Craig Mitchell in three races at Donington

This is one of Craig’s favourite circuits and one he holds the lap record for from racing in his previous formula Sports 2000.

A test day visit at the circuit early June allowed a decision on which tyre he would prefer to use going forward and also some changes to the race car as Craig gained confidence in his Class B Ligier JS49 prototype sports car.

The weekend comprised of qualifying just before lunchtime on Saturday and a first race towards the end of the same day starting around five o’clock. Sunday saw two races, again at around lunchtime and the end of the day.

On a very hot Saturday, qualifying went well. During the early stages three quick laps allowed Craig to start race one and race two from seventh and sixth place on the grids respectively, all achieved from the best and second best qualifying times.

Race one started well with Craig making up two spaces in the first corner and settling into some very quick laps, managing to stay in front of some extremely quick car/driver combinations around him. At the chequered flag Craig had managed a fourth place finish overall and third in Class B, certainly a great start to the event.

Sunday was much cooler and the start of race two was quite different as the number 22 Ligier got boxed in on the outside of the first corner.

Craig dropped back to around ninth place but by the end of lap one he was up into fourth. Again he settled in quickly to achieve very quick lap times throughout the race, finishing in a strong third and second in Class B.

The third place in race two allowed Craig to start from that slot on the Sunday afternoon grid. A great start soon saw the young Scot up into second place where he remained for 15 minutes of the 20-minute race.

Whilst doing well to maintain this excellent result an unfortunate yellow flag incident did allow the third-placed driver to tighten the gap to Craig and due to his larger horsepower advantage he was able to sail past on the back straight and so a third was the result at the end of the race, again coming second in Class B.

The championship points table shows the Cumbernauld-based race driver leading the Class B ExcoolOSS championship and in second position for the main championship at this time.

The final event of the year will take place at Silverstone in early August and Craig will be hoping his brilliant initial season in this series continues at the home of British Motorsport.

Thanks to Nu-Stock and IF Motorsport for their continued belief.

Keep up to date with the latest news and results at www.craigmitchell.info