Round 7 of the Elise Trophy held at Donington Park on September 1st and 2nd 2007.
After the wet conditions at Castle Combe in July, we were looking forward to our trip to the MotorSport Vision “Blast in the Park” race meeting at Donington Park on 1st-2nd September, the first MSV race meeting to be organised at a non-MSV circuit. Donington is a cracking circuit – quick, challenging and safe, and we anticipated some great racing.
A couple of weeks before the races, it was confirmed that ex Lotus F1 driver Martin Donnelly would be racing Paul Golding’s class A Elise at Donington. Donnelly made his F1 debut for the Arrows team at the French GP in 1989. In 1990 he drove for Lotus, alongside Derek Warwick. A horrific accident at Jerez, which he was very lucky to survive, ended his promising F1 career. Martin had expressed an interest in taking part in a round while presenting trophies for the Elise Trophy at our DTM Brands Hatch round. We were very much looking forward to Martin being on the grid, and a lot of people were very keen to see how he would perform in Golding’s car.
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Qualifying
Another full grid of 36 cars meant the 2-mile Donington Park National circuit felt pretty crowded during qualifying, with quite a few drivers struggling to make space for a clear lap.
Andrew Walsh was the pace-setter, qualifying on pole. David Skeggs set an excellent time in his class B Elise, putting it 2nd on the grid.
Donnelly was on the pace immediately, setting the fastest time in class A, over a second quicker than anyone else. The rest of the class A drivers, including 5-time class winner Gavin Kirby were clearly going to have their work cut out tomorrow!
Scratch Race
Race day dawned clear and bright, and as we lined up on the grid for race 1, the track conditions were excellent. Walsh got away cleanly from pole, and led into Redgate for the first time. Wily old campaigner Steve Williams, in his distinctive Ocelot livery, made his usual flying start and had moved up to 2nd from 6th on the grid by the first corner. Nick Kaye missed a gear from 5th on the grid and was swamped by the cars behind him. Chris Pearson failed to get off the line, while Russ Treasure once again suffered a mechanical failure on lap 1 and retired. Meanwhile the rest of the field got through Redgate safely and the race was on! Paul Harding retired on lap 2 with a clutch failure.
On lap 5 a recovering Kaye made contact with Neil McKean on the exit of Redgate. McKean continued but Kaye’s car was damaged and he retired. Skeggs had made a reasonable start but lost 3rd gear on lap 2 and was unable to maintain his pace, eventually finishing 9th. Walsh did a totally professional job at the front, with Williams doing his utmost to keep him honest in his class B car. By lap 4 Andrew Kell, who had started 8th on the grid, had got past Skeggs & Malcolm Sanders to move into 3rd.
Meanwhile in class A, things were really hotting up. Michael Edwards had a flier from 16th on the grid (3rd in class) to move in to the class lead. Donnelly & Kirby were having their own battle, swapping places several times, with Donnelly in particular pulling off some breathtaking overtaking manoeuvres, especially into the Esses, Redgate and the Old Hairpin. On lap 3 Donnelly made his intentions clear, giving Edwards a small nudge going into Coppice. A couple of corners later Donnelly and Kirby were through.
On lap 8 the safety car came out, for 3 laps, while a couple of cars were recovered from the gravel on the outside of the Old Hairpin.
When the safety car pulled in on lap 11, battle was resumed throughout the field. Walsh held on at the front to take a lights-to-flag victory in class C, with Williams following him home to take 2nd overall and the class B win. Kell held off a hard-charging Malcolm Sanders to take 3rd overall and 2nd in class C. McKean added to his extensive collection of trophies this year with 3rd in class B. The Donnelly/Kirby battle went all the way, with Donnelly taking the class A win with 10th overall, crossing the line just 0.3 seconds ahead of Kirby. Edwards brought his car home to take 3rd in class A.
Race summary – 36 entries (full), 35 starters, 30 finished.
Handicap Race
A few short hours after the scratch race, we lined up on the grid for the handicap race. Cars were started from the grid in 7 “drops”, with typically 10-20secs between them. Some drivers were also given credit laps. It sounds complicated, but it’s a clever way of reversing the dynamics of a standard race. The field starts off spread out, and closes up during the race, so that, in theory (if all the drivers are consistent), all the cars cross the finish line at the same time! As a driver, you typically have very little idea where you are in the running order but the formula is simple, overtake any cars you catch up, while stopping others overtaking you! It makes for a fascinating spectacle for the crowd, as the field closes up, and it’s all about who deals most effectively with the traffic.
Donnelly, with his experience and racecraft, was always going to be a threat in this race. And that’s the way it turned out, he was lined up next to Kirby but made a spectacular start and carved his way rapidly through the field. Sadly we were denied a repeat of the epic class A battle from the scratch race, when Kirby retired on lap 5 with electrical problems. Meanwhile the faster class B & C cars were doing their utmost to catch Donnelly. Williams & Kaye fought it out for the whole race, exchanging some fibreglass on one occasion. At the front, Donnelly was in the lead, and was being chased by Kell & Pearson (having their own battle), with scratch race winner Walsh closing in in 4th place.
Paul Pattison pulled off the circuit on lap 9 when his engine started mis-firing. Only when he looked in his mirrors did he spot that his back end was on fire! The marshals did an excellent job putting the fire out, and Paul will be back at the next race.
In the end Donnelly held on to take a popular victory, with Kell crossing the line 4 seconds behind to take 2nd. Pearson took 3rd, and Walsh 4th. Paul Quinn & James Knight, in their class A cars, held off some of the faster cars to take 5th and 6th places. Over the last couple of laps, things really hotted up in the midfield, with just 9 seconds covering 9th to 20th across the line!
Race summary – 36 entries (full), 32 starters, 25 finished.
Conclusion
Another great weekend for the Elise Trophy, with another full entry list and some excellent racing at a fantastic circuit. MSVR’s first race meeting at a non MSV-owned venue was hailed a success, with good sized grids and a packed 18-race schedule. Congratulations to Andrew Walsh for a return to the top step of the podium in the scratch race and a hard-charging 4th place in the handicap race. Sinclaire Motorsport had done a lot of development on Walsh’s car (e.g. fitting a new Rotrex supercharger) since Combe, and it’s a credit to them that it was 100% reliable over the weekend.
Ex F1 driver and F1 commentator Martin Brundle even made an appearance to present the trophies (his son was racing in the Formula Palmer Audi races), which was an added bonus for the drivers. In fact with Donnelly, Brundle and Julian Bailey present in our paddock at various times, it felt a little bit like an ex F1 driver reunion! Donnelly had clearly enjoyed himself – “once again a sincere big thank you to all involved for one of the best weekend’s racing that I have had in quite sometime”.
Further info on the day on the MotorSport Vision web site:
Look out for further television coverage of Elise Trophy races on Motors TV over the next few weeks (the first showing of the Castle Combe races is on Fri 21st September at 8pm). For further details of our television coverage and to see a short promo, please check out the Race Television web site.
Our next race meeting is at possibly the best circuit in the world, Spa Francorchamps, on 12-14 October 2007. Bring it on!
