Donington Park 2025

Photos: Jim Nairn & Victoria Page

The Alfa Romeo and Italian Intermarque Championship made its return to the popular Donington Park circuit, this time returning to contest Rounds 5 and 6 on the 1.98 mile National Circuit. The HSCC had organised a timetable across both days with qualifying and race 1 on Saturday and race 2 on Sunday morning. The qualifying session was first up at 10:10 in extremely warm conditions and some drivers elected to take advantage of a 20 minute practice session timed at 9:10 for closed wheel entries.

The excellent entry comprised the Modified cars of Jamie Thwaites, Barry McMahon, Jack Berry, Simon Scott and Andy Page, the Power Trophy cars of Toby Broome, Stacey Dennis, Dave Messenger, Simon and Chris McFie, and Steve Godfrey, the Turismo cars of Nathan Bignell, Edward Robinson, and newcomer Rob Hollyman and the Twin Spark cars of Ian Fenwick, Dave Pickup, Steven Anderson, Marcus Robinson, James Powell, George Warren, Richard Ford, Paul Plant and newcomer Richard Hunter. Charlie McCarthy had brought the Ford engined Ferrari Dino once again after missing Cadwell and was racing as an Invitation car with the Modified group. Rob Hollyman was racing in the same team as Charlie in his recently acquired Alfa 33, and although not new to racing, it was his first outing with the championship. Richard Hunter was a newcomer in the Twin Spark Cup and would compete in a Bianco Motorsports car kindly loaned to the JacksonFord camp for the weekend.

QUALIFYING

Toby Broome immediately set the pace in his Revs Italia supported 147 GTA with a stunning time of 1:21.488 on his first flying lap, a time that would take pole position for the Power Trophy with Toby pulling into the pits after completing just four laps. Jack Berry subsequently set the pace with a 1:19.187 in his Modified class Alfa Workshop 4C, before first Barry McMahon in his Giulia then Jamie Thwaites in the TCR Giulietta led the field, with Jack reclaiming provisional pole with a sub 1:17 time on lap 4 and a 1:15.66 on lap 5. Jamie had pitted on lap 5 for some adjustments and set a number of quick lap times on his return culminating in a 1:15.4 to take pole position from Jack before returning to the pits. Also in the pits after 8 laps was the Giulia of Barry McMahon with braking problems that would prevent him taking part in the rest of the session. Simon Scott in the Alfa Workshop Mito was fourth, setting a time of 1:18.937 before he too returned to the pits before the session ended, whilst Andy Page was fifth in his 116 Giuietta.

In the Power Trophy class, Dave Messenger was making a welcome return to the action in his 156GTA and just managed to take second ahead of Stacey Dennis’s Giulietta with a 1:22.256, both drivers achieving times within a second of Toby’s pole time set earlier in the session. The Fiats of Chris and Simon McFie were fourth and fifth respectively and Steve Godfrey was sixth in the 3.2 GT.

Nathan Bignell was tenth overall and took the Turismo class pole with a 1:26.102 with Ben Robinson second and Rob Hollyman third.

Richard Ford set the early pace in the Twin Spark Cup with a 1:27.941 on his first flying lap, gradually improving his times over the next few laps before setting what turned out to be the pole time of 1:26.161 on lap 5. Paul Plant was having one of his occasional outings in a Twin Spark Cup car and was closest to the pole time with his best of 1:26.192, also set on lap 5. George Warren and Dave Pickup were both on the pace, taking third and fourth spots with times of 1:26.551 and 1: 26.599. Ian Fenwick was fifth, a further second adrift, with James Powell sixth, Richard Hunter a creditable seventh in his first outing in the car, Marcus Robinson eighth and Steven Anderson ninth. Charlie McCarthy rounded off the grid with a 1:31.564 in the Ferrari Dino.

A feature of qualifying was the number of cars, 13, that had lap times deleted due to track limits infringements. The automatic recording system was particularly active on turns 1 and 4 and would play a part as the weekend unfolded.

Barry McMahon’s Giulia had pitted early with brake problems and it soon became clear that it needed new parts that wouldn’t be available to get the car sorted in time for race 1. Steven Anderson had pulled off on the last lap with terminal engine problems and unfortunately had to retire the car from the rest of the meeting. Richard Ford’s engine had developed what appeared at first to be a misfire. It turned out that compression had been lost on number 3 cylinder and Garry Jackson decided to take the car back to Lincoln to try and get the engine rebuilt in time to take part in the following day’s race.

RACE 1

A total of 21 cars took the grid for the 13:45 scheduled start time with the weather becoming cloudy but still very warm. As the lights went out, Jamie Thwaites got a clean start but Jack Berry’s 4C remained on the grid, causing following cars to take desperate avoiding action which they managed successfully. Toby Broome also had a very good start, as did his Power Trophy competitors Dave Messenger and Stacey Dennis, with Toby in the lead through Redgate from Jamie second and Dave third. Jack managed to get the 4C rolling slowly with the whole field having passed him by, and just when it looked as though retirement was looming, the 4C got going and set out to catch up with the rest. Meanwhile, Jamie had got passed Toby to lead and Stacey had passed Dave into third so the order as they passed the start finish line for the first time was Jamie’s TCR car first, followed by Toby’s 147GTA, Stacey’s Giulietta, Dave’s 156 GTA and Andy Page in the 116 Giulietta fifth. Next up were the Punto Abarths of Simon and Chris McFie, followed by the leading Twin Spark trio of Paul Plant, George Warren and Dave Pickup completing the top ten. Nathan Bignell was next in the leading Turismo class car, with James Powell and Ben Robinson, Ian Fenwick, Rob Hollyman and Richard Hunter in sixteenth. Simon Scott had clearly had some difficulties with the Mito and was just ahead of Steve Godfrey’s GT, Marcus Robinson’s 156 and the Ferrari Dino of Charlie McCarthy. Last across the line was Jack Berry’s 4C, 35 seconds behind the leaders and 16 seconds adrift from the back of the field.

At the end of lap 2, Simon pulled the Mito into the pits and rejoined in last position, persevering with the car until finally retiring it on lap 10.

The 156 Twin Spark of Richard Hunter retired at the end of lap 3. After spinning off the circuit at the old Hairpin and damaging the rear bumper, the car pulled into the pits and despite a temporary repair, was not allowed to rejoin. Rob Hollyman retired his 33 on lap 8 with suspected head gasket issues and would unfortunately be unable to participate in race 2.

Jamie Thwaites held the lead for the first four laps until electrical gremlins struck on lap 5. Jamie got the car going again but had lost 12 places and 44 seconds in the process, rejoining in thirteenth behind the Turismo cars of Nathan Bignell and Ben Robinson.

Meanwhile, Jack Berry had worked his way up to seventeenth by the end of lap 2, twelfth by lap 3, seventh by lap 4, fifth by lap 5 and was second to the leading car of Toby Broome by the end of lap 6. At the halfway distance, the lead had changed hands with a hard charging 4C taking the front on lap 8, a position he would hold to take the chequered flag from Toby Broome in second.

Jamie Thwaites had also set about recovering his position, working his way through most of the field to put the TCR car into third overall and second in the Modified class. Third in Modified and fourth overall was Andy Page after a solid drive in the 116 Giulietta. In the Power Trophy class, Dave Messenger had managed to take back second place from Stacey’s Giulietta on the fifth lap, holding the place until the finish. Chris McFie finished just ahead of brother Simon, the gap being less than a quarter of a second at the flag! Steve Godfrey brought the GT home in sixteenth place to take the Power Trophy sixth. In ninth place overall and winner of the Twin Spark Cup was former champion Paul Plant, with George Warren and Dave Pickup finishing in excellent second and third places respectively. James Powell had been holding fourth place in class for most of the race from Ian Fenwick, but Ian found a way past on lap 12 to take fourth with James fifth and Marcus Robinson sixth. Nathan Bignell was first Turismo car in tenth overall, with Ben Robinson second whilst Charlie McCarthy brought the Ferrari Dino to the finish in eighteenth position.

Race 1 Results

RACE 2

The weather was cloudier on Sunday morning and the temperatures more agreeable as the cars set off to the assembly area in preparation for the 10:55 scheduled race start. Barry McMahon’s Giulia had been a non starter in race 1 but the requisite brake parts had been obtained and it was confirmed on Sunday morning that it would be able to take its position at the rear of the grid. Between the 2 races, Garry Jackson had taken Richard Ford’s Twin Spark 156 back to Lincoln where he was abe to rebuild the engine and it would start at the back of the grid just behind Barry. Rob Hollyman had unfortunately withdrawn his Alfa 33 that morning whilst Dave Messenger had a previous commitment and had always intended to race his 156 just on the Saturday, so a total of 21 cars assembled on the grid.

When the lights went out, the leading cars all got away cleanly with Jack Berry leading the field through Redgate from Toby Broome’s Power Trophy car in second place, Jamie Thwaites in the TCR Giulietta third from Andy Page’s Giulietta fourth. As the field headed down the Craner Curves for the first time, Ben Robinson’s Turismo car got a wheel on to the grass on the left causing the car to leave the track heading toward the barriers. This immediately brought out the safety car. Simon Scott had also been having difficulties with the Mito and the car stopped on the right side of the track on the Craners with what later turned out to be a broken bottom wishbone. The car appeared to be stranded in its position so the Race Officials decided to red flag the race. The rest of the field lined up in their original positions on the starting grid whilst the Mito was recovered and Ben Robinson returned to the pitlane in his 156.

It was decided to repeat the starting procedure with the cars in their original grid positions and the race time reduced to 15 minutes, whilst Simon Scott was declared a non starter for the purpose of classification.

The cars took the start at 11:30, Jack Berry once again making a very good start to lead the field into Redgate. Jamie Thwaites had also made a good start and this time he was ahead of the Power Trophy 147 of Toby Broome with Chris McFie also making a good start to put his Punto Abarth into fourth place. Barry Mc Mahon also made a good start from the back of the field and was beginning to make his way through the pack. By the end of the lap he had passed the entire field with the exception of the front two cars, with Jack Berry in the 4C leading the TCR Giulietta of Jamie Thwaites by just over one and a half seconds. Toby Broome was the leading Power Trophy car in fourth place with Andy Page fifth and Stacey Dennis sixth. The two Fiats were seventh and eighth with Chris less than a second ahead of Simon, while Paul Plant was the lead Twin Spark car ahead of Nathan Bignell’s Turismo class 33. George Warren’s 147 was second Twin Spark from Dave Pickup’s and James Powell’s similar cars. Ian Fenwick’s 147 was fifth in class, fourteenth overall whilst Richard Ford had made his way up to sixth in class from the back of the grid. Steve Godfrey was next in the Power Trophy GT, Followed by Marcus Robinson’s 156 Twin Spark, the Ferrari Dino Invitation car of Charlie McCarthy and Richard Hunter’s 156. As Marcus Robinson crossed the line he noticed loss of oil pressure on his 156 so he pulled off the circuit switching off the car to unfortunately retire. By the end of lap two, the cars were in the same order except Richard Ford had made his way past Ian Fenwick into fourth place in the Twin Spark class and James Powell had pulled into the pits to retire his car also. The engine was not sounding too healthy which turned out to be loose camshaft bolts.

Ben Robinson decided that he would rejoin the race from the pitlane whilst the cars were on lap 2 and he finished the lap between the third placed Giulia of Barry McMahon and Toby Broome’s 147. His entry into the race had been picked up by race officials who were concerned whether the scrutineers had approved the car to race following its earlier excursion. Their enquiries came back negative so Ben was black flagged and returned to the pits the next time round to report to the Race Officials.

The gap between first and second had been hovering around a second for a few laps and on lap eight, Jamie managed to get by Jack to take the lead, a lead he would extend to nearly seven seconds by the end of the race. However, Jamie had picked up a number of track limits infringements along the way and these resulted in a 15 second accrued time penalty which resulted in Jack’s 4C taking the win with Jamie second. Barry McMahon had a couple of slower laps midway during the race but picked up his pace again to take third overall. Toby Broome was fourth overall and first Power Trophy runner with Andy Page’s Modified class car fifth. Next up were the two Fiat Abarths of Chris and Simon McFie. Chris had led from the first lap with the cars, as usual, never far apart, but his car was low on fuel and experiencing fuel surge problems on the last lap. This allowed Simon to take the chequered flag first and Chris crossed the start finish line with a broken throttle cable!.

Stacey Dennis had been circulating in second in class, sixth overall behind Andy Page for the first nine laps when unfortunately a trye deflated on lap ten and the car spun out of the race.

Leading the TS class from the start, Paul Plant brought the 156 back in eighth position ahead of Nathan Bignell’s sole Turismo car in ninth position. George Warren took a fine second place once again in his 147 with Dave Pickup taking third place on the final lap from Richard Ford in fourth. Ian Fenwick was fifth TS car and Richard Hunter was pleased with his fifteenth overall and sixth in class to record his first finish. Charlie McCarthy completed the field in his Ferrari Dino.

Race 2 Results

There had been some excellent drives throughout the field with a number of contenders in the frame for the Hitek Driver of the Weekend award but it was agreed that Toby Broome should receive it for another excellent and consistant drive over the weekend.

The awards were presented by Stuart from the Historic Sports Car Club. In the championship, Toby Broome leads Jack Berry by 17 points with George Warren third. Jack also leads the Modified class by 31 points with Jamie Thwaites second and Andy Page third. Toby leads the Power Trophy by 37 points from Chris McFie with Stacey Dennis third. Nathan Bignell leads the Turismo class by 8 points from Ben Robinson with Jack Carter third, and in the Twin Spark Cup class, George Warren leads Richard Ford by 7 points with James Ford third.