Five British Automobile Racing Club championships served up a feast of high-octane entertainment and drama at Donington Park this past weekend (July 21/22), as a bumper crowd soaked up the sun at Convoy in the Park.
Headlining the weekend were ten races from the British Truck Racing Association Championship, all of which left fans on the edge of their seats. Division 1 had a familiar feel to it as reigning champion Ryan Smith underlined his excellence with a trio of victories.
Storming to pole position in qualifying, Smith dominated proceedings in race one to take a lights-to-flag victory. He backed it up with a pair of wins from the back of the grid soon after before seeing his winning run come to an end.
Jamie Anderson and David Jenkins then came to the fore in races four and five as they notched a win apiece, rounding off an exhilarating weekend of Division 1 race.
In Division 2, Luke Garrett was in a league of his own as he powered his way to an unprecedented clean sweep. Setting the pace from the opening session on Saturday morning, the MAN driver was not to be denied as he scored five wins from five races, extending his championship lead in the process too.
The Pickup Truck Racing Championship saw two frenetic encounters deliver plenty of heart stopping moments right up until the chequered flag. As they have done for a majority of the season, Scott Bourne and Lea Wood continued their duel by scoring a win apiece under the flightpath of East Midlands airport.
Race one saw reigning champion Bourne emerge as the victor following a tense battle. Duking it out from lights-to-flag, Bourne pipped Wood to the chequered flag by a mere 0.025 to win. The roles were reversed in race two as Wood led Bourne, this time by more than seven seconds. David O’Reagan and Michael Smith bagged a podium each as the top two squabbled.
Six races from the Legends Cars National Championship with MRF Tyres delivered some memorable moments too, as the title battle intensified. Miles Rudman, Ben Power and Sam Smith scored a win apiece on Saturday, each encounter bettering the one that went before it.
Sunday’s trio of races from the 5/8 scale machines saw Power come out swinging in heat one as he stormed to the front to win. Reigning champion John Mickel showcased he has lost none of his guile in race two as he stormed through the field to take another win.
The third and final race from the weekend proved to be an all-time classic from the Legends as Paul Simmons claimed his maiden victory in the series, with the top three being covered by just 0.081 seconds.
In the Britcar Endurance Championship, Jonny MacGregor piloted his MacG Racing Taranis to victory in the 50-minute sprint race before doing the same in the sprint section of the longer two-hour race too.
As MacGregor celebrated his Donington double, race two of the weekend continued and ended with the Team HARD duo of Simon Rudd and Sam Randon driving their Ginetta G55 GT4 to the top step of the podium.
Rounding out the action from Convoy in the Park was two races from the 2CV Parts,com Classic Racing Championship. Spoils were shared as Pete Sparrow and Simon Clarke took a win each, whilst there were podiums for Matthew Hollis, Nick Crispin, Tom Perry and Brian Heerey.
For the full classification of results from all sessions, click here.