Michael Meadows delivered a dominant performance in the second Porsche Carrera Cup GB race of the day at Donington Park to complete a double victory at the Leicestershire circuit for the second consecutive year.
Starting from pole position Meadows made a great start to lead fellow front row starter Jonas Gelzinis into the first corner, Redgate. Championship leader Dean Stoneman made a poor getaway from the second row of the grid and found himself fifth by the first corner as Dan Lloyd and Rory Butcher moved past.
As Meadows streaked clear, Stoneman set about reclaiming his lost positions, overtaking Butcher at the chicane at the end of the first lap and dispatching Lloyd a couple of laps later to run third. On lap four Lloyd was demoted to fifth as Butcher made a well calculated move down the inside at Redgate.
Stoneman’s move through the field wasn’t over. As he pressurised Gelzinis for second, it eventually paid off as the race moved towards half distance when the Lithuanian driver made the very mistake Stoneman had whilst leading the first race, he braked too late for the Old Hairpin and ran across the grass moving Stoneman into second. On the very same lap Butcher spun at Coppice to promote Lloyd to fourth and he was straight on to the tail of the recovering Gelzinis.
Back at the front Stoneman spent the second half of the race chipping away at Meadows’ lead and though by the final lap he had trimmed the gap to less than a second he never looked like being able to genuinely challenge Meadows for the victory. As he took the flag Meadows secured his fifth consecutive Carrera Cup GB victory at the circuit.
Speaking to theCheckeredFlag.co.uk he said: “It’s exactly what I wanted (a lights to flag victory) you know all three of my starts until now have been bad so it’s good to make a really good one, back to last year.
Of his win record at Donington Park he said: “I’ve always gone well here and long may it continue.”
On finishing second Stoneman said: “My start wasn’t as good as my others so I went back to fifth but I managed to get back up to third by the second lap. Gelzinis made the same mistake as I did in the first race, it was good for me the same as Meadows would have said this morning, that’s just the way racing goes.
“Towards the end I was taking 1.5-2 seconds out of Meadows, shame I didn’t have that one or two more laps to make a move.”
Gelzinis hung on to third to like Stoneman maintain his one hundred per cent record of finishing on the podium so far this season. However he was disappointed not to have been at least second as the flag fell. He said: “It was my fault I lost second I was too late on the brakes.”
Lloyd was forced to settle for fourth with Richard Kent fifth and Butcher sixth following his spin.
Karl Leonard secured his second Pro-Am1 victory of the day a feat which secured him the Driver of the Day accolade. Dan De Zille was second in the category with Victor Jiminez third.
In Pro-Am2 Will Goff battled back from a poor start to again beat Peter Smallwood to top category honours.
In the drivers’ championship Stoneman leads by eight points from Meadows and Gelzinis who are tied for second place.
For the full race classification see here.
