2006
Kelly Rogers Racing
Round 12 - Donington Park 21/22 October
Donington Park, the final round of the Mini Miglia 2006 Championship, Kelly had high hopes at the start of the season to take this title but with alot of bad luck and a huge incident at Spa left him trailing his 2 greatest rivals. Still with this being the last round a good result would compensate for a few of them disappointing results.
Saturday morning and arriving at Donington around 7 am, scrutineering and driver signing on was at 7.45 am and then get the car ready for a 15 minute test session. It had been raining over night and the track was very wet, Kelly doesn't mind the rain so was happy to blast around the circuit in these slippery conditions to make sure the car was set up right.
Qualifying was a totally different ball game, the weather had changed to brilliant sunshine and the track was completely dry. As it was the last round of the season the miglia grid had a few extra attendances, as long as they kept out of the way and didn't spoil the Championship out come people were happy to see them. The qualifying was a tense affair with the 2 Championship contenders trying to out bid each other on the pole position time. Kelly was happy to push hard and get a fast lap so he was up the front of the grid to watch the action tomorrow in the race as the title was at stake. Kelly set a time of 1.22.877 placing him 4th on the grid for the race, the top 5 cars were separated by 0.0504 of a second around this 1.973 mile circuit.
Sunday morning and everyone one was up early as the Mini7 race was at 9am, Kelly was totally relaxed watching the smaller engined mini's race around the circuit. The Miglia race was set for approximately 12 noon but with a few red flags from earlier races things were behind schedule. The time had come for last race, Kelly pulled up on the outside of row 2, with 17 cars on the grid the first corner was always a adrenaline rush. The lights go out and all the cars rush into Redgate corner, Kelly kept his grid position as the front 3 battled it out. Kelly was now part of a four man train going down the craner curves then tyre smoke and locked brakes by hack see the train become the famous 3 as normal. Approaching the chicane on lap 1 and Hall hugged the inside line as Sollis tried the long way round. Crossing the line all 3 cars were at there ultimate limit trying to find a few more rev's to pull passed each other. Lap 2 and all was fair and square, lap 3 and Sollis dragged passed Hall coming into the Chicane, Kelly still holding 3rd after a few moments with Owens on the opening laps. The battled raged on and it was a terrific sight to see with 3 awesome drivers and cars all at 10/10ths with nothing in it except a kippers eyelash. Kelly had such good drive coming onto the back straight under the Dunlop bridge and Hall had tried to go along side Sollis so Kelly just planted himself behind Sollis as they came to the chicane and Hall had know where to go except back to 3rd. This battle went on for a few more laps with each driver trying to out fox each other, the last lap board was shown as they all raced down the straight and Hall made a last attempt to push passed Kelly into turn one which was successful to demote Kelly back to 3rd. Last lap and Sollis had tried to get away, with a 2 car gap between 1st and 3rd things were still all to play for. As they approached the Chicane for the last time Sollis had a big enough lead that nothing troubled him as he crossed the line taking the chequered flag and the title of the 2006 Mini Miglia Champion. Kelly followed Hall over the line to finish 3rd, a good weekend with some superb driving by all the drivers.
Kelly Rogers Racing would like to congratulate Bill Sollis on winning the 2006 Championship and hopefully the same for next year!
Round 1
Snetterton
Round 12
Donington Park
