Walking Away: Lewis Gilbert's Donington Ends in a Barrel Roll

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Motorsport is a wonderful, thrilling, occasionally brutal business, and every so often it reminds you in the starkest possible terms why the safety standards in modern touring cars matter so much. Lewis Gilbert's Donington Park weekend will be remembered for one thing, a huge accident in the opening race that pitched his West Surrey Racing BMW into a barrel roll, and the single most important fact about it is that he climbed out and walked away unhurt. Everything else, the wrecked car, the ruined weekend, the results that never came, is just metal and points. Those can be rebuilt and recovered. Drivers cannot, and the fact that this one was absolutely fine is the beginning, middle and end of the story that counts.

Donington hosted Rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the season on the Grand Prix circuit, Gilbert's third BTCC weekend.

The accident

It happened early in Race 1. Gilbert was running at the back of the field, dicing with the vastly more experienced Tom Chilton, when the two made contact on the run down towards the Melbourne hairpin. Right-rear contact is the worst kind at that sort of speed, and it speared the BMW into the inside barrier and launched it into a roll, the car coming to rest on the apex having been comprehensively destroyed in the process. The safety car was scrambled immediately. The stewards looked at the incident afterwards and judged it a racing incident, no blame apportioned and no further action taken, which is the right call for what was, at heart, two cars fighting over track position and one of them getting it slightly wrong at exactly the wrong moment.

Gilbert was, mercifully, absolutely fine. He was out of the car under his own steam and cleared without injury, which given the violence of the accident is a testament both to the young man himself and to the safety engineering that WSR and the championship build into these cars.

A weekend cut short

The BMW, sadly, did not fare so well. The damage was extensive enough that there was no repairing it in time, and Gilbert was a non-starter for the remaining two races, watching from the sidelines as the weekend he had come to build on slipped away. That is a hard thing to swallow in only your third BTCC meeting, when every lap of track time is worth its weight in gold and you have just lost a whole weekend of it.

There was at least a reminder of what the machinery is capable of, with WSR salvaging a podium through Daryl De Leon in the final race, proof that the pace is in the car when it stays out of trouble. For Gilbert, the job now is simple, put the accident behind him, get the rebuilt car underneath him at Croft on 5 and 6 September, and pick up where the learning curve left off.

The team behind him

West Surrey Racing is the most successful team in BTCC history, an 18-time champion outfit run by the legendary Dick Bennetts, and the sort of operation that will have the car rebuilt and race-ready without fuss. There is no better place to be for a young driver learning his trade, and no better group of people to have around you after a weekend like this one.

SuperHub behind the scenes

SuperHub negotiated and placed Lewis's drive with WSR and handles his marketing, content and PR through his debut BTCC campaign, and a weekend like this is a reminder that the job is not only about the good days. When the worst happens and the pictures are dramatic, the work is getting the right message out clearly and calmly, that the driver is safe, that the team is regrouping, and that the story is far from over. Lewis walked away, the car will be rebuilt, and he will be back on the grid at Croft.

Follow Lewis's debut BTCC campaign at lewisgilbertracing.com.

SuperHub places drivers, secures funding and delivers content, PR and sponsor activation across the motorsport paddock, with more than £30 million in motorsport funding and sponsorship raised to date. To talk about a drive, a budget or a campaign, book a call or drop us a line.

Race results sourced from the official BTCC timing partner, TSL Timing, and the official BTCC website.