Martin Wills - Review of MGOC meet at Donington Park

Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit is like riding a fast undulating rollercoaster and I couldn’t wait to get on track! I had an interesting qualifying session, with extremely close lap times, and managed to qualify 2^nd for the first race and pole for the second race.

Five laps in to the first race, I made my break and finally managed to pass the race leader when we were lapping another car. I managed to hold onto the lead and got my 5^th win of the season.

In the 2nd race, I started on pole but three laps in my gear cable snapped meaning I was stuck in 3^rd gear unable to change! At Donington there are five occasions during the lap where 4^th gear is required and two hairpins where 2^nd gear is required so I did consider retiring but decided to bolster on. Although not ideal, I managed to negotiate the hairpins in 3^rd gear and on the faster sections where 4^th gear was needed, I had to drive with the engine ‘bouncing off the rev limiter’ in 3^rd (not great for my race car!).

Despite the MGF lap record being around 1 min 57 seconds, I still managed to consistently lap at 2:00 and 2:01 minutes for the final seven laps to secure 2^nd place, which means luckily I’m still leading the championship!

It was a great finish to my birthday weekend and a huge thank you to all who made it memorable.