Donington Masters Festival is done and dusted, and what a weekend it was! Saturday dawned dry and bright and the first practice session for our now two-car team was great. We did a seat swap in the downtime before qualifying for the 70s Celebration races, and got ready for some fun.
Both drivers ran both cars in the 70s quali session, eventually ending 1st and 3rd on the grid. Then it was lunchbreak, followed by World Sportscar Masters qualifying.
We managed four flying laps before the heavens opened, with the strongest hailstorm for months. The circuit was soaked and the field was forced back to the pits. Fifteen minutes later, it was time to go racing.
Race 1 of the 70s Celebration was a challenge! We only had one set of wet tyres with us, so James ran them on the red RS, while Mark ran on dry-weather tyres with the RSR. This led to cockpit frustration, as Mark locked up at the heaviest braking points: we just couldn’t get the tyres working.
Watching from outside, the race was electric. James held up well versus strong competition on his first outing in the red RS, though a fourth gear selection issue caused some trouble at the end of the main straight.
With no tread at all on the outer edge of dry tyres, Mark was hampered by aquaplaning almost everywhere in the yellow RSR, holding some spectacular drifts out of most corners! In the end, we came home second to a Camaro on wets, only by a few seconds but enough to fire us up for a stronger attack on day two.
How did we get on? You’ll have to wait and see!