Donington delight for Nielsen Racing / Ecurie Ecosse duo

12th September 2018


  • Championship leaders take big step to second title with Sunday victory.
  • Mectech drivers fight back to second place.
  • Second Norma on podium as Primrose produces strong performance.

Tony Wells and Colin Noble went one better than their performance in Saturday’s LMP3 Cup Championship race at Donington Park with victory in today’s race. Wells battled gearbox gremlins and a fighting Dominic Paul before handing over to Colin Noble who brought the car home for maximum points.

Paul had charged from third place to lead in the Speedworks Motorsport Ligier, but a spin put him back behind Wells just before the mandatory pit stops took place. The lead pair came into the pits, but Paul locked up on pit entry and slid into the barrier, being forced to retire from the race.

Neil Primrose found himself second overall after the stops, enjoying another strong drive. He managed to hold off a recovering Bradley Smith for a number of laps, before giving up the place into Redgate. Smith, who took over in the Mectech Motorsport Norma M30 from Duncan Williams, set quick laps but had too much ground to cover to catch Noble.

“It was a totally different race to yesterday,” said Williams. “The car in the first couple of laps felt really good, but then unfortunately it started to go off and became a bit of a handful, so I had to make sure I got it back to the pits for Bradley to take over. Nielsen knows its car inside out while we’re still learning, so for Bradley to get fastest lap in that race was some doing.”

“On the first out lap, I got on it and into a rhythm pretty quickly, but we suddenly had a power steering issue,” said Smith. “By the end I was just settling in and trying to put in some consistent laps. The team have done a fantastic job all weekend, so on to the next one at Silverstone and we’ll see how we get on there.”

Primrose collected his second podium of the weekend at Donington with third place in his Norma M20 FC, best of the invitational entries once again. “You know you’re in a race to keep Bradley behind you,” said Primrose. “But it was good fun there keeping the gap there for a few laps. I was pushing hard to get it into the 1m27s, but the car started to drop off a bit and I began to squeeze off and let him go through, have a breather and then get back on it. The car is sort of evolving with the fuel burn getting better, but the balance never gives you anything bad. It just keeps getting better and it’s been a good weekend. It’s nice to get a bit of seat time while I’m doing it all myself; it’s been a great weekend.”
 
Race two results:

1) Tony Wells/Colin Noble – #1 Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen Racing (Ligier JS P3)
2) Duncan Williams/Bradley Smith – #21 Mectech Motorsport (Norma M30)
3) Neil Primrose – #72 Fellside Land Developments Ltd (Norma M20 FC)