Britcar: Donington Park round up
Updated: Jul 25, 2018
Double victories for MacG Racing and Team Hard Racing.
Race 1
Starting from pole the Taranis of Jonny MacGregor managed to hang onto the lead after the FF Corse Ferrari of Ross Wylie made him work for it, after battling hard before the Taranis managed to stick it out through the Craners and maintain the advantage.
Behind, trouble ensured for the two Porsches of Dave Benett and Peter Cunningham. Benett's Porsche suffered clutch issues and Cunningham's was stuck in gear.
Out in front the Taranis was pulling out a lead while in second the FF Corse Ferrari was having trouble. After numerous stops and trying different ways of fixing the issue, the team decided to retire the car and get it ready for the second race.
The battle for second was now between the Ferrari of John Seale and Porsche of Michael Igoe, the pair swapping places and stayed together until the pit stops.
Track Focused had two KTM X-Bows and were running together in formation. Behind they had the Tockwith Motorsport Ginetta of Ed Moore trying to get in on the action, but unfortunately for the Tockwith team, they had to retire the car after Marmaduke Hall had taken over.
Once all the pit stops had taken place and everything shaken out, MacGregor was now enjoying an 11s lead over Seale who was back in front again of the Porsche of Igoe/Wilcox. Despite the best efforts of Wilcox, Seale finished second behind the dominant Taranis of MacGregor. Fourth was the Class 4 BMW M4 of Kristian Prosser and Jon Watt.
Fifth, and in turn winners of the Endurance Category, was the Team HARD Racing Ginetta of Darron Lewis and Adam Hatfield. The team had an eventful start to the weekend, the Lewis/Hatfield Ginetta had clutch and gearbox issues while Sam Randon (deputising for Tom Barley) had an off during testing and badly damaged the car. The team had to go back to HQ, via a hardware store and get spare parts and finished repairing the Ginettas at 5am! A cautious start to the day in qualifying meant the #285 Ginetta started in 17th. Lewis pitted in 12th and Hatfield then had to do the rest.
Second in the Endurance Category went to the Track Focused KTM of Mike McCollum/Sean Cooper while completing the podium was the sister Team HARD Ginetta of Rudd/Ranson. Huge reward for the team after the state of the cars at the end of the test session. Race 2
With the Taranis starting again out front, Jonny MacGregor had to make good in the early laps as Class 1 rival, FF Corse Ferrari who were starting at the back, soon made their way through the field and by lap 6 were challenging for the lead. Lap 10 and the Ferrari made its move and was now out in front.
Darron Lewis in his Ginetta was leading the Endurance class when trouble struck and had to retire. Others too were suffering with issues, Track Focused had to raid their parts to repair suspension damage, while cars were stranded at the chicane and others managing to limp to the pits. With the stranded cars, the safety car was sent out so the marshals could retrieve those who were stuck. The Sprint runners couldn't make the most of this as nearly all of them had made their stops. MacGregor though hadn't stopped and used this to his advantage and made his stop.
With eight minutes left on the Sprint Class clock, the safety car pulled in and MacGregor held on to take a second win of the day. Behind, the FF Corse Ferrari missed out on second place as Wilcox had overtaken the Ferrari on the last lap. Not a bad result for the FF Corse team considering they started at the back of the grid.
Attention was now on the Endurance catergory as they still had over an hour left to race. Out in front was the #24 Team HARD Ginetta of Rudd/Randon. Rudd rejoined after the pitstops from taking over from Randon two laps ahead of the rest of the field. Further behind the Syncro Honda team pitted with the left rear hanging off the rim. Trouble for Tockwith Motorsport in their pitstop meant it was longer than usual stop for Sarah Moore/Matt Greenwood.
At the flag it was a win for the #24 Team Hard Ginetta, huge reward for the team after repairing the Gineatta overnight, 2 laps ahead of the Track Focused KTM X-Bow of Sandy and Ross McEwen. Third was the Class 4 Porsche of Gleb Stepanovs/Matt Topham. The sister KTM finished in seventh, 13 laps behind, after the team managed to repair the suspension.
The next race is at Snetterton on September 8th.
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