REPORT : DONINGTON PARK
Spencer Shinner and Matt Wrigley battle in Historic FF1600
Fine racing at
Donington Park
Some strong grids , some excellent racing and a dry and bright weekend made the Historic Sports Car Club ’ s annual foray to Donington Park a great success in early June . Paul Lawrence reports .
With four races for Formula Ford 1600 , there was always going to be plenty of close action and the double headers for Classic Formula Ford and Historic Formula Ford did not disappoint . In the SDC supported Classic Formula Ford Championship there were two wins for Benn Simms in his remarkable Jomo JMR7 , despite a tremendous challenge by Callum Grant in particular . In the first race , Grant mounted a major challenge until a rare error at the chicane pitched his Merlyn Mk20 into a spin and allowed Simms to go clear . In his wake , Andy Gosling battled through into second and Grant was able to salvage third as he recovered from his spin .
At the end of the weekend , the second race was full of action and drama with up to five cars making a fantastic lead battle . Once again , Simms and Grant made the pace and there was nothing in it for much of the race . But when it mattered Simms was ahead by just 17 hundredths of a second in a fantastic finish .
Neil Hose topped a trying weekend to bring his Merlyn Mk20 into third from Chris Porritt after a late incident at Redgate delayed Rick Morris and eliminated Matthew Wrigley and Gosling .
Not to be outdone , the Barnett Racing Engines backed historic category also delivered some sensational racing and in the first race of the weekend it was young Spencer Shinner who underlined his rising star status by beating his rivals in a blanket finish .
The ever improving Christian Goller , Wrigley and Ross Drybrough were all within a second of Shinner over the line and for much of the race it had been Wrigley who really took the fight to the young Cornishmen . Wrigley got his reward in the second race on Sunday once Shinner dropped back a little in the leading pack . It was an inspired Cormac Flanagan who came up to battle with his good friend Drybrough over second and the Alexis finally grabbed the place after some wheel to wheel action .
The new HSCC Touring
Mark Charteris won in the Derek Bell Trophy
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