Lockie takes the Britcar title at the Donington Finale

Race 1 start (photo by Marc Waller)Donington Park was the venue for the finale to the 2014 Britcar endurance championship last weekend with Javier and Manuel Cintrano fighting for the overall title with Callum Lockie.

The meeting consisted of two races, one during the day for the Endurance championship cars alone and a night race with Sports and Touring championship cars.

Lockie moved into an early lead in the first race as several cars had a coming together going out the first corner. The Mosler of Morcillo and Cintrano pursued and although they were comfortably clear of the others, they couldn’t catch Lockie. But after handing over to David Mason, the Ferrari 458 Challenge car slowed considerably. Part of this was down to Mason being slower but the car had also developed a power steering problem. The Mosler took the lead with Morcillo at the wheel and Chaos at the start of race 1 (photo by Marc Waller)Morcillo and Cintrano's Mosler (photo by Marc Waller)Championship winning car (photo by Marc Waller)powered away to a huge lead that it was never to lose. Darren Nelson and Nigel Greensall in another Ferrari 458 challenge car took second with Michael Millard in third in a Pro-Sport 3000. (His regular Rapier was out of action following his Silverstone shunt.) Salih Yoluc and Euan Hankey took fourth and the class three win in a Ginetta G55 and the Lockie/Mason duo were fifth. Anna Walewska had looked like springing a surprise early in the race after taking an overall third place early on but sadly a failing clutch forced her out of the race before team mate Kevin Clarke could even take over.

In the night race, Callum Lockie again powered into the lead, this time driving on his own. The Cintrano/Morcillo Mosler dropped to fourth early on and it looked like Lockie would have an easy victory but Morcillo was determined to not let the title slip away and not only caught the Ferrari making up it’s 30 second lead but also passed it with ten minutes to go. Lockie held on to second though and this was enough to secure him the title from the Mosler duo by 1 point. Greensall and Nelson took third despite starting the race from the pitlane. Fourth were two of the Playstation Gt academy drivers, Ricardo Sanchez and Gaetan Paletou, gaining experience of night racing for when they race in the Dubai 24 hours in January. They also secured the class three win. Anna Walewska and Kevin Clarke had another nightmare race, they again had blistering pace at the start only to be forced out for a second time. This time it was the gearbox that put them out. But despite the frustrating end to the season, they were class three champions. Mike Moss and Tom Howard won class 4 for the Sports and Touring championship cars and also take the Sports and touring championship. With Lockie winning the overall and class 2 championships, Morcillo and Cintrano had the small consolation of taking the class 1 title with their team Neil Garner Motorsport taking the team’s championship. After some of the controversy earlier in the season, particularly Lockie’s victory at Snetterton on non standard Pirelli rubber and their early crash at Oulton park, Morcillo and Cintrano felt they were the moral victors;

Night race start (photo by Marc Waller)Night racing (photo by Marc Waller)Light trails (photo by Marc Waller)Light trails 2 (photo by Marc Waller)Light trails 3 (photo by Marc Waller)Light trails 4 (photo by Marc Waller)Anna Walewska class three champion with Intersport (photo by Marc Waller)“I truly feel that we are the moral champs after losing the title for one point out of more than 600, especially after the Pirelligate and destoying the car in an accident that was not our fault.” Commented Morcillo.

The Britcar Trophy had three races supporting the main event. All three were won by John Seale in a Ferrari 458 GTC. Warren Gilbert and Neil Huggins took second in the first two races but had a big shunt with Kevin riley in the third race. This resulted in a red flag and Riley’s Mosler destroyed after bouncing off the wall on both sides of the pit entrance. Arjo Ghosh in a Porsche 911 Carrera cup car took second in the final race having also taken third in race two. Steve Glynn in a Marcos took the final podium spot in race one and the final podium spot of the day, third in race 3 was taken by John Challis in another Porsche cup car.    By Marc Waller

 

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