Donington Park Sunday 15th October 2017
Kicking off the day, bright and early at 9.05am was the first of two races for the Fiesta Junior Championship. The market for 14-17 year old drivers to try their hand at circuit racing is a curious one, watching youngsters race around while still not legally able to drive on the public highway. With 12 entries, it is a crowded market these days for the precocious teenager to choose from. New for 2017 Clio Junior plus the more established Junior Saloons and Ginetta Junior championships all trying to encourage parents and sponsors to part with the cash to go racing.
Nicholas Reeve won both races on this day, the second of which was red-flagged due to an incident at the Chicane and subsequently restarted.
The Alfa Romeo Championship is sadly a pale shadow of its former self these days but thankfully managed to garner a decent entry for Donington. The Modified Alfa 156's of Barry and Roger McMahon finished first and second in the days only Alfa race. A race that saw the Safety-Car circulate for several laps due to 2 cars off at McLeans.
3 split races for an enormous 69 car entry for the Mazda MX5 Championship were the cornerstone of the day and, as always, provided some very good racing. The last race was the very last of the day and took place in very gloomy conditions and the chequered flag flew at 6.22pm!
The reason for the late finish was due to delays from the previous race for the Fiesta Championship. Following an excellent first race of the day, won by Josh Gollin's ST version, the second race was unfathomably started without a Green Flag lap, presumably to try and save time. 32 hot hatchbacks....cool conditions....cold tyres = carnage through the Craner Curves. There were cars off everywhere and with Lee Dendy-Sadler inverted up against the tyre wall, the red lags flew. The restart was also stopped prematurely near the end due to an off at Schwantz curve.
The Mazda MX5 Supercup for the Japanese marque's Mk3 version of the open top sportscar has taken off dramatically in the last couple of years. 36 cars took the start for the one and only race on Sunday and indeed the Supercup is to feature as a support series in 2018 on the UK TCR Championship package. Jack Harding wining a race that saw a tense battle for overall championship honours that went the way of Luke Herbert.
The Historic Racing Drivers Club (HRDC) had 3 separate races formed from its portfolio of various series. Just 14 Jaguar's for the Coombs Heritage Challenge which was dominated by John Young in his Mk1.
The 45 minute Touring Greats/TC63 was more entertaining. 33 starters which included lots of Austin A40's and A35's. The A40 of Mike & Andrew Jordan somewhat bizarrely retired at exactly the same spot (just past Starkeys Bridge) in both qualifying and the race! Jordan Senior apparently fixing the problem in the race by borrowing a Marshal's pen...and went on his merry way soon after. The same Mk1 Jaguar that won the Coombs Heritage Challenge also won this particular race with John Young sharing with Nigel Webb this time.
Rounding off the HRDC trio was a 30 minute Academy Allstars A-Series Challenge race. 36 starters for this and a wide variety of machinery on show, such as a Daimler Dart, Tornado Talisman along with buzzing Minis and Austins. The very well driven Lotus Cortina of Peter Chambers taking the flag.
So that was the end of the car racing season at Donington for 2017. The meeting itself only just got completed before total darkness set in and the BRSCC need to look at introducing a little more urgency into their ambitious timetables. Towards the end of the day cars were being flagged off at Redgate following the chequered flag but this hadn't happened earlier in the day. The decision not to give the Fiestas a green flag lap was a bad one, trying to save a couple of minutes cost 20 ultimately. Grumbles aside this was a good days racing even if The Spectator spent most of the day freezing as he, somewhat foolishly, had listened to a forecast that suggested temperatures nudging towards 20 degrees. Nudging 10 degrees more like and I must remember that it's October after all and wear gloves for my next meeting!
Admission on the gate was £15 with £2 DPRAC discount and I didn't purchase a programme having printed the entries off the BRSCC website.
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