Following on from the race report of the Britcar MSA Endurance Championship the Britcar Production Cup second round was also held at Donington park.
The thirty minute qualifying session saw No 8 Geoff Steel Racing BMW take pole position for the start of the race which was driven by Richard Abra/ Mark Poole in a lap time of 1:11:598. Second on the grid was taken by no 11 BMW M3 driven by Michael Symons/ Keith Webster in a time of 1:12:401. Last race the no 11 BMW was disqualified for standard infringements. Third position was taken by no 27 seat Leon Super Copa driven by Bernard Hogarth/ Stevan Hodgetts in a lap time of 1:12:800.
Both no 8 and 11 who held first and second on the starting grid had additional penalties given to them of twenty seconds to the mandatory pit stop time. No 8 brought in by Abra had a pit stop time of 155 seconds and car 11 had a pit stop time of 145 seconds.
The Britcar Production Cup race started as a dry race but before the first lap was completed it started to rain and led to most drivers struggling to get grip on the track. Some riders opted to change their tyres to wets. Lap 3 saw the safety car enter the track while two cars were in the middle of the racing track and remained on track for 6 laps while it continued to rain. The track started to dry out 30 minutes into the race and the racers started setting faster times, a time of 1:31:909 was set by no 14 MR2 driven by Phillips/O’Brien compared to the 1:37:906 set on lap 1.
By lap 3 the race was headed by no 19 and 27 Seat Leon’s and both Seats dominated the race with no 8 BMW M3 in third place. However the BMW driven by Abra trailed the leading duo by a lap at the halfway point. The lead swapped several times between the two seat’s. On lap 28 the lap time of 1:12:753 was set by Richard Abra in the BMW as track conditions improved, abra continued to set the fastest laps as he chased down the leading duo.
Unfortunately no 8 BMW was hit on his tailgate by another car and had to pit with only half an hour of the race left. This left me feeling very frustrated for Abra as he had the potential to get to the front and compete. The leading duo swapped several times but once pit stops were completed the no 27 driven by Hodgetts fought to stay in first position ahead of the no 19 Seat. No 27 decided to leave their pit stop towards the end of the race and saw them drop back into second again. Within the last 15 minutes of the race positions 3-10 swapped several times which made the race more exciting to watch. On the last lap no 11 came off the track with seconds of the race to go.
The race was won by no 19 Seat Leon which completed the 61 lap race in the pit lane after a flat tyre, second place saw the chequered flag, no 27 Seat Leon, third place was no 30 BMW. The fastest lap was 1:12:151 done by Richard Abra on lap 33 in his BMW.
Class 3 was won by no 88 Honda civic driven by cockill. Class 2 was won by no 55 Honda accord driven by nigel ainge and mike Jordan.
The Sunoco driver of the day was given to Harry Cockill who was first in his class.