Donington Park Sunday 16th October 2016
Caterhams and their many forms were the headline act for the weekend at Donington. I only attended on the Sunday of the 2-day meeting and Saturday had seen the first race in double-headers for all the Caterham championships plus a couple of Historic Racing Drivers Club races that were only out on Saturday.
The weather forecast for Sunday morning looked horrendous but, with the season quickly heading to it's conclusion, it was time to dust off the waterproofs and just get out and (try) and enjoy it! Thankfully by about 10.30am it had stopped raining and although qualifying had seen a few incidents on a very wet circuit, it was on a rapidly drying Donington tarmac that racing got under way.
The 5 races for Caterham's during the day were for Superlight R300, Supersport, Tracksport, Roadsport and Academy Autumn Trophy. The numerous Championships provide a step-ladder for a marque whose car provides some very close racing. The Superlight R300 sits atop the ladder and the days 30 minute race saw a safety car start due to an oil spill in the previous race, meaning that one side of the grid was dry and the other was wet as jet washers had been used to clear the spill up! The single file start meaning Lee Wiggins simply cleared off into the distance once he'd disposed of poleman Danny Winstanley but was inexorably caught by Aaron Head who had started 22nd on the grid with Head finishing just 0.6 secs behind in the end.
The Supersports had a big grid of 36 cars and saw Jack Brown triumph in a race that saw an early safety car for a car off at Schwantz Curve.
There were only 15 Tracksports but they provided the best Caterham race of the day with a great lead battle seeing Donald Henshall win his first ever Tracksport race and a fantastic 6 car squabble for 3rd position...this was "old style" Caterham racing with inches separating cars throughout.
The Roadsports got a little unlucky as the clock was started on their race on the green flag lap to help the timetable catch up. Andrew Perry winning the 10 lap race.
A huge field of 37 Academy drivers took part in an end of season Autumn Trophy. The Academy has been a very successful way for novice drivers to start racing and a very clever way for Caterham to entice drivers into their portfolio of Championships. Jay McCormack emerging from the scrum to take home the Autumn Trophy.
As for the days non-Caterham racing, the very wet morning qualifying sessions saw some mixed up grids on offer. The Honda V-Tec/Smart 4Two Cup had two very different races. Richard Hockley's Civic winning an opener that took place on a treacherous surface.. a mixture of moisture provided by rain and the contents of Jeff Cooper's CRX engine that deposited something on the circuit that led to the circuit being jet washed in a lunchbreak that was brought forward to avoid delays to the timetable. Whatever the problem was for Cooper's CRX couldn't have been that serious as he won the days second race later in the day. This was a cracker of a race that featured several leaders and some very good racing--indeed i'd vote it Race of the Day! I'm still unconvinced by the Smart Car as a Racing car...Not enough of them to have their own series plus they lack a certain presnce on the racetrack in my opinion.
The Production Golf GTi Championship saw 2 races each for both Mk5 and Mk2 versions. The days only red flag saw an enormous roll at the Old Hairpin for Matthew Petts in the first Mk2 race following contact in the Craner Curves. A slightly less bruising second race was very good with Adam Hance edging Nick Porter by just 0.605 secs at the flag. With only 8 Mk5's starting, both races started brightly but soon became less than interesting. I'm not quite sure why the grids were split but let's hope for more Mk5's to be on the grid in 2017.
21 cars started the pair of Monoposto Tiedeman Trophy races. A wet qualifying saw the very well driven Van Diemen Formula Renault of Shane Kelly on pole, beating the more powerful F3 spec cars, similar to his giant-killing at Mallory Park a few weeks previously. Come race time though the track was dry and Jason Timms motorcycle engined Dallara F311 winning race one but retiring in race two handing the win to the Dallara F302 of Neil Harrison. As always in Monoposto there were some "interesting" driving standards on display with one or two drivers nearly getting wiped out at the Old Hairpin!
So that was the end of racing for the year at my spiritual home of Donington Park. An enjoyable days racing was a fitting end to the year. Admission was £15 with £2 DPRAC discount and I didn't buy a programme as entries were printed off from the BRSCC website.
Comments
Post a Comment