Round 8 & 9 - Donington Park

MICHAEL SMITH CLOSES CHAMPIONSHIP GAP

Hartlepool’s Michael Smith closed the gap on championship leader Nic Grindrod after scoring the most points at Donington Park over the weekend courtesy of a victory and a third place.

It may only be a point that the #93 driver has clawed back, but physiologically it means much more as Grindrod, who has been carrying the maximum 70kg ballast since before the last meeting, had taken an early stranglehold on the challenge for his third Overall Championship title.

It was defending champion Steve Dance who took the maximum 20 qualifying points. Ipswich driver Carl Boardley did a nightmare qualifying session, only managing three laps before suffering an engine failure with the new Ford Duratec which had been built ahead of the weekend. This forced him to revert to his old Vauxhall system.

Lee Rogers was pole man for the first race on Sunday morning, which had seen downpours cause tyre headaches for the teams. It was Damien Carr who took up the initial lead whereas his brother Simon, who was carrying 30kg success ballast, was trying to begin his charge through the field having pitted for a change of tyre choice on the green flag laps. The #15 driver was already passed #36 Nick White, who had been for an off-track excursion, by the end of lap one.

Lap three saw Nic Grindrod and Michael Smith past Damien Carr to take the lead and second place respectively while the elder Carr’s race was getting no better as the #15 Truck got stuck in third gear.

On lap five Smith was past Grindrod to take the lead, although there was only 0.322 seconds between the front two, but they began to get away from Damien Carr’s #14 and the gap was already up to 4.035 seconds. Steve Dance in the #16 Truck was also passed Phil White and began to get Damien Carr in his sights. It was proving to be an eventful weekend for Carl Boardley too as he hit the wall coming into Goddards as he had to take avoiding action not to hit Dave Longhurst as the former Hot Rod drivers were tussling for sixth position. Boardley pitted for his #41 Truck to be checked over but was allowed to rejoin.

With the rear of the grid still fighting it out through the spray for position, Smith was almost two seconds ahead of Grindrod by lap nine while in turn he was 10.954 seconds ahead of Damien Carr by lap nine. Lap 11 saw Smith set the fastest lap of the race as his choice of four wet tyres definitely proved to be the correct one.

But the 30kg ballasted Smith had done enough to hold on to claim his second win of the season, repeating his exploits from the last time at the Midlands circuit. Nic Grindrod was 3.229 seconds behind to take second place while Damien Carr was 20.591 seconds further back to grab the final podium spot.

Sunday afternoon’s second race saw rookie Nick White start from pole. Simon Carr had to start from the back courtesy of a gear box change while Lee Rogers and Paul Tompkins had also broken seals following problems with the differentials.

Neil Tressler got caught up in the heat of battle on the opening lap at Schwantz Curve, leaving him with work to do as he trailed the pack while the 70kg weighted Nic Grindrod had jumped straight into the lead ahead of Steve Dance.

Once again Michael Smith, who now had 60kg success ballast on board, was up with the front runners in third place. There was a second pack of Damien Carr, Carl Boardley and David O’Regan but by lap three four-time World National Hot Rod Champion Boardley was past Carr and catching the front three. Smith had managed to pass Dance’s #16 Truck but the Reading driver had not given up on regaining his place and was running two wide at several points around the circuit.

By lap five Dance was back past the Hartlepool driver while Damien Carr, who now had 10kg of ballast on board, was challenging Dave Longhurst for sixth place. The battle for second had not finished though as lap six saw Smith out-whit Dance to regain the position again. There was less than a hairs width between the pair, but they had not let Grindrod get away in the process.

And with the battle of the front three keeping the spectators on the edge of their seats Boardley was drawing in ever closer and was now just  0.7 seconds behind Smith. On lap 12 the #41 driver made his move to take third place, but Smith was not giving up and fought back to retake the final podium spot a lap later when Boardley was pushing hard to try and take second place from Dance.

At the end of 14 exhilarating laps Grindrod had done enough to take his fourth win of the season by just 0.109 seconds with Smith clinging on for his fourth podium of 2011.

In the Rookie championship David O’Regan extended his lead to 169 points following a fantastic performance which saw him second fastest in the second qualifying session and gain a season’s best fifth place in race two.