Charlotte Birch adds to her points tally with double top-15 at Croft
- LIAM REDFORD
- Jun 17
- 5 min read
Charlotte Birch achieved her best results of the season in the Milltek Civic Cup as the Vinna Sport driver twice finished inside the top-15, showing excellent racecraft across the final pair of races where she scored championship points by finishing 13th in Race 2 before a 12th position in Race 3.
Charlotte Birch achieved her best results of the season in the Milltek Civic Cup as the Vinna Sport driver twice finished inside the top-15. Birch qualified in 19th position and opened her weekend with a solid drive to 17th in race one. Showing excellent racecraft across the final pair of races, Birch scored championship points by finishing 13th in race two before moving forward from 19th on the grid in race three to finish in 12th position.
Birch arrived at Croft looked to maintain her consistent start to the season where she had established herself as a competitive midfield driver through the opening three rounds. The Vinna Sport racer had completed every lap of the campaign to date and had finished inside the top-20 in all but one of the races. Her one points scoring finish came in race one at Brands Hatch and now Charlotte was looking to add to this tally at Croft.
Despite Croft having featured on the Milltek Civic Cup calendar for the past two season, Birch did not enter these events and therefore she was looking to reacclimatise herself with the circuit ahead of the three races to follow.
Qualifying was held on Saturday morning and took place in dry conditions. The session was red flagged after just four minutes of running with two drivers making contact at the high-speed chicane. The session resumed for ten minutes and therefore the drivers had a limited time to build tyre temperature and set a fast lap time.
Birch ran behind teammate Francisco Howitt as the Vinna Sport pair worked together as qualifying got back underway. Charlotte continued to improve into the closing stages of the session and her quickest lap came on her penultimate tour. At the end of qualifying, Birch had set the 19th fastest time with a quickest lap of a 1:34.003.
For the first race of the weekend, Birch lined up from 19th on the grid and experienced a challenging start after taking to the run-off area at the fast chicane. Nonetheless, a strong end to lap one saw the Vinna Sport driver cross the stripe in 21st position and Charlotte was soon moving forward. On lap two, Birch overtook Adam Jackson for a spot inside the top-20, before making a move on teammate Howitt on lap three.
Once clear of Howitt, Birch’s pace was impressive and her final sector time was comfortably inside the top-10 overall. Charlotte was now directly behind Ben Bateman and her rival was defending his position well, despite Birch’s pace advantage at this stage of the race. On lap five, Sam Nicolaou pitted with a technical issue and this elevated Birch into 18th position as she targeted a top-15 result to score championship points.
Birch continued to apply pressure to Bateman in the closing stages of the race, however overtaking was proving challenging at Croft. With two laps remaining, Wesley Swain pitted and Birch was now up to 17th as she continued her strong comeback drive. Despite a good effort to pass Bateman, Birch took the chequered flag in 17th as she finished just a tenth of a second behind her rival.
Grid positions for the second race of the weekend were based upon the results of race one with a partial reversal at the head of the field. Therefore, Birch lined up from 17th position and she was aiming to make further progress. It was another difficult opening lap for the Vinna Sport driver who briefly dropped outside of the top-20, while also avoiding the spinning car of Harry England, before recovering to 17th.
As the race entered a rhythm, Birch remained in 17th position and on lap three she passed Howitt while a recovering Swain made his way through. It was a productive fourth lap for Birch as she overtook both Jackson and Bateman to move into 15th and claim a provisional spot inside the points. Once clear of these cars, Birch set a personal best time and immediately pulled away as she attempted to latch onto the rear of Swain.
After a mistake from her rival on lap six, Charlotte moved ahead before Swain fought back and reclaimed 14th position. Into the closing stages, separate technical issues for both Harvey Caton and Jake Renshaw enabled Birch to move up to 13th. The Vinna Sport driver did a nice job to remain close to Swain right to the chequered flag as Birch secured a personal best result of the season in 13th position.
For the third and final race of the weekend on Sunday afternoon, the grid positions were based on the second fastest times set in qualifying with Birch lining up from 19th. The Vinna Sport driver got her best start of the event as she gained two positions on lap one while avoiding the spinning car of Adam Parker on the exit of the first turn.
After the race settled into an early rhythm, Birch picked up the pace and on lap three, she set her fastest race lap of the entire weekend. This time was just one tenth away from her qualifying benchmark and underlined the step forward she had taken across the event. On lap four, Birch made a nice move on Ben Bateman to claim 16th position.
Charlotte was now running in a competitive train of cars who were battling hard for position and she used her racecraft to overtake both Aidan Mitchell and Adam Jackson on lap five. On the same lap, separate technical issues for Harvey Caton and William Butt brought both drivers into the pits with Birch now up to 12th.
Although a recovering Parker made his way through on lap six, Birch remained on the tail of her rival while continuing her strong form through the final sector. This enabled her to open out a small gap to Jackson behind and she reclaimed 12th position on lap eight after Josh Bromley retired from the race. Although Jackson mounted a late challenge on the last lap, Birch defended her position well and secured her best result of the season with a 12th place finish.
It was an excellent weekend of improvement for Birch who twice finished inside the points at Croft. She used her racecraft to move forward and Birch will now be targeting her first top-10 finish of the season. The next round of the Milltek Civic Cup takes place at Oulton Park on Saturday 5th July.
