The penultimate round of the 2022 MSUK British Endurance Championship took place at the Donnington Park National Circuit and has seen multiple safety car disruptions across the 2-hour duration. The #160 Rob Boston Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo shared by Wayne Marrs and Tom Jackson won from pole position after drama struck at other front runners, including a late-race stop-and-go penalty for the #92 Simpsons Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The qualifying saw the front row shared by the AMG GT3s of Rob Boston Racing and Simpsons Motorsports. However, Hugo Cook of Simpsons Motorsports jumped into the lead at the start, with Johnny Macgregor’s #3 MacG Racing Taranis taking second place starting from the second row. The race start saw incidents occur on multiple Class D entries, as the #35 Breakell Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 was stranded in the gravel trap of Redgates corner; the #35 Team HARD also did an early visit to the pit after the first lap. The safety car deployed for the first time as the marshalls retrieved the Breakell Mercedes.

Hugo Cook soon led the way when the race returned to green and built a significant advantage. Lee Frost’s #24 Lamborghini was in second place, followed by Macgregor and Marrs. Rounding out Class A was the #50 ING Sport BMW Z4 GT3 driven by Kevin Clarke in fifth place overall. The second safety car period occurred as Ashley Woodman’s #60 EDF Motorsports Cupra TCR was buried deep in the Redgate gravel trap. Not far away from Redgates corner, Rhys Lloyd abandoned his #66 Dragon Sports by Amigo Motorsport Opel Astra TCR as its engine broke down. While this particular safety car disruption happened right before the pit window opening time, Wayne Marrs was the only frontrunner to pit, while Lee Frost came for a pit stop after the safety car went back in. Macgregor and Clarke were then promoted to second and third overall, respectively. However, Macgregor’s Taranis soon suffered a suspension failure, ending a possible podium run.

With the pit cycle running halfway through the race, things had cooled down temporarily, with no significant incident happening across the entries. The Rob Boston Racing AMG did a second mandatory pit stop after a short second stint by Wayne Marrs, who has now reached his minimum stint time and handed over to co-driver Tom Jackson for the latter half of the race.

The race’s latter half saw the safety car deployed twice within 15 minutes. The first was to let the marshals clean up the debris at the start-finish straight; the second one deployed when the ING Sport BMW, driven by Ryan Lindsay, grounded to a halt in front of the pit entrance after the BMW’s overheating exhaust pipe locked up its pedal box.

After the pit stop sequence, the #92 Simpsons AMG shared by Cook and Sacha Kokad still holds a 3 seconds advantage ahead of #160 Rob Boston AMG of Tom Jackson with less than 20 minutes to go, and the gap soon expanded as Jackson struggled to keep up pace with backmarkers factoring in. Having been leading most of the race, Hugo Cook and his #92 AMG seemed unstoppable, as he built a big enough gap to cancel out a 5 second time penalty. However, with five minutes to go, the #92 received a 17-second stop-and-go after pitstop infringement. The time penalty was added post-race as Cook stayed out and crossed the finish line first. The maiden BEC win for Simpsons Motorsport was denied in a gutting fashion as the Rob Boston Racing AMG shared by Jackson and Marrs inherited the race win. The final Class A podium spot was taken by #24 Lamborghini driven by Frost and Lucky Khera, two laps down after a quiet race.

Class C was won by the #144 RnR Performance Cars Ferrari 458 Challenge driven by Chris Goddard, Charlie Hollings, and Jamie Stanley. The Ferrari almost received the black and orange flag with its damaged rear diffuser, but the broken bit was let loose, and the RnR trio took the class honour and the overall podium. Second place in Class C was the #9 Enduro Motorsports Porsche 911 driven by Peter Erceg and Marcus Clutton. The Porsche cup was at one point running in second overall during the pit cycle but ultimately settled at fourth place after receiving a 5-second penalty.

The Class D honour was taken by the #21 venture Innovation Mercedes-AMG GT4 driven by Neville Jones and Matt George. The second-placed Ginetta G55 GT4 saw the welcomed return of Will Powell as the Motus One team boss shared the driving duty with Matt Cherrington. The #22 Sheard Motorsport Audi RS3 TCR driven by George Heler won Class E, ahead of the #44 CTR-Alfatune Cupra TCR of Alex Day and William Foster. Class F was won by #14 RVR UK Racing Porsche 997 shared by Mark and jake McAleer, as their race was largely trouble-free, after their only competitor, #88 Newbarn Racing Jaguar F-type of Callum and Adam Thompson, retired early in the race.

 
 

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