The latest rounds of the 2011 Kumho tyres BMW championship took place at Rockingham near Corby.The circuit is famous for the banking around the outside of the circuit and also features tight twisty sections once the cars come infield from the banking.The circuit measures 1.94 miles in length.

With qualifying and 2 races all in one day the question on all of the drivers minds was could Garrie Whittaker keep up his 100% win record this season. A couple of drivers making appearances for the 1st time this year were Thomas Knight ( E36 M3) and Richard Marsh (E36 M3).

Twenty three cars took to the track for the qualifying session which was made up of 5 class A,3 class B,2 class C,12 class D and 1 in the invitational class which was Thomas Knight. The track was dry and it was a bright morning. When the session ended it was business as usual at the top of the order with Garrie Whittaker ( E36 M3) quickest in a time of 1:29.286 with David Kempton (E36 M3)1:30.134 and Thomas Knight 3rd with 1:32.085.Fastest class B driver was Rodger Card (E30 M3) 5th overall in 1:34.347.Class C quickest on track was Simon Hudson (E30) 10th overall in 1:37.063.The fastest class D car was of Paul Bellamy (318is) in 1:39.706 for 11th overall.Whittakers time was an average speed of 78.21 mph.

The pack of BMW'S came out for the 1st of the 20 minute races later in the day.A blistering start from pole position for Whittaker and he led the cars away as they headed into the 1st left hand corner off of the banking. Kempton and Knight were closely followed by Stephen Pearson (M3) and the fast class B car of Richard Marsh. Further down the order it was Bellamy and Karl Skitt (318 compact) the top placed class D cars. Adrian Gilbert (E36 M3) suffered a problem and retired on only the 3rd lap of the race. By now Whittaker was opening up a nice comfortable lead from Kempton. Knight was falling away form the leading cars as was the rest of the chasing pack.After 14 laps of the circuit and a race time of 21:20.252 minutes Whittaker took another chequered flag to make it 12 wins out of 12 and he had won by a margin of 1:795 seconds from Kempton with Knight a distant 3rd 23:147 adrift. Class B was won by Marsh ahead of Card.Class C winner was Hudson with the only other class C car of Peter Miller (E36 328i) 2 laps adrift.Class D was won by Bellamy from Skitt with Matthew Fielding (318 coupe) in 3rd.Fastest laps for Whittaker,Marsh,HudsonSkitt and Knight with Marsh (1:33.903)  Hudson (1:36.032) and Skitt (1:39.643) all claiming new lap records.

As Whittaker was taking his car back to the paddock after the race it was sounding different from normal but Whittaker wasn’t too worried.
The cars came out for race 2 and all lined up ready to race.As the lights went out to signal the race start Whittaker made his now customary fast start but then suddenly the car started to slow and the huge pack of BMW'S behind him were catching him.All race long Whittaker was having problems but he was managing to keep ahead of most of the cars.Kempton and Knight were out in front.Marsh was winning class B and was having a good race with James Card (E46 M3).When the race ended after just over 20 minutes Kempton took the chequered flag ahead of Knight with a battling Whittaker in 3rd place.Class B was won by Marsh with Hudson taking class C and Bellamy leading Skitt and Darren Fielding (318 compact) in class D.Whittakers run of wins had come to en end but as Knight was in the invitation class he had come 2nd overall so had limited the damaged points wise.The problem for Whittakers cars was later found to be an alternator problem meaning the car was about 50bhp down on what it was normally running at.

Fastest race laps by amazingly Whittaker in class A, Marsh class B ,Hudson Class C and Bellamy class D.

The cars will now head off to Oulton Park in Cheshire for another 2 races all on 1 day in September with Bellamy now leading the 2011 championship by 9 points with Whittaker in 2nd and Matthew Fielding in 3rd.Bellamy has 189 points in total.Whittaker is leading class A with Rodger Card class B,Peter Miller class C and championship leader Bellamy leading class D.

Winner 1 Garrie Whittaker	Winner Race 1 Class B Richard Marsh
Winner Race 1 Class C Simon Hudson	Winner  Race 1 Class D Paul Bellamy
Winner Race 2 David Kempton	Winner Race 2 Class B Richard Marsh
Winner Race 2 Class C Simon Hudson	Winner Race 2 Class D Paul Bellamy
The two race winners David Kempton on the left Garrie Whittaker on the right