Brandon McCaughan wins GB4’s second Donington Park race

Photo: Mat Acton

KMR Sport’s Brandon McCaughan mastered damp conditions to score his second GB4 victory in race two at Donington Park.

Morning rain necessitated wet-weather tyres for the start, and following two formation laps Fox Motorsport’s Liam McNeilly made a lightning getaway from fourth to snatch the lead into Redgate ahead of McCaughan and team-mate Harry Burgoyne Jr.

Fortec Motorsports’ points leader Linus Granfors and Marcus Luzio were both slow away from the front row and slipped to fourth and fifth ahead of Elite Motorsport’s Finn Harrison, who triggered a collision off the line but recovered to move ahead of Luzio into Old Hairpin.

Harrison jinked left from the third row of the grid and made contact with Arden’s Leon Wilson, who speared across the track and collected Fox Motorsport’s Branden Templeton and Elite’s Alisha Palmowski. Wilson retired on the spot and Templeton was forced to pit with a broken front wing, while Palmowski suffered bent rear-right suspension but continued.

McNeilly pulled out a 1.3-second lead in the early stages but he was eventually reeled in by McCaughan. In the race’s second half McCaughan made the better exit from Redgate to draw alongside through the Craner Curves before completing the move into Old Hairpin, and he pulled away from there to win by 5.566 seconds ahead of McNeilly

Having pulled six seconds clear of Granfors, Burgoyne made a mistake in the closing stages and went off the road at Redgate, rejoining in fifth behind Granfors and Harrison.

Burgoyne reclaimed fourth with a switchback move exiting Goddards, leaving Harrison visibly frustrated after being pushed wide, then reeled in Granfors who put up a great defence in the final two laps but was passed two corners from home. The Swede then only just held off Harrison at the chequered flag for fourth.

Graham Brunton Racing’s Callum Baxter was sixth after fighting his way past Luzio, who eventually slipped to ninth behind KMR’s Chloe Grant and Fortec’s Jack Taylor. Palmowski struggled with a crabbing car throughout, but impressively managed to keep it on the road to salvage 10th. That became ninth post-race when Harrison was disqualified for causing the lap one crash.

Race results (10 laps)