BTCC at Donington 2017

BTCC 2017 Donington Park Weekend

Mark

Easter saw the BTCC 2017 Donington Park Weekend with the touring cars coming to the Leicestershire circuit, alongside their support events including the Clio Cup, British F4, Porsche Carrera Cup, Ginetta Juniors and Ginetta GT4 Supercup.  The first free practice session on Saturday saw Rob Austin top the times from Jack Goff, with Team Hard’s Jake Hill in a very impressive third place.  Jack and Jake kept that performance for the second practice, with Jack edging Jake by 0.007 of a second, with Tom Ingram just another 0.08 behind.  An exciting qualifying session was expected, and it lived up to the hype, with Ashley Sutton setting the fastest time and Jake Hill continuing his impressive form with a sixth place.  However, technical infringements saw both demoted to the back of the grid and Rob Austin on pole with Jack Goff and Tom Ingram behind him.

 

Photos from Qualifying

 

Sunday saw the first race, and Tom Ingram quickly put himself in the lead, with Aiden Moffat also cutting through the field to get to third place on lap one and second place on lap two.  On the fifth lap, Moffat took the lead and kept it, as Ingram lost some more places to leave Matt Neal and Rob Austin on the podium with Moffat for his first ever BTCC race win.

 

Photos from Race One

 

 

The second race saw a good start for pole sitter Moffat, impressive given the success ballast he was now carrying, and for the first few laps he continued to do well before Tom Ingram managed to pass him, and Aiden started moving back through the grid.  Ingram kept the lead and took another win, with Rob Collard and Ashley Sutton joining him on the podium.

 

Photos from Race Two

 

The clouds were gathering before the third race, and just before it started, the ominous clouds that were blowing in from Redgate became rain, and the first lap saw a series of cars go into the gravel and was followed by a red flag whilst we waited for the rain to clear.  Matt Neal managed to get back to the pits after a trip in the gravel but was not allowed to restart.  When the race did get going, Gordon Shedden quickly took the lead, and for much of the race, he lead from Colin Turkington, with the rest of the field some way behind.  They crossed the line in that order, but a technical infringement saw Shedden excluded and promoted Turkington to the race win, with Adam Morgan and Ashley Sutton joining him on the podium.

The teams leave Donington with Tom Ingram at the top of the table, followed by Colin Turkington and Adam Morgan.  Next Stop for them is the fastest circuit of the year, Thruxton.

 

Top of mind for everyone, though, was the horrific crash in British Formula Four, seeing drivers Patrik Pasma and Billy Monger hospitalised.  Best wishes to both of them.

Photos from Race Three