Kelly Rogers Racing
With the Championship Title going to Peter Baldwin for 2004 the race is still on for the runner up spot between Kelly and Bill Sollis. Donington Park being a very fast sweeping circuit with a few slow demanding corners, hopefully the last round of the 2004 Mini Miglia Championship will be as good as the previous races in the season with total bumper to bumper entertainment.
Qualifying started at 9.25am with a 15 minute session, it had been raining all night and the track was very greasy. After much deliberation Kelly decided to go out on slick tyres as the rain had ceased and hopefully a dry line would form as the session progressed. Donington having a circuit length of 1.9573 miles, an average lap takes 1 minute 35 seconds. The slick tyre decision was not as successful as Kelly had hoped, with only 10 qualifying laps completed with the fastest time being 1.39.172 which put Kelly down to eighth position on the grid for the race. Kelly as always is very positive and commented, "Bill is next to me for the race so all is still to play for, for the runners up spot in the Championship".
The final race was upon us, all the cars lined up on the grid for there green flag lap, the conditions were perfect, blue skies and dry. Kelly pulled into his grid position 8th, down on the fourth row, the 5 second board was shown, the led lights were on then off. As all the cars raced down to the first corner Kelly had made up 4 places off the grid and was chasing hard. Half way through the lap Peter Baldwin's engine let go so Kelly was now 3rd chasing Saunders and Sims. By the end of lap 1 Kelly had disposed of Saunders and set about Tim Sims, for 5 laps Kelly tried to pass Tim but the racing line was always taken and there's only the long way round after that. Kelly was pushing Sims to the limit trying to pressurise him into a mistake, lap 7 and the gap appeared and Kelly took full advantage placing his car on the inside coming down to the chicane. Tim tried to keep his 1st position by trying to out brake Kelly but to no avail. With a 20 minute race around this long circuit the laps were going up slowly as the clock ticked on. Lap 12 and the last lap board was shown, Kelly watched in his mirrors as he had a 2 car gap lead going into redgate for the last time. Tim was pulling out all the stops to try and make a last lap assault on Kelly, but the back section of Donington was Kelly's favourite and the only chance now was the last chicane before the start/finish line. Kelly was fully aware of Tim's presence at the last chicane but had stopped and turned the car in effortlessly to cross the line for his second victory of the season.
With Bill Sollis not finishing the race due to a puncture, Kelly retains his second position in the Championship for the second year running.
On another happy note, Kelly Rogers racing would like to congratulate Jim Hall on winning the 2004 Mini7 Championship, as they say, "The best man always wins".
Round 10
Donington
