Megan Bruce scores top-10 finish at Donington Park

Megan Bruce returned to the top-10 of the GB4 Championship with an encouraging weekend at Donington Park, where she competed comfortably within the midfield and showed good speed in her Fox Motorsport machine in changeable conditions.

Photo credits: JEP/DomGibbons

Megan Bruce returned to the top-10 of the GB4 Championship with an encouraging weekend at Donington Park. Bruce competed comfortably within the midfield as she showed good speed in her Fox Motorsport machine in changeable conditions. After qualifying in 12th, Megan finished race one in 11th, before securing a top-10 result in a wet race two. The reverse grid race three also allowed her to bank vital experience, ending the event with a 14th place result.

Bruce has enjoyed a positive start to her formula car career with Fox Motorsport, scoring two top-10 finishes in the GB4 Championship across the first five races. Finishing all of her races to date, this has helped her bank championship points to enable her to sit 13th in the overall standings. Looking to add to her tally of top-10 results to date, the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit would be the next challenge for Megan in her debut season of single seater competition.

Taking full advantage of the three initial test session on Thursday, it was an encouraging start for Bruce who set the 12th fastest time at the end of the day, with her fastest lap coming in the final session. Improving further during the three test sessions on Friday, Bruce had found almost one second of lap time improvements to conclude pre-event running in 13th position.

Qualifying took place on Saturday morning and would be the next chance for Bruce to gain extra knowledge of the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit. At the end of the fifteen-minute session, Megan fastest time of a 1:30.319 placed her 12th overall, with her second fastest time also 12th fastest in a competitive grid of GB4 Championship drivers.

Lining up 12th for the opening race of the weekend on Saturday afternoon, Megan made a great start and gained one position on the first lap. Protecting her position from Dan Hickey in the early exchanges, Bruce began to pull out a gap on her rival and began to focus her attentions on the drivers ahead.

On lap six, Bruce set her personal best lap of the race and although Hickey had closed in once more, this lap saw the margin grow to over half a second. The following lap saw Megan made a great move on Branden Templeton to move herself inside the top-10 and ahead of her Fox Motorsport teammate. Templeton fought back and re-passed Bruce on lap 10, however she kept in close order and this saw Megan take the checkered flag in 11th position.

Photo credits: JEP/DomGibbons

A different challenge was presented to the driver for race two of the weekend with a wet track on Sunday morning. Megan has shown great speed in tricky conditions this season and would be looking to replicate this at Donington Park. Lining up from 12th position, it was a clean start for the Fox Motorsport driver who held her position at the conclusion of lap one. Ahead of Bruce, Dan Hickey had a ten-second time penalty and therefore she was mindful that few risks should be taken in passing the Fortec Motorsport driver.

Nonetheless, Megan’s pace was excellent and this saw her overtake Hickey on lap three while catching the damaged car of Alisha Palmowski. On lap seven, Bruce was able to run side-by-side with Palmowski but was unable to complete the pass and then lost out to Hickey. It was an excellent battle between the drivers and although taking the checkered flag in 12th position, Megan was promoted to 10th position with Hickey’s penalty applied and a disqualification for Finn Harrison.

The final race of the weekend would be the full reverse grid race, with Megan’s qualifying time being comfortably inside the 103% marker to be eligible for the reversal. As a result, she lined up fourth on the grid but holding off the challenge of the more experienced drivers was a challenge.

The Fox Motorsport driver made a good initial start but fell back to seventh at the end of lap one, with Harry Burgoyne making his way past on lap two. Bruce was doing her best to maintain position, however it was a difficult period for the single seater rookie who fell back to 13th at the conclusion of lap four.

Dropping to 15th at the end of lap five after Chloe Grant and Finn Harrison overtook her, Bruce was determined to fight back in the closing stages of the contest. The end of race three was then curtailed after Grant found the gravel trap at McCleans bend, with the race red flagged and not restarted with only a couple of minutes remaining. This resulted in a 14th place finish for Bruce who gained valuable experience by running with the leading drivers in the early stages.

“It was a mixed weekend", Megan commented. "We made pretty good progress on Thursday and Friday and found quite a lot of time compared to when we tested her at Media Day in March, but then we didn’t go any faster in qualifying."

"The starts were pretty good in the dry on Saturday and in the wet Sunday race and in both cases we were in the fight for the top-10 places", she summed up. "Race Three wasn’t the best from me; we lacked a bit of pace from my side and I made a few mistakes, but we know what to do to move forwards for the next one.”

It was nevertheless another productive weekend for Megan who banked vital knowledge while visiting a new track in GB4 Championship machinery. Bruce was able to improve significantly during testing and this resulted in a solid qualifying performance, followed by a return to the top-10.

The Fox Motorsport driver will be aiming for consistent top-10 finishes in the second half of the season, with the drivers now taking a short summer break before returning to Snetterton on the weekend of 13th/14th July.