Donington Park Report

After a short summer break, Miata Trophy returned on July 15 for the fifth and sixth round of the championship’s inaugural season. The opening four races have proved immensely entertaining, with excellent driving standards complimenting extremely competitive Mazda MX-5 racing. It’s no wonder why anticipation was high for this Donington Park event.

Declan Lee (Hills Motorsport #12) started the weekend narrowly behind championship leader John Langridge in the overall standings and immediately got to work in Leicestershire, setting the initial pace in the morning’s cloudy qualifying session. With only the top five in each class getting through to SuperPole, competition was fierce. Daniel Parrans-Smith (Boreham Motorsport #73), John Langridge (Miller Motorsport #5) and Steve Kite (Misty Racing #72) each enjoyed spells at the top of the overall timing sheet, but it was ultimately a blistering 1:23:982 from Kite that ensured it was the Misty Racing #72 NC MX-5 that led the field into SuperPole. Langridge, Lee, Alex Miller (Miller Motorsport #7) and Parrans-Smith would all join Steve Kite in the tense pole position shootout. Current NA Class championship leader Liam Cochrane (Turner Property Services Racing) headed his class into the next session.

Just 0.029secs separated the top three in the morning’s initial qualifying and, as a result, excitement and anticipation grew exponentially for SuperPole. The pressure of SuperPole is significant and was certainly not lost on the drivers – with only one flying lap each deciding the front of the grid, there’s no room for error. Current championship leader John Langridge (Miller Motorsport #5) has been excellent throughout the opening races this year but found this out the hard way in Donington Park SuperPole, making an error that would ultimately see him lose out on valuable starting positions.  Daniel Parrans-Smith and Alex Miller gained a place on their qualifying results each, to line up fourth and third on the grid respectively. All eyes then turned to Steve Kite (Misty Racing #72), as the qualifying pacesetter looked to best a very competitive lap time from Declan Lee (Hills Motorsport #12). It wasn’t to be though and Declan Lee became the third different driver to top SuperPole in as many sessions – by 0.187secs over Steve Kite! Liam Cochrane put Turner Property Services Racing in a great place to extend his championship lead by topping Class NA SuperPole.

After getting the jump on Misty Racing #72 in SuperPole, Lee (Hills Motorsport #12) was evidently keen to utilize this advantage and did well to in the opening exchanges – amassing over a five second lead after the fourth lap. Just as it has all season, the racing at Donington Park throughout the Miata Trophy pack made for tremendous viewing. In challenging conditions, there were a great number of brilliant overtakes for spectators to enjoy. One of these was Miller Motorsport #7, who managed to get the jump on Misty Racing’s Steve Kite for second place on the third lap. A brief safety car period to retrieve a stricken MX-5 would bunch the field up for an epic final few laps. However, Declan Lee expertly saw out the remainder of the race to take the checkered flag first for his second Miata Trophy race victory and vital championship points! John Langridge (Miller Motorsport #5) was hungry to make up ground and successfully navigated the restart to rise into the podium places. The #5 driver give it his all to hunt down teammate Alex Miller (Miller Motorsport #7) in second but ultimately came up 0.447secs short. Both Miller and Langridge had put in stellar drives and the team had earned the double podium finish. Boreham Motorsport’s Parrans-Smith had shown superb raw pace throughout the race and was reward with a fourth place finish, pipping Misty Racing’s Steve Kite by 0.326secs. Liam Cochrane demonstrated tremendous pace to battle the NC Class cars all race long and sealed an excellent performance with the top step of NA Class.

The opening lap of the second race of the day was an absolute classic. Three cars: Alex Miller (Miller Motorsport #7), John Langridge (Miller Motorsport #5) and Declan Lee (Hills Motorsport #12) all gave their everything in the battle for the lead, culminating in a three wide fight into Coppice. It was race one winner Lee who once again had the advantage, leading rivals Langridge and Miller by less than one second over the line. Simon Fleet (Jiffy Winks), Xavier Brooke and Daniel Parrans-Smith were all in hot pursuit of the top three, while being immersed in a gripping battle of their own. This set the tone for a truly enthralling race to follow, full of twists and turns. The lead of the race changed hands on multiple occasions, with each of the top three taking their turn to head the field around Donington Park’s National configuration. While Lee, Langridge and Miller all partook in an epic battle, two Boreham Motorsport cars, Daniel Parrans-Smith (#73) and Roan Lundy (#88), surged through the field. Parrans-Smith even managed to get the jump on Alex Miller to steal third place as the field headed into a breathtaking final lap. Lee had the lead over Langridge by less than a second as the pair dueled through the first sector, before an unfortunate incident between the two and a mistake from Parrans-Smith opened the door for Alex Miller to claim his first Miata Trophy victory and put the cherry on top of a very strong race weekend for Miller Motorsport #7. Langridge would come home in second to secure a one-two for Miller Motorsport, with Boreham Motorsport’s Roan Lundy fantastically bouncing back from a DNF in the first race to finish on the final podium step. A consistently solid day of racing from Simon Fleet (Jiffy Winks) saw the #55 driver finish fourth, ahead of Declan Lee and Nicholas Stott (Hills Motorsport #4). Liam Cochrane again battled hard to secure another victory in NA Class and extend the Mk1 MX-5 driver’s lead at the top of class championship standings.

Congratulations to all.