Mini Sport have received an update of the weekends action from Mini Sport regulars, the A L Motorsport team who are competing in the Mini Se7en Championship. The second round of the Championship was a double header at Donnington Park with plenty of action!

In complete contrast to Oulton Park 1 month earlier  Donnington was a circuit that the team had previously visited and the weather was to say the least going to be unpredictable .

Friday night really showed the spirit that the Mini 7 club has , with the task of building an engine for a competitor who until 5 pm that evening was unable to race . With borrowed short engine and a huge effort by many members of the club including A L Motorsport , between 9.30 and 1.00 am an engine came into existence and car 88 was back in the race! A true measure of how friendly the club is.

Saturday qualifying was full of optimism, anticipation and not without its share of problems. Even before the cars were on the track Leon (car 45) had fuses popping, a starter motor not willing to do its job and we later realised that the car didn’t have an earth strap to the engine , so a donated part saved the day!

The qualifying session was dry, and both drivers pushed the cars hard, looking to cement their status as top 10 running cars, with very little to separate them! Half way through the session though Leon started to struggle with massive under steer and loss of brakes , whilst Adam forged ahead, all be it with a very sideways car. Back at the paddock Adam was found to have a massive oil leak and Leon had a hub nut failure which meant the wheel was virtually hanging off ! At least we had 24 hours to carry out repairs . Never the less the team were very pleased with 8^th for Adam and 9^th for Leon.

The first race of the day was in dry conditions , and as we approached the grid it became very apparent how important qualifying is as Donnington is a big circuit with plenty of space on the track. Both drivers made good  starts but Leon had a stormer breaking past cars to find himself running 8^th and for the first 4 laps  both cars were running with the pack line a stern. Yet again very little between both drivers, but lack of pace was starting to show and Leon dropped back to 9^th. With 2 laps to go the rain started to fall and conditions went from dry to greasy and very nearly wet, but at different parts of the track. With the close racing you find in Se7ens it was always going to produce some incidents, and true to form several drivers came unstuck with the conditions which then allowed Leon to move up to and finish 7^th and Adam maintaining 9^th position. A great team result and further proof of the teams status as top 10 runners.

The second race of the day was a big difference, would it rain or not? 4 hours of on and off showers meant it was too unpredictable to call. Thankfully the rain came down 20 minutes before the race which meant tyre choice was very easy to call, and a wet race was declared. Yet again both drivers had good starts but another blast from 9^th up to 8^th for Leon meant that yet again he edged in front of Adam and was pushing hard for 7^th. Whilst trying a manouvre around the outside of coppice he was edged wide which opened the door for Adam to regain 8^th only then for Leon to have an inside line and better traction through mcleans to retake the position. Very close racing! And maybe a little too close as on the next lap whilst under braking into the chicane Adam snatched a gear which locked his wheels and spat him into the gravel trap and retirement. A great shame as the race was about to really unfold.

Leon was storming ahead and reveling in the wet conditions, which are a true leveler of the field. By lap 3 he was running 7^th, lap 4 up to 6^th where he ran comfortably for 4 laps. Urged on by the pit wall he found himself with a new confidence in the car and pushed hard chasing 5^th and 4^th positions who were busy squabbling amongst themselves. A   good clean overtake moved Leon up to 5^th and closing fast on his rival ahead with a best lap time 8/10ths faster than the 4^th placed driver. With the gap closing the chequered flag fell with less than a second between  them and a best ever finishing result of 5^th position, a fantastic achievement by car 45 and the A L Motorsport team.

There is now only 2 Weeks to go until bank holiday Monday 7^th May at Castle Combe which will be showing live on Motors TV UK

This week Mini Sport received an update from Stephen Irvine on his bank holiday racing weekend. He competes in the Cockshoot Cup and regularly visits Mini Sport to see our fully qualified and experienced Rover technician. This championship has been running for many years and has a great set of friendly yet competitive drivers. A whole range of MGs race together although they are split into the following categories:

Class A – for standard cars using road legal tyres

Class B –  for road-modified cars still using road legal tyres but with greater engine and transmission modifications

Class C – for fully-modified cars using racing tyres and with major body, engine and transmission modifications allowed

Class F – for road-going modified MGF and MGTF.

Here is the report:

A good grid of cars assembled at Donington Park to race for the first points of the 2012 season. The Championship shared the grid with the cars from the BCV8 Championship.

Mike Peters in his Midget and David Coulthard in the ZR 190 fought hard through the whole race, with David just coming out on top at the flag, the two of them beating all but one of the BCV8 cars. This gave the two drivers maximum points in Class C and Class B. Ashley Woodward was very quick in the big ZS taking third in the race and second in Class C. Behind Ashley was David Morrison in his red Midget winning second in Class B. Next up was a great dice for third in Class B with Steve McKie in his MGB V8 holding off Frazer Graham in his rebuilt Midget, Steve Atkinson driving another MGB V8 and Stephen Irvine in the first of the ZR160 cars.

The standard cars were running on stickier tyres for the first time. Ian Wright held the class lead at the start of the race, but was closed down and passed by Colin Offley mid-race although Ian managed to fight back and take the class win from Colin and Jeremy Toes.

Class F had two runners with Mike Rouse taking victory after Volker Eickmeyer buried his car in a gravel trap.

So, after race one, David Coulthard, Mike Peters and Ian Wright are joint Championship leaders. You can see the complete current championship scores here.

You can find more information at http://www.mgcc.co.uk/cockshoot-cup-about.html