Double VSCC duty at Donington Park

With some fresh modification to Mord, including strengthening the cross member and some adjustment to the front springs, Dad and I were excited to see the impact on our now-notorious axle tramp problem as we headed to Donington Park. With an entry for the Specials Race in Mord and the Longstone Light Car Race with my boyfriend, Louis Parkin, in their family’s Austin Chummy, we were set for a busy day.

First up was Mord’s practice. Finding myself out among some much faster cars felt daunting as we lined up. I found space on track and was reminded of how fun Donington is as I eased my way up to a respectable time of 1min 41sec, putting me on the fifth row… And no axle tramp!

With a very intermittent misfire in practice, I swapped out the sparkplugs, and then swapped out the cars as I headed out to practice in the Chummy! The plan, as instructed by Louis, was to get our three laps done and come in to save the car for the race. With some instructions shouted through helmets as Louis handed over, off I went. After, I asked Louis what the times were, and he said he’d put the fastest lap in and we were on row 10 (out of 18). I instantly wanted to know how far behind I was. All I’ll say is how delighted I was to see who really put the quickest time in when the official results came out… but, as you’ll learn, that isn’t to the nature of the Light Car Race!

First up was the Specials race, which was halted early by a red flag when another competitor had an engine failure and lost a lot of oil. It turned out to be a small blessing though as I’d noticed the water temperature creeping up and remembered I hadn’t (as instructed by Dad) checked it beforehand. I hustled the first person I saw with a bottle and topped her up.

Unlike Cadwell, I had a fab restart and managed to squeeze past three cars before Redgate. I pushed on until a slight mistake at the hairpin meant the gap was closed and they were past at the next opportunity. From then on, Mord was flying with no axle tramp and I finished in ninth, with a huge smile.

The Light Car Race was the last of the day, and was almost a washout after a storm hit the circuit 30 minutes before the start, leading us all to think it would be cancelled. We took shelter in a covered trailer until we heard Dougal Cawley, the man behind the reinvention of this race, shouting, “Get to assembly!”

Louis was first up. He put in a great first half, passing 10 cars! As the timer went I waved him in and ran to take over. Off I went, at a much slower speed to my previous race in Mord, however no less invigorating. The twitchy steering of the Chummy made for quite the challenge, especially down the Craner Curves. The difficulty was if you slowed too much you lost momentum back up the hill. We finished 11th (from 20th) all down to Louis’ epic start.

With many an experienced and fast racer out there in some of the silliest and slowest cars, we all reported having more fun than ever! To the nature of the race, Dougal disqualified the first three cars for taking it too seriously and handed bottles of champagne to those in fourth to sixth. It was a huge success.

Oulton Park is next as Louis shares Mord with me in the VSCC Team race, and then to the Prescott hillclimb where my sister will be taking on her first event alongside me!

Next month: from tracks to hills with two co-drivers