2005
Kelly Rogers Racing
Brands Hatch Mini Festival weekend and Round 6 of the Mini Miglia Championship, Qualifying Saturday and the race on Sunday. Brands Hatch being Kelly's local circuit always makes this a big weekend for sponsors and fans alike.
With the previous week being full on trying to get the car ready for this weekend after the Crois trip. The engine had to be fully checked and rebuilt, the hubs and brakes needed attention, everyone had been doing there little bit to make sure the weekend ran smoothly.
Qualifying soon turned into a drama for Kelly as the gearshift retaining half-moon broke which made selecting gears a delicate matter. Kelly commented " It was like stirring your Nans soup to find the gears but I had to learn quick by always pressing down on the gearshift before making a gear change". Despite all this Kelly posted a time to line him up second on the grid, pole is always the aim just to disillusion the opposition.
Sunday morning and the timetable had been changed, the Miglia's were racing at 2 pm when originally it was before the lunch break. The sun was beating down and the temperature was rising fast, it was going to be a hot race.
At 2 pm Kelly drove the car down to the assembly area and waited for the grid to be called for, the cars were called to do there green flag lap and line up on there grid positions. The temperature inside the cars was fierce as the red lights go on and then wait approximately 5 seconds for them to go out. Baldwin gets a flyer with Sollis and Sims forcing Kelly wide going into paddock, Kelly in 4th position heading up to druids. Lap one completed and Sims was ragged going into clearways so Kelly lined him up and shot passed him trying to catch the leaders. Lap 3 Kelly is trying to get onto the coat tails of Sollis to pull himself closer to Baldwin, out of druids heading down towards Graham Hill Bend Sollis makes a gap which was only there for a split second to push Baldwin into 2nd position. Kelly still only a cars length behind is pushing hard trying to edge closer now to Baldwin, along the main straight both Sollis and Baldwin can pull a slight gap so Kelly has to go into paddock fast to tag back onto the leaders. The cars were so close together that air flow into the radiator and oil cooler was a must as the temperature of the water and oil were steadily creeping up. Lap after lap this cat and mouse effect from the leading 3, the last lap board was shown after 20 minutes of racing, Baldwin had tried a few late lunges to re-take the lead and Kelly got all so close to the boot lid of Baldwin's car but just couldn't make that gap decrease. Over the line they came, Sollis 1st, Baldwin 2nd and Kelly 3rd, a very entertaining race but also frustrating for Kelly as it was so close, yet so far also.
Round 1
Silverstone
Round 2
Castle Combe
Round 6
Brands Hatch
Round 7
Thruxton
Non
Championship
Silverstone -
19-03-2005
Silverstone
-
23 / 24-07-2005
