dbRacing - Donington Park Race Report 11/12th August 2001

Race Report - 11th/12th August 2001

The Circuit

Donington Park is probably my favourite circuit in the UK. Having held the European Grand Prix in 1993, its facilities and track layout are among the best, with the wonderfully fast and courageous Craner curves, blind Coppice and deceptive Redgate corner.

Practice - Saturday

As seems to be becoming a regular pattern this year, rain arrived about 20 minutes before we were due to go out on the track. A quick change to wets and some suspension adjustments were made before we ventured onto the circuit. Donington suffers from its proximity to East Midlands airport, and the aviation fuel residues were very apparent, as was the lack of grip. The session was red flagged after Roger Farsons car set on fire following an oil leak. The marshalls were quick to hand with an extinguisher, and the fire was put out before any serious damage could be caused. At that point I was lying 13th, and needed to find another 5 seconds to move up to 6th.

When practice restarted I set about reducing the deficit, and managed to get the times down enough for 7th place at one point. However as the track was drying I found I had an oversteer problem which meant other people posted faster times for their final laps and I ended up 13th.

Race - Sunday

It rained ! - and it was going to be a busy race

I was alongside Colin Ingram in the other GT on the grid. This meant that if we were not careful in getting off the line there was a good chance some of the 911s may volunteer to assist us!. After 3 green flag laps the lights went green and I got a good start. Not however good enough as Simon Harrison in his 2.4E leapt past in front of me and then braked as some of the other class one cars nudged each other. This left me with nowhere to go and nothing to do except watch the other cars fly past. At Redgate Mike Clapham had spun, so there was more avoiding action and I found myself in about 19th place and 10 laps to go. I set about chasing the pack, and clawed my way fairly quickly up the field until I had Steve Winter and Colin Broster in my sights. Having passed them I was in 9th place and gaining ground on Ian White and Peter Cates who were battling each other. On lap 6, as we rounded Mcleans I thought that I would have a chance of overtaking Ian White, if I set the car up correctly at Coppice. Well, that's where it went wrong.....I took a slightly tighter line, and found some aviation fuel which had not been washed off the circuit. The back end started to rotate, and as I applied more and more opposite lock, I finished up going down the Dunlop straight at 70mph at 90 degrees to the track. Application of the brake led to an instant 900 degree spin ( so that's what ice skaters feel like) and a fall down the order to 12th. I had 3 laps to regain the places I had lost. Having passed Marc Haynes and Steve Winter again, I thought I would have to settle for 10th. However in an attempt to take 8th Colin Broster spun at the old hairpin, and very graciously went in search of the same greasy part of the track at Coppice that had caught me out earlier. His spin was less spectacular, but enough for me to take 9th at the flag, and gets lots of practice for overtaking.