Boom Bang-A-Bang

Donington Park - 5 June 1999

The weather man said it would be a miracle if it didn’t rain but once again we were blessed with a rain free day as the Morgan circus continued to follow the Aston Martin Owners Club around the country stopping off at Donington Park for round 4 of the championship.

With 2 withdrawals prior to the event, Chas Windridge made it 3 after qualifying. Having barbecued his car in qualifying at Snetterton, he saved it from further abuse for Spa where his bad luck had continued when his engine chewed itself up. By the end of qualification at Donington, last year’s pole man had lost confidence in his unpredictable class A car which had tried it’s best to throw him off the circuit on 3 occasions.

The roar of the Rovers seemed a little tame after the thoroughbred grand prix cars had shattered ear-drums earlier in the day, but nevertheless a healthy sound rattled around Donington as the 20 cars charged off the line and into Redgate. Garland got his customary flyer and led Matthew Wurr and Keith Ahlers safely round Redgate. Following them, Simon McDermott had Rick Lloyd on his inside and Chris Springall on his outside and they all went into Redgate together. Lloyd was travelling considerably faster than McDermott who was forced to turn into Redgate slightly earlier than he and Lloyd had planned having found Springall charging round him on the outside. Lloyd hit McDermott and as they locked horns McDermott was pushed sideways across the corner and into the path of James Paterson who, with no chance of avoiding the stranded McDermott scrubbed off as much speed as he could before meeting McDermott amidships. Chris Acklam went sideways over the rumble strip and across the gravel desperate to avoid the collision while Jeremy Holden (who had started 5 rows behind McDermott) saw what he thought was daylight as the cars in front of him went left and right to avoid the mêlée. Sadly for Holden the daylight was bouncing off Simon McDermott’s car into which he ploughed and became the 3rd victim of the accident. Perhaps not surprisingly the race was stopped and those who had managed to avoid the collision waited on the grid as the 3 stranded cars and their angry drivers (all of whom were unhurt one of whom was performing air Kung-Fu in his disappointment) were collected from the scene of their accident.

With the race now reduced to a 7 lap sprint, the 17 remaining cars blasted off on the re-start. Again it was Garland who, fully aware of the importance of a good start against Wurr, made a great one and once again beat him off the line from Keith Ahlers who “asleep today” was under pressure from Lloyd as they swept through the Craner Curves together. By the end of lap 1 Garland and Wurr had a fair slice of track between them but into Redgate Wurr ate it all up under braking and tried to slip inside Garland who had run wide but still managed to keep his lead. The battle went on lap after lap, Garland making ground through the corners maintaining it on the straight but losing it all under braking to Wurr who was spectacular through Goddards and Redgate, he tried passing on the inside, when that didn’t work he tried round the outside and on lap 4 he tried sideways. By lap 6 he was getting desperate and as they approached Redgate together, Wurr performed the most spectacular manoeuvre of the year gaining 25 yards under braking passing Garland on the outside. It looked like he could hold on but almost inevitably he lost grip on the ‘marbles’, ran out of corner and drifted on the more forgiving part of the gravel trap losing ground as he rattled back onto the circuit waving his hand in resignation. All this bluster belied the controlled drive Garland put together. He withstood the extraordinary pressure from Wurr and drove to one of the finest wins and most entertaining Morgan races this writer has seen. The final podium position was taken by Keith Ahlers who, on his fourth outing of the year, at last finished a race and finally took some well deserved and hard earned points.

Behind him Rick Lloyd continued his steady march toward consecutive titles but not without his fair share of luck. Having recovered from the debacle at Redgate he had to perform some hasty modifications to his car prior to the restart (after getting permission from the marshals). His luck continued when, having put up Class B fastest lap once again, he passed the chequered flag as his radiator blew up. Chris Springall held 5th position from start to finish briefly catching Lloyd as his fledgling relationship with his new class A car continued to improve.

With only 2 cars left in class C, Chris Acklam and Grahame White took up where they had left off at Brands. White managed to hold onto his grid position for the opening lap, but by the end of the next and under pressure from Acklam, his erratic driving left him grass-bound at the Esses and Acklam, only a whisker behind, got him. White spent the next lap close on the editor’s tail eventually re-taking him in exactly the same place keeping him at bay during an intense and exiting battle for 6th place. Next man along the road was Adrian Van de Kroft. After losing places in both starts, Van de Kroft drove a well controlled race on a circuit he didn’t know, re-taking 8th place having first powered by Mary Lindsay then Jack Bellinger and Peter Horsman who were having a ferocious tussle for the class D trophy. Amazed at his luck at avoiding the Redgate carnage, Bellinger held his concentration and made the better start keeping the joint championship leader in his mirrors until the second lap when Horsman out-braked him into Redgate and drove the next 5 laps sideways in his efforts to keep Bellinger behind. As they went through the Esses for the final time side by side, Horsman grabbed the better line and just did enough to pip Bellinger who made the usual excuses but he couldn’t better Horsman’s who displayed the errant gear knob which had fallen off on the 3rd lap.

Leigh Sebba and Mary Lindsay had another great dual for 11th place with the Class B interloper McKelvey who had out-dragged Lindsay into the 1st corner staying ahead of her until the 2nd lap when she slipped by and set off in pursuit of Sebba who had more luck keeping her behind while she tried everything to get past. On lap 6, Sebba ‘gave up thinking of ways to block her’ and lost his position on Starkey’s Straight but on the final lap Lindsay got too wiggly through the Esses and an elated Sebba, who had kept her honest, took his chance and got by just in time to take the chequered flag and 11th place.

John Clarke reappeared for this round after an almost complete engine rebuild following his problems at Snetterton earlier in the season. Having qualified well on low revs, Clarke watched his counter as he ran the new motor in. By lap 3 he was concentrating less on the rev counter and more on a resurgent Peter Sargeant who could see consecutive class wins on the horizon and closed. When Clarke ran wide into Redgate, Sargeant leapt into the vacated tarmac just as Clarke shut the door and they collided, Clarke spinning round and hitting Sargeant’s car on the other side. Clarke retired to grass but Sargeant somehow managed to struggle round for another lap before he too pulled off and into retirement.

The unfortunate demise of Clarke and Sargeant had to be good news for someone. Had it not been for his multi-point harness, David James would have been jumping up and down in his car, for although he again spent the entire race alone avoiding the snarling class A cars as they lapped him, James cruised to a popular class win and the afternoon’s biggest cheer when he stepped forward to collect the class winner’s trophy.

Providing firm support for the rest of the field was Brian Jenkins. The affable retired draper had problems following a start line engine fire in a recent hill climb event but despite all this and his solitary race he enjoyed himself finishing last but reaping the rewards of his class mates’ mishaps to finish 2nd in class.

Rick Lloyd’s run of luck at Donington and Jack Bellinger’s fastest lap left Peter Horsman a single point behind the ’98 champion. Halfway into the season we have an outright leader for the first time. What chance then of stopping the Burley man’s relentless charge towards consecutive titles? Only one-SABOTAAAAAAAAAGE

Jonathan Suffolk