Donnington Race reports

Harry Vaulkhard had been looking forward to returning to Donnington, the track he first ever drove a race car at, and also the place he took his first race victory. Harry was also the current Renault Clio cup lap record holder at the circuit.

Qualifying took place on a dry circuit under the sun. The Robertshaw driver went out on his warm up lap with great commitment throwing the car round to generate heat into the tyres showing a new found confidence in the car after setup changes made during free practice in the morning. After a quick pit-stop to do the necessaries with the tyres after the warm up lap was complete Vaulkhard took to the track & within a lap had set a time to put him P10 and P3 in the independents class, within a tenth of a second of his more experienced team mate. On Harry’s second lap he was pushing too hard after a fantastic first æ’s to the lap and ran wide at Copse corner, making a tyre change necessary. After the tyre Change Vaulkhard went out and was able to match his previous time but not better it. As the action unfolded the red flag came out after a crash, & another competitor had his times disallowed for a technical infringement promoting Vaulkhard to 9th briefly before the same driver managed to jump just in front of Vaulkhard. The session ended with the two Chevrolets in P9 & 10 and 2nd & 3rd in the independents championship. Marking the first top 10 Qualifying position for a Chevrolet in the BTCC since 1975.
After the session Vaulkhard said: “It’s fantastic to be in P10 & more so to be 3rd independent, that’s a big scalp for us to claim, the team have done a mega job getting the car how I want it & I think I could have found another tenth or two on my hot lap but I ran wide through the gravel.”

For Race 1 Vaulkhard assumed his position on the grid behind reigning BTCC Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi. It was going to be tough for Vaulkhard to get the front wheel drive off the line ahead of the two fast starting RWD BMW’s of Matt Jackson & Stephen Jelley on the row behind. As expected the BMW’s took the positions off the line, however Vaulkhard was able to re-gain a position back from Jelley on the run to turn 1. The opening lap was going well with Vaulkhard lieing 4th independent, as the cars rounded Copse corner Harry had lots of pressure from behind and as the cars neared the end of the straight he was unable to stop the cars passing as he hit the rev limiter. Lap after lap Vaulkhard was having to defend on the straights after pulling away throughout the lap as his team had made a rare mistake & replaced the top gear and gone shorter instead of longer. After falling back into 11th, Mike Jordan was unable to find a way past so fired Vaulkhard off the track at McLean’s in a controversial move. Harry then ran off through the gravel losing 5 places of which he then managed to re gain 4 places in 6 laps. A disappointing race for Harry after showing great pace on the whole circuit bar the straights.
“That was a real gutter, we had great pace out back but were losing so much time down the straights, I think we must have got the wrong final drive gear. Also it was disappointing to be taken off by Mike like that, he could have driven past me on the straight but I guess I’ll know for next time how he likes to battle.”

Race 2 started on a damp circuit with all the cars on slicks. The opening laps saw the rain coming down harder and as the safety car came out after the first lap Vaulkhard took a gamble to go in for wet tyres, as he re-joined the circuit it looked the right decision Harry’s opening lap was 5 seconds faster than anyone else on the circuit but the track dried up very quickly & before long the Robertshaw car was losing 4-5 seconds a lap to the leaders who were on slick tyres on a drying track. By the end of the race Harry finished 14th and was lucky to finish the race as the front left tyre had overheated so dramatically it was down to the threads of the canvas, and one more lap may have seen it burst.
“It was a gamble I chose, it could have of paid off, but it was the wrong decision on my part. Mind we were lucky to even finish looking at the state of the front tyre.”

Race 3 was a bit of a repeat of race 2, the drizzle made the track very slippy and greasy, on the run around to the grid the rain was getting heavier and again Vaulkhard came on the radio requesting a set of wet tyres to be readied and a suspension set-up change for the start of the race. This time other also took the gamble to go on a wet weather tyre. At the start it looked to be the correct decision as the young Tyneside driver was putting in some good lap times and pushing the pack of quick cars in front for positions. However again after 5 laps it proved to be the slick tyre that would have been the optimum tyre for the conditions. All of the wet tyre runners dropped back into their own battle which was lead by Colin Turkington closely followed by Vaulkhard who soon managed to make a pass on the Irishman and pulled a gap which he maintained to the finish. Vaulkhard finished 4th independent and was the fastest wet tyre runner.
“Well it’s been a bit disappointing, after the results we had in qualifying. We had a good pace round here & the team did a great job on the car again but we just got a bit unlucky with tyre choices and the gear issue in race 1. There’s a lot of positives we can take from this weekend into Thruxton. I’ve also learned I’m not much good at gambling so rest assured I wont be going to the Casino tonight!”