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#### **Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, Japan**
Leroy Donald has become the first division champion in this years *OLR x VSR Midweek Championship* after a fantastic night race at the **Suzuka International Racing Course**, Donald claims this seasons *Silver Division Championship* title ahead of the final round coming August 12th, 2026 at the **Misano World Circuit.**
The penultimate round of the *OLR x VSR Midweek Championship* came to a close on Wednesday night in extraordinary fashion, with maiden wins in the *Platinum* and *Gold Division* for Lee Evans and Jaden Johnson-Ward, the night started off with a strong performance in Free Practice for Leroy Donald, who would place his #14 Porsche 911 992 GT3R on the fastest time of practice, when Qualifying began, it was an early command of division pole for Donald, but an outright pole position would be contested between 4 drivers including Donald himself; Lee Evans, Carlos Diesch and Alan Alexander would contest pole position for Round 7 but in the closing minutes of the session, Diesch and Alexander would withdraw to a back of the field start, this has been in line with a psuedo-gentleman's agreement between 4 drivers, including Diesch and Alexander, but also Kieran Rodd and Jon Odriscoll of this series' *Platinum Division*, as part of a collective known colloquially on TRTN as the *"Back Row Bandits"*, Evans would claim pole position overall and in Platinum by the end of the session.
#### QUALIFYING SUMMARY:
Platinum Pole: Lee EVANS - Lamborghini - 02:00.082*
Gold Pole: Chris DAVIES - McLaren - 02:00.672
Silver Pole: Leroy DONALD - Porsche - 02:00.107
Bronze Pole: Callum TURNER - McLaren - 02:01.575
* *Fastest overall*
As 18 drivers geared up for a 75 minute night race, tension across all 4 divisions could be felt on the formation lap, with the championship leaders of Platinum and Bronze absent from the field for Round 7 , opportunity for a new leader was on the minds of all in both divisions. Alan Alexander had a sizeable chance to overtake the Platinum Division Lead in Wednesday's race, but his efforts would be confounded before the race even started, as his #315 Bentley Continental was relegated to a pit lane start for reasons unknown.
As the lights went green, trouble soon followed, and despite an impressive start to keep pace with Evans, Donald, stuck to the outside line for the run into the *First Turn*, would run wide, falling from 2nd to 3rd as Jaden Johnson-Ward would collect on 2 postions for the price of one, having got the jump on Division polesitter and 2-Time VSR Champion Chris Davies, shifting the Barbadian to 2nd.
Behind the fight for the podium, disaster errupted as a collision between Silver competitors Robert Ogun and Sean McNally caused a multi-car pileup at Turn 2, as the smoke cleared, Ogun had fallen down multiple positions and a buffer between the Top 5 and the rest of the field was almost instantly formed.
Further behind, progress was immediately apparent from the *Back Row Bandits*, with their newest member, Carlos Diesch, breaching the top 10 within a single lap. Diesch would go on to charge from 15th at the race start to 2nd by the end of the race, less than 10 seconds from the leading Lamborghini of Lee Evans.
Further on in the race, drama struck as multiple drivers would drop from the race, most poignantly was Chris Davies, 2nd in the Gold Championship and 3rd at the time of his incident, Davies withdrew, but due to technicalities from the back-end management of the series on SimGrid, Davies would not drop from the championship fight, he will be at a significant disadvantage heading to Misano next week.
Evans collected on his first Platinum win of the season at the chequered flag, with Diesch and Alexander joining him on the podium, Jaden Johnson-Ward would collect on their first Gold win, with Leroy Donald securing another win in Silver, one that would be enough to delcare him champion before the season could wrap, numerically he would've needed 38 points of a gap to 2nd by the end of Round 7, Donald left Suzuka with a 71 point gap to McNally in 2nd. Lastly, Callum Turner would secure a win in Bronze, which now places him in the lead of the *Bronze Division* over Ryan Castle ahead of the season finale at Misano.
With tensions simmering in lieu of Round 8 next week, the fight rages on for the remaining titles in Platinum, Gold and Bronze.
Action from the OLR x VSR Midweek Championship can be found on both the TRTN YouTube Channel and LIVE exclusively through the TRTN Twitch Channel, of which you can find on both the XCL Website and Twitch.
OLR x VSR: DONALD CLAIMS SILVER CHAMPIONSHIP IN SUZUKA
Leroy Donald, competing in the Silver Division, becomes the first driver to claim a drivers championship title in the OLR x VSR Midweek Championship in last night's race in Suzuka
PUBLISHED BY TRTN
REGAN MK
·
07 August 2026, 13:32
Leroy Donald has become the first division champion in this years *OLR x VSR Midweek Championship* after a fantastic night race at the **Suzuka International Racing Course**, Donald claims this seasons *Silver Division Championship* title ahead of the final round coming August 12th, 2026 at the **Misano World Circuit.**
The penultimate round of the *OLR x VSR Midweek Championship* came to a close on Wednesday night in extraordinary fashion, with maiden wins in the *Platinum* and *Gold Division* for Lee Evans and Jaden Johnson-Ward, the night started off with a strong performance in Free Practice for Leroy Donald, who would place his #14 Porsche 911 992 GT3R on the fastest time of practice, when Qualifying began, it was an early command of division pole for Donald, but an outright pole position would be contested between 4 drivers including Donald himself; Lee Evans, Carlos Diesch and Alan Alexander would contest pole position for Round 7 but in the closing minutes of the session, Diesch and Alexander would withdraw to a back of the field start, this has been in line with a psuedo-gentleman's agreement between 4 drivers, including Diesch and Alexander, but also Kieran Rodd and Jon Odriscoll of this series' *Platinum Division*, as part of a collective known colloquially on TRTN as the *"Back Row Bandits"*, Evans would claim pole position overall and in Platinum by the end of the session.
#### QUALIFYING SUMMARY:
Platinum Pole: Lee EVANS - Lamborghini - 02:00.082*
Gold Pole: Chris DAVIES - McLaren - 02:00.672
Silver Pole: Leroy DONALD - Porsche - 02:00.107
Bronze Pole: Callum TURNER - McLaren - 02:01.575
* *Fastest overall*
As 18 drivers geared up for a 75 minute night race, tension across all 4 divisions could be felt on the formation lap, with the championship leaders of Platinum and Bronze absent from the field for Round 7 , opportunity for a new leader was on the minds of all in both divisions. Alan Alexander had a sizeable chance to overtake the Platinum Division Lead in Wednesday's race, but his efforts would be confounded before the race even started, as his #315 Bentley Continental was relegated to a pit lane start for reasons unknown.
As the lights went green, trouble soon followed, and despite an impressive start to keep pace with Evans, Donald, stuck to the outside line for the run into the *First Turn*, would run wide, falling from 2nd to 3rd as Jaden Johnson-Ward would collect on 2 postions for the price of one, having got the jump on Division polesitter and 2-Time VSR Champion Chris Davies, shifting the Barbadian to 2nd.
Behind the fight for the podium, disaster errupted as a collision between Silver competitors Robert Ogun and Sean McNally caused a multi-car pileup at Turn 2, as the smoke cleared, Ogun had fallen down multiple positions and a buffer between the Top 5 and the rest of the field was almost instantly formed.
Further behind, progress was immediately apparent from the *Back Row Bandits*, with their newest member, Carlos Diesch, breaching the top 10 within a single lap. Diesch would go on to charge from 15th at the race start to 2nd by the end of the race, less than 10 seconds from the leading Lamborghini of Lee Evans.
Further on in the race, drama struck as multiple drivers would drop from the race, most poignantly was Chris Davies, 2nd in the Gold Championship and 3rd at the time of his incident, Davies withdrew, but due to technicalities from the back-end management of the series on SimGrid, Davies would not drop from the championship fight, he will be at a significant disadvantage heading to Misano next week.
Evans collected on his first Platinum win of the season at the chequered flag, with Diesch and Alexander joining him on the podium, Jaden Johnson-Ward would collect on their first Gold win, with Leroy Donald securing another win in Silver, one that would be enough to delcare him champion before the season could wrap, numerically he would've needed 38 points of a gap to 2nd by the end of Round 7, Donald left Suzuka with a 71 point gap to McNally in 2nd. Lastly, Callum Turner would secure a win in Bronze, which now places him in the lead of the *Bronze Division* over Ryan Castle ahead of the season finale at Misano.
With tensions simmering in lieu of Round 8 next week, the fight rages on for the remaining titles in Platinum, Gold and Bronze.
Action from the OLR x VSR Midweek Championship can be found on both the TRTN YouTube Channel and LIVE exclusively through the TRTN Twitch Channel, of which you can find on both the XCL Website and Twitch.
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Last updated: 07 Aug 2026