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Race Reports For The 2005 Season.
Round 2 
Donington Park National, Sunday April 24th, 12 Laps

Webb holds off Payne and Osborne to make it two out of two.

Another faultless drive from defending champion Barry Webb at Donington Park, kept his title chase on track with another well taken victory.

Although there six absentees from the previous week's race at Silverstone, five seasonal debutants made it a 22 car line-up for qualifying. Mike Evans put his Mallock Mk20 on pole with a stunning lap, 0.5s inside Alex Osborne's lap record. "The car started to get slower as the session went on and I found the brakes were sticking," he explained. Barry Webb had a "good practice on a clear track" to complete the front row in his Mk23/03, while Alex Osborne's Mk30 PR headed the second row, despite a spin at the Old Hairpin. "The car was very twitchy down there," he said.

Peter Richings and Howard Payne made it a top five covered by 0.954 seconds, while Jamie Champkin's Phantom completed the top six, after some set-up changes instigated by Paul Freeman. Freeman's Ardmore was next up, "I don't know here as well as Silverstone though," said Paul. Ian Crombie was just hoping to go home without more gravel for his driveway, qualifying eighth, with Bjarne Mumm and Vaughan Thomas completing the top ten.

A fine and fairly sunny afternoon for the race saw all 22 cars survive to line up on the grid. Once again it was Webb who made the best of the start, to head Evans into Redgate. But Evans kept the pressure on and retook at McLeans, before Webb went by again under the Dunlop Bridge. Payne followed through into second, with Evans, Richings, Champkin, Osborne in close formation.

As Osborne came through the chicane on the second lap, Champkin caught the rear of the lap record holder's car and the whole of the front bodywork lifted and covered the cockpit. Fortunately he was able to steer onto the grass to retire safely.

Webb started to stretch the field on the fourth lap and created a four-car break. Evans struggled to keep pace with the lead duo and as a result had Osborne reeling him in. But after a slight mistake had allowed Crombie to challenge, Osborne held a tight inside line exiting the chicane and they touched, with Crombie spinning down the order.

Richings had fallen behind Osborne on the fourth lap, but after the clash with Crombie, Richings, Mumm and Freeman started to form a queue to challenge.

Webb had a slight concern when Payne closed in to challenge during lappery, "he got a run on me out of Coppice," he said. But the response was swift and although Payne stayed close, Webb claimed win number two by 0.606s. "Even on the warm-up lap the steering felt good and I knew it was going to work," said Payne.

With Evans pitting after losing power again. Osborne consolidated his hold on third in the closing laps, "it felt much better but took a while to good," he explained. Mumm had seemed set for fifth behind Richings, but a late spin at the Old Hairpin dropped him behind Freeman. "I tried to take it flat and it didn't work," said Mumm. Marcus Bicknell lost seventh to Tony Pouyanne's Phantom after a "big slide" at Redgate on lap 10, but was still comfortably clear of Arthur Dickens and Brendan Herd, who rounded off the top 10.