Donington Duel

Donington Park – 22nd/24th October 2010

For the last round of the season we travelled down to Donington Park near Derby, the circuit has only recently re-opened after it closed following the collapse of the Formula 1 bid which promised a great deal but delivered nothing. I have spent many hours and laps circulating around Donington in the past, having instructed for the Race School there and I was really looking forward to going back. Heading into this meeting we had a 78 point lead in the championship and therefore with a maximum of 100 points up for grabs we needed 23 points to secure the title. I have to admit that it is nice to have a decent points lead but people had us down as having already won and as anybody knows it is not over until the ‘fat lady sings’. I think because of this it made Birdy and myself more nervous than normal and this certainly had an effect on my bowel movements leading up to qualifying and the first race.
Qualifying was held on Friday afternoon in dry but quite cold conditions, I guess this should not have been a surprise being the end of October. We had found a good set up for the bike during the practice sessions in the morning so we were confident of a good performance in qualifying. Out of the blocks I managed to set some pretty good lap times and with each circuit I came across the start/finish line to read my pitboard saying P1. I was happy with this as I was a little unsure of how hard to push in the cool conditions which does not help tyre grip at all. In the last few minutes of the session James Folkard managed to pip me for pole position pushing me down to 2nd. This was fine with me as it meant we had the front row start we were after.
We woke on Saturday morning to the wonderful sound of rain bouncing off the top of the van, as if we weren’t nervous enough the rain was just adding to our anxiety. The wet tyres were fitted to the bike and after several trips to the toilet I set off to form up on the grid for race one. Every man and his dog had been telling me ‘take it steady’, ‘don’t do owt daft’, ‘you only need to finish’, if only it were that simple. With these mantra’s ringing in my ears, the lights went out and off we set. I settled in to 3rd place and thought great, that will do! Over the next two laps I rode ‘steady’ and didn’t ‘do owt daft’, that was until three riders overtook me including Heaton. ‘Well that’s great’ I thought, ‘that plan didn’t work’. So forgetting everybody’s advice I got stuck into a great five rider battle for 3rd position. With the track now drying and all the riders on wet tyres people were slipping and sliding all over the place. With two laps to go I had fought my way back to the front of this group and into 3rd position, then the red flag came out and the race was stopped. This meant I was 2010 GP2 Champion! What a fantastic feeling, it was as if a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Chris had got the pitboard ready with P1, 2010 on it ready for the last lap but due to the race being stopped early he didn’t get the chance to show it, oh well. As a nice surprise The Boland’s brought out a cake with 2010 Champion on it, thanks very much, it was lovely cake!
As we had wrapped the title up in the first race, the rest of the weekend’s races were purely about having some fun. I say fun but the rain had started again and the track was awash. With the forecast for Sunday a lot better I wasn’t going to stick my neck out in these conditions. I had a fairly lonely ride for most of the race in 2nd position once Folkard had crashed out down Craner Curve’s. It was lonely until coming out of the last corner on the last lap I took a casual look behind me to see the following rider’s right behind. I quickly turned back around and hit the throttle as hard as I could, this was not quite enough and I was relegated to 3rd place. A bit of a schoolboy error that one, but not one that I could get too upset about.
Sunday morning arrived and as there had been some rain overnight I decided not to go out in the morning warm up as the track was still slightly wet and I felt there was nothing to be gained, plus being a true Yorkshireman this saved us some fuel and a little on tyre wear which is always a positive!
11am and it was time to kick off the first race of the day. James Folkard got the holeshot into the first corner and I slotted into 4th place. I quickly passed Conner Tagg and Ben Gautrey and set about chasing James down, after a couple of laps I had passed Folkard but then was surprised when Heaton came passed from his 15th place on the grid. What ensued has to be one of the most fun races I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of. The three of us swapped places at every opportunity with no quarter asked nor given. Whilst heading down the start/finish straight with Heaton on lap 6 I looked directly across at him to see him looking back! I was laughing to myself for nearly the whole of the next lap. It all came down to the last lap; I was in the lead coming out of Coppice corner but knew Heaton would try on the brakes into the chicane. I braked as late as I could but sure enough Heaton was there on the inside, I pulled my bike in tight and as soon as we flicked over left nailed the throttle. We nearly touch as we crossed the finish line but I managed to bag the win by 0.027s. Now that was close. Folkard followed up less than a second behind in 3rd place. How the three of us actually made it to the finish line I am still unsure. Absolutely fantastic. I nearly didn’t make it back to parc ferme though, as when we pulled off the track and Heaton realised he was going the wrong way, jammed the brakes on and I ran into the back of his bike! Ooops, a bit of damage to the fairing, an apology to Birdy and we were ok. We stood on the podium to take our winners trophy but none of us could stop gibbering about the exciting race we had just taken part in, I hope the spectators enjoyed it as much as we did. This is one race you need to watch on TV.
After the excitement of the race earlier in the day I wasn’t sure I could take much more, but with the championship out of the way these really were fun races so I was more than up for a fight! I actually made a pretty good start, heading for the first corner I quickly switched to the inside to outbrake Tagg and came out of the Redgate corner behind Folkard. I manage to pass Folkard on the run up to Coppice and got my head down. As we came back to Redgate for the second time the Yellow flags were out for 4 crashed riders including my brother Leigh, the yellow flags were out again for another crashed rider Ian Popplewell at Craner Curves. Poppy was the 47th rider to have crashed at Craners over the weekend, which is quite a statistic, not that he was number 47 but that there were so many fallers at the same corner. Once past the carnage I felt very comfortable and was hopeful of another win. Unfortunately exiting MacLean’s on the lap two I lost all power and had to cruise to the edge of the circuit and park the bike up against the tyre wall. Not the way we wanted to end the season but these things happen. Folkard went on to a well deserved win with Heaton following him up in 2nd place and young (even younger than Heaton) Josh Daley making it onto the rostrum in 3rd. Well done lads.
This year I have had the pleasure to race against some great people including a lot of youngsters, who all have an astounding amount of talent and a lot of them will be at the sharp end of the British Championships in the not too distant future. To all of you I wish the best of luck.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people and sponsors who have helped and backed us this season, without this we would not be able to compete at the level we do. It is greatly appreciated. Also thanks to Roger Middleton of RMKD for keeping us on track with the motors.
A special thanks to John (Erv Kanemoto) Bird for providing the bike for the season and for just getting on with looking after it at the meetings. He might be a manager in BSB before long!
A quick mention also, to ThundersportGB for running a fantastic championship and all the marshals and officials for making the series a pleasure to be a part of.
Remember to keep a watch out on MotorsTV next week for the Thundersport programme which will show both of our Sunday races from Donington Park.

Final Championship Standings
Alex Hutchinson 603
Alex Heaton 527
Conner Tagg 436
Andy Lawson 400
Ben Gautrey 353