Donington
disaster...but pair vow to fight back
Barry
& Anthony had a trying weekend at Donington Park for
rounds 9 & 10 of the Radical Enduro championship. Barry
had once again shown his progress in practice, lapping less
than a second away from his more experienced team mate.
The
weekend started well with Anthony snatching pole position
in the dying seconds of qualifying, pulling a lap out of
the bag that was 4 tenths of a second faster than Nigel
Greensall and team mate Bradley Ellis.
However,
after qualifying Team RPM noticed a problem with the engine
& were forced to change for a spare for the first race.
Anthony
made a good opening lap to take the class lead, fighting
with the higher powered SR8's, but soon had to defend rigorously
from Greensall.
Anthony
comes under pressure from Greensall
"I could feel at the start that the engine wasn't pulling
strongly, so after a tussle I decided to follow Nigel as
we're not fighting him in the championship" said Anthony.
However, shortly after Anthony returned to the pits with
an engine problem that ultimately couldn't be fixed.
The
class was once again won by double Thruxton winner James
Harrison who coasted home once the chasing car of championship
leading Phil Bailey / Bradley Ellis had a high speed wheel
failure.
The
team worked to fix the engine problem and turned the car
out for the second race. Barry took the start & battled
hard to get past tite Rival Phil Bailey who was making a
robust defence. He made a clean move into Redgate &
immediately pulled out a gap, but unfortunately the engine
problem returned and another DNF was posted. The no. 1 car
of Bailey / Ellis took the win after race long leader Paul
Thomas ran out of fuel on the last lap. They now stand 42
points clear at the top of the championsip table ahead of
Anthony & Barry.
"This
isn't good for our championship challenge" said Anthony
"however, we'll just have to try & win all of the
remaining rounds! There's still 186 points up for grabs
so we'll keep pushing....."
They
next race at Croft, where Anthony holds the Radical SR3
lap record.
See
bottom of the page for video's of both races!
Anthony
coaches Barry through his IWannaGoFaster.com
performance driving tuition business.
The
weekend did have some highlights...
ALL
PHOTO'S COURTESY OF OLIVER READ
VIDEO
FOOTAGE
Race 1
Anthony's
comments: "I start the race and get stuck into the
SR8's (note their lower air intake than the SR3's), but
as usual they blast away down the straights. The battle
allows Nigel Greensall (yellow SR3) to have a run at me
out of the old hairpin and into McLeans. I give him room,
but then he tries to squeeze me onto the grass! So I give
him the "think about it" gesture & return
the favour (with interest). Children.
I
defend hard but Nigel is quicker & we're not fighting
him in the championship so when he gets a clear run out
of Coppice I don't retaliate.
The
next lap the engine overheats (it was down on power from
the start) & I switch it off & coast back to the
pits into retirement."
Race 2
Anthony's
comments: "Barry starts the race behind the more powerful
SR8's (note their lower air intake than the SR3's). He fights
with black car No.1 driven by team mate Phil Ellis who we
are close to in the championship. Barry is much quicker
- particularly at the Old Hairpin - but Phil puts up a robust
defence...and Barry is learning his racecraft!
The
two of them squabbling allow Paul Thomas (light blue SR3)
to get away in the SR3 class lead and for John Stanley (another
light blue SR3), Helen Ray (yellow SR3) and Colin Noble
(white SR3) to catch up. Barry
finally makes a clean move on Phil at Redgate and pulls
well clear, only for the engine problems from race 1 to
reappear and he pulls off on the inside of Coppice to retire.
The
No.1 car of Phil was handed over to partner Bradley Ellis
and went on to win the class as Paul Thomas ran out of fuel
on the last lap!"
Video
was taken using Autotel video equipment.
