The 2022 Welsh Sports & Saloon Championship (aka WSSCC) was at Donington Park on Sunday 14th August with its usual format of Qualifying and 2 races, to make up the 9th &10th rounds in the 14-round 2022 Championship. The last time the championship raced on the Donington Park National Circuit it was wet & windy, and as the 14th of August had better weather, it may well be that the current Lap Records will fall!
Pre-event Championship points Andrew K Williams BT Honda R/Clio 153 points, Tyrone Dowsell BT Renault Clio 154 pts, Colin Dunn BT Renault Clio 146 pts Todd Garner BS Renault Clio 139 pts, Wayne Spiller BS Mazda RX8 130 pts, Gareth John BS Ginetta G40 112 pts, Chris Everill D Ginetta G55 110 pts Damian Longotano CS Westfield SE 96 pts, Verity Banks BT Ford Fiesta 90 pts, Rodney Teague BT Renault Clio 65 pts
Entry & Qualifying. It was another heat-wave weekend, only this week there were no garages to shelter in! Barc Clerk Andrew Harris gave us a briefing, which included not damaging Johnathon Palmer's grass! With dire consequences, if you did!
The front row had a familiar feel! Chris Everill was on pole in his red Ginetta G55 1:14.756. Alongside him was Damian Longotano with his Westfield SE
On the 2nd row and 3rd fastest was the first of our Irish guests Paul Parr and his SHP Wildcat 2000 and his mate Charlie Linaanne SHP RT2000 2000
On row 3 was one of our UK guests , Klaas Kooiker and his BMW M3 plus Gareth John who took the Class BS pole with his Ginetta G40
On row 4 was Todd Garner (Renault Clio) and fellow BS man Wayne Spiller (Mazda RX8) Todd had a straight-on, tyre smoking moment at Redgate. It may have been he was trying too hard, for a quick time!
On row 5 were Robert Rees ( BMW Mini R56t) and Colin DUNN who took the BT pole with the first of the many BT Clios .
On row 6 was another Irish pair of John Newport and Gary Grattan both in Wildcats (seem like the RT2000 cars from several years ago.
On row 7 was an all BT row of Andrew WILLIAMS (Honda) and Rodney Teague Renault Clio 2000
On row 8 were Tyrone Dowsell (BT Clio) and Alan SMITH Ford KA (AT)
On row 9 was Russell Haggerty also with a Ford KA but not on List 1a tyres so Class AS
On row 10 it was a low start for Mike COOK (BMW 330 Clubsport) and Verity BANKS (Ford Focus)
We should have had at least 2 more starters but one of the Irish guys Gary Cochran, damaged his engine in testing
And John Morris who couldn’t get to Donington.
Race 1 15 minutes – Rolling start. As the cars approached the lights, Chris Everill took a lead he was never to lose, although Damian Longotano closed up to a couple of 10ths of a second, Chris’ lead had grown to a second or so by lap 7. And that’s where the fun ended, as Andrew Williams had gone off on the same lap, and the safety car was scrambled. With Andy stuck, the race ended under the safety car! Meanwhile, Tyrone Dowsell had disappeared to the pits! Behind the flying Chris & Damian, the first of the Irish rovers, Paul Parr was in 3rd place. 4th was Charlie Linanne, but he disappeared leaving our UK guest, Klaas Kooiker and his BMW M3 in 4th place. And he worked at closing the gap to Paul, until the safety car stopped play! Gareth John was then 5th but Jon Newport (Irish Wildcat) passed him and began close the gap to Klass. Up until lap 5 Gareth seemed well in charge of Class BS, but then he spun down the order, as he explains,’ I’d managed to build up quite a healthy lead but then mid-way through the race I overheated my tyres just pushing too hard in the heat. Turned into McLeans and suffered huge understeer, tried to correct it but ended up spinning the car and ended up in the gravel trap. I managed to get across the gravel onto the grass but ripped part of the rear bumper in the process. I managed to get back onto the track by which time I’d lost a lot of time. Was slowly catching Wayne and Todd back up, but then the safety car came out and so it was game over! Ah well that’s how it goes sometimes. At least I had the fastest lap as consolation!’ All this drama let Todd Garner into 6th place followed closely by Wayne Spiller, and Robert Rees, with Gareth now he passed Robert to finish 8th! Behind the Class BS runners, it was hammer & tongs time in Class BT. Verity Banks disappeared early on, but this time it was just a Flat Battery, (that was soon fixed for Race 2, thanks to Colin Dunn ) Leading Class BT was Andrew Williams, (back in Jason Peard’s Honda), by a narrow margin from Colin Dunn and Tyrone Doswell. Gary Gratton (Irish Wildcat) and Mike Cook (BMW 330) were also in the mix! Andrew continued to head the class, but Colin was keeping the pressure on! Suddenly on lap 7 at the Craner Curves Andrew had a brief trip around the edge of the Gravel Trap! With a flat tyre and tyre-rim full of gravel, the marshals were not minded letting Andrew continue, although he wanted to. Rod Teague had retired to the pits. With cars stranded around the circuit, the safety car was scrambled, and the race ended under the safety car! So Colin was the Class BT winner with Tyrone Dowsell as the only other BT finisher, although 5 Class BT cars had started! Behind them, Russell Haggerty and Alan Smith, had a battle of the Ford KA’s, although Alan was in AT as he was on list 1 tyres, and Russell would be in Class AS as he wasn’t. So the race ran its 15 minutes distance under the Safety Car with Chris taking his 5th win of the year.
Race 2 – Rolling start! Earlier in the programme, the 50-minute Britcar took an age to complete with 2 red flag moments and lots of clearing up to do! This had a knock on effect and instead of our race starting at 17.50 (with a Circuit curfew at 18.30) it actually started at 18.23! However Chris Everill was missing, ‘I had a problem with my lorry and had to get that sorted so missed the race!’ ( Gareth John will understand. He got stranded at Silverstone when his tow car stopped!!) This left Damian Longotano to charge into the lead! He was chased by Paul Parr who keep him honest and Jon Newport! Klaas Kooiker moved into 4th place and a quick starting Robert Rees was 5th until the Class BS trio caught and passed him! Todd Garner was under pressure from Gareth John, who pushed him all the way. Gareth confirmed ‘ I could have a made a pass on him a few times during the race, but it would have been too risky. He would pull too much of a gap on me on the straights and I just couldn’t get close enough to make a clean pass. I still enjoyed the race. It was clean to be fair to Todd, and he defended well. Again I had the fastest lap so I was happy with that.’ Wayne Spiller was 6th and Robert Rees was the last runner on the lead lap and finished 7th. The leading runner on 11 laps was Gary Grattan (Irish Wildcat) who finished in 8th place and was chased all the way by the Class BT winner Colin Dunn. 10th and on 10 laps was Mike Cook. (Class CT BMW 339. If I say the remaining runners included Alan Smith, Russell Haggerty, and Verity Banks (2nd in Class BT), you may say, ‘What happened to the rest of the BT starters!’ Redgate is what happened! Having taken the start, Andrew Williams and Tyrone Dowsell found themselves disputing the same piece of Track! Andrew’s (or is it Jason’s) Front bumper/aerodynamic aid was stranded in the middle of the track until one of the marshals dashed out to collect it! Both Andrew and Tyrone were out on the spot, and Verity Banks stopped to avoid the chaos, but restarted, and motored on to take some welcome points! Alan Smith was another to emerge from the fracas, but did not get off lightly, with a huge dent in the passenger side door and front wing area! However, the adrenaline must have been flowing, as he stalked, and then passed Russell Haggerty! In the latter stages, Jon Newport retired to the paddock, with a dead engine! So Damian ran out as the winner, as the race eventually finished a few minutes after the curfew!
Post-event Championship points Colin Dunn BT Renault Clio 187 points, Todd Garner BS Renault Clio 175 pts, Tyrone Dowsell BT Renault Clio 172 pts, Wayne Spiller BS Mazda RX8 160 pts, Andrew K Williams BT Honda R/Clio 153 pts Gareth John BS Ginetta G40 144 pts, Chris Everill D Ginetta G55 124 pts Damian Longotano CS Westfield SE 130 pts, Verity Banks BT Ford Fiesta 108 pts, Rodney Teague BT Renault Clio 65 pts
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Donington Park Lap Records |
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National Circuit |
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Class |
Driver |
Time |
Date set |
Conditions |
Set |
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Class AS |
Russell Haggerty |
1.34.096 |
14/08/2022 |
Sunny& hot |
Race 2 |
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Class AT |
Alan Smith |
1.36.101 |
14/08/2022 |
Sunny& hot |
Race 1 |
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Class CT |
Mark Williams |
1.26.761 |
26/07/2018 |
Rainy /Wet |
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Class BS |
Gareth John |
1.20.033 |
14/08/2022 |
Sunny& hot |
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Class BT |
Colin Dunn |
1.26.417 |
14/08/2022 |
Sunny& hot |
Race 2 |
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Class CS |
Damian Longotano |
1.14.569 |
14/08/2022 |
Sunny& hot |
Race 1 |
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Class D |
Chris Everill |
1.14.948 |
14/08/2022 |
Sunny& hot |
Race 1 |
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Class I |
Jason Davies |
1.14.426 |
26/07/2018 |
Rainy /Wet |
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Class M |
Fabio Luffarelli |
1.18.849 |
26/07/2018 |
Rainy /Wet |
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