Amidst Royal wedding fever, and continued sunshine the Formula Juniors gathered on Thursday for free practice, with the Lotus 22’s of Pierre Tonetti, having his first visit to Donington Park, and Edwin Jowsey (Lotus 22), after a 10 month layoff, setting the pace, while Jon Gross was having his first competitive run in the ex-Tim Squance, Ted Dawson Envoy 1/3 which Duncan dug out of a shed in Follifoot some 20 years ago.  Robin Longdon’s Mk2 Lola was overheating, and it was taken home to be exchanged for the Mk5A overnight.  Everyone then departed to watch the Royal Wedding, or otherwise, and returned back on Friday afternoon for early scrutineering. Sadly David Hall’s BMC Mk1 had devoured its diff at Cadwell Park and Duncan’s Alexis was still engineless, so the original 6 reserves were down to just one, with Crispian Besley adding the T56 to his TS 15 F2 drive.
Saturday was warm and sunny, and the Juniors good heartedly squeezed themselves into the limited space behind their 3 allocated garages.  Edwin and Callum Macleod (Caravelle II) proved themselves in a class of their own, with Tonetti spinning on the outlap and again, before coming to rest with distributer problems.  Tonetti was closely followed by James Murray going well in his Lola Mk 5A, and John Fyda, 3/10th of a second separating all three with Robin Longdon now in the Lola Mk 5A next up. Man to watch was Stuart Roach’s Alexis Mk 4 making its race debut in Roach hands: so satisfied was he that he bought four new tyres for the races!! Brian Mitcham was very impressive in the U2 Mk2 to lead the front engined cars by two seconds from Andrew Tart’s Bond.  In trouble at the back were John Chisholm with broken rocker shaft in the Gemini Mk2 and Guido Di Egidio’s (Stanguellini) with oil seal gone in the rear brakes, but all were fixed for race 1.
All 32 cars were lined up fit to race, so the unfortunate Crispian Besley toured round once, and headed for the pits.  After a somewhat lengthy grid positioning, the green flag lap, and the red lights were out –The first excitement was on the grid as Philipp Buhofer (Lola Mk5A) was having problems selecting first gear (later diagnosed as a twisted output shaft) and sat stationary in midfield, and those behind, Andrew Tart’s Bond especially, luckily managed to avoid him.  All this diverted attention from the front where Callum Macleod (Caravelle II) shot off to the right, squeezing Edwin Jowsey (Lotus 22), the latter ending up on the grass at speed as they reached Redgate.  Somehow everyone scrambled round, with Jowsey leading Macleod, Murray, Tonetti and Fyda but it was the portent for events to come.  The next 12 laps were indeed exciting, with Jowsey and Macleod battling together from Tonetti, the lead changing three times, but it was all to end in tears, with Callum ahead coming out of the chicane at the end of lap 12, blocking and weaving from the pair, with Edwin spinning and touring round to the pits to retire in anger.  From then on it was Callum’s race, although he slowed noticeably by the end, with much back marker lappery, and comfortably ahead of Tonetti, with James Murray strongly in his wake, and John Fyda and a very happy Stuart Roach, with a first flag in the Alexis Mk 4, paced out behind. Closest finish came down the field with Bob Birrell (Lola Mk2) almost catching former Aston Martin racer, Jon Gross (Envoy) at the flag.
Salodini’s championship hopes had taken a dive, as he toured into the pits with but one lap completed, a universal joint gone, while Buhofer’s problems continued after he had moved through the competitive field to 12th by lap 4, and he pulled off with a sheared output shaft, while Alex Morton outbraked himself and ended up beached in the acres of kitty litter. Amongst the rest of the front engined brigade, Brian Mitcham was almost in a class of his own until crown wheel and pinion failure intervened, leaving Andrew Tart victorious in the Bond, John Chisholm struggling to the finish after a lengthy pit stop to fix a jammed throttle cable.

After Saturday’s antics, a special drivers briefing was called for Sunday morning to emphasise that driving standards were to be respected – sadly it was to prove of little avail.  Ripamonti was out with handling problems, but all others were fit to go,  so 1st reserve Crispian Besley (Cooper T56) took the start in his correct grid position  Again it was up front that saw the excitement, with a repeat, in reverse, of Race 1, this time Jowsey off the line heading for the outside of Redgate corner, with Macleod over the white line, though still on tarmac, on the left hand side – All this left room for Tonetti to take a clear lead, however, coming round coppice for the fourth time, Tonetti spun and Jowsey, with nowhere to go, ran over him, but Macleod escaped the melee and continued. Poor John Fyda (Lotus 22) was completely unsighted by James Murray’s Lola 5A, ploughing into the stationary Jowsey 22, and sustaining compound fractures to both ankles as the anti roll bar wrapped itself round them, not before being rammed again, as he spun round, by poor Stuart Roach in the immaculate Alexis Mk4 who motored helpless with only three wheels, fortunately not hitting anything further.
The red flag was out, and ambulances were swiftly in place.  John went first to Nottingham Hospital, and by the evening was on the way home to the Dundee R.I.
The restart came while Tonetti was still in the medical centre, so, although his car was lined up for the restart, he wasn’t.  Macleod had a comfortable victory, from James Murray, Philipp Buhofer, and Robin Longdon evenly spaced out, all in their Lola’s, from Christian Traber’s Lotus 22. A race long battle behind was headed by Brian Mitcham’s U2 Mk2 from Sbardolini (Merlyn 5), Richard Smeeton going well in his maroon Wainer 63, and John Dowson’s BT2. For the first time this season, John Delane was being tested in his Lotus 18, with Crispian Besley’s T56 getting by on lap 3, and the position swapping for the next few laps before Crispian cemented his advantage, while there was front engined trouble galore with Fleming (Elva 100) – broken driveshaft, Chisholm (Gemini Mk2)with Tart (Bond) -broken gearbox output shaft  all retiring,  leaving Mitcham to take class honours from a surprised Tony Steele and Bob Birrell, both in their Lola Mk2’s, and then Stephen Bulling’s Sadler. Poor Jon Gross lost his all time finishing record by beaching the Envoy but at least Alex Morton kept the Ausper on the black stuff this time.
With such activity in both races, there were some surprising aggregate results with Macleod of course winning the combined race, from a delighted and well deserved James Murray, while Robin Longdon was pleased to be back ‘on the podium’. Tony Steele came out front engined winner, while Richard Utley’s Mk 1 completed a Caravelle day in 2nd Class C spot.  Jan Biekens was a delighted class A winner in his Stanguellini.
The Stewards were left busy into the evening on Saturday and again on Sunday and both Jowsey and Macleod were duly admonished for their antics.
The first Donington Historic Festival had, nonetheless, itself been an enjoyable and well run event under the custodianship of Duncan Wiltshire: Formula Junior will look forward to returning again in 2012, with lessons learnt, and renewed determination to show off the very best series in Historic racing to its full potential in future.

by DCPR