2003 Stock Hatch Round 2, Donington Park

Paul McMillan came to the champ's aid, by offering to lend him his Citroen Saxo for the Stock Hatch race. The rules state that competitors MUST qualify in the car that they intend to race, and being in different qualifying sessions made it possible for McMillan and Scarlett to both use the same car. With McMillan having a prior engagement in Coventry at 6pm (a hockey match or something!), he was forced to ensure himself a place in the 'B' race. Scarlett had no such fear and went into his session all guns blazing, securing pole in the 'A' race in a car he had not driven before!

The 'B' race took place first, and for all his sandbagging, McMillan started in about 7th spot, in the same car that had secured the 'A' race pole. The start was clean, and a couple of drivers were on the move, McMillan from his lowly start was up to 3rd at the end of the first lap, whilst Steve Groom who started 32nd had already passed half the field having started as a reserve at the back. Before long McMillan took the lead, and never looked back. Black and yellow quartered flags slowed the field down at one stage, and this time McMillan saw them, so no endorsement this time, just a comfortable victory.

The A race later in the afternoon saw Gordon Macmillan share the front row with Scarlett, having already replaced a drive shaft that was broken in qualifying. Paul Taylor, despite all his moaning about lack of power from his new 106 Rallye was in the top 10, along with the other Rallyes of Felix and Stokes. As the lights went green, it was Macmillan who stormed ahead, but by the first corner he was already down to 6th, suffering from a misfire. Over the course of the next few laps, he came in and out of the pits twice, finally finding the fault to be a wire coming loose from the distributor. His race then ended 2 laps down on the leaders, parked in the side of the unfortunate Terry Roughton's 205. Meanwhile, Scarlett was untouched, and building a bigger lead with each passing lap, as Felix and Morgan put on an exciting battle for second. The midfield gaggle seemed all too frequently to come through the chicane about 4 abreast, making it far too difficult to see who was actually gaining on who. My old 106 (if I can still call it that now so many parts have been replaced) put in a solid performance, as did the new Taylor 106, just keeping the seasoned Stokes at bay.

So the top moments for me from this weekend are the amusing situation that Paul McMillan now finds himself in. First of all, he will have to throw his excuse book away after his car won so convincingly at the hands of Scarlett, but what is more, he now has to carry 20kg of ballast in his car! Scarlett will of course now be up to 40kg assuming he can build another car to carry it in time for the next race

Finally, the top off-track moment of all, has to be an eight year old girl asking Glenn Stokes for his autograph. In an attempt at false humility, he tried hard to deflect attention onto those around him, but I feel the adulation is warranted. Better get a rope cordon for the next race Glenn to keep the fans back!