MaX5 Donington Park Review

The mid season Midlands run came to it's conclusion at Donington Park on the 19th of July and with the races being broadcast on live TV, there were plenty of additional cars on the grid, twenty nine in total. Most notable of the extra cars was Richard Breland who won the opening race of the season at Oulton Park.

As expected, Breland was right on the pace as he manages to qualify second for race one only 0.092 seconds behind pole-sitter and championship leader Nick Dun. Another new driver, Geoff Gouriet, would line up third ahead of championship regular Ian Loversidge. There was another MK4 at Donington for Johnathan Halliwell and he would line up sixth, behind the fellow MK 4 of Paul Roddison. John Munro was a disappointed seventh ahead of Russell Tamplin with Ged Kelly and Chris Webster rounding out the top ten. New comer, Andrew Malcolm would be on pole in the MK1 class a full 1.2 seconds ahead of second in class Guy Carter. Sixteen year old debutante Josh Malin would be an absolutely fantastic fifth in class.

After dropping to third off the start, Nick Dunn wasted no time gaining ground and had managed to re-take the lead after just six laps of racing had been completed. From there, Dunn would go unchallenged en route to his seventh win of the year. As per usual, the two Mk4s would have to start at the back but Paul Roddison and Johnathan Halliwell would storm through the pack and cross the line in second and fourth respectively. Geoff Gouriet would split the MK4s with Richard Breland third in class and fifth overall. Ian Loversidge would have a poor race and drop back to ninth behind Russell Tamplin, Chris Webster and Ged Kelly. George Grant would round out the top ten. The two MK1s of Andrew Bayliss and Guy Carter would have an exciting time of things, coming together at the chicane on lap one and very nearly taking out Chris Bexon. Later in the race and the pair would come together again, this time while lapping Tom Hotchkiss, resulting in both drivers being excluded. Eventually, George Snee would take the class win ahead of Josh Malin who put in a sensational performance in his first race. Mark Theaker would finish third.

Potential Championship challenger, John Munro, would have a miserable race. The Scot eventually finished fourteenth citing a lack of straight line speed as the cause of the lack of speed although according to Chris Bexon, "Munro always blames straight line speed". Make of that what you will.

Race two begun under mixed conditions, light spots of rain at the start of the race soon turned to much heavier and more constant drizzle. This time, Nick Dunn would get away from the grid much better before losing the lead to Richard Breland. Dunn dropped back a little but he did manage to keep Breland honest, never dropping to more than two seconds back but eventually it would be Breland who won from Dunn. Three hard chargers would be next. Wesbter fought through from seventh to third ahead of John Munro who made an amazing move on lap one, managing to pass an entire train of cars through the Craner Curves and the Olde Hairpin. Paul Roddison again fought through the field well and finished fifth ahead of Geoff Gouriet who dropped back. Ged Kelly and George Grant had a fantastic race long battle over seventh, with the position eventually going the way of Kelly by just six tenths of a second. Tamplin come home ninth ahead of Ian Loversidge who had a rather lacklustre weekend.

Andrew Bayliss and Guy Carter eventually learned to play nicely with each other and came home first and second respectively in the MK1 class. George Snee was on the podium once again and Josh Malin rounded out a stunning debut weekend with fifth in class.

All of this sees Nick Dunn remain at the top of the table with 491 points with closest Challenger Ian Loversidge now 92 points back on 399. Chris Webster stays third but closes to just five points behind Loversidge. John Munro's poor weekend sees him stay seventh and he's now 149 points behind Nick Dunn. Munro needs to win and he needs to win soon. Brands Hatch will make or break Munro's season.

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