundai i30 N TCR and Isaac Smith in his Race Car Consultants Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR who was already looking to make moves forward in the race.
Already working with a car he has become familiar with, Lewis Kent was able to get ahead of Bruce Winfield for by the end of the second lap, with he order being Smiley, Bradley Kent second after passing Hutchison, Smith, Callum Newsham, Winfield, Lewis Kent, Jonathon Beeson in the Paul Sheard Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR, Andy Wilmot in his now Area Motorsport Hyundai i30 N TCR and Matt Wilson in the JWB Motorsport CUPRA Leon Competición TCR.
The conditions would catch out many drivers during the the 25 minute race, with Bradley Kent being the first to go wide at the Bombhole and re-joining in fourth spot, allowing Smith up to third place and to begin pursuing Hutchison for second place. After six laps of giving his best effort in the repaired Hyundai, Adam Shepherd pulled and retired the car, ending his hopes of title glory for the year.
Two laps later, Bradley Kent would pull off the track to retire, leaving the order as Smiley, Hutchison with Smith closing, Newsham, Winfield, now back ahead of Lewis Kent as Jac Constable and Alex Ley made their way from the back of the grid into the top ten ahead of Russell Joyce in his Power Maxed Racing CUPRA TCR.
Isaac Smith began his attack on Bradley Hutchison in the latter stages of the race, pulling off a brave pass on the Audi driver to go ahead as they both completed the lap.
As Chris Smiley took his second win of the year, Smith claimed second place and also took the fastest lap to close the gap to the Honda driver to eight points ahead of the final race of the year, with Hutchison completing the podium. Callum Newsham took fourth place ahead of Jac constable, who started in 17th place on the grid.
Bruce Winfield brought his Area Motorsport Hyundai home in sixth place ahead of Lewis Kent in seventh as Alex Ley, Darelle Wilson in the DW Racing Vauxhall Astra TCR and Matthew Wilson completed the top ten. Jonathon Beeson was classified in eleventh place ahead of the Goodyear Trophy winner for race one, Andy Wilmot, with Russell Joyce penalised three places in a post race penalty, after spinning Wilmot earlier in the race.
Mark Havers (CUPRA), Bradley Kent (Hyundai), George Jaxon (CUPRA) and Adam Shepherd (Hyundai) did not finish the race.
