Life In The Fast Lane: June 2015

Donington Park awaited as we headed into Derbyshire on late Friday afternoon, English summertime had arrived, with dry & sunny conditions, albeit windy.

We have always liked Donington, both Mostyn & the Firenza tend to go well around the fast, sweeping corners, in fact our last class win was achieved at Donington back in October 2001, almost 14 years ago! Silverware this weekend would be unlikely but good close racing would always be the preference!

Once unloaded in the paddock area we set off into Castle Donington village to find a watering hole and somewhere that would serve reasonable food at an unreasonable hour. We had some concerns about which circuit layout would be used, the National is the preference and suits the car set up, the longer G.P circuit is not what we wanted, therefore we decided not to fret until morning.

Qualifying was due to start at 9.00am Saturday which meant Signing On & Scrutineering needed to be completed long before many had even sipped their first cup of coffee of the weekend.

We lined up with the Classic Touring Car Racing Club Pre 1983 championship, unfortunately without Alan and Gary Firenzas (both had issues at previous round at Mallory Park) we were the sole Droopsnoot, valiantly flying the Griffin flag against the following stiff competition -

Steve Primett - Ford Escort
David Howard - Jaguar XJ12
Mark Osbourne - Triumph Dolomite Sprint
Nic Strong - Ford Capri
Mark Fowler - Ford Capri
Ronnie Haines - Ford Escort
Peter Holton - Rover P6
Malcolm Jeffs - Alfa Romeo Sud
Tim Dodwell - Volkswagen Scirocco
Steve Watson - Volkswagen Scirocco
Simon Jeffs - Alfa Romeo Sud

The Donington Park circuit, but which layout would we be used?!

Qualifying

Well literally minutes before were due to go out onto the circuit we were informed that the full Grand Prix circuit layout was in operation, which meant two tight hairpins, bugger! Our 3.7 diff would not suit these slow 2nd gear corners.

Mostyn posted his fastest lap of qualifying on lap 2 of 7 with a 2.00 minute lap, concerns were raised as he came into the pits on lap 5 fearing the Firenza was overheating as the temperature gauge was not giving any reading. As feared it was obvious that the diff set up was not helping valuable time was being lost at both hairpins.

Fastest Lap - 2.00.05
Position Overall - 6th
Position In Class - 3rd

One or two managed to out braked themselves during an eventful qualifying session, leaving gravel littering the esses -

Race 1 - Saturday PM

A leaking gearbox was rectified and new Mintex brake pads fitted before we went out onto the grid for Race 1. Mostyn lined up alongside an orange Mk1 Escort and behind 2 x Ford Capris, he was in a ford sandwich but a great first couple of laps meant the Firenza had passed the fast starting Escort and busily went about hunting Nic Strong Green/White Ford Capri.

Ground would be gained down through the Craner Curves, Old Hairpin and Mcleans corner, but then lost again on the straights as the Capri stretched it legs and had better drive out of the tight Melbourne Hairpin and Goddards.

Ultimately a spin on the exit of Melbourne Hairpin on lap 5 whilst in hot pursuit of the Capri ended the challenge for 5th overall and we had to make do with 6th, however a faster lap was achieved, a full 2 x seconds quicker than in qualifying -

Position Overall - 6th
Position In Class - 3rd
Fastest Lap - 1.58.07

An enjoyable race until the spin, after this error it allowed Mostyn to try various lines and corning approaches/exits at the Melbourne loop. After the race confidence was noticeably high than during morning, a nice relaxed evening of BBQ and Beers on the Saturday evening were enjoyed as we were not back on track until 14.30 on Sunday.

Race 2
It was time for Mostyn to go Capri hunting, the white/green Nic Strong Capri was the target, a good start meant the Capri was hounded for the next 7 x laps. Excellent, close but clean, fair racing was had with no rubbing, however the Droopsnoot was never quite close enough to slip past. It is worth noting that the Capri have some mighty straight line speed from its 3.0 litre lump.

No contact but close close racing -

Despite not be able to pip the Capri as we had done at Castle Combe previosuly Mostyn managed to reduce fastest lap time down to 1.57 & also take 1st in class! The rapid front running Escort suffered gearbox issues and potent Dolomite had snapped throttle cable, therefore we happily took the flag and the class honours.

To finish 1st in class was a great coup for Mostyn & the hard pushed Droopsnoot Firenza..