Donny Exiges :-)

General General Lotus Talk
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[image]http://www.exiges.eu/don/exige1.jpg[/image]

[image]http://www.exiges.eu/don/exige2.jpg[/image]

[image]http://www.exiges.eu/don/exige3.jpg[/image]

[image]http://www.exiges.eu/don/exige4.jpg[/image]

[image]http://www.exiges.eu/don/exige5.jpg[/image]

[image]http://www.exiges.eu/don/exige6.jpg[/image]

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Great pics. Results?

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The best weekends racing yet?? Oh yeah baby!!

I didnt bother with any testing or practice this time as I know Donny pretty well and the car was running fine the last time it went out…

For the first few laps of qualifying I thought I’d do a couple of smoothies just to get my mojo flowing with the car and then try and get a few decent laps in… That plan went out of teh window though as the yellows started coming out everywhere after only a few minutes and a clear lap was nigh on impossible from there on in. In hindsight I should have pushed harder right from the first flying lap as the car felt good underneath me straight out of the pits and I know I could have driven it quicker earlier on with the clearer track( I set my fastest qualifying time on lap 2…)

So where was I sitting then?? Mark A came over from race control and said I was in 3rd place a couple of tenths behind Mick Edwards (nothing unusual there then) and a clear 1.2 seconds behind Martin Donnelly!! :shockhorror. Got some serious work to do tomorrow then kiddo!!

Sunday morning and the car is sat there looking all shiny and waiting to roll (thanks Lem) and I am thinking to myself… Gav, there’s no shame in losing this one mate given the competion that’s out there today, just try to keep it clean and bring it home. If the chance should arise to give Martin a race (or just stick with him is what I was actually thinking) then I am ready for it. ~Just pretend it is Golding, Just pretend it is Golding, Just pretend it is Golding.

My start was not to shabby as I managed to get myself right alongside Martin going into the first corner but he always had the better line with the traffic around us. Mick Edwards had an absolute belter and managed to gain a few places off of the grid leaving both myself and Martin in his smoke…Nice one Mick!!

I had no choice but to just fall in line with everyone else down through the craners which split me and Martin up with a couple of class B cars inbetween and Mick out in front of them. Both Sean and Mark in the Class B cars manged to get past after a few atemps however when Mark was dicing with Martin coming onto the back straight it gave me the drive down into the chicane and I managed to get in front going onto the main straight…Wohoo!! Dick head here though braked up a little too early going into redgate running a defensive line and let Martin back through round the outside, not only that but he then kicked the dirt in my face as if to say ‘yeah, Im the boy today’ as he ran a little wide on the exit… Yes I know, I know!

With the two class B cars starting to disappear it brought the 3 front runners of class A all together coming onto the start/finish. Martin did the old last minute dive on Mick at Redgate and with me sitting right on his chuff I also managed to squeeze through on his move, cheers dude. The next few laps are all a little blurred tbh. All I can remember is hounding Martin with every last ounce of breathe I had in me. Left, right, inside, outside the only one I didnt try was over the bloody top!! Totally fair play to him though, he gave me a cars space (+ 1 inch) at all times so mucho respecto from me. There were a few times where I could have made the desperate ‘do or die’ bid for victory but thought better of it in favour of giving him a good clean race in esscence of what the series is all about… The safety car then came out for 3 or 4 laps which gave me time to regain composure and be ready for the re-start which went very well in the fact that I kept Mick well behind and Martin well in touch. The last laps where certainly the most entertaining as still fighting for postion we made our way through a couple of the slower cars that got caught up in the safety car chain…I almost thought the race with Martin was over though as we both went to pass Andy Gordon who was a couple of laps down with a spin. Martin went through and as I came to pass he started to drift over slighty… NO!!..Please dont block me off now Andy!! Thankfully he noticed me coming up on the inside and realised where I was sitting in the postion of things and let me past with little interupion so I could get straight back onto Martin’s case. In the end I crossed the line about a car’s length off his bumper after what was a fantastic close quarters race for 20 minutes. Obvioulsy I was well over the moon with the result and could not of asked for anything better (well I could have won like but hey, the experience is worth far more in my book).

So then, the second race…

I am grided up next to Martin at the back of the first group which is fantastic as it gives me the chance to have another good race with him. Martin gets a brilliant start and I just about miss the flag completely, although manage to get onto the back of him into the first corner with only doug setters in front. Martin is on the inside going into craners and manges to sneak past Doug with a couple on the grass but I get stuck behind and with doug defending and having all the power down the straights I am having to sit behind watching Martin pull away little by little ever lap… I cannot tell you how sick I am becoming of the sight of the back of Doug’s class C car!!! No disrespect Doug but if you are going to be racing with the class A boys would it not be better to be in a Class A car?? :rantover:

3 laps in and the cars saftey electrical circuit started cutting out on me and although it was starting back up with the switch on the dash it was getting worse as the lap went on until it wouldnt reactivate at all . I was just next to pit lane at this point so coasted in still frantically pushing the button to get it to start, which it did and I thought Ok lets just try and finsh the race but coming into craners it went again so just said to myself this is being silly for the sake of trying to finish so pulled it off the track…

Gutted, I so want to take the fight to Martin again but it just wasnt to be…

All in all though a fantastic weekend racing was had. Hope it is not too long before we see Martin back on the grid for some more punishment…

Video from HansCam

http://media.putfile.com/LOTRDC-Donington-Race-1-02-Sept-200

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Nice write up Gav, fair play mate.

Although this bit wasn’t right

“Both Sean and Mark in the Class B cars manged to get past after a few atemps”

As I wastche dthe first race from the pit wall!! lol

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Awesome writeup Gav - I was gutted to miss watching this one from the trackside due to work. Well done on what everyone said was a really fantastic drive.

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sorry shaun it must of been antonys car… all black…doh!

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sorry shaun it must of been antonys car… all black…doh!

Yeah, but Anthony’s car doesn’t have a driver’s side mirror… does it Chris?

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Fixed linky for Hans’ video. It’s bloody brilliant by the way!

Great advert for the series.

http://media.putfile.com/LOTRDC-Donington-Race-1-02-Sept-2007

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Superb, cheers Alex.

David

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Great day only tainted by some bad luck for some of our boys. Just about finished processing the pics and gallery should be up tomorrow,…errr it is tomorrow,…make that later today

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great vid

now lend me 15k so i can join in :slight_smile:

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No Russ T at Donny?

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sorry shaun it must of been antonys car… all black…doh!

Yeah, but Anthony’s car doesn’t have a driver’s side mirror… does it Chris?

Not any more i have quite a good incar video, i will try to upload it.

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No Russ T at Donny?

Yup he was there, but let’s just say that the opportunity for getting pictures of the him on track were limited

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I do have a pic some where


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[image]http://www.exiges.eu/donny/broken.jpg[/image]

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A couple more…

Russ’ team made a massive effort to get the car out for race 2

[image]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/r5lot/DSC01897.jpg[/image]

& made it with at least half hour to spare Getting strapped in, sadly for a short trip

[image]http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/r5lot/DSC01916.jpg[/image]

Better luck next time eh guys

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Russ’ team made a massive effort to get the car out for race 2

Can�t have been that good, they fitted the exhaust in the wrong place .

David

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Russ never gets to use those wheels on his car, I wonder if he’d sell them

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Russ never gets to use those wheels on his car, I wonder if he’d sell them

ouch

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Bugger off, no chance!