Donington - Car Mats UK Race Car

Car Mats UK Race Car Season Summary - Part 3

This was to be the first time that Andrew and the CSCC for that matter, had used the Donington Park GP circuit since the clubs inception. The CarMats-UK Honda had undergone a minor rebuild after the mishaps at Thruxton and was now sporting a new set of tyres! The weather over the weekend was mixed, to say the least and frequent rain showers kept everyone guessing as to what suspension settings to use.

During the lunch break, the CarMats-UK team was joined by Darren Green of DG Automotive who set about the Hondas suspension and gave Andrew a setup that he believed would suit the conditions and move Andrew forward through the field. 

The cars lined up for a rolling start and Andrew made a perfect start by gaining 2 places before Redgate corner. He then set about casing the leading cars down and within a few laps had caught and passed Robert Jarman in his Clio. Darrens suspension settings were clearly working as Andrew was 1.5 seconds a lap quicker than he had been in qualifying!

The front 3 cars started to pull away however and Andrew settled into 4th place. As the pit board signified it was time to come in for the mandatory stop, Andrew was quite comfortable in 4th. The pitstop didn't go to plan and after a fumble with the belts, Andrew sped off from the garage, only to exceed the Pit Lane Speed Limit of 37mph by reaching 40mph! This meant a time penalty for the team. Again, Andrew tried to fend off the quicker cars, but was eventually caught and passed by the front runners. With only a couple of laps to go, the now hard charging Danny Cassar caught Andrew and made the pass which pushed Andrew back into 5th place and that is how the race finished. 

It wasn't until the team collected the official results that it was found that the speeding in pit lane had cost 60 seconds and pushed Andrew down to 7th overall! A disappointing end to the day for the CarMats-UK team, but the lesson had been learnt. 

See the action here: