The final race of the Mighty Mini Championship took place at Donington on the 17/18 October. This was potentially Caroline last race in a Mighty as (pending appeals) she was sat in second place in the championship with a 20 point gap to Stuart Coombs in front she was unlikely to beat him unless he didn’t finish one of the races. She had a 10 point lead over Steve Rideout in third place.
Caroline managed to grab 2nd place in qualifying ahead of her rivals who only managed 5th and 6th. AS the race began Caroline made a good get away but a sideways moment at the Old Hairpin on cold tyres allowed rivals Rideout and Coombs to pass her. She set about closing the gap and after a couple of laps was soon on the back of them. Caroline sat behind the pair playing safe and taking the points. Stuart seemed to be slowing slightly, allowing Greg Jenkins to join in their fight. She couldn’t afford to let Greg pass so instead attacked Stuart into Goddards, over taking him to move up to 4th place. With just a couple of laps to go Brayden Fletcher suffered a mechanical failure and lost a wheel, moving Caroline up to 3rd behind Steve and Liam Sullivan. She defended from Stuart to keep thirds place and narrow Stuart’s lead by a couple of points although Steve did equally take a few from her as he finished in second place.
The top 6 cars were reversed for the 2nd race so Caroline started from 4th place. Caroline made a good start and tucked into 4th place in-between her championship rivals. Stuart quickly passed Andy Dickinson and started pulling away with Greg who had started from pole. It took Caroline a couple of laps to pass Andy and make the move stick. Race 1 winner Liam soon fought his way through and became a 7 car fight for the lead. There was plenty of contact between the cars with several of the drivers redesigning Caroline’s boot along the Exhibition straight.
Positions were swapping amongst the group at every opportunity. On the final lap Stuart tried to overtake Brayden at the Old Hairpin, it didn’t work and slowed them both down. Steve and Caroline tried to pass them both, Steve managed to pass Brayden but Caroline didn’t and was soon under threat from Greg and Peter Bonas. On the final entry to Goddards Brayden left his braking too late and hit Stuart on the rear quarter forcing him into the gravel and into retirement. Steve managed to avoid the incident. Just behind Caroline was 3 abreast with Greg and Peter she came off worst and finished behind both of them in 5th place.
At the end of the season Caroline was the clear winner in the Ladies championship despite the early challenge at the start of the season. Following penalties applied to 2 front running cars for non-compliance Caroline finished the season in 2nd place overall in the Championship loosing it by just 1 point to Steve.
Our next report will be about a new car, the Super Cooper Cup car ( based on the R53 BMW Mini cooper S with limited modifications) and pictures of the Annual Dinner presentation evening.
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