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Donington Race 14th April 2002 |
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Donington Park has always been a ‘favourite’ track for the Lister. Indeed I am fortunate to have been victorious in the last seven races I have driven in around the East Midland circuit. Whilst I knew and know that this record cannot be sustainable, we were confident of at least being competitive against the Saleen here. The
official test did not bear this out though as we struggled to match
their times despite both Mike and I posting faster times then last year.
We had the benefit of JC-W’s wisdom as well but were unable to
make a significant improvement. A similar picture manifested itself in qualifying. Mike posted a low 1.07 but the Saleen dipped into the 1.05’s. The Stealth also managed to usurp us from the front row by the tiniest of margins but I was happy to be on the inside for Redgate…
For
race day we were back to the beginning of the afternoon start time and
rolled out onto the grid in bright sunshine.
I desperately tried to get some heat into my tyres on the parade
lap conscious as ever of my ‘normal’ cautious start.
I held onto third on the drag down to Redgate but gave the TVR
room as he started to pull across my bow as we descended towards the
Craners. I was already
conscious of the white Saleen starting to edge away as both the Stealth
and the Speed 12 battled in front of me.
I wanted to move ahead as soon as possible and made sure of my
entry on to the back straight .
As
I pulled alongside the Speed 12, I saw the waved yellows in front of me
and hit my anchors so as not to incur the wrath of the stewards by
overtaking under cautions. Unfortunately
I was now completely offline and exited the chicane poorly allowing the
three in front to stretch a bit further ahead.
The
car however felt very good and I easily caught the two directly ahead of
me, disposing of the TVR
at the ‘Old Harpin’ on lap three and the Stealth the lap
after. I then settled down
to try and close the gap to the Saleen to allow Mike the opportunity to
fight for victory later on.
I
did manage to bring this gap down initially but some unbelievable
‘back-marker’ blindness caused me a few problems and I fell back a
few seconds. Still at the
end of my stint I only trailed by 6 seconds so with a good stop I
thought we may be in business.
It
wasn’t our best stop ever but Mike was, after a quick stall, rapidly
on his way. We would have
to wait for the Saleen to stop to find out our true track position. When it did occur the scene could not have been stage managed
better. The Saleen exited
the pit literally as Mike drove past and the next half an hour was
promising a serious fight to the flag.
It
was not to be however as Mike appeared on the next lap without the
ominous shape of the Saleen behind him.
Apparently they had spun on the outside of McLeans following an
electrical failure. Mike was told to then back off and nearly fell asleep at one point! Victory number eight for me at Donington but I know the record can’t go on. Next stop Silverstone GP circuit which I enjoy very much.
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