The Civic Cup – Rounds 11, 12 & 13
Donington Park – 8th & 9th August 2026

A Civic Cup triple-header at Donington Park brought more twists and turns in this year’s incredibly close championship race.

Dave Marshall strengthened his title bid as he became the first driver to win three times this season. A trio of hugely entertaining races among a huge grid of closely matched cars also brought a maiden victory for Sean McGovern and a second success for Matt Wilkins, thrusting them both firmly into title contention.

Qualifying

Sean McGovern went one better than last time out at Snetterton by scorching to a maiden pole position. A late improvement from the Area Motorsport driver extended his advantage to a comparatively large 0.19 seconds as the rest of the top 15 were covered by just half a second – such is the incredible competitiveness of Civic Cup.

Josh Bromley (Bromley Motorsport) also recorded his best qualifying position of second. McGovern and Bromley bucked the trend as two of the few to improve in the second half of the session as a number of drivers found themselves pushing a little too hard in search of those elusive last fractions of a second.

Form man Dave Marshall (DMR with KA Car Sales) was best of those driving the alternative FN2 model in third, with Matt Wilkins (Motion Motorsport) fourth.

Wilf Butler (Ben Sharpe Racing) managed an impressive fifth despite carrying 30kg of success ballast. Wesley Swain (Area Motorsport) completed the top six, just two tenths slower than second qualifier Bromley.

Spencer Stevenson (BSR) was seventh quickest and would be joined on row four by Motion Motorsport’s Joe Dalgarno who achieved his best Civic Cup qualifying position to date.

Championship leader Jake Hewlett (Mill Street Motors) could be satisfied with ninth on the grid, given that he was carrying 20kg of ballast and running a spare car. His primary motor was out of service with engine problems and he’d had limited running in the backup after breaking a windscreen in testing.

BSR trio Aidan Mitchell, Freddie Ingram and Jake Renshaw completed the top 12. They edged out Alistair Camp (Area Motorsport), equal second in the championship coming into the event, whose session was truncated after stripping fourth gear.

Drivers’ second best times in the session would set the grid for the weekend’s third race. Considering how closely matched the field was, there was surprisingly little reshuffling of the order. McGovern again headed the field, earning him a double pole, with Marshall improving to second and Bromley dropping to third.

Swain and Hewlett swapped positions to ninth and sixth, and Renshaw squeezed into the top 10. Ingram and Camp were among the biggest losers, with Ingram dropping to 20th and Camp slipping all the way to 26th due to his lack of laps.

DONINGTON PARK QUALIFYING RESULT

Round 11 – Race Report

The weekend’s first race took place at the end of Saturday. McGovern converted pole position into the race lead as Bromley had to focus on fending off Marshall into the first corner at Redgate.

But by the time the field reached the double apex right-hander at Coppice little more than a mile later, Bromley was on the attack. The local man’s challenge didn’t succeed and that opened him up to both Marshall and Wilkins getting a run down the Exhibition Straight and into the Roberts chicane.

Wilkins snatched second in a fine double move, with Marshall slotting into third. Bromley was back on the offensive on the next tour, getting inside Marshall to retake third at McLeans. It then all went wrong for the usurped north-easterner whose FN2 slewed sideways under braking for the chicane, allowing a train of cars to come past and demote him all the way back to 12th.

With the battling behind, Wilkins was able to get his head down and latch onto McGovern, exerting pressure on the leader. Just before half-distance, having set what was then the race’s fastest lap, Wilkins forced McGovern onto the defensive approaching Redgate. Inexperienced on the circuit, the Irishman braked a fraction too late, and Wilkins was able to cut back and grab the lead.

The Motion Motorsport man didn’t look back from there. And although McGovern kept him under pressure, Wilkins held firm to take his second win of the season. It went some way towards making up for a very frustrating weekend at Snetterton, spoilt by gearbox failure and an erroneous drivethrough penalty.

McGovern could still be satisfied, if a little disappointed, with second. The result also earned him honours in the Paul Winfield Trophy for rookies and less experienced drivers.

Behind the leading pair, the next four on the road – Bromley, Butler, Swain and Stevenson – all picked up 5s penalties for breaching track limits. That promoted an incredulous Camp to the podium after a fine drive from 13th on the grid. He might have been handed four positions, but the local man’s relentless drive also included a number of fine overtaking moves and he set the fastest lap when he had some clean air.

Bromley, Butler and Swain each only dropped one position, while Stevenson also lost out to team-mate Mitchell and a well-recovered Marshall.

Completing the top 10, having run as high as seventh at one stage, was a terrific result for Ingram, Making the most of running new tyres, it earned him pole position for the following morning’s sequel.

Charlie Constable (BSR) came out on top of a terrific scrap for 11th on the road but lost the position – dropping all the way to 21st – to a false-start penalty. That promoted Charlie Budd (Area Motorsport) to his best Civic Cup result, ahead of Louis Austin (Austin Autosport) and Renshaw.

Goodyear Diamond Award winner – for drivers aged 40 and over – Graham Ross finished 14th on his first outing of the season, with Harry England completing the points places.

After qualifying had gone so well, Dalgarno endured a miserable race, getting shuffled backwards and then ending up in the McLeans gravel. Pre-weekend Hewlett was another non-finisher – a delaminated tyre left him dropping down the order before he called it a day.

DONINGTON PARK RACE ONE RESULT

Round 12 – Race Report

Sunday morning’s race was the always popular reversed-grid encounter. It put Ingram on pole position with Stevenson alongside and Marshall looking like a major threat from the inside of row two.

Marshall made a better start than Ingram but found himself boxed in as Stevenson surged into the lead. But Marshall was quickly back on the offensive and charged around Ingram at the Old Hairpin on lap two of 12 to take second.

From seventh on the grid, local man Bromley made a flying start and grabbed third from Ingram at McLeans, with Mitchell following through shortly afterwards. With Stevenson’s advantage pegged back by his pursuers, the top four broke clear over the next few laps.

On half-distance, Marshall broke the deadlock by diving past Stevenson into Redgate. Bromley was unable to breach Stevenson’s defences for a couple more laps and that gave Marshall the opportunity to fire in some quick laps and build a buffer.

By the time Bromley had made a move stick, Marshall was long gone. He ended up recording his third victory of the season by the unusually large margin of almost 4s.

From sixth on the grid, Wilf Butler initially slipped back to eighth. But a stirring recovery drive included an opportunistic pass of Camp before he further demoted Ingram and latched onto the lead quartet, setting fastest lap in the process. Into the second half of the race, Butler picked off Mitchell, then followed Bromley past Stevenson into third. The teen star’s unsuccessful challenge of Bromley for second briefly allowed Stevenson to get back ahead only for disaster to the BSR man.

Stevenson suddenly slowed having lost all power, a fuse failure found to be the culprit. Having looked set for a top-four finish at minimum, the Kettering driver was facing a non-score, a major blow to his championship challenge.

So Bromley and Butler, the PWT winner, completed the podium although they were almost caught by fourth-placed Louis Austin who climbed impressively from 12th on the grid.

Even Austin’s drive was eclipsed by Hewlett who, after his Saturday retirement, scythed through from 27th on the grid to fifth at the chequered flag. But it would count for nought when he was disqualified for not running the required restrictor on his engine.

Hewlett’s removal promoted Mitchell back up to fifth after the BSR driver had lost ground with a lack of brakes. He finished ahead of Camp, McGovern and Wilkins who were all laden with ballast from their previous day’s podium finishes.

Camp and McGovern were separated by Ingram on the road but he was hit by a 5s track-limits penalty which dropped to 10th, behind non-scoring guest driver Luke Sargeant (Area Motorsport) in the final classification. The same fate befell Swain who was just ahead of Sargeant on the road but dropped to 15th.

England, Budd, Jamie Petters and Charlie Constable all benefited. With Ross a non-starter, GDA honours went to Mark Hughes.

DONINGTON PAR RACE TWO RESULT

Round 13 – Race Report

Back on pole position and ballast-free for the weekend finale, McGovern led the race from start to finish to secure his maiden Civic Cup victory.

It was a stylish performance from the Irishman who was able to build a gap and then manage his tyres and take care not to commit any track limits offences which, realistically, would be the only way he could be denied. The win lifts him to third in the championship standings, while concurrent PWT success puts him second overall in that sub-category, just four points off the summit.

From second and third on the grid, Marshall and Bromley were laden with 40kg and 30kg, respectively, for their podium finishes earlier in the day. Unsurprisingly, that blunted their challenge for victory. Nor were either able to keep Wilkins behind, the Motion Motorsport driver picking them off on successive laps to take second.

Hewlett was also on another charge from sixth on the grid. The privateer reached third within four laps and then set about catching Wilkins. Having closed up, Hewlett got a run out of Coppice in the second half of the race to grab second. There was no catching McGovern, though, and Hewlett would also be denied his second place as he faced an identical disqualification to the earlier race.

So Wilkins was promoted back to second, although he had to fight for it after Marshall came back at him in the closing stages. The pair went side by side through the fearsome Craner Curves, with Wilkins prevailing.

Bromley crossed the line behind Marshall but was hit with a late track-limits penalty which demoted him to eighth in the classification.

BSR pair Mitchell and Renshaw were promoted to fourth and fifth, with Swain sixth. Budd achieved another new personal best in the Civic Cup with seventh.

Behind Bromley, Austin and Camp completed the top 10, the latter having climbed from row 13 on the grid while choosing not to take too many risks, in the knowledge that he already had a ninth-place dropped score from Thruxton in the bank.

Another track-limits penalty dropped Ingram behind Sargeant to 12th. Ben Bateman recorded his best finish since Thruxton in May with 13th, with Will Butt, Jamie Petters and Dalgarno completing the points-paying positions. Hughes took the GDA laurels once again.

Among those with tales of woe were Butler, Stevenson and Daniel Petters – three drivers with championship aspirations. Butler suffered brake failure which fired him off at McLeans on the opening lap while Stevenson lost fourth gear; the pair limped home at the rear of the field.

After the euphoria of recording his maiden win at Snetterton, Petters experienced the opposite emotions with a desperately difficult weekend at Donington. Initially hampered by success ballast, he then twice suffered a holed radiator. The cause of his final-race retirement was suspected to be head-gasket failure as a result of the previous overheating.

DONINGTON PAR RACE THREE RESULT

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS AFTER DONINGTON PARK RESULTS

Driver Quotes

Round 11 winner, Matt Wilkins

“I was up for a podium – that was my plan. The window opened into the Roberts chicane and I had to take it – luckily Dave Marshall let me through!

“I know this [car] is good over a race distance here in the heat so I was hoping it would come to me and it did. After Snetterton, not getting that win, it makes up for that a little bit.”

Round 12 winner, Dave Marshall

“That was just great. The car felt unbelievable. We had a bit of brake issue literally three minutes before we came out but we rectified it and it was mint.

“Whether it’s a championship battle or not, you want to win, don’t you? I just managed to get Stevenson and then got my head down, turned the mirror, ‘crack on’.”

Round 13 winner, Sean McGovern

“I got a good gap and then I was [called for] track limits about half-way through so I had to keep it steady all the way. There were a few moments I had to lift off but I kept the lead.

“I’m delighted with that. Thanks to the sponsors, JOLT, and my team, Area Motorsport.”

Next time – Oulton Park awaits following the well-earned Summer Break