Club News

Formula Vee

Gareth Evans was unable to race at Donington Park due to a broken down fork lift which was in the way of the car and they were unable to get the car out of the garage.

Race 1

Paul Smith took a lights-to-flag victory after his fellow front row starter Graham Gant had to start from the pit lane and third place starter Martin Farmer made a poor start. Ian Jordan ran in an impressive second position before having a spin at the Gerard’s hairpin on the fourth lap. Farmer worked his way up from the bottom of the top 10 to clinch second ahead of Pete Belsey, with Jordan recovering to fourth. A good scrap for fifth developed which was won by Daniel Pitchford ahead of Keith Farrance and Craig Pollard. Steve Ough was involved in the battle but retired towards the end of the race.

Race 2

Smith took yet another lights-to-flag which secured his sixth win of the season. Farmer made a better start second time around and moved ahead of Gant and managed to stay there to finish in second. Farmer did chase down winner Smith to finish within two second of the winner. A race long scrap between Pitchford and Jordan occurred for fourth where the two of them swapped places multiple times until Pitchford had contact with back marker Greg O’Shea which took them both out of the race. Behind Jordan, Keith Farrance completed the top five. Ben Miloudi had a strong race to finish ninth after not setting a lap time in qualifying, meanwhile Ben Anderson’s bad luck continued as he retired from both races.

Sports Specials

Race 1

The pole Eclipse of Clive Hudson was unable to make the start of the race, which allowed the Caterham R400 of Ben Shalders to take a dominant victory. A battle raged between Rob Johnston and Paul Boyd for second where Johnston passed Boyd into the Melbourne hairpin on the final lap but Boyd made a move back on him to retake second and the victory in class A. Nigel Brown was running in fourth place but dropped back on the penultimate lap which allowed Anton Landon to clinch fourth ahead of Wayne Rothwell. Paul Cooper took the class B win. Meanwhile Patrick Mortell made it no further than the start line as he had a broken driveshaft.

Race 2

Hudson took up his pole position in the second encounter, nevertheless Shalders stormed into the race lead which he would never loose. Hudson finished behind him in second and won his class. Once again Johnston and Boyd were involved in a race long battle, this time for third, once again Boyd managed to beat his rival. A strong start for Steve Quenby moved him up into fourth in the early stages but fell back to ninth allowing Rothwell to finish in fifth ahead of Brown and Landon. Colin Benham won class B in his STM Phoenix.

Roadsports

Alric Kitson took the early advantage as he pulled away in his modified Toyota MR2 ahead of the modified MR2’s of Rob Horsfield and the shared car of Paul Cunningham and Andrew Ruthven. A battle between the fourth MR2 of Patrick Mortell and the Mazda MX5 of Mike Comber went ON for fourth until a wire had snapped in the MX5  putting it down to three cylinders. In the meantime, Nicholas Perks span the JM Littman Porsche Boxster into the gravel on the exit of the Craner Curves which brought out the Safety Car for the first time at a 750 Motor Club event.

Horsfield made the most of the SC period and jumped into the race lead which he would never loose. Meanwhile early leader Kitson dropped behind the Mortell machine. Kitson drove hard to move back into second place and despite a problem where the car slowed Kitson stayed ahead of the Class B winning Simon Phillips in the MR2 started by Mortell. Matt Cherrington and Sean Cooper finished fifth as the best non-MR2 in their BMW Z3 which had brake problems in qualifying behind class C winners Alexander and Rory Bagnall.

John Dickson won the race overall and the SR&GT part of the race after making a tactical pit stop to get ahead of the MGB GTV8 of John Wilson. Neil Plant finished in third.