Round 12 at Donington, Sunday, September 23rd, 2001
An overcast Donington Park GP circuit saw Peter Cate drive in the second of three planned Elf Clio Renaultsport UK Cup races with Mark Fish Motorsport. After a rough ride at the last round at Silverstone, he was looking to score a top result at the Derbyshire track.
The event began well on Friday, with Peter showing he meant business by setting the third fastest time in the first test session. As the day went on, the team made several significant changes to the car as Peter tuned the handling to his driving style. "We made improvements every time we went out, even though we only had one old set of tyres for the whole day!" he said. "We managed to set our quickest time right at the end which was good enough for seventh quickest, but with new rubber in qualifying we'll be in great shape".
Saturday stayed dry but cold, ideal conditions to set good lap times. The Clios were due to qualify mid-afternoon, and after taking a few laps to warm up his tyres, Peter put in a great first flying lap to take fourth spot on the grid. As the session progressed, teams started to fit their allotted two new tyres onto their cars and the lap times started to tumble.
Peter had fallen down the grid as he came into the pits for a tyre change. "I'd decided to run only a few laps on the new tyres tyres in order to preserve them for the race". In those laps he managed to set a 1 minute 48 second lap time that was good enough for seventh on the grid as the chequered flag came out. "We were going quicker every time around as the tyres warmed up; I probably could have done with another lap but seventh is on the inside of the grid and will do us fine."
Race day couldn't come soon enough for the Mark Fish Motorsport team. On Sunday, the No. 9 Clio was ready to go after only a few minor modifications, but during the morning the skies darkened and the threat of rain looked increasingly likely. "Rain could make things interesting," Peter commented. "I usually enjoy racing in the wet as it's a great equaliser, but I've never had the opportunity to drive the Clio in those conditions!"
Fortunately, the race started dry, and as the lights changed, Peter made a blistering start, rocketing by the struggling Tobia Massini and almost passing championship front-runner Martin Byford in Redgates corner. By the high-speed Craner Curves, Peter was already up to fifth! "I learned my starting lesson after Silverstone and really got a flyer, but actually I was trying to be cautious and just make it through the first lap chaos!"
Several cars spun in the midfield, but Peter was long gone with the leaders, streaming down into the Old Hairpin, where disaster struck! "I was giving Byford something to think about into the corner but just ahead of us, Tim Mullen lost it and had a huge slide. Byford went right and I had no choice but to go left, which put me on the grass and by the time I'd rejoined, I was down in seventeenth place..."
The carnage behind caused the safety car to be deployed for three laps whilst the debris was cleared, which gave Peter the chance to close the gap to the front, although of course no overtaking is allowed in that situation until the safety car returns to the pits. "I was following Ingram at that point. His car was smoking badly and chucking out oil which made it pretty treacherous, even at that pace."
Fortunately Ingam pulled of the track and as soon as the safety car withdrew, Peter got the hammer down and made up three places on the next lap! A few passes later, he closed up on Fiesta champion David Gibson, and diving down the inside into the chicane, he took the place with brakes glowing red hot! However, Gibson was able to get the better exit and re-passed our man, before Peter finally made it stick a lap later, forcing Gibson into taking a defensive line and running wide on the exit.
The No. 9 Clio was able to pull away over the next few laps, closing on Simon Clarke, before coming across a recovering Jason Coffin who had spun off at Redgates. Peter managed to slip past under braking into the Old Hairpin, leaving Coffin to defend against Gibson. "I was well clear of their battle and looking to attack Clarke, but Coffin made a real novice's error into the chicane. He just tried to lunge past from miles back and torpedoed me in the door - that was the final nail in the coffin so to speak..."
Although Peter was pushed off the track in the incident, he was able to recover and as a light rain began to fall, he was able to make up several places as the track grew increasingly treacherous. "It was really frustrating to have to basically pass the same cars three times, and all to achieve tenth place at the end. If we'd managed to avoid the Mullen incident we were well in for a top five result. These Clios are great fun to drive but the driving standards of some of these guys leaves a lot to be desired," he said afterwards. The race was won by Jason Templeman, and with Byford spinning off in the difficult conditions, Daniel Buxton now has a significant lead in the championship.
At the time of writing, Coffin was called up to see the Clerk of the Course to explain the chicane incident but regardless of the outcome, the cost of the heavy damage is likely to prevent Peter's team doing the last round at Brands Hatch (near Maidstone), which will be run on 7th October.
