These MG Trophy rounds sure are coming thick and fast! Following quickfire races at Oulton Park and Silverstone, we made our way to Donington Park on what felt like the hottest weekend of the year. Perfect for topping up your tan, not so much for quick lap times.
Still, Donington is an incredible circuit with fast corners, huge elevation changes and the unique thrill of seeing an East Midlands Airport bound 747 swing low over the track as you head out of the Old Hairpin. Coming into these rounds we had a 9-point lead in the class B championship, yet no opportunity for drop scores thanks to the engine failure at Oulton. The pressure was on, then, to deliver solid points and stay in the championship hunt.
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Race 1 – Serious crash cuts short round 7
Following struggles with grip levels and the outright balance of the car in qualifying, I couldn’t get near my Friday testing times of mid 1:23s so had to settle with a P5 and P4 start in each race respectively. However, with the grids so tightly packed I was only a few feet behind Fergus starting P1 in class.
Sure enough, after a lightning launch I was battling for P2 at the first corner and in a great position to crash the top 3 party. Unfortunately, my joy was short-lived. Contact from the no.36 car on my right rear wheel pitched me broadside and, despite rescuing it from a full spin, left me down in P8 with a huge amount of work to do.
Over the next few laps I managed to pull some excellent moves on Jack Chapman, Patrick Booth and, finally, Josh Bromley (the latter being a late dive into McLeans), elevating me to P4 at the halfway point. Sadly, though, this was to be the end of my (and everyone else’s) race as a dramatic coming together with the no.36 and no.23 cars led to a red flag and premature race end just past the halfway point.
Thankfully, both drivers involved in the incident were OK (a testament to the quality of the cars and modern safety technology), yet from a purely selfish point of view I was disappointed not to have been able to have pushed on from P4. The final results showed me coming home in P5 thanks to the red flag rules dictating that standings be taken from the previous lap. Understandable, but still hugely disappointing.
Race 2 – Battling with limited straight-line speed
Moving onto race 2 I was confident of a top 3 finish if I could keep my nose clean through the first lap. The pace, even if not as ballistic as previous rounds, was there and I knew the sweltering heat (over 30 degrees) would play a factor.
Once again, I got an impressive start off the line and jumped up to P3 with Josh Bacon and Fergus Campbell (P2 and P1) firmly in my sights. However, coming up the hill from the Old Hairpin and down Starkey’s Straight it was clear something wasn’t right. The car had felt competitive in a straight line at Brands, Oulton and Silverstone, yet here we were losing ground. Having been swallowed up by both Tylor Ballard and Jack Chapman, I could see a huge battle developing behind and new I couldn’t afford to engage in a jostle for position with the latter.
Following in Chapman’s slipstream I managed to pull a reasonable gap to Patrick Booth (newly entered into Class B from Class A). However, it was clear that any kind of overtake would be tricky to hold given the 3 large straights at Donington. But then…
Safety car. This would either be extremely good or extremely bad news for my race result. On the one hand the bunched-up field would mean I had an outside chance of making up a couple of positions, yet the opposite was also possible. Patrick Booth and a trail of more class B cars would be right behind and ready to take advantage.
As the safety car went in I tried to get a clean run at Jack in the no.8 car, yet my plan didn’t work and I’d misjudged the restart. At least it looked like Patrick had done the same behind. Another safe but unspectacular 5th place finish looked a relative certainty, but as Jack tried to find a way past Josh Bacon in 3rd, I was able to close the gap and finish just 0.5 seconds behind 2nd place Fergus Campbell at the line.
Given the power struggles I had to be pleased with 5th, yet I couldn’t hide my disappoint at how the weekend had gone overall. Still, on a positive note we go into the final round with an excellent shot at the class B championship, just 2 points behind Fergus and level with Tylor despite the DNF and DNS at Oulton. No doubt a great achievement in my first championship season.
As always, I’ve got to say a huge thanks to the MGCC, Donington Park, everyone that came to watch, Paul Streather Motorsport and my fellow racers for another weekend of motorsport. Bring on Snetterton!
And by the way, if you’d like to come and watch the season finale, click here to purchase tickets (note the Trophy is only racing on the Saturday).
The latest championship standings can be found here.
Brilliant pics provided by Dickon Siddall.
