THE Hampshire-Wiltshire combination of James Kaye and Alan Blencowe has been working well for the Barwell Motorsport team in the Britcar Endurance series squad

They took the team's Honda Civic Type R production saloon to third places in Class 3 races at Silverstone and Croft.

BTCC star Kaye made his seasonal debut for the Britcar team in the Silverstone Three Hours alongside regular team driver Alan Blencowe from Salisbury, and at the halfway stage, Blencowe had built up a healthy advantage over the BMW M3 for second place. In the later stages, the Honda's brakes were taking a hammering around the Silverstone national circuit and with half an hour to go Kaye was coming under increasing pressure from the BMW. He bravely tried to fend it off but inevitably it got by and Kaye crossed the line seven seconds behind.

Barwell's Mark Lemmer rejoined Blencowe for the Croft race and this time Class 3 was even more competitive as it was joined by three ex-BTCC Super Production Class cars - the Ford Focuses of Matt Jackson and Rick Kraemer and the BMW 320i of Lawson/Walton. Again the proper 'Production-spec' cars couldn't race with the MG which has been out on its own in this class, but they enjoyed a good scrap for the remaining podium positions in Class 3 and it was Jackson's Focus that proved Barwell's closest rival in the two-hour race.

Jackson was able to drive by himself and he showed that he had lost none of his old BTCC pace, and after working hard just to keep him their sights, Lemmer and Blencowe almost caught him by the end. Jackson admitted: "One more lap and you would have had me!".

So Barwell again took third with the next Class 3 challenger, the Honda Integra Type R of Reynolds/Field, well behind.