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With wins for Richard Hay/Clive Richards, Oliver Bull and Graham Fennymore, Saturday's (5 May) French rounds of the evo Caterham Eurocup provided excitement and drama in equal measure.

It was the first-ever visit for the series to the Val de Vienne circuit, and its twisty, technical nature played into the hands of the experienced racers. The CSR 260 of Clive Richards' own Colards Motorsport team won the first of the single-driver sprint races, with Bull defying a disintegrating gearbox to win the second in the Acre Jean/Hyperion CSR. Oliver could do nothing about the Richards/Hay partnership in the one-hour feature race, however, and had to settle for second.

Fennymore was a triple Superlight victor, overcoming stiff challenges from Eurocup newcomer Gary Halcrow and even a stop-go penalty in the feature race.

Race one brought Richards one of the most commanding wins of his long Caterham racing career. Having annexed the pole by a nine-tenth margin, Clive made the most of his grid advantage to romp away from Bull and impressive 19-year-old Christian Wangard. Within two laps Richards had built a three-second lead and then, as Bull came under pressure from Wangard and then Michele Tommasi, Clive took advantage to extend his lead further still.

On the fourth lap Bull slipped behind both Tommasi and Wangard into the Pif-Paf chicane to set the scene for a thrilling duel for second which lasted almost until race end. Bull fought back past the German on the next lap and then retook second on the eighth tour. "I took a lap or two to sort myself out and then picked them off," said Olly, who then proceeded to pull away from his pursuers to cement second place.

Wangard briefly displaced Tommasi from third but the German karting champion lost his opportunity of gaining a podium finish on his car-racing debut with a time-consuming trip through the gravel at the Trop Tard hairpin.

Richards crossed the line 8.7s ahead of Bull to score the third win of the season for the Hay-Fisher CSR. "It wasn't your normal Caterham race," conceded Clive, "because I was able to make a good break quite early on. The car was perfect."

Tommasi finished close behind Olly for third while Frenchman Olivier Guerin retook fourth from his countryman Hervé Cordel on the last lap to take the honours in a race-long three-way duel which also involved Malcolm Johnstone.

Wangard recovered from his off to salvage seventh, ahead of Philippe Simon and German contenders Thomas Klein and Wolfgang Becker.

Just as Richards did in the pace-setting CSR class, so Fennymore was able to pull away from his Superlight rivals at the start and establish early superiority. Gary Halcrow ran Fennymore closest but was beset from the outset by severe vibrations from the rear of his car, later diagnosed as a broken suspension component.

Reigning Roadsport Champion Halcrow, who was making his Eurocup debut, was able to hold on to second, surviving a spin and staying just ahead of another championship newcomer, Chris Bialan. Clive Coote soldiered on to fourth despite a gearbox problem.

The second sprint race saw battle rejoined yet again between Bull in the black Acre Jean-backed CSR and the orange Hay-Fisher Caterham, this time with Richard Hay at the controls. Bull made an excellent start from the pole to lead into the first turn with Hay slotting in behind after a great getaway from fourth on the grid, the throttle problems which had slowed him in qualifying apparently sorted.

Bull and Hay pulled away from third-placed Tommasi as Michele fought Loïc Martinez to retain third, and Richard bided his time until the eighth lap before mounting a successful attack on the lead along the back straight. He thought the race was in the bag: "I saw a puff of oily smoke from the back of Olly's car in the early laps and thought it was probably his gearbox on the way out," said Richard. "I didn't expect him to come back at me."

But fight back Bull did, despite Tommasi having caught up to make it a three-car lead battle, and four laps from the end Oliver retook top spot. "I squeezed Richard a little at the end of the back straight and he backed out," said Bull, who went on to claim his maiden win at the wheel of a CSR by a half-second margin.

Olly did not know till later just how lucky he had been to win, for the puff of smoke that Hay had spotted had indeed signalled the end of the gearbox, which failed as the car was driven back to the paddock.

Tommasi was once again an excellent third - his third podium finish of the season - having successfully held off the attentions of Martinez, who took an easy fourth ahead of the battling cars of Cordel, Johnstone and Guerin. Germany's Kurt Hoffmann placed eighth with Swiss driver Pascal Engel ninth and Hyperion boss Steve Hindle a rather distant 10th.

With Halcrow's Superlight restored to full health, Gary was on superb form from the outset, harassing Fennymore relentlessly and even nosing ahead of him for the class lead for a couple of laps until his enthusiasm got the better of him and he slipped behind not only Fennymore but also Bialan and Coote.

The latter duo were engaged in a titanic struggle for Superlight second for 11 laps, until Bialan got a mite too close to his rival in the startline hairpin just at the moment Coote missed a gear. The result was a holed radiator and Chris had thereafter to settle for a sedate pace and fourth at the flag.

Halcrow staged one of his trademark comeback drives to repass Coote for second but had no chance of catching Fennymore, who took the win by a 20-second margin. "Gary drove really well in the early laps," said Graham, "but then he fell back and I was able to take it relatively steadily, because I was not on my best set of tyres and my clutch wasn't quite right."

The race was on for the Hyperion Motorsport/Acre Jean team even before the lights went green to signal the start of the hour-long feature race. They had barely an hour to complete an engine-out gearbox change on Bull's CSR and achieved the job in a record 52 minutes.

Thus Oliver was able to take his rightful place on the front row of the grid alongside the pole-sitting Hay-Fisher car, which was to be started by Hay. Richard made another impeccable getaway to lead the first third of the race, pitting to hand over to Clive Richards on the 12th lap, just after conceding the lead to a determined Bull.

Tommasi spun out of the pack on the opening lap, which left third place to be disputed by old hand Martinez and the inexperienced youngster Wangard. Loïc held sway initially only to lose the place to Christian on the fourth lap.

Bull held the lead for only three laps before his mandatory two-minute stop; when he emerged from the pits Oliver was once again second and had little hope of staying with leader Richards. "I had the pace of Richard Hay," said Olly, "but Clive had those extra few tenths and I couldn't live with him. The car was great considering the work that had to be done to get it to the grid. The team did a fantastic job for me."

Richards crossed the line 3.4s ahead of Bull, with Wangard a distant but nonetheless laudable third, which hints at a bright future in Caterham racing.

Johnstone held fourth for many laps until Guerin moved ahead in the closing stages. Cordel took sixth ahead of the Klein/Engel and Becker/Hindle cars. Martinez's good drive came to nothing when, after handing it over to Philippe Simon, his car was retired with mechanical problems.

A mid-race pit-stop blunder nearly cost Fennymore his third win of the day in the Superlight division. Graham was sent on his way well before the two minutes was up, earning the driver a stop-go penalty. "It was a misunderstanding," he said. "I couldn't believe it when I saw my car's number on the stop-go board!"

His second pit stop cost Fennymore time but not the class lead: his closest challenger Halcrow was already out of the running after a brush with another car. "It was my good luck that Gary was out of it. Had he still been in the race things might have worked out differently." So it was that Bialan took second, nearly a minute behind Fennymore, with Coote a delighted third.

Provisional results: CSR Masters
Round 4 Val de Vienne 5 May
17 laps / 39.78 miles
1, Clive Richards, GB/CSR 260, 30m39.289s, 74.64mph
2, Oliver Bull, GB/CSR 260, +8.713s
3, Michele Tommasi, ITA/CSR 260, +13.337s
4, Olivier Guerin, FRA/CSR 260, +20.014s
5, Hervé Cordel, FRA/CSR 260, +20.476s
6, Malcolm Johnstone, GB/CSR 260, +28.540s
Fastest lap: Richards 1m47.143s / 75.37mph Est Rec

Round 5 Val de Vienne 5 May
17 laps / 39.78 miles
1, Oliver Bull, GB/CSR 260, 30m40.732s, 74.58mph
2, Richard Hay, GB/CSR 260, +0.466s
3, Michele Tommasi, ITA/CSR 260, +1.088s
4, Loïc Martinez, FRA/CSR 260, +15.170s
5, Hervé Cordel, FRA/CSR 260, +31.834s
6, Malcolm Johnstone, GB/CSR 260, +32.810s
Fastest lap: Tommasi 1m46.741s / 75.65mph Rec

Round 6 Val de Vienne 5 May
33 laps / 77.22 miles
1, Richard Hay/Clive Richards, GB/CSR 260, 1h2m14.551s, 71.36mph
2, Oliver Bull, GB/CSR 260, +3.414s
3, Christian Wangard, GER/CSR 260, +47.357s
4, Olivier Guerin, FRA/CSR 260, +51.306s
5, Malcolm Johnstone, GB/CSR 260, +1m04.983s
6, Hervé Cordel, FRA/CSR 260, +1m05.209s
Fastest lap: Richards 1m47.382s / 75.20mph

Provisional points placings
1 Hay & Richards 116 points; 2 Bull 94; 3 Johnstone 91; 4 Tommasi 67; 5 Thomas Klein & Pascal Engel 60; 6 Jamie Constable 46 etc.

Provisional results: Eurocup Superlight
Round 4 Val de Vienne 5 May
17 laps / 39.78miles
1, Graham Fennymore, GB/Superlight, 32m01.613s, 71.44mph
2, Gary Halcrow, GB/Superlight, 16 laps
3, Chris Bialan, GB/Superlight, 15 laps
4, Clive Coote, GB/Superlight, 15 laps
Fastest lap: Fennymore 1m51.897s / 72.17mph Est Rec

Round 5 Val de Vienne 5 May
17 laps / 39.78miles
1, Graham Fennymore, GB/Superlight, 32m06.414s, 71.26mph
2, Gary Halcrow, GB/Superlight, +20.101s
3, Clive Coote, GB/Superlight, 16 laps
4, Chris Bialan, GB/Superlight, 16 laps
Fastest lap: Halcrow 1m51.808s / 72.22mph Rec

Round 6 Val de Vienne 5 May
32 laps / 74.88 miles
1, Graham Fennymore, GB/Superlight, 1h2m59.960s, 68.36mph
2, Chris Bialan, GB/Superlight, +57.253s
3, Clive Coote, GB/Superlight, 31 laps
Fastest lap: Fennymore 1m51.972s / 72.12mph

Provisional points placings
Sprint 1 Fennymore 78 points; 2 Coote 49; 3 Mike Cantillon 38; 4 Halcrow 36; 5 Steve Frost 34; 6 Bialan 33 etc.
Endurance 1 Fennymore 40; 2 Coote 33; =3 Cantillon & Bialan 18; 5 David Knox 17; 6 Steve Frost 15.

Next rounds: Donington Park, 2/3 June

Backers for Caterham Motorsport's UK and European race series include Bilstein, Brian James Trailers, Cheesman Products, Circuit Driver, Cooper-Avon Tyres, Demon Tweeks, evo, HSBC Insurance Brokers, Mitchell Cotts, Motorsport News, Stack and Steel Fabrications.