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Donnington Park contains one of the most challenging sets of corners in the race calendar – the famous craner curves. This was Gary’s first visit to the track so he was unsure how to best attack this unforgiving set of bends.
Qualifying went well, with Gary quickly learning that you could take all 3 corners flat out if you clipped the apexes properly – this left little room for error though, as if an apex was missed a trip to the grass, gravel or barrier was almost certain!
Gary qualified a respectable 7th but felt he could have done better with more track time and given that most of the session was run under a yellow flag as Steve Cheetham had overshot into the gravel and the marshals could not get his car removed.
The race went far better – Gary had a fantastic start, sliding through the middle of Paul Bainbridge and Phil Hatswell and up to 4th place into the first corner. He was also able to almost stay with Carl Powell, Will Disdale and Steve Cheetham in the first 3 places, so the car is performing much better and is almost there. The middle part of the race saw both Phil and Paul attempt passes but they eventually dropped back and Paul retired with a broken exhaust. Unfortunately the same fate was to fall on Gary’s car – the exhaust started to blow badly about 4 laps from the end and he was losing power – this let Martin Todd catch him and despite a frantic battle, he eventually got past on the entrance to craner.
Martin said after the race that Gary must have ‘balls of steel’ to slide his car round the inside of the first corner to hold his position the way he did and then to follow him down craner sideways at well over 100mph!!!
Paul Bainbridge’s retirement now means Gary is in 4th plce in the championship with 1 round remaining
Report By Gary Duckman |
