Dolby and Shepherd Take Donington ERS Win

Track Action (photo by Jurek Biegus)

Track Action (photo by Jurek Biegus)The Endurance Racing series arrived at Donington Park this week for round 3 of the new for 2015 British racing series.

With Rockingham hosting the first two rounds drivers and spectators alike were happy for a change of scenery at the popular Leicestershire circuit.

With grid numbers slowly improving since the first round a total of 13 entries made it to Donington Park including two Radicals, a Daytona prototype and two Porsche 997’s one of which being a GT Daytona imported from the USA.

Qualifying saw Tim Gray and Tom Ashton place their RAW Motorsport Radical RXC on pole position clocking a time of 1:05.757 around the Donington national circuit. Just under a second behind was the Wessex Vehicles Daytona Prototype piloted by Jay Shepherd and Craig Dolby.

At race start Dolby was the first through Redgate corner however behind him chaos was let loose as the bright red Radical RXC span. In trying to avoid the spinning sports prototype Frenchman Guillaume Gruchet took to the grass in his Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and hit the concrete barrier ending his race with significant damage to the Newbridge Motorsport run Porsche.

The second casualty was the BMW M3 of Mike Moss which, unsighted by the cloud of tyre smoke enveloping the track, collected the stricken Radical in the rear quarter condemning both cars to a free ride on a recovery truck.

Track Action (photo by Jurek Biegus) Track Action (photo by Jurek Biegus) Track Action (photo by Jurek Biegus) Track Action (photo by Jurek Biegus)

With spilt fuel and debris littering the Hollywood section of the circuit the race restart was delayed by nearly an hour as the 3 cars were recovered and the track cleaned up. With a depleted field and an hour of the race lost the field got underway following three safety car laps and once the track was clear the Riley Prototype headed off into an unassailable lead. Chasing hard behind was the Intersport Porsche 997 GT Daytona with Ian Donaldson and Kevin Clarke sharing the driving duties. Unfortunately they were unable to compete with the raw speed of the Riley and by race end they crossed the line in second place but 4 laps down.

P3 went to the Radical SR3 of Phil Knibb, Andrew Rath and Ben Sharich whilst P4 was claimed by the class 6 Ariel Atom of David Drinkwater. Following the Atom home was the VW Golf of Team Brit who claimed their 4th class victory in 7 days after the team of injured ex British army squaddies returned to the circuit where last week they swept the board at the Britcar meeting.

P8 was claimed by the Mini of Danny Russell and Duncan Rodgers which spent the entire racing battling with the Team Brit Golf until the chequered flag ended their challenge.

The next round of the championship will be at Silverstone on Sunday 13th of September. By Jurek Biegus

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