Donington Park rounds 11/12 2012

Having missed Anglesey to save money it was straight back to Donington park for rounds 11/12

Qualifying 

Having missed the tannoy call for the mr2 championship I was sat right at the back of the pack for qualifying. I decided to bed my new brakes in on lap 1 then back off and find a decent gap.
It turned out I was a fair bit faster than those around me so when ever I tried to find a gap I would close in on the car in front before the 2nd fast lap started. So I never got into a decent rythem however I still qualified 5th and 7th and both grid spots were on the inside for turn 1 so qualifying was actually pretty good!

Race 1

so starting 5th. I got an ok jump off the line it could have been better and probably should have been but I was 6th on the exit of the 1st corner so it wasn’t too bad. In the early laps Guy Hefford and Matt Wallis both had spins but I also lost a place to Jim Davis so I was sat in 6th place.  As the race wore on I got into a battle with Jim Davies and George Robinson for 4th place. The car started to loose acceleration  which was very noticeable when exiting red gate so I lost touch with Jim and George slightly but then I spotted some steam coming out of the engine bay going into the final chicane i looked at the engine temp and it was far too high. so I bailed into the pits. So that was a DNF unfortunately.

Race 2

Starting 7th I got a much better jump off the line but Jim alongside me in his mk3 got a much better launch so I stayed in 7th place. Paul Hinson fell off the track at the end of the 1st lap promoting me to 6th overall (5th in class) I was on the back on Matt Wallis and it took me 2 laps to get past. Dummied at the final chicane forcing Matt to get a worse run into Redgate, going for the outside line and the cut back I got the pass done well before we entered Hollywood. So I was in 5th (4th in class) with a fairly big gap to Guy and George to close up but thankfully they were in a bit of a battle so it only took a couple of laps for me to join them.

I tried to stay out of trouble and was waiting for the best chance to do the pair as it was the battle for 2nd in class and matt palmer was a bit out of reach to think I was able to close in and possibly win the race. Unfortunately for Guy his car went up in smoke going through hollywood and into crainers. This promoted me to 3rd in class (4th overall) how ever i didn’t get a chance to challenge George for 2nd as the red flag got put out and the race was finished there.

So my 1st championship podium was a great way to finish off the days racing. The new brakes were alot better than the previous set and it took me most of the day to realise how much I could lean on them so hopefully I will be able to go a couple of places better at Mallory now that I’m used to them!

 The video of race 2 can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8X48Wwgt0Y