Donington Historic Festival 2013

Donington Historic Festival 3rd to 5th May 2013

Woodcote Trophy Pre 56 sports cars.

Pre 63 GT

I entered my DB 2 lightweight Le Mans Aston into both races which was the first time out since the engine rebuild but still using the same components.

The DB2 LM had a good increase in power over last year which was going to be helpful against the other 3L Astons in both races.

Qualifying|:-  Friday.

Pre 63 GT:- 30 mins

We ran for about 25 mins but had a water radiator problems as we thought after about 10 minutes which spread water over the plugs and dizzy and caused a miss fire. There was also a little brake issues , but overall the car was quicker than in previous years.

Fastest lap 1.34.70

Woodcote Trophy:-

The same issue again with water over the electrics so we only ran the car for 12 mins of the 30 min qualifying time.

Fastest lap 1.34.20

This is the fastest lap time we have had at Donington and bettered previous times by about 2 secs. Which on a fairly full fuel load was a very good result. I think with a lighter fuel load and a few more laps with no pit visits a possible 1.32.00 was possible in the DB2, which would be at least a 4 sec improvement over previous years.

RACE :- Friday

Pre 63 GT  - 75min

Due to the length of the race which was 75 mins we ran the car with 90 litres of fuel which do have a major impact on the performance.

Even though my lap time in qualifying was one of the fastest I have ever had at this circuit I was still well down the large grid, which is expected as all the cars are 1960's where as my DB2 is 1951 so 10 years in racing development is massive.

I had a very good start over taking several cars going into Redgate and over the next 6 laps managed to pass several more cars, including e-types, Porsche, Lotus etc.

I was in hot pursuit for a Ferrari 205 SWB and an Aston DB4 and was closing very quickly, I managed to catch the Ferrari and got on the inside line going into copse but as I got along side the car started to lose power and miss fire as it had done in practice.

On calling into the pits we had the same water problem, we tried the car for another 2 laps but then I decided to come in and call it a day.

WoodCote Trophy Race:-

We decided not to run in this race until the car was sorted out.

on the up side there were a number of reserves for this race so at least they got a race on a very nice afternoon.

NEXT RACE :- BRANDS HATCH 27th May.