CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLES INTENSIFY AS BRSCC DOMINATES DONINGTON
- Clapham North MOT Mazda MX-5 SuperCup
- Kent Models Mazda MX-5 Championship
- SW Motorsports Clubsport Trophy
- Clapham North MOT Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship
- PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup
- Demon Tweeks Audi TT Cup Racing Championship
- MG Cockshoot Cup
- Fix A Wheel Production Cup
- BRSCC Pro Sports Sprint Series
- Silverlake DS3 Cup
- BRSCC BMW SuperCup Championship
On a summer weekend that had its share of both rain and sunshine, the British Racing & Sports Car Club delivered an impeccable two days of club motorsport at Donington Park on the full GP circuit. From Mazda MX-5s and Audi TTs, to BMWs, endurance, MGs and more, every race produced incredible entertainment, big talking points and took many attending championships and series either to or past the halfway stage of the 2025 season.
One of the show stealers of the weekend was unquestionably the Kent Models Mazda MX-5 Championship, which produced three absolute barnstormer races as Ali Bray attempted to yet again keep his 100% win record in 2025 alive. As the rain fell as race one began, Bray grabbed the lead from pole while Adam Sparrow barely made it meters off the line before pulling up and out of the race. Steve Foden stuck to him like glue for the entire race and even traded the lead a couple of times, but Bray’s excellent defence held him off and saw him rack up a tenth win of the year by 0.6 seconds. Steve Bartlett took a second podium of the season with third, ahead of Neil Chisnall and Adam Craig.
Moving into Sunday, race two became an instant all-time classic in championship history. Not only was Bray again put under pressure by multiple drivers, but attention was also taken by the incredible drive through the field from the back by Sparrow after his race one DNF. While Bray was initially chased by Foden, Craig and Bartlett, Sparrow was into the top five before half distance. What followed in the second half was ten minutes of some of THE best BRSCC MX-5 racing ever seen, as Bray constantly held back a constant barrage of attacks from the cars behind. Amazingly, Sparrow managed to work his way into the lead in the final minutes, but couldn’t hold it as both Foden and Bray both got turns back in the lead as the final lap approached.
Just before it began, Sparrow ended up rubbing wheels with Bray at Goddards hairpin, sending him onto two wheels but carrying on unscathed. After one final lap of desperate battling, Bray yet again emerged victorious from Sparrow and Foden, the trio met post-race with a round of applause for their efforts. Michael Green and Thomas Walker were fourth and fifth at the flag, and there was still one race to go…
Bray cleanly led away race three as before with Sparrow and Foden again giving chase. Initially it was Sparrow that went with Bray in the opening laps and leaving Foden trailing, but as the race went on, the three cars came back together with all three drivers taking turns and no telling who was coming out on top. On the final lap, it looked as though Foden had done just enough to finally break the win streak, but he locked up and ran wide into Goddards hairpin.Bray instantly capitalised and on the drag race to the line, he snatched victory by 0.058 seconds to continue unbeaten in 2025. Sparrow took the final podium in third ahead of Chisnall and Craig, but the question still remains – can ANYONE beat Ali Bray?
The Clapham North Mazda MX-5 Clubman Championship brought its own entertainment and action across its two races at Donington Park, with championship leader Jack Warry keen to extend his advantage at the top of the points.
Rain from the race prior had dampened the circuit before race one, but Warry still got the better of front row man Jordan Pimley at the start to lead into Redgate for the first time. Moments later he was shuffled back to third behind Pimley and Martin Tolley, but Jack pushed hard and battled his way back to the front before half distance, with Pimley, Tolley and Jonny Greensmith still on his tail. By the end, Warry and Pimley were in a race of their own, and despite a last gasp effort from Pimley to steal the win on the line, Warry held on by a mere 0.085 seconds to pick up the win. Behind them, the scramble for third place went Jake Paice’s way, as he got the better of Greensmith and Tolly in the end to claim a podium finish.
Thankfully the circuit had dried out somewhat for race two, where Pimley got the better start initially before the red flag was thrown after an incident at the top of the hill at Hollywood. Second time around, Warry was wiser and defended from Pimley to retain P1 from pole, before Jordan was shuffled back to fifth by the end of the opening lap. Warry led throughout the opening half of the race with first Greensmith and then Paice taking turns to pursue him. Then Warry ran wide at Coppice and over the wet grass, dropping him outside of the top five with little time left. Paice briefly led before he went off at the Old Hairpin, promoting Pimley back to the front.
Pimley drove on to claim race two victory, but it was all change on the final corner after contact between Tolley and Greensmith sent the latter spinning off, allowing a recovering Warry to inherit a valuable second place. Tolley crossed the line third but was disqualified for causing a collision, helping Paul Simard take his first podium in his place ahead of Kevin Bird and Jake Paice, who struggled back to a top five.
Producing its biggest entry of the season thus far, the Clapham North Mazda MX-5 SuperCup once again welcomed back some familiar faces to Donington Park as well as some brand new ones making their championship debuts. One of the returnees was Brands Hatch race winner Jack Harding, who immediately laid down the marker for everyone else by taking pole in qualifying.
Race one saw Harding chased by Will Blackwell-Chambers for the entire race, the pair never separated by more than barely a second between them as they circulated lap after lap. Despite the heavy attention in the damp conditions, Harding took his second win of the season with WB-C a second behind at the flag. Thomas Langford had to break free from a multi-car scrap for third place before breaking away to take the podium finish, while Club class winner Sam Middleton put in another impressive performance to finish fourth overall ahead of Ollie Hall and Alistair Dendy. Jim Barratt and Max Brown also took to the Club podium after a track limits penalty for Charlie Todd demoted him.
A dry circuit for race two on Sunday further aided Harding’s cause, putting on a carbon copy of race one with Blackwell-Chambers in his wheel tracks from start to finish once again. Harding drove to his second win of the event in very much a repeat of race one as Blackwell-Chambers collected another second place. Also just like race one, Langford had to battle his way through the same group of cars to take third, with Hall fourth and Club class winner Middleton in fifth. Sam was followed on the podium in class once again by Barratt in second and Brown in third.
Jim Barratt found himself on pole in the race three partially reversed grid draw, and being so far down in the top ten is what led to Blackwell-Chambers running wide at Redgate and pebble dashing his windscreen. Harding, meanwhile, didn’t need much time to get back to the head of the field, doing so at the beginning of lap two and he would end up leading from a pursuing Langford in second place all the way to the flag, making it a hat-trick for Harding for the weekend. Blackwell-Chambers had to deal with main points rivals Hall and Dendy throughout the second half of the race to eventually claim third place, while Middleton survived an off to complete the Club class clean sweep. Barratt again took second, with Steve Kite rounding off the class podium.
The Demon Tweeks Audi TT Cup Racing Championship became a somewhat emotional affair over the course of the weekend at Donington Park, as a first time winner was crowned as well as the championship leader grabbing crucial points to help him extend his advantage, while his rivals found themselves tripping over each other around him.
Luff’s pole in qualifying helped him lead race one from the outset, but that didn’t last long after a challenge from Sam Heading in the opening laps ended when the pair tangled exiting Goddards hairpin early in the race, with Jordan Stilp also caught up in the incident too. With all three delayed, it allowed Andrew Rogerson to hit the front and never look back. On genuine pace, Rogerson held his own in the lead and took an emotional and popular first win, with Stilp’s slightly damaged car picking up second ahead of a first podium for Charlie Budd in third.
Rogerson wasted no time in race two to not only go back to the lead from pole, but keep Stilp at bay on genuine pace and it would be these two drivers that again took to the podium in the same order. While Rogerson took a second career Audi TT win, Heading looked on course for third place behind them, but a five second penalty for track limits handed the place to Ross Makar instead. Budd took fourth ahead of Luff in fifth.
Sam Meagher found himself on pole for race three, but would lose the lead to Luff by the end of the opening lap, a position that the championship leader wouldn’t relinquish for the duration of the race. A mid race safety car for a car off in the gravel at the Craner Curves bunched the pack together again, but Luff controlled the field on restart and resisted initial pressure from Ben Taylor to collect the win. Luff quickly escaped and held on to win, with Rogerson taking Taylor for second before the flag while Stilp and Meagher completed the top five.
The Nankang Tyre BMW SuperCup returned for its third outing of 2025 at Donington Park with great racing expected across both the 1 Series and Compact Cup classes. Both classes would now start a row apart from each other with the 1 Series cars setting off ten seconds before the Compacts, truly defining two separate races in one across the field.
Race one saw a lead battle in the 1 Series between Thorburn Astin and Simon Waterfall that latest for the entire race, the two cars barely separated from each other for the entire 15 minutes. The pair would stay in this order with Astin taking the win, while third placed looked on course to go to guest Martin Tolley before he pulled up with a mechanical issue. Millie Hart took the place instead, taking to the final podium spot. In the Compact Cup class, former champion Gareth Claydon managed to resist race long pressure from both defending champ Connor Grady and Joe Doble, with Mike Doble and Adam Wright completing the top five.
Waterfall briefly snatched the 1 Series lead at the start of race two, but resistance from Astin allowed him to reclaim it before lap one was done. Back in front, Astin again commanded the pace and led for the remainder of the 15 minutes, taking his second win of the day from Waterfall and Hart – a carbon copy of the race one top three. Over in the compacts, Grady managed to get away from a fight for second between Joe Doble and Claydon to pick up the victory, while that P2 battle eventually fell to Claydon who pulled away by a couple of seconds.
Present at Donington Park for their third outing of the season, the new BRSCC Pro Sports Sprint Series produced another excellent variety filled entry of cars, although a common theme at the head of the field was a gaggle of fast BMWs. However, bucking the trend was Luke Woodhouse’s VW Golf GTi Clubsport, which took pole and ended up leading Jas Sapra’s BMW throughout the entirety of race one. He clinched the victory ahead of Sapra, with the BMWs of Klaas Kooiker, Peter Moulsdale and John Cockerton completing the top five outright.
Race two saw a very intense lead fight between the front group, with Sapra grabbing the lead early but pressured by Kooiker, Woodhouse and the SEAT of David Lawrence. Eventually Woodhouse worked his way to the head of the pack and used the clear air to begin pulling away, leaving the trio behind to decide the podium spots. Woodhouse’s pace was more than enough to give him a second win of the day, with Kooiker second from Sapra, Oliver Faller and Lawrence in the top five.
Along with victories for Woodhouse (Class C), Kooiker (Class A) and both Peter Moulsdale and Stephen Kent sharing their BMW M2 (Class B), other class wins went the way of Lee Collins’ Caterham and the Renault Clio Cup car of Dave Tyson and Jared Coulson (Class F).
Kicking off the entire meeting’s action on Saturday at Donington Park, the SW Motorsports ClubSport Trophy brought a field at near capacity for the latest 45-minute pit stop encounter, with the front of the field very much looking like something of a Volkswagen benefit. Julian Daniel and Phiroze Bilimoria, both with one win each in 2025, took up the front row together with Daniel on pole.
Daniel ended up squeezed out wide at the start by Adam Marshall’s fast starting Golf, and he would lead the opening laps with Daniel trying to chase him down. Rain arrived a few minutes in making conditions tricky for many on track. A safety car was called right around the pit window which bunched things up as many made their mandatory stops in the window while it happened, but Daniel held the lead once the stops had been completed from Richard Clarke’s Renault Clio and Andrew Bond’s Honda Civic. Another safety car was scrambled after Elliot Walker’s MINI stopped at Starkeys, and on the restart it was up to Daniel to maintain the lead and wrap up the win. More rain fell in the final minutes, but the drama came on the final lap when Daniel ran wide at McLeans and lost places to Clarke and Alistair Lindsay’s Audi. It only took him a couple of corners to quickly get back ahead of both to snatch back the win. Clarke was second with Rory Pickles’ Audi TT completing the top three, followed by the Honda Civics of James Alford and Andrew Bond.
Alongside Daniel (Class A) and Clarke (Class B), other class wins throughout the field went to Craig Emmerson’s BMW 330 (Class C), Dan Rowson’s BMW Compact (Class D) and Richard Sutherland’s BMW Compact (Class E).
The two-hour PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup race at Donington Park produced another intriguing spectacle as nearly 30 cars took to the grid across all six featured classes, as the championship crossed the halfway point in the 2025 season.
A Pro-B class car took overall pole as Martin Gadsby and Ian Jones stuck their BMW Compact fastest of all in qualifying. They quickly managed to build up a lead of almost ten seconds in five laps, and they held on until they made their first mandatory pit stop. This would give the lead to the BMW E90 of Dave Griffin, and incredibly the pace he had underneath him was able to help build what would turn out to be an assailable lead.
Even though Griffin’s second stop came late in the window, he still rejoined 24 seconds ahead of second placed Chris Murphy’s BMW, and Griffin went on to extend his lead by a few more seconds to eventually take the flag by almost 30 seconds from eventual P2 finishers Peter Moulsdale and Stephen Kent, followed home by Murphy in third, Andrew and Chris Etheridge in their M3, and Alessandro Ballesteros in his Audi TT.
A bumper field turned out for the third Fix A Wheel Production Cup meeting of the season at Donington Park, with just shy of 30 entries taking to the GP circuit including six of the new Silverlake DS3 Cup cars in the field too. With this round bringing the biggest grid to date, the racing was certain to be fun and exciting.
Rich Hockley’s Honda Civic was in command from the very start, charging away from pole position with Jas Sapra’s E36 M3 and getting involved in a super fight in the opening stages. The pair remained together until the final minutes when a spin for Sapra at McLeans dropped him out of the race before the flag. He wasn’t the only front runner to hit trouble, as Hockley suffered issues of his own and retired on the final lap, handing victory instead to Robert Buckland’s Renault Clio. Victory came ahead of Paul Hoggins’ Audi TT, Oliver Barsby’s Honda Civic, Colin Dunn’s Clio and David Richardson’s TT.
Hoggins initially got the better of Buckland at the start of race two as the Audi and Renault initially battled with the Civic of Barsby in the opening laps, with Dunn and Ben Taylor’s Mk4 Mazda MX-5 also giving chase. Dunn made it up to third past Barsby and tried chasing the top two, but the leaders remained status quo until the chequered flag – Buckland took his second win ahead of Hoggins and Dunn, with Barsby and Richardson completely the top five.
The Silverlake DS3 Cup also featured on the Production Cup grid once again with six cars making up the group for the third outing of the year. Silverlake’s very own Allen Prebble marked his debut in the series in fine style with the win ahead of Ralph Budd and Theo Longman on the podium, followed by Stefan Oates and Dave Tyson in the top five. Prebble was unable to take the start of race two, leaving Longman to collect the DS3 win in race two, ahead of Tyson, Oates and Jake Brook.
A pair of rather intriguing and entertaining races came from the MG Cockshoot Cup as they contested their second event of 2025, and a solid field of classic and modern machinery took to Donington Park’s GP circuit.
Initially, it looked as though dominant Oulton Park winner Keith Egar was going to dominate once again with his MG Midget, but soon enough was closed down and passed by Paul Wignall in his powerful ZS. Once through, Wignall never looked back and charged to his first win of the season, almost 20 seconds ahead of Egar, Karl Green’s ZS, David Morrison and Peter Bramble’s MGB in the top five. Mark Bellamy won Class A after Leon Wignall dropped out late, Martin Richardson took Class B and Phil Rigby was trouble free in Class F.
The second race wasn’t quite as straightforward for Paul Wignall, as he found himself duelling with the MGF of Christopher Greenbank. The two cars seems relatively evenly matched early on, but Greenbank edged away bit by bit as the race progressed. At the chequered flag, Greenback was the victor, but was denied his moment to celebrate post race after his car ground to a halt on the post-race cooldown lap. Wignall took second from Egar, Green and Eliza Seville’s MGF, while Leon Wignall survived this time and won Class A, along with other class wins for Richardson and Rigby.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
