BRSCC BEATS THE HEAT (AND RAIN) AT DONINGTON PARK
Even though the weather did its best to confuse and disrupt proceedings, the BRSCC’s Summer Race Weekend at Donington Park still put on two more days of exceptional club motorsport, as drivers were greeted with warm and humid temperatures all weekend coupled with a severe rainstorm that interrupted the final race of the meeting. Nevertheless, the racing once again was thoroughly enjoyable!
SILVERLAKE C1 ENDURANCE SERIES
With the C1 24 Hours at Silverstone still fresh in many teams’ minds almost a month since it took place, the Silverlake C1 Endurance Series regrouped on the Donington Park GP circuit for the next three hour installment in the 2023 season. 24H winners Trojon Motorsport picked up where they left off from Silverstone and they returned back to their two car effort to lock out the front row, car #508 ahead of the winning #421 car. Silverlake 2 and Emax Motorsport #346 were up on the second row, ahead of Quattro Formaggio and WRC Developments in the top six.
Trojon #508 wasted no time in jumping into the lead from the outset with Silverlake 2 and Quattro Formaggio quickly forming a leading trio in the opening corners, joined by the end of the lap by Trojon’s #421 car in 4th place. It didn’t take long for Trojon #508 to start creating a gap to the cars behind, leaving its teammate to try and battle through to 2nd which is managed after scraping with Silverlake 2 and Quattro Formaggio for a number of laps.
For the next 40+ minutes, the two Trojon cars had 1st and 2nd on lockdown as they circulated on their own, leaving a battle pack for 3rd place backwards to fight amongst themselves including Silverlake 2, WRC Developments, TGR Racing, Quattro Formaggio and Emax #346. However, Trojon’s advantage was wiped out when Emax’s sister #343 car retired at Coppice and had to be retrieved, triggering the first safety car of the race.
It didn’t take long for Trojon #421 to clear the remaining lapped traffic ahead of it on the restart and quickly siddled up their leading teammates in #508, as the two cars finally ended up circulating together. Buy this stage, the top ten runners had yet to make the first of their three mandatory stops, whilst many others behind were able to complete at least one as half distance approached. However, before the race would reach that point, the weather decided to play its hand in a big way.
A rain storm had been forecast to hit the circuit and after an hour and twenty minutes of racing, what began as a small sprinkling turned into a torrential downpour in mere minutes. The circuit quickly became saturated and with a car also rolling onto its side in the Old Hairpin gravel, the safety car called for the second time just as the rain progressively got harder and heavier. After a couple of laps trundling round in the storm, the race was red flagged to allow the inclement weather front to pass.
Thankfully, it did and due to ambient temperatures still being relatively warm, the circuit didn’t take long to improve enough for racing to resume. The race timer had continued to run during the red flag period and racing got back underway with just over an hour left to run. With the race order stabilised from the red flag, Trojon maintained their 1-2 on the restart, but it only took a couple of laps before most teams were diving for the pits to make their mandatory stops, many now up against it and especially those who hadn’t completed any pit stops before the red flag. Another safety car was called for a car off at the Old Hairpin, with Trojon #421 now leading at this point after its teammate had made its first stop shortly beforehand.
The next phase of the race saw pitstops aplenty as all the teams dived in throughout the next 25 minutes, shaking up the race order a little but still maintaining a Trojon Motorsport car at the head of it. The last safety car of the race came when Scuderia C1 were the latest victims of the Old Hairpin gravel after rolling on their side, and now that pit stops had all shaken out it was Quattro Formaggio leading Emax #346 and Trojon #508. The final 11 minutes would decide which of these three teams would take victory this time.
Immediately, Emax put Quattro Formaggio under pressure for the lead on the restart but initially the lead car had enough pace to keep the two cars behind them at bay. However, a better run through the Esses onto the GP loop with 7 minutes to go gave Emax the chance it needed to take the lead and soon after, Trojon made it through a lap later. Quattro Formaggio did their best to reclaim 2nd, but in the end they had to settle for the final step on the podium. This left Emax #346 to get back to winning ways with Trojon #508 just behind in 2nd, while the top five was completed by the #417 CSC Racing/ FDL Packaging car and Trojon’s sister #421 car in P4 and P5 respectively.
NANKANG TYRE BMW COMPACT CUP
Three winner from five races was already starting to prove that the 2023 Nankang Tyre BMW Compact Cup was looking incredibly competitive and that the outcome to the quest to find a brand new champion was going to be prove trickier to predict at this early stage. However, all of the main contenders were lining up at Donington Park to tackle the full GP circuit with two exciting races in store.
Fresh from his duties working at the Monaco Grand Prix, Guy Davis instantly reintroduced himself with a time in qualifying that was good for pole for most of the session on Saturday morning, but was eclipsed by his Brands Hatch rival Oliver Faller as he took pole for Race 1 later that afternoon. The front row pair led the sprint to Redgate at the start and after initially running side by side from lights out to the exit of Old Hairpin, Davis finally took the lead with Faller chasing after him along with Gareth Claydon and Matt Millson on their tail; the top four quickly formed a leading quartet ending Lap 1.
Just before the opening lap ended, championship leader Rudi Macmillan pulled out of the race exiting Melbourne Hairpin with mechanical issues, dealing a blow to any chances of maintaining his place at the top of the standings. Out in front, Davis, Faller and Claydon managed to gap Millson in 4th, and it took Faller until just before half distance before he made an attempt to pass Davis for the lead. Both Faller and Claydon slipped by exiting the Esses and Claydon immediately put the pressure on to take his second win in a row after clinching his first at Snetterton.
Faller, however, had other ideas and managed to quick create a few car lengths to Claydon, who briefly had to deal with Davis and Millson before seemingly leaving them to duel over 3rd place. However, as Faller cantered up the road to take his first win of the season, Davis stole 2nd just before the start of the final lap, but lost it back again into the Esses as Claydon retaliated. As Faller took victory, Claydon scored 2nd place and Millson also stole 3rd at Melbourne Hairpin to deny Davis a podium. Guy ended up 4th with Dale Wherton completing the top five.
Race 2 had a dramatic start to proceedings, especially for both Davis and Millson who ended up tangling with each other after a mishap for Dale Wherton exiting Redgate – something that would come back to bite him later. While Davis and Millson found themselves out of the race, Faller headed Claydon, Mike Doble and Wherton as the race quickly began to settle down. The top two quickly began to gap the rest and Claydon wasted no time in latching onto Faller’s tail in a bid to pass him.
Claydon continued to press and harry Faller as the pair ran bumper to bumper for the remaining minutes, but try as Gareth might, there was no way through and had no choice but to settle for 2nd place. Faller completed the double in fine fashion, while behind them Dale Wherton found his way to 3rd on the road at the chequered flag. However, Wherton was deemed to have caused the incident which put both Guy Davis and Matt Millson out and was disqualified as a result, promoting leading Masters driver Mike Doble Snr onto the third step of the podium ahead of Tom Middleton and Matt Flowers.
AUDI TT CUP RACING
The BRSCC’s new Audi TT Cup Racing series lept back into life at its latest rounds of its inaugural season, as the paddock moved on to the Donington Park GP circuit for the very first time since it began a few months ago. So far to this point, four different drivers had taken wins from the first five races at Brands Hatch and Snetterton, and there was real potential for more to add to that tally.
Carl Swift found himself fastest in qualifying to take pole in only his second weekend in the new series, with Ross Makar alongside him and ahead of Luke Handley and Harry Yardley-Rose on the second row. While Makar initially got away better, a horrible second phase saw him swamped by the leaders heading into Redgate, leaving Yardley-Rose and Handley to pressure pole man Swift from the outset. Behind Carl on the opening lap, there was plenty of jostling for places between Yardley-Rose, Handley and Scott Parkin, while Makar quickly made up places after his poor start.
Just before one thirds distance, the safety car was called after Paul Hoggins outbraked himself into Goddards Hairpin and unfortunately ended up clattering into the side of Ryan Edgecumbe, both cars out on the spot. Swift’s lead was therefore eradicated and he was left with just two laps to defend it from the rest of the pack behind him on the restart. A clean jump gave Swift the initial gap he needed and he was unchallenged to the flag, claiming his second TTCR win on the bounce. As for 2nd, Yardley-Rose held on until McLeans on the final lap when Makar found a way through, the Scot managing to claim runner up spot ahead of Luke Handley’s first podium in 3rd, Andrew Dyerin 4th and David Robb in 5th.
Makar’s second attempt to beat Swift away from the lights in Race 2 was no better than his first, as he was beaten to Redgate by Dyer who immediately try to take the lead from Swift on the outside line. His attempt was successful, enough to almost spook Swift off the road midway through Craner Curves and drop him to 3rd behind Dyer and Handley. Dyer could only hold on in front for a lap before Handley took over with a pass at McLeans, with Swift following suit moments later.
The chase was now on to see if Swift had the pace to catch and repass Handley and over the next few laps, Swift pressed hard to try and find a way through has he tailed the red TT in front of him. Handley drove as hard as he could, but outbraking himself into Melbourne Hairpin gave the invitation Swift needed to reclaim P1. Luke did his best to come back at Swift, but had to settle for 2nd as the former TCR UK man did the double from Donington Park. Dyer ended up on the podium once more in 3rd, ahead of Makar in 4th and Richard Forber in 5th.
NATIONAL FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP
The quest to become this season’s National Formula Ford champion moved on to Donington Park’s GP circuit for their third weekend of 2023. Points leader Lucas Romanek was keen to extend his advantage over teammate Brandon McCaughan and the rest of the pack and while the field was smaller than usual at 10 cars including Formula Ford returnees Jamie Sharp and 2015 National champion Jonny McMullan, the racing displayed across all three races was at its typical Formula Ford best.
Chris Middlehurst began the weekend with pole position in qualifying and held off Romanek into the first corner as Race 1 got underway, maintaining the place through the opening few laps. Middlehurst maintained the lead until Romanek found a way past inside McLeans and Coppice, with Oldfield Motorsport teammate McCaughan quickly following through corners later. As Romanek tried to escape in the lead, McCaughan was left to hold back the rest of the chasing field led by Middlehurst who managed to retake 2nd at Melbourne Hairpin.
With Middlehurst back to P2, it wasn’t long before he was back on Romanek’s tail and challenging for first. However, he lost the place back to McCaughan in the final couple of minutes to make it an OIdfield Motorsport 1-2 on track, but McCaughan was hit with a track limits time penalty which dropped him down to 8th in the result. Behind race winner Romanek, Middlehurst was bumped up to 2nd place ahead of the returning Jamie Sharp, with Elliot Budzinski and Jordan Kelly completing the top five.
Romanek kept his lead position beginning Race 2 on Sunday but was immediaely under threat from both Middlehurst and Sharp on the opening lap. Middlehurst only need one more lap to take over lead with Sharp following past not long after and by now, they were joined by Budzinski, Kelly and McCaughan were part of the lead group too. Kelly dropped back at around half distance after tangling with McCaughan at McLeans.
This left the top five line astern as the minutes ticked down and Middlehurst remained in the lead with the four cars behind still hot on his heels. In that group, Sharp headed the pursuit while Budzinski and Romanek followed suit, but for McCaughan his race ended in the Old Hairpin gravel on the final lpa as he spun away a possible top five finish. Middlehurst, meanwhile, held firm to take his second win of the season, with Sharp and Budzinski following him home on the podium and the top five completed by Romanek and Kelly.
Brin Kinch’s reverse grid pole for Race 3 helped him get a strong start to lead ahead of McMullan on the opening lap and the pair were quickly joined by Kelly and Romanek on the opening lap. Kelly wasted no time in going on the attack for the lead and completed an outside pass at McLeans to take over in front. A fast starting Jamie Sharp was able to find a way through for 2nd a lap later and quickly found himself being tailed by the Ammonite Motorsport pair of Budzinski and Nolan Allaer.
Just before half distance, the safety car was called after Lucas Romanek incredibly spun himself out of the race at the Esses, losing him valuable championship points and giving a prime chance for his main rivals to catch up. Fortunes for Oldfield Motorsport got no better as racing resumed after the subsequent safety car as McCaughan clipped the back of Allaer’s Ray, damaging his left front suspension and forcing him out too. Kelly led on the restart but instant pressure from Budzinski behind eventually saw the American pass the Irishman out of Goddards Hairpin as they began the final lap.
With no change in the order until the flag, Budzinski took his first National Formula Ford with ahead of Kelly in 2nd, while Middlehurst ensured he finished every single race on the podium with a pass for 3rd on Allaer just two corners from home. Nolan ended up 4th while Jonny McMullan ended a tricky weekend with a top five finish.
HICKFORD CONSTRUCTION MG METRO CUP
The pocket rockets of the Hickford Construction MG Metro had put on a great display of racing across their opening two race weekends with the BRSCC, and now arriving at Donington Park for their third of the season, it was almost certain their pair of races would produce more of the same. Championship leader Rhys Claydon was fresh of the back of scoring his first Metro Cup win in only his second weekend in the paddock and was keen to add to his tally as the weekend began.
Pole position in qualifying gave him the best possible opportunity to do just that and leading the field into Redgate for the first time in Race 1 only boosted that further. What he hadn’t counted on was main rival Mike Williams sneaking up the inside at the Old Hairpin to demote him to 2nd place, and it instantly became apparent that these two were in a race of their own. Behind them, Matthew Simpson was in 3rd place and trying to escape a fast starting Phil Goodwin in 4th.
Claydon repassed Williams at McLeans to pick up P1 again and the leading pair continued to extend a gap over the rest as the first half of the race ticked over. All of the action was happening behind them for 3rd place downwards as Simpson first had to resist pressure from Goodwin and then in the latter stages from a charging Jon Moore whose bad start had dropped him down the top ten, and he was spending the rest of the race climbing back up. Goodwin tried several times to pass Simpson to no avail, and then faded into the clutches of first Moore and then Tim Shooter when he came under attack.
Out in front, Claydon was untouchable by the finish, easily distancing himself from Williams to win by six seconds in the end while Williams himself was a comfortable 2nd place. Simpson completed the podium in 3rd, getting away from Moore in 4th and Goodwin in 5th as the trio rounded out the top five.
The shorter 15 minute second race of the weekend began just as the first had done the day before, with Claydon starting from pole but losing the lead once again to Williams by Old Hairpin. This time, however, Williams was quick to create a gap to Claydon in the early laps, forcing the ex-BMW Compact Cup driver to every ounce of speed available to keep up with and catch Williams as the race reached half distance. Thankfully for Rhys, just before that point, he’d managed to make the move to regain 1st place.
From here, it was business as usual for Claydon, managing to keep Williams at arm’s length especially when a mistake from Williams dropped him to two seconds back heading onto the final lap. The final top three ended up a carbon copy of that from the day before with Claydon picking up win number three, Williams settling for 2nd place and Simpson clinching his third podium in a row with 3rd place. Jon Moore and Ben Williams completed the top five, the latter coming from the back of the grid after failing to start Race 1 and driving well to reach 5th place at the flag.
SW MOTORSPORTS CLUBSPORT TROPHY
There’s hardly seems to be a better combination these days than Donington Park and the SW Motorsports ClubSport Trophy, which once again found itself with a maxed out capacity grid of 42 cars lining up for the day’s 45 minute pit stop race. A strong lap from James Alford in qualifying put his VW Golf on pole alongside the Audi TTCR of Scott Parkin, while behind them there were plenty of strong ClubSport regulars like Liam Crilly’s BMW Z4, Matthew Bolton’s BMW M3 and Phiroze Bilimoria’s VW Scirocco ready to do battle too.
When the race got underway, one car that was immediately in trouble was the Honda Civic of Andrew Bond when his engine expired moments from leaving the line, pulling off the road just exiting Redgate. Down at the Old Hairpin, the fast starting Tom Stanway overcooked his corner entry, lost control on the exit and into the path of a hapless Bilimoria whose VW Scirocco was left with nowhere to go. Anthony Park also tried taking avoiding action, but hitting the grass on cold tyres left him in the barriers in his own incident yards up the track at Starkeys.
All of this left the race to be red flagged and once clear up had been completed, the restart would be held over 30 minutes. This would also mean the second half of the race would double up as the race’s pit window to accommodate the mandatory stop all cars had to make. Alford made another good start when racing got underway again and led Bolton, Crilly and the two Audi TTs of Scott Parkin and Andrew Dyer/ Richard Bliss. Alford’s race then took a nosedive when a faulty hose clip slowed his car significantly and forced him to pit to get it fixed; when he rejoined he was a couple of laps down and out of contention.
Out in front it was now Parkin that led from Bolton and Crilly and as the laps progressed with the timer ticked towards half distance, the top four began to spread out more with the pit window not far away. Drama came when Parkin’s Audi TT stopped at the entry to pit lane, and while it was able to be restarted and complete its pit stop, it faltered not long after leaving and was another retirement.
As pit stops continued to cycle through, Sam Reddrop’s BMW took over in the lead despite leaving his stop until just before the end of the window. Through this sequence, Crilly had managed to leapfrog Bolton and was net leader before the final stops were completed. Once everyone had made theirs, the Z4 was in a comfortable lead and was unchallenge to the chequered flag. Becoming something of a regular occurrence whenever it appears, Crilly took the Z4 to another outright ClubSport win, with Matthew Bolton’s M3 in 2nd overall and the Audi TTCR of Dyer and Bliss delighted with an excellent 3rd and class victory. Reddrop’s BMW and Chris Spark’s Honda Civic completed the top five.
The race also saw some brand new winners in most of the five classes too. Class wins went the way of Liam Crilly’s BMW Z4 in Class A, Andrew Dyer and Richard Bliss’ Audi TTCR in Class B, Charlie Hayes’ BMW Compact in Class C, Jason Brough’s Renault Clio in Class D, and Nicole Drought and Matt Mills’ MINI Cooper in Class E.
BRSCC SUPERSPORT ENDURANCE CUP
The new BRSCC SuperSport Endurance Cup was so far proving to be a roaring success as the opening two races of the season at Snetterton and Silverstone GP had produced exceptional racing and superb grids in both. Donington Park’s entry proved to buck the trend further as the championship prepared for its third race of the season with over 30 cars on the entry list.
Qualifying once again proved just how formidable those with BMWs in the entry list really were as Pro-A championship leaders Keir McConomy and Bart Horsten took outright pole ahead of Martin Gadsby and Ian Jones’ M3 engined Compact, Dave Griffin’s E90 M3 guest entry and Julian McBride’s E46 M3 in the top four. The McConomy/ Horsten 1 Series won the hole shot into Redgate at the start as BMWs filled out the first five places by the end of Lap 1. Immediately the top two of McConomy/ Horsten and Gadsby/ Jones settled into their own races and pulled away from the rest, already seeming comfortable in 1st and 2nd respectively.
Just before 15 minutes, the race saw its one and only safety car incident when the BMW E36 M3 of Oliver Smith and Clinton Ewen blew its engine and dumped fluid all over Coppice corner, leaving several cars either spinning on the fluid or skating wide through the gravel. During the twenty minute neutralisation of the race, several cars made their first of two mandatory stops to take advantage of losing less time under yellow flag conditions.
McConomy and Horsten wound up in the lead shortly after racing resumed, and not long after that Dave Griffin’s M3 suffered mechanical issues for the second race in succession, slowing to a crawl at the top of the Craner Curves. This moved the Jasver Sapra/ Bryan Bransom M3 into 2nd, Leon Bidgway’s Lotus Exige into 3rd and Ricky Coomber’s Honda Civic into 4th. Sapra and Bransom made their second stop with just under 45 minutes to go, with Coomber and McConomy/Horsten also doing the same not long after.
Once the second mandatory stops had been completed, the leading 1 Series appeared to be in a race of its own and was able to complete the remainder of the race untroubled, but behind them there were last minute changes for two of the class leaders. With six minutes to go, Bidgeay spun away the Pro-B class win exiting Coppice, before Phil and Matthew Adcock’s BMW Compact took a trip across the gravel that damaged the oil sump underneath the car and forced them to pull of the road in the dying seconds of the race.
Out front, McConomy and Horsten comfortably took the chequered flag to clinch their second outright SuperSport Endurance Cup win of the season, while Sapra and Bransom picked up 2nd overall ahead of Gadsby and Jones who had enjoyed an exciting battle with the M3 during the second half of the race. The outright top five was completed by Ricky Coomber’s Honda Civic and Leon Bidgway’s Lotus, no doubt gutted to have spun away a class win in the final minutes.
Individual class winners from Donington Park were indeed McConomy and Horsten’s 1 Series in Pro-A, Gadsby and Jones’s BMW E36 Compact M3 in Pro-B, Luke and Christopher Hayes’ SEAT Leon in Pro-C, Paul Hinson’s incredible solo effort in his BMW E36 Compact in Clubman-A, Oliver Cottam/ Edward Cottam/ Joseph Ritchie in their Mazda MX-5 Mk3 and a late steal from Adam Read and David Drinkwater’s BMW E36 Compact to once again take Clubman-C.
BRSCC EVOLUTION TROPHY
The BRSCC Evolution Trophy has been gathering momentum nicely since it began at Brands Hatch in April, and with a grid shared between the ever developing Classic VW Cup, Classic TT Cup, Cooksport Renault Cup and Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy series, the four put together have been producing some excellent and exciting racing between each other. Donington Park was the first visit for the BRSCC’s new development series and each series was once again represented well.
At the head of the combined grid, the two Team HARD VW Golfs of Tommy Gilham and Adam Marshall occupied the front row and they managed to hold station in 1-2 formation leading the Classic VW Cup in Race 1 ahead of top Cooksport Renault Cup runner Nick Gwinnett in 3rd outright. The two Golfs ended up being in a race of their own for the entire 15 minutes, with Gwinnett and fellow Cooksport Renault compatriot Tony Hunter doing the same in their own internal contest and these four cars ended up unchallenged throughout.
A great scrap for 5th overall ended up taking place between Nick Sanderson’s SEAT, Richard Clarke’s Clio Cup car and Dawn Butcher’s Mk5 VW Golf, but all of them ended up being caught and passed by a charging Matthew Hollier who picked his way through to eventually pick up 5th and 3rd place in Cooksport Renaults. Out in front, Gilham took an excellent first win with Marshall behind in 2nd to make it a Team HARD 1-2, with Gwinnett, Hunter and Hollier completing the top five. Gilham, Marshall and Dawn Butcher made up the Classic VW Cup top three, 3rd to 5th overall covered the Cooksport Renault podium, Harry Scott drove superbly to go from the back of the grid to 10th and top Classic TT Cup runner, while a brilliant race long duel for the Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy win with Chrissy Palmer beating Ben Taylor and Sam Hicks to win respectively.
The grid of Race 2 was formed from Race 1’s result, and once again it was the Team HARD pair that lept into the lead from the outset, Gilham again heading up Marshall but initially under threat from the Cooksport Renault pair of Gwinnett and Hunter on the second row behind them. A rapid getaway from Donald Dewar saw him leap up to 4th place in no time, picking off Hunter into Redgate at the start of Lap 2.
The race itself played out much the same as Race 1 did with plenty of battles amongst the four categories racing, one on particular catching people’s eyes being that for 4th in Cooksport Renaults between Clarke’s Clio Cup car and Richard Owen in his fire spitting Renault Megane 3, which went back and forth to the finish. By the final lap of the race, Marshall had caught teammate Gilham and looked as though he may challenge for victory, but by the flag he was resided to 2nd as Tommy did the double, also winning Classic VW Cup as well in the process too.
Ken Lark’s VW Corrado completed the Classic VW Cup top three, finishing 4th overall behind Cooksport Renault winner Nick Gwinnett, who won his category ahead of Hunter and Hollier once more. Chrissy Palmer managed a slightly more comfortable win the MX-5 Mk4 Trophy once again heading Taylor and Hicks, while neither Harry Scott or Philip O’Halloran made the flag in the end and thus there was no Classic TT Cup winner on this occasion.
ZEO PROTOTYPE SERIES
For sheer speed, pace and sound, the ZEO Prototype Series was by far the most spectacular series racing this past weekend at Donington Park and with many of the drivers that competed at the impressive Silverstone GP season opener a few weeks prior, more of the same was expected in a field that featured Pragas, Revolutions, Radicals, Junos, Normas and more.
Ruben Stanislaus lept into the lead in Race 1 ahead of pole sitter Graham Charman’s Juno, as the leading Praga quickly made an escape out in front from the outset. Following suit were Charman, Max Windheuser’s Norma and the second of the Pragas driven in this first race by Jessica Hawkins. Hawkins managed to pass Windheuser for 3rd, but all of the leading quartet were caught and passed eventually by a charging Mike Jenvey who had to come from 13th on the grid to eventually take the lead early into the race’s second half.
Jenvey did lose the lead back to Stanislaus not long after but only briefly as once back up to full speed there was no stopping the Jenvey-Gunn. Even a late safety car for Rodolfo Gonzalez’s strandced Praga in the Redgate gravel didn’t phase the former OSS champion as he eventually claimed the victory just 1.6 seconds ahead of Stanislaus in the Praga in 2nd place, with Graham Charman completing the podium in the Juno in 3rd and Jess Hawkins’ Praga and Richard Morris in the Revolution completing the top five.
Charman did manage to get the better start to Race 2 later in the afternoon, but sure enough the Pragas of Stanislaus and Shane Kelly found their way past before the end of the opening lap and was also under threat from the Revolutions of Morris and Sir Chris Hoy. Both Kelly and Stanislaus swapped the lead early on, allowing Charman to get back into the mix and threaten to get back in front, but in the early part of the race Stanislaus was more comfortable and was able to create a gap of several seconds to P2 downward.
A very brief safety car was called before one third distance when Antonino La Rosa had one of many spins that day and while initially he was stationally long enough to scramble the runyourfleet.com Jaguar safety car, he managed to get going which quickly put the race back underway in no time. Around this time, a light rain shower hit the circuit with Stanislaus, Charman and Gonzalez all pitting to change to a more suitable tyre compound at the time. However, with ambient temperature in the high teens and low 20s, both the rain and the damp circuit quickly passed and all three eventually switched back after struggling for pace.
Out in front, Kelly was once again command but a rapid Mike Jenvey was again hunting him down in 2nd place. But with 12 minutes to go, Jenvey pitted with mechanical issues and sadly had to drop out of the race. For the remainder of the 30 minutes, Kelly stroked the Praga home to pick up his first win of the season, more than 30 seconds ahead of Max Windheuser in 2nd in his Norma, while Richard Morris took 3rd in the Revolution and Sir Chris Hoy and Joaquim Penteado completing the top five, also in Revolutions too.
Scott Woodwiss
