DONINGTON DOWNPOUR!
All the competitors had their skills tested by some tricky driving conditions at Donington. Photo: www.snappyracers.com
The poor weather that afflicted most of the country last weekend did not spare the Grand Prix circuit at Donington Park, where competitors and marshals alike had to contend with what could best be described as ‘inclement’ conditions.
Due to a huge Supersport entry of 40 cars, the drivers where split into three groups to accommodate everyone with the A group racing against B, then B versus C, then finally C against A. All three races produced different winners in the form of James Robinson, Steve Day and Jon Mortimer. Day and Mortimer also scored a third place finish each but Mortimer garnered the most points courtesy of a fastest lap to head the points table.
The first 90-minute Britcar Endurance Championship race produced a win for the Neil Garner Motorsport pairing of Javier Morcillo and Manuel Cintrano, who crossed the line in their Mosler MT900 two laps ahead of Mike Millard’s Rapier. Darren Nelson and Nigel Greensall’s Ferrari 458 was third but on Sunday they moved up two places to win from Franck Pelle and Peter Cook with David Mason and Callum Lockie third.
The podium honours were shared around in the Avon Tyres Caterham Roadsports, with Will Smith the only driver to make both podiums. Will won Saturday’s race from championship leader Chris Hutchinson and Timothy Dickens. Sunday, however, belonged to Tunbridge Wells’ Jack Sales who beat Smith to the line by just over two seconds with Lee Bristow third.
The three Britcar Trophy Series races saw James Macintyre-Ure take the chequered flag on each occasion in his BMW E46. Arjo Ghosh (Porsche Boxster) also made the podium for all three races were he was joined by Alyn James (Honda Civic) twice and Kevin Riley (Mosler MT900) in the final race.
Aaron Head and David Robinson were two main protagonists in the BookaTrack.com Caterham Superlight R300 Championship, each claiming a race win with the other second. Guest driver Matt Parry impressed in taking third in the first race and Terry Langley made some amends for a DNF in the first outing with P3 in the second. Danny Winstanley maintains a slim championship lead courtesy of two fourth places.
Fortune favoured the brave in Caterham Tracksports were Peter Fortune reasserted his title credentials with back-to-back wins. Arch rival Stephan Nuttall was second in the first tour just ahead of Mike Evans. The newcomer from Birmingham proved that was no fluke by also making the podium in Sunday’s race, but this time moving up a place to second ahead of Spanish youngster Andres Sinclair. After four rounds Fortune and Nuttall are now tied at the summit of the points table with 94 each.
Ian Stapleton came away from the Alfashop Alfa Romeo double-header with the biggest points haul, having driven his Alfetta GTV6 to comfortable victories in both races. Class B’s Darelle Wilson was Ian’s closest challenger in each race with third spot shared between Class C’s Roger Evans in race one and Graham Seager in race two.
All the results and data can be found at DONINGTON RESULTS
