Oscar Joyce’s on-track misfortune tempered by strong fundraising effort at Donington Park

Oscar Joyce was mired by misfortune in the opening round of the 2024 Hagerty Radical Cup UK at Donington Park (27-28 April), but his on-track fate was contrasted by the overwhelmingly positive response to Apex Doodles’ fundraising campaign.

The Richmond, London driver’s races were severely compromised by other’s incidents and the brace of P7 finishes he took away from the East Midlands were not reflective of his true pace and potential.

However, Apex Doodles’ efforts to raise funds for inner-city charities, including Stockwell Hall of Fame and Dwaynamics ABC, gathered a great deal of momentum over the course of the weekend.

Oscar said:
 

The 2024 Hagerty Radical Cup UK curtain-raiser at Donington Park was pretty frustrating, my podium potential going unfulfilled through no fault of my own.

In Qualifying, my first priority was to set a banker lap in case the session was disrupted by incidents and red flags, which it was, and I laid down a few decent times to be the third-fastest SR3 contender.

I felt it would be critical to make the most of my starting position. but the polesitter had a slow launch and, boxed in, I lost track position to the #23 360 Competition of Jason Rishover as the pack surged towards Redgate corner.

I emerged from a busy opening lap in fourth overall, staying hot on the heels of the #82 Valour Racing of Kristian Brookes until I was blocked by a lapped car at the final chicane.

Five-wide along the start/finish straight, a small lock-up that sent me wide at Redgate resulted in a loss of three positions, and I was left disappointed in a distant seventh at the chequered flag.

It was by no means the outcome we wanted, but it was really encouraging to see that we had the pace to fight at the very front, with an opportunity to achieve more representative results on Sunday.

However, we awoke to torrential conditions and, while I was interested to see how we would fare in the wet, race officials had no option but to delay all track action, including the headlining Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship races.

It’s fair to say, DW Racing made the best of the downtime; it was great to interact with the fans who toughed out the conditions, handing out signed hero cards, showing them around the cars, and providing hospitality and shelter from the rain.

However, it was also the perfect opportunity to highlight Apex Doodles’ fundraising efforts for Stockwell Hall of Fame and Dwaynamics ABC, satisfying fans’ curiosity by talking them through the programme while graffiti artist Boyd Hill – aka Solo One – created brand new designs in front of their very eyes.

Race helmets and car parts were spraypainted as planned, but we were shocked when, inspired by what he saw, a BTCC fan by the name of Clive requested a bespoke livery for his mobility scooter!

It was unbelievable, and it symbolised the enthusiastic response to my car livery and helmet designs, which had been conceived by Solo One, OG Mear and D_a_n_e_ism at Stockwell Hall of Fame earlier in April.

While entries to the Apex Doodles raffle to win one of the graffitied helmets or car parts flooded in, the rain eventually eased up and the Radical Cup UK field got to race once as part of a seriously condensed programme.

The starting order for race two was determined by drivers’ second-fastest qualifying times, therefore I shared row four of the grid with my DW Racing teammate, Peter Tyler.

I got a good start and made headway from seventh to sixth, but my race unravelled when a car span in front of me later around the opening lap at the Old Hairpin, forcing me to take to the grass in avoidance of a collision.

The incident sent me tumbling to the outskirts of the top ten and, while the Safety Car brought the pack together, there was little I could do to recover track position in the remaining laps with an unstable rear-end.

It’s frustrating to have left Donington Park having not had an opportunity to unleash my true pace and potential, but our speed is promising for the remainder of the 2024 season.

There’s no doubt that DW Racing and I are among the fastest team-driver combinations out there when we string everything together and I know we will be in the hunt for podiums or maybe even race wins if things go our way.

So we’ll go again at Snetterton later this month (25-26 May), and I’m already itching to get rolling.