Donington Park 20-21 October
The final rounds of the season, although the class titles had already been confirmed, the overall championship was still a two way contest between Wayne Schofield (Suzuki Cappuccino) and Andy Robinson (Ford Falcon) - the smallest and the largest cars in the Championship!
Qualifying:
A strong 31 car entry proved a fitting way to see out the season finale. An early qualifying session on Saturday morning meant a slippery track, wet from overnight rain and the usual aviation fuel residue. Robinson was going to have to work hard to bring home the points he would need in case Schofield slipped up - there was a record 16 car entry in Class A alone.
The four wheel drive cars of Gary Prebble (Mitsubishi Evo RS) and Dave Cockell (Ford Escort Cosworth) took the front row places, separated by three quarters of a second. Robinson in the rear drive falcon was a full 2 seconds further behind Cockell, but a second clear of fourth placed Vaughan Fletcher (Subaru Impreza). Schofield and Derek Palmer (Nissan Primera) took the Class D and B poles respectively, and 5th and 6th on the grid, the fourth row being filled with another pair of Class A cars, Chris Huntley's Subaru Impreza and Keith Butcher's Ginetta G50.
Outgoing champion Andy Jordan was next up in Class D and first Renault Clio in 9th overall, little more than a tenth ahead of tenth placed Alex Sidwell in the giant Holden Commodore, the second of the Aussie Touring Cars on the grid.
Two of the Nissan 370Z Play Station drivers from the Anglesey round came out again at Donington, this time in the GT4 version of the same car which promised to be much quicker if the conditions dried out - in the damp Wolfgang Reip qualified 12th with Mark Schulzhitskiy 14th, either side of Ian Froggatt's Subaru Impreza. Ilsa Cox (Seat Leon) was struggling for grip and uncharacteristically far down the grid in 15th, another at an unfamiliar part of the grid was Rex Stamp (Lotus Elise) in 17th.
The sole Class E runner, Chris Boon, was showing well in the Honda Civic Type R in 22nd, proving quicker than the likes of fellow ex-champion Nick Hayes and Mark Todd in their Class C Seat Leons as well as a pair of the Renault Clios.
Race 1 (Saturday):
Prebble and Cockell led the charge down to Redgate at the start, Robinson almost climbing into Prebble's boot. Prebble looked to have braked early enough given the cold conditions, but as he turned in the back end of the Mitsubishi broke away and ran out to the gravel leaving Robinson leading from Cockell. Huntley got a good start, launching down the inside of the track such that Palmer, Schofield and Huntley arrived at Redgate three abreast with a little bumping. They rounded Redgate just as Prebble came back on the track, Schofield just getting by in time and holding off Huntley. As the end of the first lapm approached, Robinson led from Cockell, Fletcher and Schofield, despite Robinson running across the gravel at the Roberts chicane. Prebble had moved back up 5th, a couple of seconds behind 4th placed Schofield.
Lap 2, Prebble was the fastest driver on the circuit and on a mission. Schofield moved up to 3rd passing Fletcher at Old Hairpin, but moved back to 4th as Prebble rocketed by on the run to Roberts. Robinson led from Cockell by half a second, with Prebble three seconds behind. Schofield had a second gap back to Fletcher, but Stamp was also in a hurry, moving up to 8th after 1 lap, and 6th after 2 laps. Prebble moved up to second on lap 4, but now there was a three second gap to Robinson, but back in 4th place, Fletcher lost 5th gear and started to fall back, restricted by lack of top speed and retired shortly after. Stamp was now 5th, but 8 seconds behind Schofield, himself 4 seconds behind Cockell.
Stamp started to fall back before retiring after 11 laps with driveshaft failure, but now the leaders were amongst the backmarkers. On lap 8 Robinson passed three cars down the straight towards Roberts, but went in too hot again in a bid to pass the third car, and once again ran across the gravel, but remained ahead of Prebble. By lap 10 Robinson just led Prebble across the line, the gap was 0.06 seconds, and the track was getting crowded. Robinson was catching backmarkers at the wrong places, and another trip across the gravel at Roberts allowed Prebble to get past and take the lead. Robinson tried to make amends, but Prebble was able to hold off Robinson and take his first win of the weekend by just over a second.
Cockell was running a lonely race back in 3rd, and Schofield looked to be safe in 4th and he homed in on the 2012 title, but Reip was closing in on Schofield. Reip took 4th place on the final lap as Schofield mistook Reip for the similar car of Schulzhitskiy he had just lapped. Schofield's 5th place was enough for the Class D win and gave him an unassailable lead going into Sunday's race thus confirm him the 2012 Arrowpak Eurosaloons Champion.
Only 8 cars finished on the same lap as the leaders, Palmer had maintained station behind Schofield all race long to come home 6th, while Doug Ellwood (Marcos Mantis) had made steady progress to recover from a lowly start position and finish 7th, with Ilsa Cox 8th; Palmer taking the Class B win.
Andy Robey (BMW M3) was the class of Class C, finishing 12th, but some 4 places and 26 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, Mark Todd (Seat Leon). Andy Jordan showed again he is quickest Clio finishing 13th, while Class E winner Boon finished 14th.
Race 2 (Sunday):
Sunday morning, overnight fog delayed the morning schedule, and by lunchtime it was touch and go whether the day's racing could place. Some drivers gave up and went home. Cox was just on that point when it was announced that a revised and shortened schedule would go ahead. Two qualifying sessions for other series were held as 3 laps behind a pace car, and then it was our turn. A twenty minute race was reduced to 13 minutes.
This time it was Prebble and Robinson on the front row from Cockell and Reip. Danny Precious had been generous and passed the drive of his car to Vaughan Fletcher, but he would be starting back on the 15th row, which with absentees taken into account, became the 12th row.
Prebble led from Robinson and Cockell, the inside line into Redgate proving vital as Prebble came out in the lead. At the end of the first lap, less than a second separated the three of them. Robinson looked like getting a run on Prebble into Redgate, but once again the inside line proved advantageous. Then disaster struck.
Going down Craners, Cockell and Robinson came together, the incident ending with the Falcon in the wall and both out of the race, an event which would bring out the safety car. Palmer and Schofield were sitting in second and third, Sidwell and Butcher next up, while Stamp had an excellent first two laps moving up from the back of the grid to 6th. There were three laps behind the saftey car, leaving time for a one lap sprint to the finish. Stamp found a way past Butcher to take 5th as the top positions remained otherwise unchanged. Prebble first from Palmer and Schofield, Class A, B and D winners respectively.
Boon had shown well again, taking the Class E win and 9th place overall, while Fletcher in the borrowed car had moved up from 23rd to 10th place. Andy Robey retired under the safety car leaving Nick Hayes to take the Class C win from Chris Whitely's similar Seat Leon but just one tenth.
So Schofield wins the 2012 Championship from Robinson and Hayes 318-274-268 points having taken 12 class wins from 16 races, and only recorded one DNF. Robinson (6 overall race wins) won Class A comfortably from Prebble (7 wins, 3 overall) 274-192 but Prebble only ran in 8 races. Doug Ellwood held off late challenges to finish 3rd in class. Class B had a disappointing turn out this season with only Cox entering more than 3 rounds, so predictably she ran out as easy class winner on 254 from Kevin Wendt (BMW M3) on 86 and late finishing Palmer who amassed his 78 points in the final 3 races.
Five drivers took class wins in Class C, but it was Hayes who triumphed, his 4 wins and greater consistency giving him 268 points from Mark Todd (158) and Ian Craig (4 wins, 136 points). Schofield dominated Class D, but Andy Jordan still picked up enough (246) points to finish 5th overall. Chris Boon had a lonely season in Class E and remained unbeaten, the lack of challengers keeping his points total down to 204 and 6th overall.
Cox is the 2012 Arrowpak Super Touring Cup champion, while Andy Jordan won the 2012 Mark Fish Motorsport Clio Cup Challenge. A massive last round haul of points (172 against 68) saw Seat narow the gap down to just 6 points in the closest MSE_Performance.com Manufacturers Cup ever.
Read the official race report here.
So, not a great year for Nyssa Racing as we didn't get out to race at all. We had hoped the kappa might make the later Eurosaloons races but realistically it won't be going anywhere before 2014 season. There was an offer of a drive or two with the Tin Tops series, we even picked up a National A licence in readiness as one of the rounds would be at Spa, but unfortunately nothing came of these.
We have a plan in place for 2013, Nyssa Racing will be supporting Geri Nicosia who plans to race in the Ford Fiesta Junior series once he has passed his 14th birthday in June. We have purchased a Ford Fiesta ST donor car and are currently building the race ready for 2013 season. We also hope to compete in the Ford Fiesta championship running the ST in Class C, primarily to ensure the car is at its best ready for Geri and also so we can build our relationship with the partner team we choose to help us run in the series. Details of the Fiesta build will appear on our 2013 site which will be up once the 2013 calendar dates are available.
Check out the current points
standing.
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