Round Six - Donington Park GP - 2019 Caterham 270R Championship

Round Six - Donington Park GP Circuit - 2019 Caterham 270R Championship
Round six (races 11 and 12) of the 2019 Caterham 270R championship was held at Donington Park Circuit on the GP Layout (including the melbourne loop) on the weeknd of 17th and 18th August 2019.

Testing
There is usually always two days of testing available before a Caterham race weekend, and they get sold out pretty quick at the beginning of the season, so you have to be quick to ensure you get a space on one or both days.  Luckily I managed to get onto both days for all available race weekends this year.  

There's a good reason to try and get onto both test days if you can... The weather!  I arrived on Wednesday night to sideways rain, which made setting up the awning and so on a touch 'miserable'.  The thursday was a lovely day, but I had a bit of car niggles, so the testing was mostly fun, but the Friday was an absolute washout, with puddles everywhere and the car niggle turned into something that felt more serious - a vibration from the front which I spent the entire day trying to iron out.

Friday testing was extreme wet at Donington Park GP Circuit

Race One
As the tow effect is quite strong at Donington Park - worth approx 1.5 secs per lap (if not more), I didn't really get a clean lap in with a good tow, so qualified in sixth position.

I made a reasonable start, and within two laps was in the lead, and thought myself and James Murphy were going to make a break away.  Somehow this didn't happen, I ended up getting swallowed up by the pack, missed a gear coming out of the Melbourne Loop and dropped down to 10th!

After dropping down to 10th, I clawed my way back up through the field over the remaining six or seven laps to eventually finish 5th.

My Race Onboard Video:-

Here is the Hayfisher Media Offical Caterham Cars Ltd Coverage of the race:-

Race Two
Lined up on the grid in 5th place, got a bit of wheel spin on the start of the race.  Kept my cool, picked up a couple of places, then got hung out to dry at Goddards, and dropped a couple of places... Got back to P3, then on lap 13, whilst in P4, something happened with the three in front, and I had to take avoiding action - as otherwise would've had a big crash into the back of Greg Monks (23:22) in the video.  

Luckily I didn't get beached in the gravel (or harpooned by anyone behind me), but had dropped down to P8!  I clawed two places back and eventually managed to finish in P6.

Championship Points Table
Technically this weekend was a shocker for me, but nevertheless I still scored a decent haul of points, and increased my championship lead which is surprising!

Round Seven - The Finale - Brands Hatch Indy
The finale of the 2019 Caterham 270R championship is at Brands Hatch Circuit in Kent on the 28th / 29th September.  We will be racing on the Indy layout, which tight and technical track and I seem to go well at, so am looking forward to the upcoming finale!  All being well there is a chance I can secure the championship on the Saturday, which would be a nice achievement indeed.


Feel free to come and say Hi if you're coming along to watch.