DIFFICULT DONINGTON FOR BLYTH

Norwich’s James Blyth Battles In The Latest Round Of The Mini Challenge

The latest rounds of the Mini Challenge proved to be just that, a challenge for Norwich racing driver James Blyth though through the battles he was still able to come away from the Donington event in the lead of the Novice Class Championship and second in the S Class Championship.

After a successful testing on Friday and strong practice times James was feeling confident though a problem with front end grip was causing an underlying problem. Qualifying in 14th position was well down the grid on his usual performance as the grip problem was emphasised on Donington’s fast, sweeping and undulating track.

In the first race, the shorter sprint race of the day’s double header, the action was tight into the first corner and James’ Advent Motorsport prepared S Class Mini showed a number of scars after the race! As James raced up to the top ten for the finish it seemed a reasonably good outcome given the circumstances only for misfortune to fall on him after the chequered flag fell when he was informed he was excluded from the final results. In the melee and with exuberance, James had unwittingly overtaken a competitor when a yellow flag, which signals no overtaking allowed, was waved.

esWith the second race being the longer 30 minute race, James was hoping the longer time would allow him to scythe through the field up from his 14th starting point. Again, in blistering sunshine, the packed grid got off to a fast and furious start. But, shortly into the race two large accidents caused the safety car to be deployed and effectively shortened the race. Most importantly the drivers of the stricken cars were okay after their large shunts but the race was reduced to a four lap dash as the clock counted down. Despite the shortened race James finished in 11th just shy of the top ten.

"That’s been a really tough weekend" said James afterwards who’ll be hoping for better fortune in three weeks time when the Championship moves to Croft in North Yorkshire for the 12th and 13th rounds

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