Paul Sheard takes a place at rain soaked Donington Park.

Bob Marsh - Last modified: 15th Jun 2009

For the first few laps Pauls lap times were all over the place before he settled into the groove and was able to put in his fastest lap on the sixth tour which earned him a place on the third row of the grid.
Interestingly the whole of the first few rows of the grid changed on the last lap of the session and left Matt Robinson on the front row alongside Tom Roche.
Justin Newnam had a superb qualifying session to start on the fourth row with a steady drive from James Maxfield back in twenty seventh place on the grid.
The early qualifying on Saturday left the rest of the day to get the cars ready for the two races the following day
Grid:
1 Tom Roche 1:41.340
2 Matt Robinson 1:42.308
3 Jonathan Greensmith 1:42.376
5 Paul Sheard 1:43.132
7 Justin Newnam 1:43.407
27 James Maxfield 1:48.766

Race 1:
Following very heavy rain during the two hours before the race the circuit was very wet and was obviously going to favour championship leader Tom Roche.
As the cars assembled the rain got heavier and when called to the grid the rain showed no signs of easing.
As the lights went out a brilliant start by Jonathan Greensmith left Tom standing and Jonathan led into the first corner, Paul from the third row was up in to second with Tom along side.
As the thirty five cars rounded Redgate it was a credit to them all that there was no contact due to the conditions.
All throughout the first lap Jonathan was pulling away and Paul and Tom could hardly be separated but eventually by the end of the lap Paul was established in second place.
At the end of the second lap Jonathan was an incredible four seconds ahead of Paul followed by Tom and Rob Boston.
At the start of lap three Tom pulled alongside Paul going into Redgate but Paul held the line and the advantage but by the end of the lap just 0.1 sec separated them and again Tom had another attempt to pass at Redgate but failed again, however, by the end of lap four he had managed to get in front of Paul and led him by over a second.
The next challenge for Tom was to claw back the four second advantage Jonathan had over him.
As the laps now passed by and again the rain got worse the gap between third and second was getting bigger and bigger, Paul had now settled for third and saving the car.
Further back Justin Newnam was being Mr. Consistent back in ninth position putting in similar timed laps without really challenging Andy Cakebread in eighth place. Andy did make an error on lap nine to allow Justin through into eight but he again relinquished his position and dropped back.
James Maxfield was also having a steady race towards the back of the field but not liking the conditions.
The final lap saw Jonathan Greensmith hold off Tom for his fourth consecutive win and close the gap at the top of the Championship with Paul in third place.
Results:
1 Jonathan Greensmith 23.56.108
2 Tom Roche 23:57.262
3 Paul Sheard 24:13.235
10 Justin Newnam 24:30.481
28 James Maxfield 1 lap behind

Fastest Lap: Tom Roche 1:40.126

Race 2:
The second race of the weekend was postponed due to the heavy rain making the circuit unsafe, this race will now be carried forward to later in the season.
The next round of the Ma5da MX5 Championship will be at Anglesey over the weekend of June 27/28.