The national motorsport season kicked into gear last weekend at Donington Park, with the British Automobile Racing Club’s first meeting of 2026.
In an event based largely around tin-tops, there was still plenty of variety. A number of unusual cars caught the eye among standout performances on track.
Unusual car: Dallara EXP
Top single-seater chassis manufacturer Dallara also has significant sportscar heritage, having been assisting major manufacturers’ Le Mans programmes for over 40 years.
In the past decade, the company launched its first road car. The Stradale was followed by a track version named EXP, which made its UK debut on Saturday in the Britcar Endurance Championship.
Weighing just 850kg, the standard EXP produces around 500bhp from its 2.3-litre Ford EcoBoost powerplant. Combined with aerodynamics that generate up to 1270kg of downforce, it makes for a potent machine – even on relatively skinny wheels.
“Anything above third gear, it feels like an LMP3; anything below third gear, it feels like a GT car,” reckoned driver Jamie Falvey. “First and middle sector, you’re just basically holding on! The aero on it is incredible.”
Despite the headline figures being tweaked to fit Britcar’s Challenge class regulations and limited running on the championship’s Goodyear rubber, Falvey demonstrated the Dallara’s potential. Among a race order jumbled by lengthy safety-car periods, he set fastest lap at a shade under 100mph before new-car gremlins struck.
“Goodyear and Britcar particularly have been absolutely awesome getting us to this stage,” he said. “Because it’s never been seen before, they had to go through it from the ground up to make sure we were legal, make sure the power was right for the weight.
“We’re just trying to showcase this as the competition track-only variant [of the Stradale]. It could race in GT Cup, it could race here [in Britcar], it could do different ‘run-what-you-brung’ championships. It’s a good bit of kit, good fun.”
Star tin-top: Ford Fiesta XR2
Brown has developed a highly-modified XR2 but is yet to realise its true potential
Photo by: Steve Jones
One-time Blue Oval Saloons Series champion Chris Brown’s Ford Fiesta XR2 is no standard 1980s hot hatch.
Having won the BOSS title in 2017, Kent racer Brown knew he wanted to take the car to another level – and didn’t hold back. The result is a bewinged monster hiding a two-litre Duratec motor under its bulging bonnet.
“I put the Duratec conversion in it for 2022 and used that as a test year to see what worked, if it tore the car apart or what,” explained Brown. “It broke a driveshaft but, other than that, everything else worked well.
“But it was never quite the vision I had in my head so now I’ve got the wide arches on it, the aero, front splitter, rear spoiler… it’s kind of close to the end vision I had many years ago.”
The aggressive body kit was shaped by Hughes Bodyworks in Ashford, Brown fabricating the fibreglass wheel arches himself. BYC’s universal rear wing sits on Brown’s own mounts.
Mechanically, the Duratec delivers power through a Ford IB5 gearbox (as used on its ST models), albeit with Quaife straight-cut internals, Tilton clutch and Gripper plated differential. And with freer BOSS tyre regulations, Brown can now run slicks on the Fiesta’s 15-inch rims in those wide arches.
Brown finished second in class in Sunday’s race, going two seconds quicker than in qualifying – despite running splitter-less after breaking a mount. It’s clear that this is only the beginning of extracting the full potential from his creation.
Superstar machine: Mercedes C63
Wilson’s ex-Superstars car roared but it wasn’t a successful weekend for him
Photo by: Steve Jones
The 6.2-litre V8 in Andy Wilson’s Mercedes C63 offers an appropriate soundtrack for a car entered in the Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s Classic Thunder category.
With 575bhp and nearly 500lb-ft of torque running through a six-speed sequential gearbox, it’s a beast that takes some taming.
Wilson was making his second appearance aboard the 2010 car built for the pan-European Superstars category, which visited Donington in period. The Yorkshireman sourced it from Holland, where it had stood for years following Henk Vuik’s few Dutch Supercars outings after the Superstars series folded in 2014.
Wilson’s car was one of six built in Italy by Romeo Ferraris with support from Mercedes’ crack AMG outfit. The team included Johnny Herbert among its 2011 driver line-up and the three-time grand prix winner placed sixth in the standings, his best results being a pair of second places at Donington and Misano.
Sadly, Wilson is yet to reach such heights. A propshaft failure on debut at Silverstone last autumn caused significant damage and left preparer Phil Seaman with plenty of winter work.
Gremlins in the water pump restricted Wilson’s running in qualifying at Donington and left him out of position on the busy grid, also featuring BOSS entries, Pre-’93 and Pre-’03 Touring Cars. He tangled with Kevin Willis’s BMW M3 at the rolling start, which resulted in Ross Craig having his Honda Civic fired into the pitwall.
Damage prevented Wilson from starting on Sunday but he will carry a five-place grid penalty into his next race.
Best races: MG Owners’ Club Championship
Addison and McDermid had terrific scrap at the head of packed MGOC field
Photo by: Steve Jones
“The last two laps were probably the best two laps of my racing life,” beamed veteran Robb Addison after winning the second of two pulsating MG Owners’ Club contests. “What a race!”
His victory denied a double for class champion Jake McDermid, who came from behind to take the opener.
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Scott Bugner pounced on polesitter Jack Woodcock to lead the first half of Sunday’s midday thrash while a boxed-in McDermid slipped to fifth. But McDermid picked off Lee Pearce and Matt Harvey, pulling Addison with him, before benefiting from Woodcock’s Old Hairpin excursion to take second.
He then latched on to Bugner and dived ahead at Fogarty’s Esses before a safety-car period led to a one-lap shootout. As McDermid defended, Bugner’s late lunge into Melbourne precipitated contact and both cars ran wide. Addison pounced to steal second as McDermid scrambled to victory. “I pulled the handbrake up, turned the wheel, even did a little drift!” laughed McDermid.
Bugner (engine) and Woodcock (suspension mounting) were rematch casualties, replaced by James Cole, who’d earlier been thwarted by a broken throttle cable.
Addison showed style to round McDermid for the lead at Melbourne but was knocked sideways by his rival’s final-lap retaliation into Old Hairpin. McDermid sportingly backed off, gifting Cole the chance to make it three wide past Starkey’s Bridge.
McDermid emerged in front, but Addison wasn’t done. He dived past at Melbourne and almost brought Cole with him as the top four ZRs, completed by Connor Lawson, were covered by barely a second.
Star performer: Andy Hack’s Mini
Hack’s Mini was mighty in second Pre-’66 Touring Car contest
Photo by: Steve Jones
From row 12 of the grid to a seventh-place finish – third in class – in a 15-minute race was some performance by long-time Mini racer Andy Hack in Sunday’s Pre-’66 Touring Car contest.
The three-time Mini Miglia champion did well just to reach Donington given the conflict in the region surrounding his Oman base.
After being sidelined by engine problems on Saturday, Hack had reached 10th within a lap the next day before picking off a couple more class rivals.
Hack even outshone fellow Mini man Barry Sime, the reigning class champion, who started alongside him and rose to ninth after retiring on Saturday.
Ahead of the Minis, Piers Grange’s Ford Falcon and Simon Gusterson’s Cortina battled for the outright wins
Photo by: Steve Jones
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– The Autosport.com Team
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