Richard Morris was pushed by both his competitors and the changeable weather conditions at Donington Park but ultimately left leading the Sports Porotype Cup driver rankings following two wins in the Revolution Trophy.
Race 1: Morris powers to class win
Richard Morris was Revolution pole sitter and led lap one from Joaquim Penteado, who had upgraded from a Revolution 427 to the supercharged 500SC for this event. Penteado was enjoying the additional power and closely matched Barcelona winner Morris.
Roger Green settled into a solid third in the Revolution Trophy (sampling a 427 after taking a 500SC to victory in the opening round of the year). When Penteado was forced to retire following a spin, this promoted Green to the second step of the podium, a position that could prove to be valuable in the full-season Cup Driver Rankings battle with race winning Morris. Nino La Rosa was a solid third, the 74 year old veteran taking a popular podium after flying from the USA for this event.
Race 1 Podium Revolution Trophy:
1st Richard Morris (500SC)
2nd Roger Green (427)
3rd Nino La Rosa (500SC)
Race 2: Morris dodges Donington storms to head the rankings.
The celebrations of Richard Morris’ race one win soon turned into a drama. Stone damage had caused a water leak, and the Revolution crew worked tirelessly to repair the car for race two. They made it with minutes to spare, but the tension was still rising as dark clouds appeared over the circuit.
The opening laps saw Morris fending off Chris Hoy (Revolution 427). The Olympian was in fighting form in the opening laps.
However, rain arrived on lap three. Penteado passed Hoy for second in class. By lap five the rain was bad enough for the slick shod cars to be 20 seconds off the pace, and the pit crews prepared for stops. The opportunity came when Da Rosa spun at the exit of Coppice. The safety car was deployed, but Da Rosa restarted.
Some none Revolution cars pitted, the crews servicing both cars with wets under the safety car.
However, the rain wasn’t settling on the hot track and the Goodyear slicks were still the tyres to have. Hoy was revelling in the damp conditions and re-passed Penteado for second, while Morris looked assured at the front. Penteado was the pacesetter in the closing stages, getting ahead of Hoy again and hunting Morris down. At the flag, Penteado was just fractions of a second behind Morris, whose double win leaps him to the top of the driver rankings.
Race 2 Podium Revolution Trophy:
1st Richard Morris (500SC)
2nd Joaquim Penteado (500SC)
3rd Chris Hoy (427)
Morris leads the driver rankings after three rounds:-
The Cup now has a summer break, before returning to action at Spa-Francorchamps on October 13-15. The European Prototype Festival will feature a grid combining the Sports Prototype Cup, Funyo Series and the local Prototype Challenge on one packed grid. The Sports Prototype Cup rounds, both 60 min races, will feature Radical, Revolution and Open classes. Entries are open.
The remainder of the calendar for The Sports Prototype cup is as follows:-
13-15 October Spa Francorchamps
16-17 Dec Portimão
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