It was a great final weekend of the season with the HRDC at Donington Park for Westbourne Motorsport both in the Touring Greats race and the Allstars.
The Touring Greats race for pre 1960 Touring Cars with invited TC63 saw an amazing 37 cars out on track with six of them coming from Westbourne! The top car was Chrissy Palmer in his Austin A40 Speedwell qualifying 4th on the grid and finishing a remarkable 2nd place overall and 1st in the Speedwell class. Next came the pairing of James Colburn and Adam Morgan in their Austin A35 Speedwell qualifying 6th overall and then finishing 3rd overall and 2nd in the Speedwell class a great result for only the second outing for the car with the team! Then came the Austin A40 Speedwell of Ben Colburn and James Dorlin who started 17th after experiencing engine problems in qualifying but they were rectified for the race and the pair finished a remarkable 9th place overall and 5th in the Speedwell class after Colburn stalled at the start. Not too far back were Chris Pearson and Richard Fores who qualified 15th and finished a strong 12th overall and 6th in the Speedwell class in the Austin A35 Speedwell. The last of the finishers was Bruce Chapman in his Austin A35 Academy car who qualified 32nd and finished a solid 20th place overall and 3rd in the Academy class. Unfortunately for Nick Wigley in his Austin A35 Academy car, after qualifying 31st overall, he didn’t finish the race after rolling at Redgate. Overall though, a good set of results for Westbourne that would hopefully be carried through to the HRDC Allstars race.
The Allstars race was as exciting as the Touring Greats race, this time Westbourne running four cars out of the 38 on the grid. The best to qualify was James Colburn in his beautiful Lenham Sprite GT who was 6th on the grid however, Colburn’s engine went in qualifying which meant he was unable to start the race. Next in line was James Dorlin in the Morris Mini Cooper S where he qualified 11th overall and finished 6th overall and 2nd in the A-Series Challenge class almost piping the Mini ahead to victory. Next was Ben Colburn in his Austin A35 Academy car which was running with upgrades for the weekend to test the car to see if stability and traction could be improved. He did qualify fastest out of the Academy cars and inevitably converted that into a commanding win and 19th overall, proving the upgrades could benefit the car which could take place in time for next season. Finally came Bruce Chapman in another Austin A35 Academy car who qualified 24th overall and finished 28th overall and 6th in the Academy class.
The weekend on a whole was a great success and a great way to round off the season with some amazing results from the UK clios, to the Michelin Clios and to the Historics and Westbourne Motorsport intends to come back stronger, better and faster with more positive results and more championship victories!