The National layout of Donington Park hosted Round Five of the Championship, providing a fast-paced and demanding challenge for drivers. Renowned for its flowing corners and rich motorsport heritage, it was going to be important as we reached the crunch end of the season.
A dry circuit greeted us for the usual practice into qualifying session. Paul was first out in our usual driver order. I watched his onboard laps from our in car live stream and could tell that traffic was going to be a big problem on the short layout circuit. As always the Team Brit crew performed a brilliant driver change as I got behind the wheel for the final bit of practice. I quickly pushed to get up to pace but was struggling on the older tyres we used in practice. I pitted for my fresh set of qualifying rubber and quickly got up to pace. I was setting consistent mid 1 minute 11 lap times but could not find the ultimate speed that I needed. My best lap time put me third in class on the grid for the race. However I knew in my heart that I could do better so it was all to play for in the race.
The Donington race weekend was shared with the Convoy in the park Truck racing weekend. On my way to the grid to the race start I took in the pure amount of trucks and amusements which were on. It was really cool to see. As the lights went out to start the race I used the Mclaren’s straight line speed to move alongside the second place car. This put me on the outside for turn one though where some cement dust had been laid which reduced grip. I cautiously held the outside line and avoided some contact in the middle of the track. I made the overtake work before needing to slow to avoid another spinning car at the final corner. I quickly got back up to speed but after the opening lap the gap to the class leader was quite significant. I pushed as hard as I could over the next few laps to close up. By lap nine I was right on his tail and scoping out which part of the track I would be able to overtake on. It quickly became clear I had a significant speed advantage on the straight. I lined up my move into turn one and hit the brakes but the lead driver turned into the corner. We made contact at the apex which gave me a puncture and steering damage. After a slow lap due to the puncture I pitted for a new tyre. I returned to the track and pushed as hard as I could and was lapping the same as the class leader, but the steering damage was preventing me from being faster. We swapped drivers at the mid point of the race as usual. When behind the wheel, Paul pushed the damage car as much as he could. His pace was very consistent but was hindered. We pulled off an amazing recovery to finish third in class which was a deserved outcome for the resilience we both showed in the race. Another consistent podium kept us in the hunt to win the class D championship too. It was all to play for in the final round at Snetterton