Round 6, 7 & 8 - Donington Park

GRINDROD LEADS DONINGTON PARK CHALLENGE CUP

Nic Grindrod extended his lead in the championship standings and head the standings after the first weekend of the Donington Park Challenge Cup following the first of three consecutive meetings at the Midlands circuit.

The Selly Oak driver, once again carrying the full maximum 70kg ballast as he did for much of the 2010 season, took a win and two podiums and has now moved 68 points clear of second placed Michael Smith. Grindrod was also once again the top points scorer in Saturday’s qualifying session, bagging the maximum 40. Lee Rogers was not as fortunate as his engine blew up forcing him to miss the rest of the meeting.

Heat one saw Charlie Weaver begin from pole while Phil White and Simon Carr had to start from the back of the grid after changing seals with differential and gear box problems respectively. It was Michael Smith who took up the initial lead ahead of Dave Longhurst while Grindrod was in third. Pole man Weaver was forced to pit at the end of the first lap with transmission problems while on the following lap Phil White was extremely slow crossing the start finish straight and was forced to pull off going in to Redgate with an alternator failure. It seemed as if the Trucks were dropping like flies as Damien Carr was also forced to retire on lap two with a gear box problem.

Back on track Nic Grindrod had worked his way through to take the lead going into lap five but Smith in the #93 Truck wasn’t giving up his fight that quickly as he got the better of the #22 Truck on lap eight. Carl Boardley had meanwhile come through to take third place.

On lap 11 Ipswich’s Boardley managed to outwit Grindrod to take second place and looked like following on from his Pembrey podium. This wasn’t to be however as he suffered an issue believed to be fuel related on the final lap. With Smith taking the win by just 1.32 seconds, Grindrod claimed back second place at the chequered flag while defending champion Steve Dance clinched the final podium spot.

One driver back out on track following a break in 2010 was Tony Mumford sporting a new livery for his #7 Truck. And it was the Holmes Chapel driver who began Heat Two from pole, while Phil White and Damien Carr went off the back of the grid following the changes after their Heat One issues. Another driver having to make adjustments before this race on Sunday morning was leading Rookie David O’Regan who had engine issues and failed to do enough laps to take his Heat One points.

Mumford got a great start and initially led but by the time the pack made it round to complete the first lap it was Carl Boardley who led ahead of Steve Dance, who like Grindrod was carrying the maximum 70kg ballast. And it was the #22 and #16 Trucks who were side by side going into lap three but Dance held on to get the better of leader Boardley at Redgate on lap four. Danny Brosnan’s #33 sounded extremely rough and was forced to retire as on lap five just as second placed Boardley took a drive through penalty handing Heat One winner Michael Smith the second place.

The #93 driver was not going to have it all his own way though as Nic Grindrod was soon on his tail and took second place on lap eight. Just a lap later the 36-year-old had reeled in Dance’s #16 Truck and took the lead. Smith lost the final podium spot with a small off track excursion which Simon Carr in the #15 Truck gladly took.

And come the chequered flag it was Grindrod who recorded his third win of the season ahead of Dance by less than two seconds while Yorkshireman Carr held on for third.

Sunday afternoon’s Grand Final had looked like making history with an all-White front row as for the first time Nick was allowed to take his regular grid position rather than as a rookie at the back. The points accumulated from the heats and a reversed top ten meant he was lined up against his dad Phil on row one. But it wasn’t to be as Phil’s #63 Truck once again had an alternator problem meaning he began from the back of the grid but not before offering words of encouragement through the spotters to his son to ‘go for it’ at the start.

Dave Longhurst moved to the front of the pack to take the early lead ahead of Neil Tressler and Carl Boardley, but by lap two the four-time World National Hot Rod Champion was up to second. And Tressler would lose a further place to Michael Smith at Redgate courtesy of an off-track excursion in the heat of the battle on lap three while Boardley continued to put his bad luck from earlier in the weekend and head straight to the front of the field.

As a repeat from the two heats, Grindrod and Smith were having a good dice with Grindrod firstly getting the better of the Hartlepool driver for fourth while up front Simon Carr was beginning to challenge Boardley. On lap six however, Smith was back past Grindrod just as Steve Dance’s race was about to get seriously hampered when he lost third gear forcing him to travel the entire 1.9 mile circuit in top gear, which was proved work for the Reading-based driver.

By lap eight Carr was past Boardley and the pair began to work together to pull away from the rest of the field, lead by Smith. But the 36-year-old soon had his old rival Grindrod back in his mirrors and lost third place on lap 13.

Boardley was also plotting his finale to the weekend sat quietly behind Carr and made his move at Redgate on lap 15 to take the lead. Carr was doing his best to run with the #41 Truck and get his first win of the season as he and Grindrod challenged Boardley at Starkeys, running three wide. But it was Boardley who overcame his earlier demons of the weekend to record his second ever Pickup Truck Racing victory and his first of the season just seven hundredths of a second ahead of Carr with Grindrod taking the final podium place.