Donington Race Report - 24th October 1999
Graduates Race with Scholarship guest drivers

Sunday morning dawned wet and miserable.  Excellent!  I'd splashed out on a brand new set of tyres the day before, gambling on the prediction it would be the Donington monsoon season.  Luckily so, as when my old tyres came off they weren't the nicely scrubbed articles I'd thought - one of them had chucks of tread peeling off.   Can I use this as an excuse for my relatively poor Snetterton performance?

At the track there was the usual round of briefings, signing-on and scruntineering before practice.  My plan was to pootle around the soaking track for the statuary three laps before even trying to put in a reasonable qualifier.  However that only left time for a few laps in a wet 15 minute session.  I set my fastest time on my seventh (and probably last lap).  Peter Tattershill predictably ended up beached in a gravel trap at Coppice, but got his 3 laps in first.  I was was quite pleased with my 23rd place, against 34 experienced racers.  I might even be highest placed Scholar.   No, John Bennett and Robert Draper are a few places in front.  Hang on, where's Tim?  Scan the bottom half of the table again.  No sign.  Scan midfield.  Still nothing.  Maybe he didn't go out because of a mechanical or something.  Start from the top.  Rushton, Low ("good result for Franek"), Williams, GIBSON!!!  Bugger, he's fourth.  Entering for the full season of FPA next year, Tim?

I checked my tyre pressures after the session - I'd been running 28/28 (i.e dry weather pressures) at the front and 20/28 at the back.  Never trust a garage to put in the tyre pressures you ask for!  My own fault for not checking them though. 

The marshals sorted us out into something like qualifying positions in the holding area, but released the wrong groups at the wrong time and there was a lot of sorting to do on the grid.  I tried a "boy racer" start at the start of the green flag lap, dropping the clutch at 2000 rpm, and just sat there spinning the wheels.  A "granny at the supermarket" start was in order then.  Halfway around the green flag lap, the rain started again in earnest, soaking what had been a drying track.   This was going to to be interesting!  My grid position didn't appear to have a number, so I had the added problem of trying to refind my slot after the warm up lap.   Unlike the wet Oulton start, I held my nerve and made a couple of places off the line, but when I had traction I forgot to accelerate hard until I was  passed by another car - that reminded me!  The inevitable first corner incident never occurred, everyone sensibly giving each other room.  I went for a gap on the exit of Redgate, but it started to close as I was halfway through and I backed off.  Coming out of Hollywood and into the Craners, I was sideswiped by another car.  No damage, just a wake up call.  I was on the inside through the Craners and tried to make a Senna-like move past a few cars (remember a wet Donington in '93?).  However sense prevailed and I backed off again.  Racing began in earnest after the Old Hairpin.  All the following did occur, but I'm not sure of the order... Racers amongst you might understand my fragmentory recollection. 

Nick Frost and I were up behind the infamous Peter Tattershill.  I don't think he was pointing straight ahead all lap, and I didn't fancy trying to pass.  Nick outbraked himself at the Esses and I snuck through.  Luckily Peter fell off (again!) at the next corner so I didn't have to physically pass him on the track, but like some undead horror film monster which refuses to stay down, dragged himself out of the gravel trap and continued to terrorise racers behind me.  I latched on to the scrap of Oli Hagger and Mark Taylor, just in time to see Jonathan Bass (?) spin in front of us at Starkies Bridge and end up sideways across the track.  Oli went one side, Mark and I the other.  I think I outdragged the pair of them out of Coppice and down Starkies Straight but Mark kept on coming back at me.  He'd take the inside line from 20 yards back into Redgate, McCleans (which he seemed particularly strong through) and the Esses.   I didn't think he could come through from that far back but it made me take the defensive line.  I held on for several laps, but he eventually got the run on me down the pit straight and into Redgate.  I held him off but for how much longer?   Suddenly we were catching the cars in front.  The race must be over!   We'd both missed the chequered flag in the heat of battle but I'd held off Mark by 15 hundredths.  As I came down the pitlane Karen signalled that I'd come 11th - my best race finish so far!  Timothy had spun down to 9th, John Bennett 22nd and John Barry 25th.  Unfortunately for reserves Alan Williamson and Robert Draper, all the cars took the start and they had to pull off the track after the green flag lap.  At least the partial refund will pay for Robert's fine for not having a working fog lamp during qualifying - the trouble is it was working, just Robert didn't realise it only comes on with dipped headlamps!

Graeme Smith