BRSCC 2024 DONINGTON PARK SUMMER RACE WEEKEND

With summer well and truly with us and the 2024 season in full swing, the BRSCC continues its jam-packed June of club motorsport with a visit to Donington Park on the cards this weekend. Racing on the full Grand Prix layout over both days, the timetable is a feast of variety with both endurance and sprint racing which covers tin-tops, sportscars, single seaters and more, all of which sporting excellent grids too.

Starting with the endurance elements of this weekend, Donington Park marks the second outing of the year for the Silverlake C1 Endurance Series. Their opening round was back in April at Snetterton and after the unfortunate cancellation of the C1 24 Hours at Anglesey, the appetite to get back on track is clear. For this weekend, there’s a practically sold out entry of over 50 teams lining up for the three hour race on Sunday and it features many of the familiar and usual suspects.

Series regulars such as Trojon Motorsport, Emax Motorsport, Quattro Formaggio, Silverlake, WRC Developments, CSC Racing/ FDL Packaging, BPC Motorsport and Scuderia Pollo Rosso are all raring to go and they’ll certainly be joined by a few new squads looking to make their mark and have fun. Also in the line up will be an appearance from the Gen 2 Citroen C1 Endurance race cars, one of which entered in support of the Driven Minds organisation – Richard Walker, Morgan Kidd and Emilia Vincent will pilot this car, all of which are Champions of Driven Minds themselves.

On Saturday, the long distance racing comes in the form of the PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup, which also heads to Donington Park sporting a magnificent entry. Just over 40 cars are due to be on the grid, one of the biggest and well supported this season. Cars are represented in all six classes, ready to tackle two hours of racing with mandatory pit stops, driver changes and refuelling.

All six of the class leading teams are out in action to defend their leads, with the George Grant/ Rob Boston/ Abbie Eaton Mazda MX-5 in Clubman-B the outright SuperSport points leaders. With a field that consists of regular clubman machinery such as BMW M3s, Honda Civics, Renault Clios and MINIs, right through to more unique machinery such as Porsches, Lotus Elises and even a Morgan Plus Four in the mix too, this should be quite the spectacle come Saturday afternoon.

A slightly shorter test of endurance also takes place in the form of the SW Motorsports ClubSport Trophy, the ever popular 45-minute pit stop race series, and there’s another sold out grid in store here too. The field is full of the usual mix of regular entrants, local favourites and new faces getting involved and its certainly going to be busy on track both in qualifying and the race.

Some of the favourites to go for outright victory certainly have to be some of the fastest cars appearing in the entry. No strangers to ClubSport, David May’s Nissan 370Z, Jamie Hadley’s VW Golf and James Alford’s Audi TT should be contenders from the outset, but the competition will be fierce across each of the five classes. Expect this one to be frenetic and unpredictable all the way to the flag.

The sprint races are sure to be just as intriguing and exciting too – the Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup & Student Motorsport Challenge goes to Donington Park with a grid that’s exactly as large as that which contested their first ever championship race back in 2021. 38 cars are due to line up, with Stuart Bliss’ championship lead cut down to just two points courtesy of Richard Jepp taking his first outright CityCar win last time at Oulton Park. It’s also close between Joe Moss and Joshua Jackson with two points separating them in third and fourth, with Jack Wheeler a further three back in fifth.

There’s already a sizeable gap forming in the Student Motorsport Challenge table as Team Northbrook Racing lead once again courtesy of Jepp’s four wins so far. 22 points is the margin to Queen Ethelburga’s QE Motorsport 2 team in second, while West Suffolk College ME and East Surrey College are tied for third place ahead of Queen Ethelburga’s second car. Boston College, Barracksport and City College Norwich will all be hoping to mix it for podiums, especially the latter with 2023 CityCar champ Elliot Lettis at the wheel.

Single seaters join the bill in the form of the Super Classic Pre ‘99 Formula Ford Championship on a circuit that is conducive to fantastic racing. Donington Park has always been a hotspot for Formula Ford racing and with a grid that spans just over 30 years of the category, there’s no less than seven different chassis constructors represented on the grid.

Tom Hawkins, Richard Freye, Paul Mason, Vincent Jay and Neil Hunt represent the youngest cars in the field in Super Classic A and are certain to be up the front, but don’t count out the older chassis either. The likes of Stuart Kestenbaum, Andrew Schofield and Chris Stones should be the ones to beat in Super Classic B, Colin Williams, Paul Britten and Jonathan Nash will duke it out for Super Classic C, and Oliver Buckton will square off against Ian Fernihough in Super Classic D.

The ever eclectic field of the BRSCC Evolution Trophy will have all four of its developing categories represented at Donington, with the Ricci Concept Classic VW Cup, Finsport Renault Cup, BMW 1 Series SuperCup and Mazda MX-5 Mk4 Trophy all ready to battle it out amongst both themselves and the rest of the grid.

The Classic VW Cup ranks feature the usual great mix of Volkswagens and VAG Group cars such as Audis and SEATs, while a quartet of Renault Clios are joined in the Finsport Renault Cup ranks for the first time this season by the Megane RS250 of Matt Dennis from Puretrack. There’s also a pair of BMW 1 Series SuperCup cars due to line up too, along with the sole Mk4 MX-5 of Ben Taylor to complete the set.

The Hickford Construction MG Metro Cup sports its best entry of the season this weekend with 18 cars, proving that the ever popular championship for these little pocket rockets continues to attract both new and established drivers. Donington Park should be especially entertaining as a fast and flowing circuit such as this will definitely provide them with a great chance to showcase what these little Metros can really do.

At this early stage, two wins and two seconds places have gone the way of championship leader Robbie Kenning, who will be hoping to extend that advantage further with a brace of wins this weekend. Dick Trevett and Jon Moore are this season’s other winners and they will both be hoping to keep the pressure up on Kenning, while the likes of Matthew Simpson, Mike Williams, Phil Goodwin and Tim Shooter will be trying hard to throw themselves into the mix too.

There’s never a small grid when it comes to the Modified Ford Series and this weekend is no different as the dedicated series for all things Blue Oval is back on a BRSCC timetable for the first time in several weeks. Unsurprisingly, the grid is stacked full of fast Fords spanning a wide range of models and specifications up and down the entry list, so this is another grid where variety is plenty.

Amongst some of the fastest machinery on the grid, favourites for overall victory will certainly be Dave Cockell’s rapid Escort Cosworth, the Sierra RS500 of Stephen Scott-Dunwoodie, the Escort Cosworth Maxi of Lloyd Jamieson, ex-BTCC racer Lea Wood in a Mk1 Escort RSR, Piers Grange’s Mk2 Escort, Jason Davies’ Sierra Sapphire Cosworth and James Allen in his ex-Time Attack Mk2 Focus RS. All of them have proven to be formidable machines and we anticipate that this weekend, it will be no different.

Also bringing plenty of speed and power will be the sports prototypes of the ZEO Prototype Series, touching down at Donington with some of the fastest cars you’ll see racing on the timetable this weekend. A series dedicated to welcome all kinds of sports racing cars of all shapes and sizes, Donington’s naturally flowing corners will certainly mean the cars get a chance to stretch their legs and use all of the performance.

Mike Jenvey again stands out as the favourite in his Jenvey-Gunn, having proven to be a regular race winner in this series no matter the competition. Speaking of which, he’s set to line up against a Praga in the hands of Thomas Canning, two Revolutions as part of the Sports Prototype Cup with one driven by Sir Chris Hoy, Joe Lock’s Spire, Max Windheuser’s Norma and the usual mass of Radicals that typically populate the grids here.

Written by Scott Woodwiss