This weekend saw the final round of the Hagarty Radical Cup UK at a sunny Donington Park. Having lead the championship all season, Theo went into the final round with a 154 points lead, and only needing to score 8 more points to clinch the SR1 title.
Going into Qualifying on Saturday, Theo had been fastest for the previous day’s practice sessions so it was all about going for pole position and the extra point that comes with it. He managed to set a blistering first couple of laps which put him on provisional pole at the start of the session. As gravel and dirt got dragged onto the track by other cars during the session, the track got slower and slower without many people improving. This meant that Theo claimed pole position by 3 tenths which gave him an extra point and put himself at the front for Race 1.
In Race 1 on Saturday afternoon, all Theo had to do was start the race to win the championship. However, he still went all out to try and take the race win along with it. He held the lead at the start before a safety car was brought out due to a collision. When the safety car came in, Theo went all out and created an 11 second gap to P2 before another safety car brought everyone onto the back of him again. With only a lap or so left to go, Theo made another great restart to take the win (and another fastest lap to his tally), scoring maximum points and the championship a day early!
Sunday started a very different day with heavily overcast skies, but the rain was holding off for Race 2 at lunchtime. With the championship in the bag and no pressure, Theo was in the lead at the start and started again to pull a gap to P2 before being compromised by a faster SR3 car which had rejoined the track following an incident. This allowed the rest of the pack to catch up, and P2 took advantage of the situation to get past.
This dropped Theo to P3 after going 3-wide through the Craner Curves alongside the two people fighting for second in the championship. After watching them fight for a bit, Theo made his move for P2 to promote himself back up a position and with a couple seconds gap to catch up to the leader, Theo was on a charge setting another fastest lap along the way. He caught up to the back of the leader just as the checkered flag came out to give him a 2nd place.
Race 3 was late afternoon, by which time the weather had turned and the rain was pelting down. Not only was the track wet and visibility terrible, but this was the pit stop race, where Theo had to carry a 15 second success penalty after the previous round – meaning stopping 15 seconds longer than most of the field.
After a lengthy safety car period at the start, Theo was left with very little time to try and make up the time to overcome the success penalty. After several minutes the race finally got underway just as the mandatory pitstop window opened. With a great in and out lap, as well as a well-timed pitstop by his crew, Theo emerged in 3rd having considerably narrowed the 10s gap to his nearest rival. With limited visibility and pouring rain Theo still had it all to do. Wanting to end the season on a win, he knew he had to pull something out of the bag. He quickly overtook the car in 2nd and then gradually reeled in the leader to set it up for a nail-biting duel for the win in the last few laps. On the penultimate lap he made his move into the Melbourne hairpin. Side-by-side down the short straight to Goddard’s, Theo held his own and emerged in the lead to start the final lap. He stroked it home for one final lap to take another incredible win, finishing off the season just like he started the year.
Amazing to end his debut season in cars a tally of 9x Wins, 4 Pole Positions, 15 x Fastest Laps, 3 Lap Records, 17 Podiums and 2 championships! What a year!
Theo Micouris: “This was a perfect end to an unbelievable season… It was amazing to end the season with a double win for Raw Motorsports and Hart GT with teammate Tommi Gore taking the SR3 win as well! Thanks to Ian and Luisa at Wera Tools, to Pete Osborne at Motorbase, and the Motorsport UK Academy as well as everyone else who was involved with making this such an incredible year! I couldn’t have done this without you all, so thank you all so much!”
