MINI CHALLENGE UK - Ronan Pearson storms to success at Donington Park

Cobra Sport brand ambassador, Ronan Pearson, enjoyed a fine start to his 2022 Quaife MINI CHALLENGE campaign with a maiden victory in the series during the Donington Park season-opener.

Cobra Sport's brand ambassador from Kelty headed for the East Midlands circuit looking to impress in his first weekend of the season.

Ronan showed solid pace in pre-event testing to lap inside the top eight in both sessions on track although a tricky qualifying session left him with work to do from eleventh on the grid for race one.

Although he would slip back a spot in the early stages of race one, Ronan soon got into his stride and battled his way up to sixth place by the finish, reaping the rewards of the work carried out by the team to improve the car before the start.

With confidence on a high, the Cobra Sport backed driver headed into race two looking to make up further ground and would retain sixth in the early stages, which included three laps behind the safety car to allow two stricken cars to be recovered.

Running in a train of cars, Ronan produced an opportunistic overtake at the chicane to briefly rocket up to third spot although Jack Mitchell would nip ahead to prevent him from taking a podium finish.

Ronan more than made amends in race three however, where he would start from third on the reverse grid.

Running third at the end of the opening lap, Ronan launched a bid for the lead around the outside of team-mates Dan Zelos and Jason Lockwood going into turn one and managed to pass the pair in one go to take the lead.

Even when the safety car was called out to eradicate his lead, Ronan made the perfect restart to maintain his advantage and controlled things from the front to take his first victory in the series and secure second place in the early season standings.

"It’s been such a hard road to get this stage and I’m delighted to make it onto the top step of the podium," he said. "It’s such an emotional moment and I’m so proud of how I drove in that final race to get the win.

"Going into that race, the aim was to try and get a 1-2-3 finish for the team and when there was the chance to go for the lead, I wasn’t going to turn it down! I cannot thank my sponsors and team enough."

"This shows how important it is that you don’t let your head drop because it would have been easy to get deflated after qualifying when we were lower than we should have been on the grid. Coming through to P6 in race one really set up what was to follow and putting my lucky pants on for Sunday seemed to do the job!

"This gives me good momentum to now take to Brands Hatch and although it is early days. it shows that the title battle is very much on."

Keep an eye on Ronan's social media channels throughout the year for updates on his Cobra Sport brand promotions - Facebook - Ronan Pearson Racing >