TWFA: Donnington Park Report

The seventh round of the TWFA season saw the drivers take on the strangely challenging Donnington Park circuit. Why strangely challenging? Well it seems to be a circuit that some people just simply 'get' while others struggle like crazy. It's layout, however, looks deceptively simple with many corners being flat out.

Title contenders Paul Langford and Rouke vd Hoek locked out the front row with improving driver, Sal Tallini, lining up in 3rd.

Tallini was the first victim of a number of incidents as, going into Redgate, West appears to accidently 'get into' him and the pink TWFA spun onto the infield.

Several newcomers entered this race and exiting Redgate one of those drivers, Pierre was strangely slow and dropped two places.

Into Melbourne hairpin there was a bit too much pushing and barging. First Dominic made contact with Tomas pushing him wide and taking the place. Then Neill got into Huarte spinning him round as Tallini then made contact with the back of Johnson.

Into the final corner Dominic outbraked Maiph and ran wide while Tomas tried to slip inside the red car and the two made contact. They both spun.

Up front Rouke made his way past Langford and cruised away with Baz in a stable but lonely 3rd.

Behind Graham, Martin, Patrick Dobner and Bret were embroiled in a monumental battle. Over the 8 laps there were getting on for a dozen different position changes. Eventually Bret won the battle which became for 3rd when Baz West proved the adage "To finish third.. first one much have enough fuel in the car!!!" as he ran out on the last lap.

In the feature race Tallini made the best start but there was some rubbing between all three not helped by Tallini's technical problems that cause his car to warp.

Paul took second from Rouke as the field streamed down to the Old Hairpin.

The opening lap was rather cleaner although Ted did manage to get into the back of Katier. She spun, losing a place and suffering some damage. Ted's weekend had been a nightmare and in all he only managed 2 racing laps.

Up front Paul Langford was taking the lead with Rouke looking for a way past the bright yellow car. Sal Tallini was 3rd with West 4th ahead of another large battle.

For the second time in the day Martin Cooper found himself battling tooth and nail this time Chasing Patrick Dobner hard.

Then on lap 7 Rouke went off, forcing a pit for repairs, then to compound matters he had a stop go. That dropped him way down the order but on the plus side would not need to stop again having topped his tank during the stop.

As the stops approached, therefore, Langford was secure out in front ahead of Tallini but the latter had a crash and retired at half distance. The handed Graham second and for a while he lead as Langfords stop dropped him to second.

Meanwhile Rouke was steadily climbing up the order. He past a struggling Kat on 10 and by the end had recovered to a handy 9th place. Metcalf took a smooth second ahead of Palfreyman and Rookie Dobner.

Of the other rookies, Pierre missed the sprint and Dominic's race was incident filled. He gad a number of off's between showings of pace. He would finish 11th.

With Berti missing this round the championship is essentially a two horse race.

After dropping their worst scores :-
(NOTE I believe that one of Roukes scores is missing on the official table)

Langford - 606
Rouke - 602
Berti - 568

Berti can still win it, if he takes both races that is 120 points. Putting him on 688 and requiring Langford to take no more than 61 points. Assuming he completes > 50% of the racing that is the equivelent of about 2 12th places. Rouke would need to do worse than something around 2 10th to give Berti a shot at the crown.