Round 4 of the MSV Trackday Championship took us back to Brands Hatch on the excellent GP Layout. You can read about it here.

Round 5 was supposed to be on the GP Layout at Donington, but due to an issue with the number of marshals, the event was switched back to the usual National configuration, one we were victorious at in the first race of the season.
The layout is below:

So with the last minute change from the GP to National layout, our testing on the Monday before was thrown out of the window! Luckily, the 2 corners our car struggle on most at Donington are the two extra GP corners, so it was not the worst news we could hear!

We always do our best to get to the assembly area first to have some clear track. This time Stirling in one of the Clios ended up in front, but then let me round as he had not been to the circuit since April and wanted to get his eye in. This lasted 1 lap before he jumped down the inside at the Chicane, then holding me up for my first flying lap. The next one he caught me out into Redgate and again through Craners. I ended up sideways as I wasn't quite straight when I had to jump on the brakes, this sent me the wrong way over the apex at Old Hairpin. I caught the slide and carried on.
The car felt terrible after that, with small steering inputs making the back end kick out. I felt more like a drifter and was going to come in right away, but then I saw on the Racelogic VBOX HD2 that my time was way up on my current best, so I stayed out for a bit longer, eventually coming in whilst in 2nd position.

Staying out proved to be a great move, as the changes we could make during the pit stop did not make enough difference to the car to improve on that lap. I still managed to get close to it, but after losing my track position, I also struggled with traffic.

Kester Cook in the 93 Fiesta, a car we are in regular battles with was up there in 2nd, sandwiched between two newcomers, Luke Reade in the Graves 130i and Bradley Burns in yet another Clio Cup! We were sat in 4th, 0.022s from 3rd and 0.191s from 2nd place. Fortunately, the 2 closest Class B cars to us, the Clio Cups of Honeybone and Davis were a row behind.

A 1:21.5 was the quickest we have been around Donington with these Toyo R888R Tyres (in April we were at 1:21.9), the team had done a great job of setting the car up, and even with a knock, it was still on pace.
Comparing the sectors with everyone else, we actually had the 2nd quickest car on track, being 2nd in the first and second sector, but 12th in the 3rd, which is only two straights and a chicane, clearly our front heavy Ibiza does not like changing direction as quickly as the other competitors!

I was on row 2 of the grid, just behind Kester Cook (sound familiar?). After qualifying we got the car back to the paddock and investigate the handling issues. Right away we found that the camber adjustable top mount had moved a fair bit, adding over 1 degree of camber. This was due to a bolt on the adjuster snapping, probably as a result of the knock at Old Hairpin. Four new bolts and we were good to go!

On to the Race - I had another good start, but then missed 2nd to 3rd (again!) so lost my run into turn 1, dropping back into 4th. I stuck with Burns in the Clio, he then made his way around Cook, and then I did the same with a clean move at McLeans.
I then was on the Clio's bumper lap after lap, having some great battles, even when he was using a bit more of the track than we had paid for, kicking up dust on the inside and outside!
At the end of Lap 7, just as we entered the Chicane, I dummied a move up the inside. This sent the Clio off his normal line, getting out of shape on the entry and exit onto the pit straight. I had the run towards the line, but just as I pulled alongside to overtake, I noticed a yellow flag being waved, as a car had stopped on the grass opposite the pit wall. I had to back off, allowing Burns to regroup and pull back ahead, and for Cook and Davis to close the gap, with Davis following Burns down the inside into Redgate. I held on the outside, staying in front, but not by much! Braking into Old Hairpin, I was aware the Clio was on my rear quarter so left a cars width at the apex. This really upset the car, with the back end coming out, throwing me off the track at the exit. Cue a lot of grass cutting, a cabin full of dust and me dropping from 2nd to 5th in one corner! At least I was told it looked pretty dramatic from the outside, as it felt like it on the inside!
I was struggling with front end grip then, losing it a bit on the exit of Redgate, allowing Honeybone to get close. More understeer at Old Hairpin and the momentum lost allowed the Clio back through. Payne in the Caterham was also closing in. How much can change in a couple of laps! The gap from 1st to 7th at the end of lap 11 was less than 7s, and only 4s between 2nd to 7th!
Into the Chicane at the end of lap 11, Honeybone outbraked himself, allowing me to get past with the Caterham following through. The front end was all over by this point, leaving the door open for Payne to get through at McLeans. With the Pit Window open (15 mins in), I was on the radio to the guys telling them to get ready for me coming in.

We are required to do a minimum 2 minute pit stop from Pit Entry to Pit Exit. Brands was a 2:03.767. This time is shows a 2:22.379, but I checked on the VBOX and it was a 2:01, so no idea what happened there with the TSL timing!
With the front end in a pretty poor state, the guys set to work with the tools ripping the loose bits of fibreglass off, and with help from the guys at SPY Motorsport, a liberal amount of gaffer tape was applied!
After my off road excursions, a lot of dried grass had accumulated in the wheels, which dropped on to the red hot brakes while I was stationary, creating a fair bit of smoke from each wheel, and a big enough flame to concern one of the marshals.

As I exited the pits, I was in clear air, so I knew I had to push to maintain the position I was in, and wait for all the pit stops to be over with so we can see what place we all end up in.
After my first flying lap, I saw Burns in the Clio, who had been in 2nd position before the pit window, was just exiting the pits. I brakes as late as I dared and hoped he wouldn't jump out in front of me!
Bradley was extremely quick on his out lap, and closed the gap as we started lap 16. I saw that Ben Davis had already finished his stop, so we didn't jump him in the stops!
Braking into the Chicane at the end of Lap 17, I had a small lockup and had to go across the gravel. Burns was being followed closely by Cook in the Fiesta, and must have seen this and over braked, so as I rejoined the track, they were extremely close to me taking them out (I apologised to Kester about this after the race!). This lost me loads of time, making my life much harder than it already was!
Lap 19 I lost a lot of time with some Class C and D cars through the twisty bits, allowing Jordan Honeybone in the Clio to catch up. I held on OK until Lap 21, into McLeans I got a massive slide, but kept in 6th. Then lap 22, same corner I was behind Ronan Quinn in the Class D, messed up my line and let Jordan get alongside, and we ended up 3 abreast into the chicane. I ended up worst off and dropped to 7th!
With there still less than an 8s gap between 1st and 7th, it was not over yet. The guys at the front were battling like crazy and slowing each other down. I could also see my nearest rival, Ben Davis, dropping down the pack, clearly with some sort of problem. I pushed hard and set my fastest lap of the race, a 1:22.002, quicker than most of those ahead of me, but then they turned up the wick and increased the gap closer to 9s.
By lap 30, Davis had dropped right back, and made it easy for Jordan then myself to get round him just before Coppice (speaking to him after the race, he was running low on fuel and experiencing fuel surge!). The next few laps must have been carnage at the front, as I had closed right up. I lapped two cars, finding an Ibiza sized gap between them just before braking into the chicane, just in time to witness Jordan Honeybone taking a massive lunge on Chris Payne in the Caterham. I smelled blood at this point, but pushed too hard and dropped off the back of the pack after another trip on the grass! I finished up 12.331s off the leader. Not where I wanted to be, but still a decent result!

Interestingly if you see below, the fastest time I did in the first sector was on Lap 2, showing that fresh tyres help massively through Redgate. All my best laps were in the 2nd stint.

Analysing the sector data, we were 3rd in sector one, 2nd in sector two and way down in 9th for sector three, very similar to qualifying, but our overall pace down slightly. The ideal lap was 4th quickest, so the car was on pace.

I scored 22 points for coming 6th overall (18 points + 1 point will be awarded for each competitor beaten in class up to an additional 5 points, as per the regs)

The full race is shown below. We have also added the commentary from TSL

MSVR post photos from the weekend on their Gallery Page, a selection of which are below. No podium photos again!

Overall I am not very happy with my level of driving. The car felt great, and some small mistakes, pushing me off track, seriously compromised the geometry of the car, slowing me down from the cars true pace. I need to work on consistency lap after lap, and the results will come I am sure.
I am now on 114 points and still leading the championship, and have also extended my lead on Davis by 3 Points, but the Honeybones have edged 5 points closer. With 74 points on the table, it is going to go down to the last race of the season for sure!

Next stop is Zandvoort, recently added to the F1 Calendar for 2020, a circuit I have only seen on YouTube and will be going into 30 mins qualifying blind. I need a lot of luck and bravery!