Pics: Dave Brassington (For hi resolution copies click here) – Words Paul Jurd
Donington Park on Sunday July 29th hosted the latest round of the 2018 AMOC Racing season, and the wet and windy weather did not detract from a great day’s racing, which saw quality grids contest an eight-race programme.
Mark Williams drove superbly to take the honours in his Porsche RSR in the AMOC Intermarque Championship race, his first outing in the car and with AMOC Racing. The BMW M3 of Richard and Sam Neary secured pole position but it was the Porsche of Tim Bates first into Redgate, and here followed a close battle for the lead with the M3 of Mike Dowd pushing hard.
By the time the pitstops had all cycled through Williams was already ahead with a healthy gap back to Salisbury, the Neary BMW having tumbled down the order. And this is the order they finished with the Porsche 996 of Richard Higgins third. Behind the lead trio was the battle of the race, Rob Hollyman, battling gearbox issues, dicing with James Guess and Tim Bates for fourth, the trio finally crossing the line in that order.
After having been rained on in practice the Pre-War Team Challenge field found themselves on a drying track for their popular race. Run as usual to the handicap system with Martin Dewey’s maths seeing the field released at set intervals, first car away was the Invicta of Trevor Swete with final car – the 1928 Bentley of Duncan Wiltshire – released 1m15s later with a lap in hand.
On handicap it was the two-litre Railton Sports Tourer of Anthony Fenwick-Wilson that led for much of the 11-lap race, having moved ahead of Keith Piper’s Aston Martin International on lap two, but the quicker cars were charging through. Father and son duo Clive and Stuart Morley were making up ground, and a lap deficit, from the tail of the field, Stuart in particular lancing though traffic, moving from fifth on handicap with two laps to go to second at the flag just beating Fenwick-Wilson to the line.
While those two performed to handicap, the driver who best adjusted to the changing conditions was Vienna-based Peter Dubsky, who had been second car away and a lap down on some of the field, but was ahead with three laps to go in his 1937 Aston Martin 15/98 Two Seater and finished over ten seconds clear of the flying Stuart Morley.
After a wet qualifying session that had seen the Jaguar Mk1s of Richard Butterfield and John Young lock out the front row of the Jack Fairman Cup for 50s Sports Cars including the Jaguar XK Challenge and Mike Hawthorn Challenge grids, the race started under drier conditions. That seemed of no consequence as at the first corner cars were scattered in all directions by numerous rotations in the lead group, Paul Kennelly coming round ahead in his Jaguar XK150S from fifth on the grid with Steve Watton, who had qualified seventh, second.
Watton was soon right with Kennelly and passed him on lap four, just as the rain began to fall again. That caught out the leader in his bright yellow Turner and he had a spin at Redgate at the start of lap five. This time John Young, recovering from losing time at the first corner, taking over the lead in Nigel Webb’s newly acquired Mk1 Jaguar.
In the worsening conditions Watton slipped past Young to take his second consecutive Jack Fairman Cup win, with Young second and Kennelly a secure third.
“That was not an easy race,” said Watton, “the car was set up for dry conditions then we had all the shenanigans at the first corner. I got into the lead then it was like I drove into a wall of rain, I did a 360-degree spin and went straight off. Once I got going it was good fun, the Jaguars were fantastic to race with, it is so good that they are in this series.”
There were no doubts over tyre selection for the GT Challenge runners, the field setting out on wet weather tyres for their 50-minute race towards the end of the afternoon. Brands Hatch winner Graham Tilley led the field away from their rolling start with Richard Neary’s BMW second ahead of Mike Dowd’s clutchless M3.
On the run up to Coppice on lap two, the Neary BMW started to slow, coming to a halt on the track on the Dunlop Straight. That brought out the safety car to slow the field while the BMW was moved to a place of safety, and racing resumed again at the start of lap eight, with the early pit-stoppers starting to come in on the final safety car lap.
The Ferrari 430 Challenge of Andy Christopher had pitted under the safety car from second for slick tyres, and there was a change at the front as they started racing again, the BMW of Richard Fores and Edward Leigh moving ahead before Tilley took back the lead in his Ginetta.
The field worked their way through the pitstop sequence, Tilley continued past the pit entrance as the pit window closed, finally coming in a lap later and outside the permitted time period. A drive-through penalty was promptly given to Tilley dropped him to third on the track, behind Salisbury and new leader Tom Houlbrook who, from 13th on the grid, had been quietly working his way up the order in his BMW as the race progressed.
At the flag, Houlbrook was just a second clear of Tilley, while Salisbury had the single-gear BMW in third to round out the podium positions. Fourth went to the BMW of Leigh /Fores, who was well clear of Christopher’s Ferrari.
First of the class one Aston Martin GT4s home was the car of Mike Brown and Paul Cripps, which had run as high as fourth overall early in the race and was close to the Ferrari at the end to finish sixth. Next up were the Astons of Robin Marriott and the Vantage GT4 of David Tinn.
Four guest races joined the AMOC Racing regulars at Donington Park. Two packed Welsh Sports and Saloons Championship grids provided some exciting racing, Mike Cutts winning race one after Jason Davies went wide at the final corner, recovering to take second. In race two, Davies took his Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth to the win, Dave Cockell blasting through from the back of the grid to take second in his Ford Escort Cosworth.
Mark Sumpter won both Porsche Club Championship races, heading home Chris Dyer and Pete Morris in race one, while rain before their second race – the final event of the day – saw the field scrabbling to change to wet tyres, Michael Price coming through to take second behind the untouchable Sumpter.
AMOC Racing will be back in action very soon at Snetterton 300 on 1st September, for details on how to enter click here.
