Race 1

Joining the Dunlop Great and British package from this weekend, Championship leader Nigel Moore took the lead at Craner Curves on lap one from a 4th place start. Side-by-side with James Jefferson and Kieran Vernon into Redgate, Moore had the inside line at Craner to slip by and lead race one of the day.

Chris Clayton’s start put him down to 6th with Pettit and Nick Ponting slipping by on the opening lap.

Pettit relegated Jefferson to third on the second lap and close in on the close battle between Moore and Vernon.

Vernon’s pressure on Moore paid off on lap 4 when he took the lead, but in the battle for the top spot, Pettit got caught in the fight and ended up going wide coming onto the Dunlop straight down into 7th.

Moore regained the lead on the following lap at Goddards Chicane and began to pull out a marginal gap from the close-run battle behind them for 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th between Jefferson, Ponting, Clayton and Pettit respectively; Clayton and Pettit side-by-side over the line at the end of lap 6.

Vernon again leads on lap 7 over the line, side-by-side with Moore and Jefferson, and the top five within 1 second of each other starting their eighth lap; Pettit now up to 4th.

Jefferson takes the outside line around Redgate, but Pettit gets up the inside into 3rd then take the race lead when Vernon and Moore collide at McLeans.

Vernon recovered to 8th, and Moore to third – to soon get up to second and then the lead on the final lap on the inside at Craners.

Clayton, running in 4th had a penultimate lap spin at Goddards after contact between himself and George Richardson that promoted Ponting in the order. Richardson would go on to finish 5th and his best result this season.

However, Pettit took the chequered flag, and Moore finished in 4th; contact at Goddards between the two drivers resulted in Moore spinning off.

Further down the field, Fergus Walkinshaw finished in 17th having had a fuel pressure problem. Cavan Corcoran in his first ever car race finished 13 with a marker post wedged under his car that had been there since the second lap and upsetting the balance of his car.

Alice Powell was just 2.5 seconds off the pace in her first car race, and brought her Ginetta home in 15th place.

Race 2

James Jefferson claimed pole for race two during qualifying ahead of Kieran Vernon for the second race of Sunday’s meeting at Donington Park.

A close-run, clean fight between the two ensued with Nigel Moore in third place tight up behind them – and on lap 6, all were side-by-side across the line and into Redgate with just 0.052 seconds covering the three young racers.

Unfortunately for Moore, he would run wide at Hollywood and acquire a puncture to his front left tyre and force him to slow to eventually finish in 11th place and settle with 8 points.

During the same battle, Vernon briefly took the lead and looked set for his first win, but Jefferson regained the lead into Goddards a lap later, which he would retain up to the flag.

“That was a long time coming” said Jefferson after receiving his first place trophy. “I feel brilliant, ecstatic! It was a good clean race, high pressure all the way for fifteen minutes but just kept my composure.”

“It was a bit of a disappointment in the first race” said second placed Vernon. “James had everything covered and there was no way I was going to get past him but considering the race we had before, wanted to get solid points and didn’t want to take too many risks.”

IDL Racing’s Tom Sharp – in third place, gradually closed the gap on the two battling racers ahead of him to finish just 1.6 seconds behind them, and retain his second place in the Championship standings.

I’m happy with third, it all worked out in the end” said Sharp. “I’ve closed up the gap on Nigel a bit in the points. I didn’t have a very good first race, but made up with it in the second with a bit of his bad fortune.”

Chris Clayton had a stronger finish in this second race to take fourth place, as did George Richardson to take another fifth place in a season of development for the Tollbar team member.

Cassey Watson was absent from the grid due to damage to her car in the first race. Extensive repairs to the rear bodywork after Silverstone were undone in race 1, and a decision was made not to risk further damaging the car.

Race one winner Dominic Pettit ended up 15th due to a gearbox problem that manifested itself on the parade lap, so pulled into the pits but decided to continue to collect what points he could.

Cavan Corcoran had problems with an overheating driveshaft that hampered a challenge for 7th, and also got caught out by Ashley Bird and Fergus Walkinshaw who outbraked themselved during their own battle.

Joe Shaw was very philosophical about his 15th in race one and his retirement in the gravel in race two. He was the fastest he'd been; 2.874 secs off fastest lap in race one and 2.837 off in race two. Whilst improving his pace towards the end of the second race, made an error perfecting his heel-toe into Redgate.

The championship will continue at Croft on the weekend of 25th / 26th August as the Championship hits mid-season and as drivers develop, more close, exciting racing is sure to continue.