Round 10- Donington Park 16th Sept 1984. 30 laps.
| Pos. | Cat. | # | Driver | Team/sponsor | Cat. | Car | Grid | Q-time | FL | Laps | Time | Notes |
|---|
| 1. | 1. | 7 | Andy Rouse | Rouse/ICS | A | Rover Vitesse | 2 | | | | | |
| 2. | 2. | 14 | Win Percy | Hughes of Beaconsfield | A | Toyota Celica Supra | 1 | | | | | |
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| ? | 1. | 38 | Graham Goode | Graham Goode Racing | B | Nissan Bluebird Turbo | | | | | | |
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| ?. | ?. | 18 | Dave Brodie | BBW Motorsport | A | Mitsubishi Starion Turbo | 3 | | | | | |
| ?. | ?. | 6 | James Weaver | CC Motorsport/BMW GB | A | BMW 635CSi | 4 | | | | | |
| ?. | ?. | 9 | Frank Sytner | Sytner BMW/GSI | A | BMW 635CSi | 5 | | | | | |
| ?. | ?. | 40 | Phil Dowsett | Terry Drury Racing | B | Alfa Romeo GTV6 | | | | | | |
| ? | ?. | 66 | Alan Curnow | Longman/Datapost | C | Ford Escort RS1600i | | | | | | |
| ? | ? | 70 | Jock Robertson? | Julian May/Pegasus | C | Ford Escort RS1600i | | | | | | |
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Another sketchy report, which only really covers the top few in qualifying, the race between Rouse and Percy for the win, and the dramas leading up to Graham Goode's class win (I posted some of this ealier in the thread- in short, a time-consuming upgrade of the Nissan's brakes in the days before the meeting, an all-nighter to replace the engine after a head-gasket failure when they arrived at the track, and changing the gearbox, plus further work on the brakes between qualifying and race....)- the Goode story taking up at least two-thirds of the report.
Story of the race is that Percy put the Supra on pole again from Rouse, led the early laps until Rouse got past, then spent the rest of the race trying to find a way past the Rover again
'Not to be denied, Percy clung on grimly, always confident that hecould go back in front in the later stages of this longer (30 laps) race. When the chips were down, though, Percy's tyres had done their best work, and the cars were perfectly matched-the car that was in front, stayed in front, despite some heart-stopping attempts by Percy that saw some minor contact. Once again, these two had put on the show of the race, if not the entire meeting. Certainly the new-found competitiveness of the Hughes of Beaconsfield Toyota has saved the series'
Rouse's win tied up thechampionship for him- his lead having been eroded over the previous rounds by Percy's improved form, and a run of success for Richard Longman in Class C
Championship positions after 10 of 11 rounds (best 9 to count)
1. Rouse 77 points
2. Longman 66 points
3. Dooley 48 points
4. Hodgetts 45 points
=5. Goode & Curnow 42 points
The article is illustrated with a couple of shots of Rouse and Percy turning onto the pit straight, one early in the race with the Toyota leading, the second with Rouse ahead- in both, they're absolutely nose-to-tail- the captions are
'Percy fends off Rouse' and
'Rouse fends off Percy. The two were never further apartthan this, and despite a couple of minor paint
exchanges, their battle was hard and clean'
Apart from the top 6 qualifying positions, that's all there is about Class A, except Sytner's 635 had been rebuilt after it's shunt at the TT:
'This represented a sterling effort by the Ted Grace-managed team, who had grafted a completely new rear end onto the car after Sytner's TT co-driver Barrie Williams had involuntarily joined the carnage at Silverstone's Woodcote corner during the deluge the previous weekend. The result appeared to be a write-off, but afte Ted Grace's merry men had finished with it, you couldn't see the join!'
In Class B, after his pre-race dramas, Graham Goode was beaten off the line by Phil Dowsett's GTV6, but soon got past to take an 'apparently-effortless' win
No mention at all of Class C- the only record of it's existence in this report is the photo heading the article, showing Curnow's Datapost Escort and the Julian May/Pegasus Escort (presumably Jock Robetson?) on the grid. I've included every driver mentioned or illustrated in the report in the results table above
Oh yes, nearly forgot....the report mentions one other event from Donington:
'It is not often that a sportsman becomes champion in his field for two consecutive years on the same day. Yet that is the distinction accorded to Andy Rouse, who received his award as 1983 champion from Brian Courtenay, doing the honours as Chief Executive of Trimoco Holdings.'
The award ceremony for 1983 was apparently very low-key; PC's reporter Art Markus commented that he (and I'm presuming from his tone that he's including the other journalists reporting the meeting in that)- wasn't invited to attend,
'in fact the whole affair was very hush-hush- slightly embarrassing perhaps?'......And so ended (We think!) without doubt the most sordid episode in modern British motor racing'