Not A Short Wait For Ben As MX-5 Cup Title Goes To The Wire

The MX-5 Cup was the last of five 750 Motor Club championships to be decided at Donington Park.

Despite winning 15 of the 18 Mazda races he started, including Saturday’s stonker, Ben Short only defeated arch-rival Ali Bray in the 21st of the season to repeat his 2015 success after a Sunday afternoon crisis.

When Short dived inside a gaggle of lapped competitors at McLeans, looked left and saw Bray still alongside, having gone the long way around, only a faster chicane exit won the opening sprint to the line by a bonnet. Birthday boy Bray retaliated with victory on Sunday – having been reinstated after he was initially excluded for minor contact – but retired from the finale while lying sixth, when Short was utterly uncatchable.

Adam Shepherd was crowned M3 Cup champion, thus he was unconcerned when Carl Shield beat him on Saturday for the win. Shepherd abstained from the soggy finale, preferring to watch Locost ace Tom Coller land a superb maiden win over Paul Cook – whose engine had thrown its crank pulley in race one – and Scot John Brown. Lewis Carter’s 330 Challenge double rewarded the A1 team for three weeks of toil repairing damage sustained at Rockingham.

Ben Miloudi led the Formula Vee title race into its final double-header, but his old buddy Irishman Adam Macaulay, the only rival who could deny him, claimed pole. Macaulay survived excursions in Sunday’s dreary race, which Miloudi finished a conservative third, four places ahead.

Ian Jordan (Sheane Jordan) was jubilant at a long overdue victory, his lunge past Craig Pollard (GAC) timed to perfection. Behind them, the GACs of Martin Farmer and Ian Buxton clattered off at Redgate, thus the chequer flew unexpectedly early.

“This is down to my dad [ex-racer Dave] who prepares the car; I just drive it,” grinned Jordan, inspired by his chassis’ sure-footedness down the Craner Curves.