Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship – Round 6

The Donington Rally – Part One

Report by David Harbey

The last time PistonClick reported on the Rippers’ exploits at Snetterton their good run had been halted after an encounter with one of MSV’s fences - The Snetterton Stages.

The one-eyed Micra made it back into the fray after superb work by the service crew to record a finish.

Competing at Donington was in the balance until Ray had risked life and limb at the local breakers to obtain replacement parts. Welding, bolting and reconnecting the electrics followed.

Finally, the new blue wing was wrapped to match the (in Ray’s words) tattiness of the rest of the car. It looked like a pretty good job to me as Adam appeared at speed at the tyre chicane at the Esses at Donington.

Ray continues: To be honest Donington isn’t the best circuit for our car: it doesn’t cope as well with the long straights that are on offer and we’ve never done any better than 3rd in class here.

Given the last few weeks though, we were grateful for the chance to compete and enjoy some of the delights of this historic circuit were enough for us and it would be the last outing for a few months as Adam turns his attention to seeking gainful employment.

Stage 1 went well enough and we were placed 2nd, 17 seconds behind the quicker Micra of James Hardy and his dad Adrian, the latter making his first appearance in ten years as a co-driver. James was obviously out to impress his dad as he increased the time gap over the course of the rally to 40 seconds, no doubt ably assisted by those long straights.

DH: The Hardys’ Micra is quick with a 1400cc engine. It also has the registration M555NME – does that hint at a Nissan Motorsports Europe past ?

I caught up with the team before Stage 3 and was able to take advantage of Mrs Ripper’s excellent fruit cake – in exchange, I proferred a couple of the much prized PistonClick stickers which were soon emblazoned on the rear flanks of the car. A team photo was also taken.

Then it was off to capture the action around the paddock area where the stages started in the morning and at the link road from the tarmac lake to the circuit proper. There used to be a pub round here somewhere here …

RR: As a co-driver, there’s something to be said for such lengthy pauses between obstacles (tyre chicanes) on the stage; it provides time to have a look around, watch the planes overhead and think about what might be on offer for dinner, for instance.

We pressed on gamely all day though, leaving nothing in the tank as it were; some sensible tyre changes gave us some really pleasing and quick times. But it did feel like a leisurely and ‘relaxing’ rally if there could be such a thing. There didn’t seem much traffic around on the circuit and most of our runs were very open. 

There was a nag though. Coming in at the end of Stage 4, I could hear a boiling sound and a quick check under the bonnet revealed an inoperative fan which turned out to be a broken fuse. It must have been another Snetterton victim.

I had fixed the lights, but given no thought to checking the rest of the fuses in the box – an undoubted schoolboy error. Not having a spare with me, I was relieved that the shorter mileage of the later stages, coupled with the strengthening breeze, fanned our hot engine enough for a finish.

DH: The afternoon stages included a run into the infield at Craners to emerge at Redgate, a little reminiscent of the Rallysprints of the early 80’s but with snappers and spectators much further back ! It gave a different challenge to the wide open spaces of the race track.

RR: Our best result at Donington Park, 2nd in class, 39th overall and what a lovely way to achieve it !

DH: The final image below could be a young aspiring rally driver looking at the PistonClick sticker on the car in the service area, or then again, it might not be !

More of my images from the event can be found on my Flickr feed.

My footnote to this report is a rather lairy BMW 1M who was having a ball on the damp track at the start of the day. Here it is, taken at 1/30^th second heading from Coppice to McLeans