Mon 16th July 2007

Second place for Lawson at Donington Park

Qualifying group 1: Robert Lawson 8, Richard Cannon 15, Stephen Oates 19    group 2: Andrew Herron 3, Jim Edwards 10
Qualifying race 1:  Robert Lawson 2nd, Richard Cannon DNF, Stephen Oates DNF  group 2: Jim Edwards 7, Andrew Herron 14

Championship race: Robert Lawson 2nd, Jim Edwards 5, Andrew Herron 9, Richard Cannon 26.

JHR Developments’ Robert Lawson (Richmond, N Yorks) was second behind Ben Winrow. In trying to build a significant advantage pole sitter Byford carried too much speed into the Old Hairpin and ran onto the grass, with Hodgetts following him. This left the way clear for Winrow to snatch the lead with Robert Lawson moving into second place.

After heavy rain earlier in the day, all drivers were on wet weather tyres with the exception of Shepherd, who took the gamble of slick tyres which failed.

At the start of lap two, RobertLawson ran wide at the exit of Goddards chicane allowing Pead to close onto his rear bumper although Lawson, in just his second season of car racing, was able to defend from the three-time Clio Cup vice-champion.

By the halfway stage of the 14-lap race, Winrow’s lead was up to six seconds over Lawson and Hodgetts, who passed Pead as he ran wide on the exit of Coppice. Meanwhile, Jim Edwards Jnr had climbed from 13th to sixth and at the end of lap eight saw him get the better of Dan Eagling.

In the battle for podium places, Hodgetts thought about a move on Robert Lawson at Goddards with three laps to go but Robert defended the place well.

Andrew Herron past Brown to finish ninth having started 23rd and Richard Cannon finished 26th after sterling work by the team to get his car repaired after his dnf in the qualifying race which also stopped Stephen Oates from racing.

Second placed Robert Lawson said: “To start sixth and finish second, in tricky conditions, is a good result for me.
Towards the end I had to decide whether to defend against Stefan or settle for third place but I had the pace in the car to keep him at bay.
We’d had some difficulties with the set-up but it all worked out well when it mattered most.”

The result of round six remains provisional pending further judicial review.

Drivers’ Championship standings after Round 6 - provisional
1 Stefan Hodgetts GBR Momo UK 157 pts
2 Martin Byford GBR Z Speed Racing 136 pts
3 Robert Lawson GBR JHR Developments 129 pts
4 Ben Winrow GBR Total Control Racing 124 pts
5 Ed Pead GBR Mardi Gras Motorsport 106 pts
6 Jim Edwards Jnr GBR Kangaroo Int/SMC Renault/JHR 90 pts
7 Michael Doyle GBR In Tune with Robertshaw Racing 82 pts
8 Mark Speller GBR Full Speed Racing 81 pts
9 Andrew Jordan GBR Team Eurotech-John Guest Speedfit 74 pts
10 Dan Eagling GBR Glenn Eagling Motorsport 64 pts