Donington Park 2026

The Hitek Electronic Materials Alfa Romeo and Italian Intermarque Championship returned to the popular Donington Park circuit to contest rounds 3 and 4 of the 14 round championship on the challenging 1.98 mile National circuit. Early indications had pointed to a record equalling grid around the mid 30s but late withdrawals due to mechanical issues and other commitments meant that around 30 cars made their way to the circuit although the withdrawal of reigning champion Toby Broome after problems in practice with the 4C would reduce the entry to a still excellent turnout of 29 cars for the weekend.

Early championship leader Jack Berry in the Alfa Workshop 4C led a strong field of 9 Modified class entries comprising the Giulietta TCR car of Jamie Thwaites, the 156 turbo of Scott Austin, Barry McMahon’s 2021 championship winning 156, a welcome return to the track for Gareth Haywood in the double championship winning GTV, the 116 Giulietta of Andy Page, Jon Berry’s Giulia Veloce, the Alfa 75 of Keith Waite and we welcomed newcomer Andy Porter in his distinctive Fiat Coupe.

Power Trophy class leader Stacey Dennis was joined once again by Mark Purcell in the Talos Motorsport 155 Touring Car, Graham Seager in the Revs Italia supported 147 GTA, Dave Messenger in the Darnells Engineering 156 GTA and Mark Skeggs in his Bianco Motorsports supported GTV.

Joining Turismo class leader James Powell was Sam Kay in the 33 after a successful inaugural outing at Snetterton, Jack Carter in the 147, Steve Godfrey in his Alfa Workshop supported 156, George Warren in the Bianco Motorsports supported GTV, Simon Scott in the Alfasud and we welcomed newcomer Antony Britton in his first race outing driving a Mito.

Twin Spark class leader Richard Ford was joined by James Ford, both in their familiar 156s, Richard Wadlow-Smith, Ian Fenwick and Dave Pickup in their similarly liveried 146, 147 and 156 respectively, Paul Plant in his Bianco Motorsports 156, Steven Anderson in his 156 and Edward Robinson returning to the class in the Revs Italia supported 156.

QUALIFYING

The qualifying session got underway just after 12:00 in quite warm sunny conditions, the early pace being set by Jamie Thwaites’s TCR car trading quickest lap times with Barry McMahon’s 156 over the first few laps. Jamie’s time of 1:15.53 held sway until lap 7 when Jack Berry posted a 1:14.5 immediately followed by a 1:13.746 that would be sufficient to claim pole for race 1. Jamie’s lap 3 time claimed the second spot on the front row ahead of Scott Austin who took a well deserved third with a 1:16.435 on lap 9. Barry  would eventually take fourth spot ahead of Gareth Haywood’s GTV with a 1:18.092 from Gareth’s 1:18.147. Andy Page’s 116v Giulietta was sixth ahead of Jon Berry’s Giulia Veloce. Keith Waite took eighth and 19^th overall and the Modified class grid was completed by newcomer Andy Porter in the Fiat Coupe in 21^st overall.

Stacey Dennis claimed Power Trophy pole and eighth overall after a series of very quick times with a best of 1:21.208 on lap 10, ahead of Mark Purcell and Dave Messenger around one and a half seconds adrift to complete the top ten. Unfortunately, Dave had to retire the 156 after completing 5 laps with an engine problem and would be unable to take any further part in the weekend. George Warren was 11^th overall and took the Turismo pole with a 1:23.56 on lap 9 ahead of the fourth place Power Trophy car of Mark Skeggs complete with new engine following his problems at Snetterton. 14^th overall and second in Turismo was Jack Carter in his 147 with a 1:26.75, over three seconds adrift of the class pole with Sam Kay 3^rd about three quarters of a second back. The fourth Turismo car of James Powell was starting 20^th overall with Simon Scott’s Alfasud fifth in 24^th overall. Steve Godfrey would line up in 26^th with newcomer Antony Britton in 28^th. The fifth Power Trophy car, The 147 GTA of Graham Seager was having more mechanical issues following his problems at Snetterton and he would line up at the back of the grid after registering 3 laps with a visit to the pits at the end of each lap.

In the Twin Spark class, Dave Pickup, Richard Ford and Paul Plant had all topped the leaderboard through the early laps but a series of fastest times toward the end of the session saw James Ford take pole with a 1:25.807 on lap 9. Richard Ford was second in his 156 a second and a half back with Dave Pickup a third of a second back in third and Paul Plant fourth, these three cars starting 16^th, 17^th and 18^th overall. Ian Fenwick’s 147 was fifth in class and 22^nd overall closely followed by Edward Robinson in sixth, although the latter was having clutch problems with the 156 making him a doubt for race 1. Richard Wadlow-Smith was seventh and 25^th overall whilst Steven Anderson would start eighth and 27^th overall.

RACE  1

26 cars took their places on the grid for race 1 with Barry McMahon electing to start from the pit lane due to gearbox issues. The leading cars all managed a clean start and it was Jack Berry taking the lead through Redgate closely followed by Jamie Thwaites and Scott Austin. Gareth Hayward was fourth , with Stacey Dennis, Mark Skeggs, George Warren and Paul Plant also making quick starts to lead their respective classes into Brooklands, although both Mark Purcell and Andy Page had both had issues which dropped them down the order. As the cars completed lap 1 it was the 4C of Jack Berry leading from Jamie Thwaites’s Giulietta by just under half a second with Scott Austin third in close attention. There was a 2 second gap to Gareth Hayward’s GTV in fourth with the Giulia of Jon Berry fifth a further 3 seconds down. Next came Stacey Dennis’s leading Power Trophy Giulietta with Mark Skegg’s GTV just over a second behind. George Warren’s leading Turismo GTV was eighth and the top ten was completed by the hard charging Twin Spark 156 cars of Paul Plant and James Ford just over two tenths of a second apart. Jack Carter was a second behind in the second placed Turismo car ahead of Mark Purcell’s Power Trophy 155 that was starting to recover lost ground. James Powell’s 147 was third in Turismo followed by Sam Kay’s 33 in fourth, closely followed by the third placed Twin Spark of Richard Ford ahead of Keith Waite’s Modified class 75 and Simon Scott’s Alfasud. The top 20 were completed by Dave Pickup’s 156 TS, Barry McMahon’s 156, having made up eight places already after its pit lane start and the 147 TS of Ian Fenwick. Andy Page’s 116 Giulietta was down in 21^st spot ahead of Andy Porter’s Fiat Coupe experiencing its first competitive outing and Richard Wadlow-Smith’s 146 TS. Steve Godfrey was 24^th in his Turismo 156, Steven Anderson was next up in the 156 TS and Antony Britton was next across the line in his first competitive outing in the Alfa Mito. Graham Seager in his Power Trophy  147 was still having problems and unfortunately had to retire the car with similar exhaust issues that had disrupted his qualifying session.

At the front, Jamie Thwaites was closing in on Jack Berry’s 4C and took the lead of the race on lap 2. The order behind the leading cars remained fairly static although Barry McMahon had continued to work his way up the leaderboard into ninth spot and Mark Purcell had recovered to eleventh, briefly splitting the lead Twin Sparks before going past Paul into tenth as the field started the third lap. Jack Carter was a couple of seconds behind James Ford with Sam Kay a further three and a half seconds down, whilst the Modified cars of Andy Page and Keith Waite had moved ahead of the third placed TS of Richard Ford as the cars started lap three. James Powell had to retire his 147 on lap 2 with throttle linkage problems and Ian Fenwick retired his 147 a couple of laps later with electrical issues.

The lead cars continued to be separated by fractions of a second with Jamie Thwaites taking the lead on lap 6, a lead that he would hold and extend for the rest of the race. Scott Austin was keeping the leading cars in his sights and started to close in on Jack’s 4C, taking second place on lap 10 and holding the position to the flag. Barry McMahon had worked his way up to fifth on lap 4, having overtaken the Power Trophy cars of Stacey Dennis and Mark Skeggs, who were themselves engaged in a battle for the class lead. Gareth Hayward’s GTV took third place from a slowing 4C on lap 10 with Barry catching and passing the 4C to move into fourth. That looked to be shaping up as the finishing order as the end of the race approached, until Gareth unfortunately retired the GTV at the end of the penultimate lap with drive problems, enabling Barry’s 156 to pick up the third podium position with Jack’s 4C finishing fourth. Jon Berry brought the Giulia Veloce home in fifth and seventh overall with Keith Waite the only other Modified class finisher in sixth, thirteenth overall. Andy Porter had gone off into the gravel on lap 11 on the approach to Hollywood, managed to get going but later had to pull off the circuit to retire, the problem being a split power steering hose on the Fiat Coupe. Andy Page had to retire the 116 Giulietta on lap 12 with engine problems.

In the Power Trophy, Mark Skeggs in his GTV had taken the lead from the Giulietta of Stacey Dennis on lap 5 and slowly managed to edge clear to take the class win by 7 seconds at the flag, with the cars in fifth and sixth overall. These were the only two class finishers with Mark Purcell having retired the 155 on lap 14 with electrical problems.

In the Turismo class, George Warren maintained his lead throughout, taking the class win and eighth overall and setting the lap record in the process. Jack Carter in the 147 maintained his lead over Sam Kay’s 33 to take the remaining podium spots and finished 11^th and 12^th overall. Simon Scott’s Alfasud was fourth and 17^th overall ahead of Steve Godfrey’s 156 in 18^th, with newcomer Antony Britton finishing sixth in class, 20^th overall. As for the Twin Spark class, Paul Plant and James Ford were never far apart throughout, with Paul maintaining his early lead and taking the flag first with James second, the cars finishing ninth and tenth overall. Richard Ford took third in class in his 156 in 14^th overall, but a problem with the engine became apparent on the cool down lap and the car had to be retired and unfortunately wouldn’t take part in the second race. Dave Pickup was fourth and 15^th overall with Richard Wadlow-Smith just a couple of seconds adrift in his 146 TS. Steven Anderson had a satisfying drive in the 156 to finish sixth in class and 19^th overall.

Race 1 Results

RACE 2

Gareth Haywood had been hoping he had the GTV fixed for race 2 but encountered a clutch problem in the assembly area.  Scott Austin had discovered that the front suspension was damaged and had to retire the 156 and George Warren had problems firing up the engine so unfortunately, all three cars were unable to take the start.

As the time for the start of race 2 approached on Sunday afternoon, it became clear that the race programme has slipped due to some unavoidable delays. Co-ordinators of subsequent races were called to the Clerk of the Course and were asked to consider a late change from a standing start to a rolling start. Almost all the drivers had never been involved in a rolling start but there were plans in place to trial this at the upcoming meeting at the Brands Hatch GP circuit in a couple of months. It was decided to accept this and drivers prepared to adapt to a new starting procedure for race 2. With the lack of previous experience, it seemed inevitable that it might resemble something more like a safety car restart, and sensibly this is how it turned out, with the cars all managing to negotiate the start without issues.

Stacey Dennis’s Giulietta and Jon Berry’s Giulia had quickly made places on Mark Skeggs’s GTV, whilst Dave Pickup made up three places in his 156. A number of drivers were out of position in grid order due to race 1 retirements or mechanical problems and most were able to gain places as the first lap unfolded.

As the cars started lap 2, it was the TCR Giulietta leading from Barry McMahon’s 156 and Jack Berry’s 4C. Stacey was fourth in the Power Trophy Giulietta by over 4 seconds from Mark Skeggs with Jon Berry sixth. In seventh and eighth spots were the Twin Spark 156 cars of Paul Plant and James Ford, with The Turismo car of Jack Carter and Keith Waite’s 75 completing the top ten. Dave Pickup was 11^th followed by Sam Kay’s 33, Simon Scott’s Alfasud, Mark Purcell’s 155 with Richard Wadlow-Smith’s 146 in 15^th. Then came Steve Godfrey’s 156, Andy Page’s 116 Giulietta, James Powell’s 147, Antony Britton’s Mito and Graham Seager’s 147 GTA in 20^th. Steven Anderson’s 156 Twin Spark was 21st, followed by Ian Fenwick’s 147 TS, Edward Robinson’s 156 TS and Andy Porter’s Fiat Coupe.

Jamie Thwaites’s Giulietta would maintain the lead by an ever increasing margin as the race progressed with Barry McMahon’s 156 and Jack Berry’s 4C close together battling for the second podium spot. Barry had the advantage for the first few laps but Jack took second on lap 5, although the gap was rarely above half a second until the last couple of laps. Jon Berry took fourth in Modified sandwiched between Stacey Dennis’s Giulietta and Mark Skeggs’s GTV. Andy Page’s 116 Giulietta was fifth and ninth overall with Keith Waite’s 75 sixth and 16^th overall. Andy Porter in the Fiat Coupe finished  21^st overall.

Stacey took the Power Trophy win maintaining her advantage throughout the race over Mark’s GTV and being classified fourth overall. Mark Purcell in the 155 made an excellent recovery drive after his disappointment in race 1 to finish 15 seconds behind Mark to take the third podium spot and seventh overall whilst Graham Seager took eighth in the 147 GTA from the back of the field, the car finally running well after the difficulties in qualifying and race 1.

After making up places by the end of lap 1, James Powell caught up with the second placed Turismo car of Sam Kay by the end of lap 3, passing both Sam’s 33 and Jack Carter’s 147 on the next lap to take the class lead, and going on to a well deserved class win. Sam Kay managed to pass Jack Carter on lap 12 to take second in class with Jack rounding off the podium positions. Steve Godfrey took fourth in his 156 with Simon Scott fifth in the Alfasud and Antony Britton finishing sixth in the Mito after a fine first outing in the championship.

In the Twin Spark class, it was a similar story to the first race, with the cars of Paul Plant and James Ford locked in a close contest for the lead throughout. The 156s had been alongside each other on a number of occasions and on lap 12, James took the lead through the Old Hairpin. Although they ran close together in the run up to McLeans, James had the line and maintained the lead. Meanwhile, Edward Robinson was running sixth in the Twin Spark class and as he went through Roberts the steering broke and the car spun off the circuit coming to rest just off the track. This caused a red flag and results were declared at the end of the previous lap, therefore Paul was declared the class winner with James second. Dave Pickup took the third podium spot with Richard Wadlow-Smith fourth, Ian Fenwick fifth and Steven Anderson sixth. The 156 of Edward Robinson wasn’t classified as a finisher because he wasn’t running at the showing of the red flag.

Race 2 Results

The driver of the weekend award went to Simon Scott with the Alfasud Sprint. Leading the championship after 4 rounds is Jack Berry with Stacey Dennis second and Sam Kay third. Jack Berry leads the Modified class from Scott Austin and Andy Page. Stacey Dennis leads the Power Trophy class from Mark Skeggs and Mark Purcell. Sam Kay leads the Turismo class from James Powell and Steve Godfrey. Paul Plant leads the Twin Spark Cup class from Dave Pickup and Richard Ford. Next rounds are at Cadwell Park on the 13th and 14^th June.