2005
Kelly Rogers Racing
Rounds 8 and 9 were held at The Rock, Rockingham raceway is one of the newest and most impressive circuits in the UK today. The meeting was split over two glorious days with Saturday being filled up with a free practice, qualifying and race 8 of the 2005 Mini Miglia Championship.
Free practice was a good session to test the cars handling around this very fast race track, with tight hairpins, a flat out chicane and a very impressive banked sweeping section. The 30 minutes were used very wisely by all the competitors with familiarising yourself with the track once again and trying out new settings.
Qualifying on this 2.44 mile circuit was very important, the drag down to the first hairpin left is so important in the race. Kelly's car was fast, but was having problems with traction coming out of the slower corners. After completing 10 laps Kelly had set a time of 1:55.534 which put him 2nd fastest but still over half a second behind Baldwin.
Saturday
With the race set for late in the day, the team set about trying to iron out a few issue's Kelly had with the car. The weather was hot and very sunny with the temperature close to the 30°c mark. The call up came from the address system for the Miglia's to make there way to the assembly area for the start of the race. Behind the support vehicle, all the cars did there green flag lap and lined up on the grid awaiting the 5 second board. Grid formation was 2 x 2 so Kelly knew he had to be careful of getting trapped on the outside close to the wall. The red lights go on and then go out, Kelly had a slow start as he was wheel spinning off the line, 18 cars going rushing into the first left hander, a few bumps and scrapes as they all hustle themselves around this first corner. Kelly was pushed back to fourth as they all came onto the fast banked circuit for the first time. Lap 2 and Kelly had the speed to really push hard and regain his starting position, first obstacle was Max Hunter, for two laps Kelly pushed Max to the limit of driving ability to finally force him to make a mistake. Once passed Max, Kelly soon was on the coattails of Sollis, within one lap and the fast slipstreaming affect from the banked wall main straight Kelly was back into second position. Now on lap 6, Baldwin had done his disappearing act and was 11 seconds in front of Kelly, there was no way Kelly could pull back that time in the space of 4 laps. The result from race 1 of the weekend was, Baldwin 1st, Kelly 2nd, Hunter 3rd and Sollis 4th.
With Peter Baldwin scoring his 7th win out of 8 races this year, Mathematically the Championship was won. Well done and Congratulations Peter, from the Kelly Rogers Racing Team.
Sunday
With only one race today the mood of the team was relaxed but focused on getting the job done, over night a few more settings were checked and some altered to make sure on a good race result.
all the cars lined up on the grid at 10.20 am, Kelly was on the second row this time as the grid was taken from your 2nd quickest time in qualifying. The tension mounted as the lights went out, Kelly stuck to the boot lid of Baldwin on the run down to the first corner. Max Hunter was snapping at Kelly's heels as the first lap completed, Baldwin had edged away a gap of just over a second. Lap 2 and the positions stayed the same, Lap 3, 4 and 5 were just as close and exciting as Kelly could see Baldwin slipping back towards him. Now on lap 6 and the gap between Kelly and Baldwin was just under half a second, they approached the fastest part of the circuit going into the left hander as Max appeared beside Kelly. With Max edging his nose in front on turn 2, a sharp up hill corner, Kelly was now stuck behind Max for the next 2 laps. Baldwin had pulled the gap back up to 1.3 seconds, Kelly was a bit fed up with Max and pulled a great passing manoeuvre going into the right hander after turn 6. With only two laps left, Kelly settled down to try and catch Baldwin, lap 9 and the gap was down to 0.929 seconds. The penultimate lap saw Kelly slowly real in Baldwin, turn 7 and the drag to the finish line, Kelly had exited the last corner perfectly and the car was pulling like a train. Baldwin's rear bumper was there, Kelly slipped out from behind for the last 30 yards for the dash to the line. They crossed the line practically neck and neck, the final result was Baldwin 1st beating Kelly by 0.124 seconds.
Next round, Oulton Park on the 24th September,
Round 10 (The final round) of the 2005 Mini Miglia Championship.
Round 1
Silverstone
Round 2
Brands Hatch
Round 3
Castle Combe
Round 4
Snetterton
Round 5 & 6
Crois-en-ternoix
Round 8 & 9
Rockingham
Non
Championship
Silverstone -
19-03-2005
Silverstone
-
23 / 24-07-2005
