World Series England

2012 World Series round 08
Russ rushes to a hat trick
Birmingham 12th November 2011
Graham Brown reports:  As the first half of the National Hot Rod season drew to a close Russ Wilcox finished off his year with a flourish. Wilcox took a dominant trio of wins, including a satisfying final victory over current and former world champions, Malcolm Blackman and Chris Haird.

On a somewhat less cold night than we are generally used to at The Wheels at this time of year, a thirty car muster for the last NHR outing of 2011 proved that entries are still holding up reasonably well. And that was without regulars Colin Gomm, Hednesford hero Dick Hillard (who was busy racing and winning in South Africa at about the same time) and Andy Lane. Andy had unfortunately been forced to cry off through sudden illness and I’m sure I speak for the entire NHR circus when I say we hope he’s soon recovered and raring to go again.

All the runners and riders were fielding their usual cars so, with no more ‘parish notices’ to do (apologies to Jim Gregory), let’s get on with the racing.

Actually, getting on with the racing was exactly what Sam Holland would like to have been doing in the first heat, but when a rear wing support broke during the warm ups, she was quickly heading for the infield rather than turn one.

The rest were soon off and away, although it was a scrappy start with Mikey Godfrey getting sideways at the off and cannoning off Dickie Burtenshaw, before Gavin Murray went spinning before they’d even got to the green flag. Frank West got involved too, the resulting schmozzle delaying several rear-of-grid starters and most notably Blackman, who lost almost half a lap by the time he got going.

I was more than half expecting an unsatisfactory start to be called and the reds to come out but it never happened. James O’Shea and Shaun Taylor diced for the lead, with the former taking it up more permanently a couple of laps in.

It soon became clear that the dew point had definitely been reached as far as the track surface was concerned, and the slippery conditions were favouring the better drivers. Both Haird and Matt Simpson were always going in the right direction, Haird taking over the lead shortly before a late race caution, thrown when Carl Waller-Barrett somehow managed to get on top of both Jason Kew and the barriers going through the pit bend!

Carl’s impromptu wall of death act didn’t delay matters for too long, but the yellow did allow Blackman – who’d been busy staging a magnificent recovery anyway – to get a whole lot closer to the other placemen. The green flag re-appeared with just four laps to go, Haird carrying on right where he’d left off prior to the caution and subsequently heading Simpson home. Matt was well clear of third man Jack Blood with Blackman a remarkable fourth.

Kew was disqualified after the race when some video had been viewed, Jason being held responsible for Murray’s pre-start spin. By my reckoning (and assuming my memory is up to scratch) this beats the previous record for an early penalty, as I recall Lou Karmios once getting black crossed at Ipswich as he came over the line to start the race, having clouted a fellow red top on their way round from the back straight.

From the second heat onwards the meeting became something of a Russ Wilcox benefit, although heat two was certainly no easy win. Holland led all the early laps until eventually passed by Danny Hunn. Wilcox was close behind both of them by that stage, but still had to make a sterling effort on the outside to get to the front. Once there, he pulled clear to win, leaving Colin Smith to put in an equally sterling drive to garner second.

Wilcox had things a little easier in the third encounter, relieving Taylor (already black crossed for a jumped start) of the front spot on lap two and simply clearing off into the distance thereafter. His eventual margin of victory was a yawning half a lap over Gavin Taber, while another super drive from Smith got him third this time, albeit a further quarter of a lap back from Taber.

Holland and Taylor were the ones disputing the lead during the final’s opening gambits, but they’d got nowhere before both Hunns, Ralph Sanders, O’Shea and Jason Cooper all got into a collision between turns one and two. I thought this may have been caused by either Holland or Taylor having gone through a big puddle on the edge of the infield at the start. One of them certainly sprayed water everywhere as they entered the turn, but what happened immediately afterwards may have been just coincidence.

Following a complete restart, Holland and Taylor went at it for the lead again, the pair trading it back and forth but also playing into Wilcox’s hands as their dice slowed them down a touch. Once the front running duo were into line astern formation (Holland leading), Russ was able to get quickly through and away to what looked like it was going to be a repeat half lap win. Mind you, Blackman was trying hard not to let that happen and was absolutely ripping through the pack, passing Shane Brereton, Steve Burrows and Taber in quick succession, to name but three.

Wilcox’s expected romp home to another win reckoned without another late race yellow though. Smith had taken a spin at the pit bend and ended up with the Z4 stranded in a very dodgy spot, forcing the caution.

Due to their hard work prior to the yellow, this put Blackman and Haird almost right on the leader’s tail. There were two back markers between them but, with the way Blackman in particular had been carrying on before the hiatus, even a four lap sprint finish looked like it could be enough to see him to the front.

But Wilcox probably knew that as well as anyone. He was ready for them and never seemed remotely fazed during the dash for the flag, while Blackman’s car suddenly didn’t look so good after its short rest. I’ve no doubt Malcolm would say he’d needed a bit more than the four laps that were left to get back up to speed.

Nevertheless, the world champion was still a very worthy second and Haird an equally worthy third, both men having given it everything all night long in a fitting curtain closer to the year. And, if the racing wasn’t quite of the same standard as Hednesford, I daresay Russ Wilcox had no complaints about that! Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 115,303,92,911,116,780,(174),162,14,27,100,339,152,95.
Heat two: 219,491,339,911,74,60,555,10,155,72,209,482,734,348,100,217.
Heat three: 219,555,491,780,92,303,115,209,60,39,174,155,72(-2),116,162,482.
Final: 219,911,115,116,174,348,209,92,10,72,162,555,155,780,482,339.
Penalties: 174 disqualified from heat one for contact with 95, causing 95 to spin just prior to the start.  72 black crossed and dropped two places for contact in heat three.  All results & penalties subject to official confirmation.
Martin Kingston’s photos in the Gallery

2012 World Series round 07
Hillard’s epic
Hednesford 6th November 2011
Graham Brown reports:  It might have been chilly in the Hednesford Hills but the racing was anything but. The third heat – won by James O’Shea – was declared by many to have been the race of the year, but that was before they saw the final, where Dick Hillard eventually triumphed by a matter of inches, or just about four hundredths of a second.

And yet, there was nothing to suggest that this was going to be a meeting featuring anything out of the ordinary by way of the quality of racing served up. But it’s like I always say; if you aren’t there for the run-of-the-mill ones, you won’t be there for the good ones.

As already stated, a chilly afternoon followed by an even chillier evening was in prospect, with thirty four takers for this one by my reckoning. They included newbie Brett Walter – who has dabbled in non-National Hot Rods - making his debut with the ex-Mark Willis 206cc, and a very welcome return for Shane Brereton. Shane was still at the wheel of his venerable VW Corrado (although suitably re-fettled, re-panelled, and looking very smart and shiny) while an all new Tigra is in the offing for 2012.

Mike Oliver was back for another (rather short lived as it turned out) crack at what I take to be his favourite track, although maybe Tipp has a claim in that direction also. Mark Paffey, meanwhile, was experimenting with a new helmet setup which has his Raceceiver ear buds embedded in the actual helmet padding. This is obviously aimed at making race control easier to hear when the 60 car is going at full chat. Just as an aside, Carl Boardley was planning on a similar idea a couple of years back, using a Peltor rally car system or similar, but abandoned the idea on the grounds of cost.

One driver who was missing to begin with, was Ralph Sanders, Ralph having set off bright and early for his journey up the M5. Sadly though, the road was still closed after that terrifying pile up and, faced with no easy alternative, it meant that the team were going to be just a little late…

Jack Blood got away fast in the opening heat and it was he who was to dominate the entire first half of the meeting. He wasn’t having things all his own way to begin with however, as he was being pestered by Gavin Taber throughout the early laps once Gavin had overtaken James O’Shea. But it wasn’t long before they were all brought up short by a multi-car back straight crash that set the yellows waving. Phil Spinks, Jason Kew, Paffey and Mikey Godfrey all appeared to be involved, although Mikey was adamant that he hadn’t been and had merely stopped to avoid crashing into everyone else. Unfortunately, this didn’t prevent him from being ordered off before hostilities resumed.

With the incident duly sorted out, Blood and Taber resumed their dice for the lead, Blood slowly gaining the upper hand as he gradually pulled clear. Taber remained a lonely second all the way to the flag though, well ahead of Oliver. However, the third man failed the post-race inside weight check, handing the position to Matt Simpson instead. The leaders in fact got red and chequered flags together in this, Kym Weaver having smashed into the pit gate right at the death, an impact which unfortunately put an end to any further involvement in proceedings for him.

Blood simply blasted away into the lead at the start of heat two, quickly dropping Shaun Taylor in his wake. Blood just got further and further in front, eventually carrying a quarter of a lap advantage all the way to the flag.

Meanwhile and behind Taylor, Mike Loosemore ran third for many a lap, with Brereton fourth and looking very far from being rusty.  But the real feature of this one was definitely the drive through to second by Simpson, the new European champion seemingly able to overtake anybody down the outside at will. He was busy cutting into Blood’s advantage too at the end but ran out of laps before he could make his extra pace count for more than the runner up slot. Behind Matt and the remainder of the first four places, there were a whole series of near dead heats, with Russ Wilcox just managing to pip Brereton out of fifth in one of them.

Heat three turned out to be one of the races of the season. James O’Shea got away first and was ultimately to lead almost throughout but it was a mighty close run thing. Taylor piled on loads of pressure in the early laps and did manage to get in front for a few yards along the home straight at one point before O’Shea regained the top spot.

But then the Irishman had to stave off a stiff challenge from Brereton, Taber and Hillard. With Terry Hunn rushing to join in and Taylor still right there too, it all got a bit frantic, particularly when O’Shea, Brereton and Hunn rocketed down the back straight three wide. We know from past performance that Brereton has never been short of bravery and now he settled onto O’Shea’s outside and stayed resolutely alongside for lap after lap as the others closed up behind. It wasn’t long before what looked like the entire field was bunched up and all of them fighting for a share of the lead - I certainly counted seventeen cars fully engaged in the battle at one point!

Nearing the finish, Taylor went spinning down the back stretch (how he was the only one I have no idea) and still Brereton and O’Shea were side by side. Shane just couldn’t quite make the pass stick and finally he was forced backwards as the insistent Taber and Hillard snuck underneath, with Willie Hardie and Lee Pepper also helping to railroad Brereton.

Brereton’s disappearance from O’Shea’s elbow didn’t mean James was getting any peace though, as Taber simply took over where Brereton had left off. Gavin couldn’t make it happen either and, as they took the last lap board, Hillard and Hardie launched a twin last gasp assault of their own.

But, in the end, O’Shea led Hardie (subsequently penalised a whopping four places for contact), Hillard, Pepper and Jason Cooper over the line in a total blanket finish.

Most spectators were out of breath after that lot, never mind the participants. Even seasoned watchers were raving about it, and I predicted with total confidence we’d not see a better race in the final or probably one even half as good.

Sometimes it’s just great to be so wrong.

O’Shea looked set for a repeat performance in the final for a while, as he survived early side-by-side racing with Blood, who was obviously quite keen on the idea of a hat trick, before having to do the same with Taylor. Taber and Brereton wanted in on the act again too, but Shane went spinning on the West bend exit and got clobbered by Loosemore in a T-bone. That same corner was the scene of more aggro a lap later, when Sam Holland and Andy Lane got into an incident with, guess who? Yep, poor old Ralph Sanders, who’d finally made it to the track in time to get in just one race, and then crashed out of it pretty heavily, demolishing most of the left front corner. There are days when you just oughta stay in bed…

That was all good for a dose of yellow flags. They’d barely got cracking again, with O’Shea fending off Taylor and Taber, when another caution flew. This time it was Chris Haird, Brereton and Tim Pullen who’d managed to get in a muddle on the back straight.

Off they went once more, with Simpson just starting to look like he was coming to get them all down the outside again, when he clipped the wall and pulled off with a busted drive shaft.

Now O’Shea squared up to Blood for the lead again, Jack having forced his way past Taylor and Taber, with Taylor getting railroaded backwards in the aftermath. But Blood’s eagerness to grab the lead from O’Shea saw the pair clash after Jack got by down the home straight. O’Shea tried to re-pass at the East bend, the resulting collision sending Blood spinning and delaying O’Shea, all of which put Terry Hunn into the lead almost out of nowhere.

He looked set fair to take the win for a time as well until Hillard caught up. Dick was quickly peeking up the outside line and it was obvious this was all shaping up for another grandstand finish. So, when Paffey and Taber got into some sort of contretemps on the West bend exit, I was praying I wasn’t going to see a yellow flag. Mind you, with the meeting running seriously behind by now, I wasn’t the only one and my prayers were answered!

There was nothing for it, if Dick wanted the win, but for him to stay on the outside, as he had already been for several laps. As they took the five lap board, Hillard was forced to drop back, but only for a few seconds.

Four to go and the leaders were side by side again, though now with Danny Hunn closing in fast. To his massive credit, Terry Hunn was giving Hillard all the room he needed and this was just pure flat out, ten tenths hot rod racing at its best. Every inch gained or lost by the pair drew ‘oohs’ and ‘woahs’ from the huge crowd, who were pouring in for the upcoming firework display but getting fireworks of a different kind thrown in!

Three to go, and they were still side by side, Danny getting nearer. Two to go and they were still side by side, Danny nearer still, and now there’s no way back for Dick if doesn’t want to be just third. I don’t think the thought even entered his head.

Passing the last lap board, Hillard finally edged ahead by half a car length, but Hunn fought back through the East turn and down the back stretch. Hillard was definitely second going into the final turn, but he dug deep and went even deeper into that last bend, finding something from somewhere to win out by a few inches at the line.

Danny Hunn came across the stripe with smoke pouring from the car, so the finish didn’t come a moment too soon for him.

But this had been a race which pretty much leaves my superlative cupboard empty. Epic is probably the only word for it and for Hillard’s drive too, for sure. As I told him afterwards, those are the races that keep us coming. Oh yes.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 92,555,(57),303,162,911,10,116,780,115,95,31,174,60,14,74,100.
Heat two: 92,303,780,152,219,348,911,100,72,95,115,162,500,278,155,130,491,27,10.
Heat three: 74,31,155,482,555,278,72(-4),348,14,174,130,39,60,217,491,500,152.
Final: 31,39,339,72,911,95,74,155,14,174,130,27,100,780,217,152,348,555,92,278,491.
Penalties: 57 failed post-race scrutineering check for inside weight after heat one – 57 loaded up, loses all points, places and prize money from the meeting. 72 dropped four places for two separate incidents of contact in heat three. All results & penalties subject to official confirmation.
Martin Kingston’s photos now in the Gallery

2012 World Series round 06
Burrows “avoids” hat-trick!
Ipswich 22nd October 2011
Graham Brown reports:  Despite having to miss his first race with a sticking throttle, when he did finally get going Steve Burrows made the most of it, taking an easy heat win and an equally hard-to-get final victory to go with it.

This meeting continued the current slight downward trend in entries but there still doesn’t seem too much to worry about (given the existing financial climate) when thirty one cars can turn out and they’re still coming from as far afield as Scotland and Germany.

Burrows’ heat one problem was apparently caused by over-enthusiastic application of some cable ties to the throttle cable, probably one of those cases of trying to do too good a job. I’ve done it myself; something you’ve made all neat and tidy and thereby caused yourself a problem, whereas if you’d just left it go hang no harm would have resulted.

What I have not done however, is decide to wash a racetrack down within a couple of hours of wanting to race on it when there’s no chance of it drying out properly on what was clearly going to be a chilly evening. I understand that there was a willingness to get rid of shale from the speedway (and any lurking muck left by the previous week’s Banger World) but, by late on Saturday afternoon, merely sweeping it was going to be best option left available. While I was putting a couple more interviews ‘in the can’, there were a few drivers lurking about in the stadium who all said words to the effect of ‘what the **** are they doing?’ when they observed the on-track activity. I believe a similar note of displeasure was later expressed by our promoter…

Well, like I said, we all make mistakes. The wetting down naturally left the track damp and slippery for the opening heat and it was predictably going to stay very greasy for the rest of the meeting.

In that first heat Danny Hunn made a swift getaway to lead Sam Holland in the early going, while Matt Simpson survived a clash of wills and panels with Jason Cooper to set off after the leaders. He was soon through to fourth, the treacherous track surface seeming to suit the 303 Tigra perfectly, as it so often does.

Holland – having her first race from the front of the grid – was certainly making a fair fist of it for a long time. But, as the race went on, her car seemed to push on wider and wider exiting turn four. In this manner she gradually slipped down the order, even striking the barriers a glancing blow towards the finish.

Hunn had lost the lead to Carl Waller-Barrett by the time Simpson caught up with them but neither man was able to prevent Simpson whipping past and away to the win. Not that Matt realised he’d won though, as he left the track as soon as the pit gate was opened and had to be called back for the presentation!

James O’Shea set the pace for a second heat which took place on an oval which had, if anything, worsened for grip since the opener, judging by the number of spins and minor crashes. In fact, at one point, I seriously wondered if there was oil or antifreeze on the track as well.

O’Shea had just started to pull out a significant lead when he suddenly retired, leaving Mikey Godfrey fending off Holland. This gradually developed into a tremendous scrap as the other placemen caught up, all trying the outside line to get through and each in turn losing fistfuls of places as a result. Phil Spinks and Mark Paffey both looked like they had it won at different times but, in the end, Godfrey hung on till the flag with Lee Pepper eventually second. Holland, having been forced as far back as seventh at one time and despite another close encounter of the wall kind, eventually came out of all the in-fighting with third.

Burrows was finally able to take his place on the grid for heat three and really made it count, as he took off into an immediate lead which simply became bigger the longer the race went on. By contrast to the previous race he eventually got home half a lap clear of Danny Hunn and Godfrey.

Meanwhile, Gavin Taber was another finding the turn four exit more than tricky when he heavily sideswiped the wall, Tim Pullen having already had a dicey moment at the same place. Willie Hardie and Phil Spinks got together at the other end, putting Spinks into a spin and leading to the Scotsman’s retirement. Then, five laps from home, Cooper, Jason Kew and Simpson all went spinning between turns three and four, with Matt clobbering the wall backwards and hard enough to bend all the rear suspension. This was the incident which led to Chris Haird’s disqualification.

Burrows had clearly got a taste for it in that last heat and set off with a will in the final. It was going to take more than that to win this one though, with the outside line still far from perfect and Steve not at the front of the grid this time either.

It took him a while to get past Holland and assume fourth, but he was going forwards all the way after that. A good outside run took him past Ralph Sanders and into third, then he dealt with Godfrey to go second.

The gap between Burrows and long-time leader O’Shea came down very quickly. The Irishman simply had no answer to another outside charge that carried Burrows by and on to a well deserved win by a quarter of a lap.

Shortly after Steve had assumed the lead, Gavin Murray became the final victim of that turn four exit, as he side-swiped the wall just as Taber had earlier but a whole lot harder. The crippled Tigra careered on down the straight in a huge shower of sparks and into turn one. Now clearly minus the benefit of brakes and steering, it ploughed straight on into the wall for a second time. It goes without saying that none of this did the 95 car a lot of good, leaving the team plenty to do before heading off to Ireland.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 303,162,339,911,72,(482),491,95,100,278,10,152,(467),130,60,555,160.
Heat two: 27,155,10,500,209,14,174,95,780,115,(467),60,734.
Heat three: 116,339,27,734,155,(115),278,911,130,(467),174,500,14,(482).
Final: 116,74,27,734,10,100,911,162,174(-2),72,209,60,115,491,92,31,(482),339,152,278.
Penalties: 115 disqualified from heat three for contact with 482. 174 dropped two places in final for contact. 130 disqualified from final for contact. 482 initially disqualified from final for two incidents of contact with 278. This was subsequently upgraded to a load up. All results & penalties subject to official confirmation.
Martin Kingston’s photos now in the Gallery

2012 World Series round 05
Smith makes amends
Northampton 8th October 2011
Graham Brown reports:  After losing two wins in the scrutineering bay at the previous World Series round Colin Smith made no such mistakes at NIR, the popular Essex man grabbing another double victory, this time including the meeting final for good measure.

Despite a sub-30 car entry (only just, there were 29) for this one, it could hardly be said there was a shortage of cars – it certainly never looked like it when the guys were on track anyway. Having missed the previous Ipswich, Sam Holland was back out, but there were no other shocks or surprises concerning the runners and riders. In fact, probably the most unusual visitor was Northern Ireland steward and general factotum, Darren Black. He was, almost to his own surprise, witnessing his first ever English qualifying round.

Smith’s currently depressed points scoring average had him starting from an unaccustomed front-of-grid position, enabling him to charge straight off into an immediate lead in the first heat. His BMW held sway throughout and never looked remotely like being challenged despite Tim Pullen tracking him all the way.

With Colin Gomm running a lonely third, most of the action here centred on a seven car places battle. What was making this so tight was the fight to either stay at, or get to, the head of it between Mikey Godfrey and Carl Waller-Barrett. Carl had taken to the outside but couldn’t quite make the pass stick, the two cars acting like a log jam as Jason Kew, Kym Weaver, Willie Hardie and Gavin Murray jostled impatiently for position right behind.

It was all eventually resolved in Kew’s favour as, once Waller-Barrett had finally made the pass, Jason got through as well and had managed to chase down Waller-Barrett by flag fall.

Pullen made the most of Smith’s absence from heat two (which turned out to be the race of the night) and built a huge lead very quickly. He was gradually chased down by Russ Wilcox who eventually took over the lead almost in sight of the finish. But the real feature of this race was Malcolm Blackman’s superb blast through the field. Passing everything in sight, the world champion got up to third but still had some way to go to catch the leaders and looked to be fast running out of time in which to manage it.

But, once Wilcox had taken over at the front, Blackman was soon past Pullen as well and caught the leader too, leaving Wilcox probably highly relieved that there wasn’t another lap to do.

This race also featured a couple of “off-the-ball” incidents which ultimately led to Ray Harris and Dave Polley being banished from the rest of the meeting. It was all a bit handbags at dawn really, with neither man going totally OTT, but certainly doing enough to incur the steward’s displeasure. More than enough in Polley’s case apparently, as he’s subsequently got a three meeting ‘holiday’ into the bargain.

While it hadn’t turned out to be a great night for Harris and Polley it was clearly a good night for falling lap records. According to AMB, Willie Hardie had already lowered the previous best mark in heat one to a pretty nifty 14.043, but Matt Simpson’s blistering heat two second lap took him into the 13s for the first time with a 13.971.

Smith left the line like a dragster in heat three, clearly intent on adding another scalp to his tally. Unfortunately the start proved too much for one of his drive shafts and it was all over before turn one. Instead, it was Ralph Sanders who set the early pace and stayed out front until a caution period, thrown when Simpson crashed and lost a wheel on the pit bend.

Dick Hillard – who’d been closing in fast on the leader before the yellows came out - was able to get the jump on Sanders as soon as the green came back out, Dick going on to take a clear win. Ralph was left to try and deal with the other placemen, but his car obviously hadn’t enjoyed its little “rest” during the caution, Waller-Barrett, Kew, Weaver and the hard charging Mark Paffey all making their way past. They finished in that order behind Hillard, but Paffey’s car had clearly had enough by the finish (unsurprisingly, he set fastest lap in this one) and there was an ominous pall of smoke rising from the bonnet when he pulled up. He was not to come out again.

With his axle fixed, Smith went straight into the lead in the final. With drizzle and then a few minutes of real rain descending on the oval and the entire field out on slicks, it took all of Colin’s experience to keep things steady. But he was perfectly equal to the task, and it was no coincidence that Colin Gomm was running second either, both men taking a seriously wide line which had them running only inches from the wall at times.

When the rain petered out, the track started to go away from them and favour some of those further back. In particular, this meant Jason Kew and Blackman, their entertaining dice carrying them all the way past Gomm and through to second and third. They had the leader in their sights too, as the laps counted down, but Smiffy had done enough early on and was happy to use up his cushion to run out the winner long before his pursuers ever got within striking distance.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 1 491,500,278,174,162,95,27,72,209,911,115,(224),339,10,555,39,74,152.
Heat two: 219,911,500,31,278,95,303,780,60,734,155,74,10,152,874.
Heat three: 31,162,174,209,60,72,115,734,555,100,780,339,27.
Final: 491,174,911,209,95,278,31,115,482,155,72(-2),500,219,555,780,10,100,152,39(-2).
Penalties: 100 disqualified from heat two for spinning 306. 306 disqualified from heat two and loaded up for incidents involving 224. 224 disqualified from heat two and loaded up for incidents involving 306.  72 dropped two places in final for contact. 39 dropped two places in final for contact with 162. Results and penalties all subject to official confirmation.
Trevor Hill, Brian Lammey and Martin Kingston’s photos at http://mkpics.smugmug.com/Nationalhotrodcom More to follow...

2012 World Series round 04
Kew & Spinks double up
Ipswich 24th September 2011
Graham Brown reports:  Four races but, in the end, only two winners was the story of this autumnal Saturday night, with Jason Kew making off with a heat and final double, while Colin Smith’s unfortunate exclusion for failing a weight check gifted the other two heats to Phil Spinks.

There were thirty three cars on hand for this, the fourth round of the current series. The entry contained no surprises (other than, perhaps, Sam Holland’s absence due to a prior engagement) although it was good to see both O’Shea’s back in action, as well as Tim Pullen, Mikey Godfrey and Chris Lehec, all of them having missed meetings recently for one reason or another.

Heat one kicked off in a lively manner, with Dave Polley clipping the wall along the back straight with hardly a lap completed and being forced into retirement. A presently depressed points average had allowed Kew an unusual front row start, and it was he who relieved Ralph Sanders of his early lead and went on to take victory by half a lap from Sanders.

Other things going on included Terry Hunn battling hard to overtake James O’Shea around the outside to claim fourth, Steve Burrows starting well but gradually slipping down the order as a slow puncture gradually worsened, and Jason Cooper and Gavin Murray getting together on the final corner, resulting in half spins for both men. With Cooper, Murray and Malcolm Blackman (who unusually got dropped places for baulking) all having been the subjects of earlier video interviews with yours truly, I do hope this isn’t to be another form of “commentator’s kiss of death”!

The second heat saw Colin Smith – another unusual front of grid starter – carve ahead of Polley down the back straight to begin building a huge lead in his still unique BMW Z4. That was before he was brought up short by a yellow flag period though, thrown as a result of Gavin Taber, Dick Hillard and Jack Blood having had a coming together at turn one.

Smith simply took up where he left off following the restart and was able to keep Spinks (who’d also managed to pass Polley just before the yellows) from getting anywhere near him before flag fall.

The main focus of interest further back in this, was the scrap going on between a tight gaggle of cars disputing seventh thru tenth places, comprising Godfrey, Terry Hunn, Colin Gomm, Chris Haird and Mark Paffey, with Gomm and Haird persistently up the outside. This got even more intense when Murray caught up too. The end result of all the in-fighting was that Godfrey unfortunately lost out to all of them bar Hunn and Haird burst free to claim sixth on the road and fifth rather later…

Heat three proved much harder work for Colin Smith. Not only did Smiffy have to pass Sanders – who certainly wasn’t rolling over and playing dead in the early laps - but also hold off an insistent Spinks. Colin also had to survive another caution too, this time for an incident involving Paffey and Carl Waller-Barrett down by the start/finish. What’s more, Spinks nearly got the jump on the restart, although he couldn’t actually make it past, despite plenty of looks up the inside and outside. But he was to be the chief beneficiary of Smith’s problems in the scrutineering bay, when his exclusion from the meeting promoted Phil not once, but twice.

Following the heat one penalty for Blackman, it looked pretty clear he and Matt Simpson aren’t going to be joining each other’s fan clubs any time soon. The pair had stopped together earlier on track for what looked like a frank and honest exchange of views from their respective cockpits, and both men suffered further penalties here for contact with one another.

The final always looked like it might be a Kew-Spinks showdown, but that reckoned without the intervention of a couple of others, notably Polley, who leapt away in determined fashion and into an immediate lead. As Sanders battled to keep the others off, Polley built a huge lead and seemed to be totally in command. However, that all changed once Kew, Terry Hunn and Spinks all found a way through shortly before Sanders’ retirement.

With Kew now on a charge and Polley encountering backmarkers, the gap came down fast, Kewy eventually taking the lead down the outside of the back stretch. Getting quicker the longer the race went on (and having possibly his best race to date in NHR’s) Hunn also overtook Polley, who was also required to give best to Spinks as well before the finish. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 174,734,92,39,74,31,303,162,911(-2),72,555,155,100,339,482,95,874.
Heat two: (491),14,306,209,72,115,60,278,95,27,39,100,780,116,224,615,152,874.
Heat three: (491),14,174,209,199,115,303(-2),734,155,911(-2),27,224,780,482,615,278,152.
Final: 174,39,14,306,555,72,303,95,911,209,115,162,116,100,500,130,780,278,482,74,615.
Penalties: 911 dropped two places in heat one for persistently baulking 303.  199 disqualified from heat one for contact. 130 disqualified from heat one for contact. 911 dropped two places in heat three for contact with 303. 303 dropped two places in heat three for contact with 911. 491 failed post race inside weight check following heat three and was loaded up.  N.B. All results & penalties subject to official confirmation.
Clive Marchant and Martin Kingston’s photos at http://mkpics.smugmug.com/Nationalhotrodcom

2012 World Series round 03
Paffey’s pile driver
Yarmouth 11th September 2011
Graham Brown reports:  After a meeting characterised by follow-the-leader racing and front of grid winners, Mark Paffey turned on the style for the final, proving that the track really did have a useable outside line and that he knew just what to do with it as he cut through to take the win.

There were only 27 (and no unusual runners or riders among them) takers for this, the second event of the recent return to Caister Road by the Nationals. There were many of us - on both sides of the safety fence - who said after last year’s event, ‘We only got away with that because it rained’, both in terms of the amount of damage available and also the quality of the racing, which truly couldn’t be faulted in 2010.

Despite some scattered rain drops and a big rainbow spanning the track at the start of the first heat, there were to be no torrential downpours this time. Due to the superb discipline shown by nearly all the drivers all the time, the dry track and higher speeds never resulted in the feared carnage. But it has to be said the quality of the racing, in the heats at any rate, wasn’t great. It would be unfair to say that there was no passing going on at all but, in heat one certainly, I’m sure I’ve sometimes seen more overtaking when the yellows are out!

Anyway, the aforementioned smattering of rain drops was as bad as the weather was going to get, for which those of us on the terraces were mostly grateful. The start of the meeting was preceded by a minutes silence in honour of the 9/11 victims (it being, almost unbelievably, the tenth anniversary of that fateful day) winner Mike Loosemore, Dickie Burtenshaw and Steve Burrows conducting their race-long lead chase in bright sunshine.

Burtenshaw went one better to win the second heat, where there was a bit more overtaking, notably by second man Lee Pepper who found a way past Gavin Taber and Terry Hunn along the way. This one got a little livelier in the dying seconds, as Dick Hillard spun on the turn four exit, scattering cars all over the track. Phil Spinks and Shaun Taylor both retired at almost the same moment, while there was a considerable shake up in the places towards the rear of the field as they hastened to avoid both each other and the stricken 31 machine. Sam Holland also took the opportunity of overtaking Chris Haird, who she’d been shadowing throughout.

There would be no such heroics (heroine-ism?) in the next race though, as Sam went out on the first lap with what sounded like ignition timing that had suddenly gone wild. Loosemore enjoyed another flag-to-flag win in this third outing. He was followed throughout by Hunn, while Paffey got home third here after putting together a few passes along the way as a warm-up for the final. This race also resulted in a disqualification for Kym Weaver after he was adjudged responsible for spinning Danny Hunn on to the grass midway between turns one and two.

There was a change to the running order fairly late in the day that put the Bangers out before the NHR final. At first glance this didn’t seem like a great idea, especially after the Bangers had left the track covered in what looked like a goodly mixture of oil, water and general muck. However, there turned out to be no oil, the water soon dried and, most importantly, the marshals all got busy with their brooms before the Nats came on. Importantly, because they didn’t just sweep away the Banger dirt, they also swept away any lurking dog track sand and rubber crumb left on the outside line by the previous races.

With Paffey starting on the fifth row and the second rank of cars, another top three finish did look a possibility, if only a distant one. Loosemore’s pole start put him straight into the lead with Burtenshaw and Hunn tracking him every inch of the way.

Paffey went straight on an outside charge though, quickly relegating Shaun Taylor and then Colin Gomm. Burrows was next to succumb along the home straight, followed by a big sweep that took the white Tigra past Andy Lane and up on to Hunn’s shoulder.

To provide further entertainment, Paffey’s appearance in his mirror spurred Burtenshaw to try the outside too, Dickie taking over the lead anyway when Loosemore suddenly retired. But that left the way clear for Paffey to close in and dart past Burtenshaw – on the inside this time - and away to a well deserved victory. He even had to fret about whether to try and put Haird a lap down as they neared the finish but, in the end, thought better of it.

Following the race, when asked by the commentator what he thought of the track, Paffey remarked that he thought the track was ‘mint’ for the final. So, perhaps a good clean up beforehand and some similar bravery during, could produce a whole different outcome next year. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 780,100,116,130,155,60,555,278,72,199,92,31,209,303,482,115,174.
Heat two: 100,155,39,555,278,734,482,95,72(-2),339,911,174,10,224,115,152,31.
Heat three: 780,39,60,152,130,199,162,95,911,92,224,339.
Final: 60,100,116,278,152,130,72,155,911,482,303,199,95,115,10.

2012 World Series round 02
Cooper barrels to victory
Hednesford 29th August 2011
Graham Brown reports:  After a day of changing fortunes provided a different winner for every race, it was Superstox star Jason Cooper who came out top of the heap by taking victory in the final.

With one or two regulars missing from this one and also one or two (I suspect) late cancellations, just 31 cars were on hand for the second round of the 2012 series. This, combined with rather fewer bangers than might have been expected, gave rise to the pits having a lot more space – certainly at the West bend end – than they usually have.

Nevertheless, this was still quite enough for a decent meeting with the cars only spread over a three heat format.

Most notable as a part of that entry was NHR newcomer, Samantha Holland, having her debut outing at the wheel of the ex-Chris Harvey Peugeot 206cc. Note that I have used her full name here, as she will almost certainly be universally referred to as ‘Sam’, and I wouldn’t want those of you who aren’t quite up to speed to think this is a truncated version of Samuel! So, just to underscore the point, Sam is a lady, our first in English racing for some considerable time and what’s more, a lady who comes with a considerable racing pedigree from Ministox, 1300 Stock Cars and 2.0 Hot Rods. It is never a bad thing, from a potential publicity point of view, to have a female racer in what is accepted to be a male dominated class and this is particularly true when that racer can actually drive.

There were a couple of other unfamiliar looking cars though, with Frank West returning to the fold with his TT now red instead of silver, and likewise, Mike Oliver was also having his first outing in a long time as an “English” driver.

It didn’t, initially, look as though the weather was going to play ball, some fairly hefty drizzle having curtained the bowl shortly before the start of the meeting. So it was a damp and treacherous track (as evidenced by Dave Polley spinning in the warm ups) that greeted the runners for heat one but this didn’t prevent it being a cracking opener and in fact, the best race of the day.

Despite the embarrassing earlier spin, it was still Polley who led the early laps before losing out to Jason Cooper. But Polley fought back to lead again as Ray Harris and Russ Wilcox also got involved to create a tight four way dice. At this stage it was actually raining again, providing even more fun for the mostly slick-shod field. The lead battle was finally resolved when Polley went spinning out of the West bend, delaying Cooper and handing the lead to Harris. Even then, Ray had to survive further challenges from Cooper and Wilcox and another light shower before taking his first win with the SLK.

By the time heat two was ready for the off, the sun was trying to come out and the oval was dry. Shaun Taylor set the early pace but was soon involved in a wheel-to-wheel scrap with Polley until Dave had a big spin along the back straight, disappearing in a huge cloud of rubber smoke. When it cleared, Wilcox was embedded in the embankment, Andy Lane having somehow managed to get involved too. All that left Taylor alone out front, but he didn’t have awfully long to enjoy it, as Mark Paffey shed a wheel and crashed on the turn four exit to bring out the yellows.

Cooper briefly took it up when they were back under the green before losing out to Phil Spinks after a brief rubbing match between the pair as they exited the East bend. Dick Hillard (‘fresh’ from his return from SA) managed to sneak through in Phil’s wake, but had it all to do to keep Cooper off then, allowing Spinks to win by a comfortable margin.

The fight for second got even more interesting when Chris Haird arrived on the scene as well with four laps to go, Chris taking to the outside to demote Cooper crossing the start/finish with three to go. He stayed out there to try and do the same to Hillard but, by my reckoning, had failed to do so by about a foot at the flag. Apparently, the lap scorers also had Hillard still in front but the transponders didn’t. Naturally, this gave rise to an immediate check of the two cars’ relative t/s positions, but both were not only spot on to the rules but also within a couple of centimetres of each other in any case. Curious.

Taylor had an even more serious go at winning one in the third encounter. He was well out front and running strongly but was again upset by a caution when Terry Hunn hit the wall hard in the West bend. Terry just went straight on in and I certainly wouldn’t have been shocked if he’d either had the throttle jam or something else break, but he later cheerfully admitted to it being “driver error”. It takes a big man to admit it, so fair play to him.

This time it was Harris who took advantage of Taylor on the re-start but Ray couldn’t hang onto this one. As Taylor slipped back down the order (his car seems one of those that just doesn’t like ‘a rest’) it was Kym Weaver who got up to second and, after the merest brush with Harris in the West Bend, got by at the other end three laps from home to take the flag. Hillard was involved in another close finish here, this time clearly holding onto third in a last minute confrontation with Gavin Murray.

Following a complete re-start after Spinks lost a wheel at the start of the final (there did seem to be an inordinate number of loose wheels bouncing about this day), it was Polley who established himself in the lead and stayed that way until Dickie Burtenshaw went spinning between turns three and four. This sparked off a multi-car shunt to bring about another stoppage, Cooper having clipped Burtenshaw, as did Haird and Malcolm Blackman, while Weaver and Mike Loosemore both crashed trying to avoid the others.

Polley was still in charge for the re-start but allowed Cooper under him as they crossed the stripe. Dick Hillard and Weaver made it through to second and third, which looked to be how they were going to run to the end until Hillard suddenly retired and the race finished early under reds after Oliver became yet another wheel-thrower. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 224,482,72,911,174,162,14,219,115,780,60,39,339,10,(467),209,116,555.
Heat two: 14,115,31,95,152,482(-2),199,116,100,(467),130,278,303.
Heat three: 209,224,31,95,57,303,911,152,100,555,780,10,199,734,92,(467),339.
Final: 482,209,306,555,339,130,303,95,92,199,174,162,152,72,115,100,734,10,39.
Penalties: 482 dropped two places in heat 2 for contact.  92 disqualified from heat 2 for contact on 162, causing 162 to spin. N.B. All results & penalties subject to official confirmation.


2012 World Series round 01
Paffey takes first blood
Northampton 13th August 2011
Graham Brown reports:  As the Nationals got back on the World Series trail that will lead to their ‘Olympic’ World Final in 2012, it was Mark Paffey who came away from NIR with the final honours, after the heats were shared between Jason Cooper, Willie Hardie and Dave Brooks.

The post-World Final period is always a critical one when it comes to how car numbers are holding up as this would be the time when anybody who was thinking of packing up would probably go. It has been of particular concern these past couple of years, given the economic climes in which we find ourselves, not least because NHR is obviously one of the most expensive classes for the participants. Thankfully, we seem to have weathered the storm once again, with no less than 38 starters for this opener which can only be viewed as a healthy state of affairs.

Among those 38, there were no surprises regarding driver/car combinations. However, it was good to welcome along a debutant in the shape of Stephen O’Shea in his dad’s old Fiesta. Stephen was clearly on a familiarisation outing and spent the entire meeting just getting in some laps and trying (very successfully) to stay out of the way.

It did look for a time as though Dave Brooks might be about to put NIR on his “tracks most hated” list after he appeared to have blown his engine in practice again. But, despite coating the circuit with oil, it must have been a detached oil line or similar as he was back in action for heat two.

Cooper quickly snatched up the first heat lead with only one lap gone which looked like a fairly easy win might be on the cards here. Shaun Taylor and Mikey Godfrey both had spins in the early going, Taylor delaying Paffey as he went around, while Mikey ended up backwards into the wall at turn one.

Cooper’s “easy win” was turning out to anything but however. Ray Harris had him under plenty of pressure and nearly got by in traffic at one point as they crossed the start/finish, and Ray wasn’t the only one in the frame either, with Colin Smith and Dick Hillard right there too. This was a dice that warmed right up in the closing stages. By then Willie Hardie and Gavin Murray had caught up as well, and Hardie managed to sneak under Hillard to apparently take fourth spot away. But Dick wasn’t having any of that, fighting back in style around the outside to finally pip Harris out of second at the flag.

The line up for heat two – with Dave Polley on the front row – suggested there might be some easy pickings on offer here too. But Dave was never on the pace and was slipping back down the order from the moment they saw the green flag. Having eventually finished a lowly 15th (16th on the road) he didn’t re-appear, and told me at Hednesford the following day that the frame would be returning to Ludlow’s for a complete return to standard.

So, instead of Mr Polley, it was Harris who put his Mercedes out front for many laps before eventually being challenged by Brooks. Their battle at the front lasted for quite a while, with Brooks nearly by several times (notably once going down the back straight) before a final challenge going into turn one ended with contact between the two which sent the SLK spinning. Brooks went on to win but faced disqualification for the incident with Harris, handing the win to Hardie instead. As I pointed out to Willie later, after what happened to him at Hednesford, this just went to prove the old saying about what goes around, comes around.

Willie had only managed to cross the line second after coming out on top in what had been quite a fierce places scrap, involving Hardie with the impressive Jack Blood, Chris Haird, Paffey and Matt Simpson. Willie had pulled clear of the others by flag fall but their dispute went all the way to the end, with Simpson making a big effort on the outside at one point and actually passing Paffey, only to get too deep into the pit bend and lose the place again. Pretty entertaining stuff all round, in fact.

Shaun Taylor and then Brooks led heat three, while problems developed along the back straight and into turn four after Blood had gone a little too wide into turn one, letting Colin Smith get his nose underneath. As they raced down the back stretch, Blood appeared to try and cut across to shut Smiffy out, getting spun for his trouble, the impact putting paid to any sort of result for Colin in this either. I couldn’t see why Hillard got disqualified for this, although race control apparently adjudged he’d pushed Cooper into the other two.

Brooks was just starting to look a safe winner when a caution was thrown for the spun Mike Loosemore, who was sitting in a dodgy spot on the exit from turn two. That brought Simpson – who’d previously fought through to second but a long way back – right up onto the leader’s tail. It was during this hiatus that Hillard got his marching orders along with Terry Hunn who’d apparently been responsible for Loosemore’s rotation.

Simpson’s proximity meant Brooks having to defend his position robustly on the last lap, even chopping across the #303 at the end of the home straight when it looked like Matt was all but through. This time though, a Raceceiver rebuke was Brooks’ only penalty, although the fact that he stopped by the pit gate and not the start/finish suggested (he later confirmed it) that he might have been expecting to lose this win as well!

Harris had another stab at leading in the final and had pulled out quite a substantial advantage when the yellows flew for Godfrey who’d crashed heavily on the start line and got collected by Gavin Taber. The shunt left Mikey’s Tigra looking very sorry for itself, while Russ Wilcox copped a disqualification for passing under the yellows.

After the re-start Harris had just fended off an approach by Taylor and begun pulling away again when they were interrupted by another caution. This time, Cooper and Danny Hunn had both spun on the turn two exit and Colin “Mr Unlucky” Smith had also gone around, ending up backwards into the wall. If that lot hadn’t been sufficient to call a temporary halt, Carl Waller-Barrett and Blood had also got into a bit of a collision at the other end.

After a clean up of the oil/water mess left by Smiffy’s Bee-Em, the resumption saw Harris still in command but with trouble clearly coming from Mark Paffey after he’d sliced past Hardie and Taylor in short order. It took a few laps but eventually Paffey was challenging for lead. Some contact between the pair going into turn one was sufficient to both take Harris wide and right out to the barriers and put Mark into the lead and (somewhat surprisingly) on his way to the first final of the new season. In fact, the majority of the points here all ended up with drivers who often frequent the upper reaches of the points charts, with Haird second, Murray third and Simpson fourth.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 482,31,224,95,491,72,339,911,199,60,209,14,278,100,116,734,780,39,555,152,74,155,874.
Heat two: (67),72,92,115,60,303,162,911,339,192,14,116,174,278,130,306,734,467,190,74,874.
Heat three: 67,303,115,162,192,155,219,152,482,130,199,209,174,100,92,555.
Final: 60,115,95,303,224,911,155,152,199,209,162,14,92,130,116,278,734,339,100,482,555,74,874.
Penalties: 67 disqualified from heat 2 for contact on 224, causing 224 to spin. 31 disqualified from heat 3 for contact on 482, causing 92 & 491 to spin.  39 disqualified from heat 3 for contact on 780. 174 disqualified from final for contact on 14. N.B. All results & penalties subject to official confirmation.
Northampton photos by Martin, Trevor, Steve and Keith now on-line at
http://mkpics.smugmug.com/Nationalhotrodcom
http://www.spw-pics.co.uk/gallery/index.php?cat=2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/keith_duke/sets/72157627308934365/

*  * *

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 16
The first and the last
Northampton 5th June 2011
Graham Brown reports: Although this, the last World Series round before the World Final, was really all about the points battles raging throughout the table, it also provided an entire meeting of first time winners. Danny Hunn, Jack Blood and George Turiccki all took their first ever NHR wins, with the latter also lifting his first final victory into the bargain.

As can be seen from that opening paragraph, not all of the 32 car entry was people looking for either a spot on the world final grid or even an improvement on one they already had. But naturally, that was where most people’s attention lay. And, it turned out to be one of those days when there was plenty going on behind the scenes…

The afternoon started badly for several drivers, not least David Brooks, who blew his engine in practice. This put paid to any faint hope Dave might have been harbouring about making the World Final grid and had the same effect on at least one of his competitors who crashed on his oil. That was Graham Luscombe, another who was ‘bubbling under’ in the points and, pre-crash, had had more than a passing fair chance of qualifying. But the car was too badly damaged to start even one race and that was the end of that. Jason Cooper was also involved and, although he did manage to get out again, his meeting didn’t exactly last very long either.

I suppose given the sudden termination of Luscombe’s racing with a car that didn’t look too dreadful at first glance, it could be thought that the damage picked up by Dick Hillard in the same shunt must have come under the heading of ‘looked worse than it was’. Don’t you believe it. I saw the #31 dragged off and it definitely only had one wheel pointing in the right direction. The back axle was smashed in half for starters and the left front corner had taken a severe pummelling too. It looked like half the pits were working on it at one time or other and, although Dick was ultimately forced to miss his first heat, it was a supreme effort that eventually got him out again. And, at the end of the day, it was to be an effort that turned out to be crucial.

As if all this wasn’t drama enough, there were other problems arising all over the place at just the wrong time. Willie Hardie’s car seemed to suddenly take it into its head not to start for some reason, while Jason Kew ran into gear selection bothers when the bolts came loose in the selector mechanism.

Kewy wasn’t the only one with gearbox trouble either. Those who’d been savouring the idea of Phil Spinks getting in a fight for a group one place (maybe for the first time ever?) had their hopes dashed when his transmission went up the creek not long before the off. By the time it was changed, Phil too had missed a heat and, far from scrapping about a place in the top group, was now reduced to desperately trying to keep a spot in group two.

All of this not enough to crank up the tension for you? Well, just to add to the fun, the darkening sky’s promise of rain was becoming more sincere by the minute as start time loomed.

Danny Hunn – another who’d been in the practice crash and knocked his wing off – soon had the heat one lead and then spent the entire race being chased by brother Terry. It had been Terry leading initially until he slid wide through turn one, letting James O’Shea and Danny under him and creating a very dicey three wide moment that lasted most of a lap!

The Hunns finished still in that order with the beginnings of a fine drizzle starting to make conditions very tricky nearing the finish. No doubt his favoured conditions had helped Colin Gomm along here, but he was still playing a blinder. Having come into the meeting out of the qualifiers, he knew he needed some good results. He’d had a big dice up with the lower placemen early in the race and finally established himself firmly in fourth with only the brothers Hunn and Tony Moss crossing the line ahead of him.

The drizzle had turned to full-blown rain by heat two, which co-incidentally turned out to be the race of the day.

O’Shea set off at the front but was quickly forced to square up to Turiccki once he’d passed the other placemen. The pair conducted a nail biting side-by-side dice that went on for lap after lap, with Turiccki eventually edging ahead. That looked to be game over but this reckoned without Jack Blood, who fought his way alongside Turiccki, cannoned hard off the wall at one point, and still managed to get back up to snatch the win.

Unfortunately, Turiccki got dropped a couple of places for the contact which led to Blood smacking the barriers. This elevated Kew to second and that man Gomm to third this time, Colin having been giving it his all and using the widest possible wet line. And when I say ‘widest possible’, I’m sure he was actually rubbing the wall more than once.

There was a little less drama in the pouring rain of heat three. Ralph Sanders desperately needed some big points from this to keep his qualifying hopes alive and led initially, but couldn’t stave off the advances of Turiccki. Sanders was forced back to third by the rapid looking Kym Weaver in the dying seconds, while Turiccki lost it and spun in turn two, luckily saving this faux pas until after he’d taken the flag. Spinks had finally made it out for this one and for his reward got the last point for finishing fifteenth. Well, they all count and who knew – it might matter.

The destination of the English championship itself still hung in the balance at the start of the final, with all still to play for at both ends of the points table. Main contenders for the title, Chris Haird, Malcolm Blackman and Matt Simpson, had found themselves effectively shut out of the high scoring places all day, so a half decent result for any of them here could turn the trick. The problem for everybody now was, what tyres to use? The rain had just about ceased (although it could definitely still be felt in the air) and the track was certainly drying fast but was it dry enough for slicks all round? And, if it was, was it going to stay that way?

It was O’Shea who headed them away but with Sanders right behind and trying hard to claim the 20 points for a win, chased by Turiccki. There was a bit of a leary moment on the back straight when Hardie, Kew and Tommy Maxwell had a momentary coming together, Andy Lane going off at the same spot a lap later. Sanders took to O’Shea’s outside in a brave effort to grab those big points and made it past exiting turn four, with O’Shea continuing to be forced slowly backwards by the other placemen once he’d lost the lead.

Those with their eye on something other than the leaders might well have noticed that Spinks was truly on a mission, passing several cars in short order and obviously ready for one of his late race charges up the field. It was certainly going to be a good time for it.

But then, Gomm took a spin between turns three and four and got walloped head on by….Spinks! This sparked off a series of collisions that led to a caution period, with Maxwell also going round, Weaver getting his wing knocked awry and Hardie taking a clout that severely deranged his steering.

A stoppage to further rack up the tension wasn’t really what everybody needed at this point. Spinks had been able to get going again before the yellows flew, thus avoiding getting turfed off as one of the causes of the stoppage, although he had lost a vast amount of ground and definitely everything he’d gained earlier. Gomm and Maxwell were not so lucky, as it was them the caution had actually been thrown for, while Gavin Murray copped a disqualification for overtaking under the yellows.

With all that sorted out, Sanders resumed his lead on the re-start, but Turiccki wasted no time going to the front once they were back under the green. Spinks was leading something of a charmed life here, as he completely lost it down in turn two but miraculously saved the spin and kept going.

Sanders may have lost the lead but he couldn’t afford to give much more away though. He grimly fought off a two pronged assault by Blood and Danny Hunn that saw the pair lock together coming off the last bend and cross the line backwards in a synchronised spin as Kew and Scott Bourne beat the pair of them home by a hair’s breadth! With Blood and Hunn totally off the track at the time, they had naturally missed the transponder loop and only careful viewing of the video was able to determine the actual finishing order.

It had been excitement all the way to the wire with, in the end, a seventh spot for Haird being enough for him to retain his points title. Hillard’s day that had started so badly at least ended slightly better, with him able to just keep a toe hold on a world qualifying place. But you had to feel sorry for Mike Loosemore, who had dropped out of the top twenty and been disqualified from the final too, just to add insult to injury. The fact that the lost five points wouldn’t have mattered in the final analysis was probably scant consolation. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 339,39,192,278,130,74,174,199,115,27,303,162,60,780,369,224,17.
Heat two: 92,174,278,186(-2),95(-2),303,74,734,162,72,209(-2),911,116(-2),100,369,31,339,17.
Heat three: 186,209,734,192,116,72,911,199,115,95,92,39,27,130,14,60,100,780.
Final: 186,734,174,199,92,162,115,339(-2),14,911,27,303,39,(60),31,130(-2),72,116,100,(780),74.
Penalties: 186 (contact with 92), 209 (contact with 174), 95 (contact with 209) and 116 (contact with 369), all dropped two places each in heat two. 60 disqualified from final for causing 74 & 130 to spin. 780 disqualified from final for causing 17 to spin. 95 disqualified from final for passing under yellows. 339 & 130 both dropped two places in final for contact.
Meeting photos at www.mkpics.smugmug.com/Nationalhotrodcom

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 15
Simpson’s super Skeggy
Skegness 22nd May 2011
Graham Brown reports:  In one of the closest races of the season so far, it was Matt Simpson who came away from the Nationals’ annual visit to Skegness with the final honours after a fierce duel with long-time leader James O’Shea.

There were 32 takers for this, the penultimate qualifier of the 2010-11 season, the entry representing a little bit of a ‘mixed bag’ as Skegness meetings tend to. There were a couple of people missing one thinks of as ‘regulars’, while Jason Cooper and David Polley were both back in action. Joining them all for the first time this season, was Andy Steward, ‘Doughnut’ giving his venerable 206 its first outing in a wee while.

Prior to start time, it looked horribly like we might be in for another Birmingham-type meeting of rain-stop-rain-stop (etc.). A number of squally showers didn’t look at all promising for the rest of the afternoon but, eventually, the weather lived up to the forecast and dried up completely as the sun came out. The wicked wind which continually whipped across the pit area, causing nasty dust devils, only got stronger however.

It was O’Shea who got away first in the opening heat with the brothers Hunn busy scrapping over second behind him with Tim Moody for company. They hadn’t got all that far though, before the yellows were waving for several cars who’d had a coming together. Ralph Sanders had gone spinning between turns three and four and been collected by Polley, while Jason Kew and Cooper seemed like they’d crashed trying to avoid them.

Neither had done their cars any good, Cooper’s in particular, looking very bent underneath after he’d ridden Skeggy’s formidable inner kerb. Their situation wasn’t helped by the fact that both cars needed a front end lift, there was only one tractor equipped with a device for performing that job, and said device broke almost as soon as it went into action. With a welded repair the only option, the two cars were stranded on the infield for a long time (like, a couple of races) and the meeting was delayed considerably into the bargain. It was a just-one-of-those-things-and-nobody’s-fault situation, but pretty frustrating for drivers and officials alike. Incidentally, the meeting running order was later re-jigged in order to give more time for repairs. For the Hot Rods, that is, not the tractors.

Danny and Terry Hunn had got past O’Shea shortly before the interruption, and it was they who led them away when the race came back under the green, with Moody and O’Shea also in the mix. The Hunns swapped places at the front and then Danny went spinning and got collected by O’Shea. That was it for the lead, with Terry Hunn keeping Moody at arm’s length the rest of the way.

There was a curious little incident after the finish. It looked as though Malcolm Blackman lifted off a lot sooner than the following Andy Lane was expecting, going into turn one after they’d passed the chequers. Laney drove right up on the kerb, presumably to try and avoid clobbering the 911 car, but struck it a glancing blow anyway and sent Malcolm spinning. Blackman, once facing the right way again, set off round the track, probably intent on giving Andy (now parked by the start/finish) a piece of his mind. He wasn’t going especially fast but was initially thought to have been doing it when the red flags were out, (thus the disqualification) until it was discovered there were no red flags actually out at the time.

Terry Hunn had another turn at leading in heat two. He soon lost out to John Holtby but stayed well in touch and the leader was never able to relax. Holtby was able to eke out a bit of a gap nearing the finish, while Hunn’s chase had carried him over half a lap clear of third man Tommy Maxwell.

Holtby rocketed past O’Shea to grab an immediate lead in the third encounter. It was Maxwell who was Holtby’s main pursuer in this, but the Ulsterman’s efforts still couldn’t prevent the leader opening up a quarter of a lap advantage by the finish. On this form (and yes, OK, he was starting at the front), maybe John was beginning to rue the fact that he started his season so late!

It always looked as though the final might be a close race, with all those at the front of the grid pretty evenly matched. This proved to be the case, with O’Shea leading both Hunns, Holtby, Maxwell and Moody in a tight six car dice. This carried on apace until a multi-car shunt exiting turn four brought out the yellows. Carl Waller-Barrett, Willie Hardie, Tony Moss, Steve Burrows, Sanders and Kew (again) were the ones involved.

The half dozen at the front resumed their dicing for a couple of laps before another bout of yellows, this time brought on by Danny Hunn spinning and taking Holtby into the wall with him, exiting turn two.

O’Shea still survived in the lead for the final restart, although immediately challenged by Terry Hunn, who got forced wide at the far turn which attracted O’Shea a black cross.  But he was soon going to be facing an even sterner test. The re-starts had definitely helped, but Simpson had been looking quicker and quicker in any case as the race progressed and came into this last green flag session sixth. He quickly turned that into third, and then raced around the outside of Maxwell to go second and then got alongside O’Shea.

James was not making it easy and Matt could never quite seem to make a pass stick. He even had a half spin at one point going through the far turn and was fortunate that Maxwell cannoned into him and straightened him up. With Simpson now down to third and less than five laps to go, the win looked to be out of reach but he re-passed Maxwell with three to go and then managed to get up the outside and pip O’Shea by inches at the line. “Inches” actually meant sixteen hundredths of a second according to the transponders, which I have to say is pretty damned close however you call it!  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 39,17,780,162,303,67(-2),60,911,130,199,31,72,306,74.
Heat two: 6,39,369,116,734,303,911,27,100,780,31,14,130,95,67,115,85,162,278.
Heat three: 6,369,27,100,72,199(-2),95,60,174,192,14,115,116,742,198,190,74,17,278.
Final: 303,74,369,911,95,17,780,60,130,115,14,39,31,27,199,278,190,100.
Penalties: 192 black flagged in heat one for contact with 734. Disqualification rescinded after protest heard and upheld following steward’s enquiry. 911 initially disqualified from heat one on suspicion of unsafe driving. Disqualification rescinded after further investigation of incident. 67 dropped two places in heat one for contact with 780. 306 black flagged in heat two for contact with 278, 130 & 85. 199 dropped two places in heat three for contact with 17. 85 loaded up for refusing engine check.
Meeting photos at www.mkpics.smugmug.com/Nationalhotrodcom

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 14
Hunn at the double
Birmingham 14th May 2011
Graham Brown reports:  In a meeting bedevilled by showers and an ever changing track surface, it was Terry Hunn who came out on top overall at Birmingham Wheels, as he raced his still new Tigra to a well taken heat and final double.

Thirty five starters lined up for this with one newbie among them, Spedeworth 2.0 hot rodder Steve Spiers, Steve having acquired the ex-Ken Marriott Tigra. For the moment, the car looks substantially the same as when Ken last raced it and, if you think the name Spiers is familiar, take a look at the side of Scott Bourne’s car the next time you see it.

A heavy shower shortly before the meeting was due to start, coupled with numerous fast moving black clouds, showed the way the weather was going to go. This was clearly going to be one of those nights when just about everything about car set-up was going to be a guessing game (including tyres, naturally) and getting it right largely a matter of luck. I lost count of how many people (jokingly or otherwise) asked me what the weather was going to do. If I was any good at predicting that, it wouldn’t have been me that got caught out by the arrival of that heavy shower I mentioned earlier, would it? Beginning a meeting in damp and chilly clothing is never a good start…

A wet track with bright sunshine reflecting off it provided awkward conditions for the opening heat. Hunn was the first to show from his pole start but was soon challenged by Dickie Burtenshaw and the fast moving Andy Lane. Burtenshaw went to the front round the outside of the pit bend, with Lane taking a little longer to find a path through to second spot.

Burtenshaw and Lane then conducted an entertaining dice through the traffic, the backmarkers favouring first one and then the other. It was a race that could have gone either way, but it was Lane who hit the front four laps from home and managed to put just a bit of daylight between himself and Burtenshaw by flag fall.

A damp but now drying track for heat two proved just as tricky as in the opener. Ray Harris set the early pace in this but soon found his lead under attack from Dave Brooks, giving the unusual sight of an Audi TT scrapping with a Ford Puma. Harris got clear, Brooks caught him again in traffic and then Scott Bourne spun on the far turn, scattering cars in all directions. Unfortunately, one of these was the leader, who went headlong into the barriers. Colin Gomm was also heavily involved, his Merc sustaining considerable damage at both ends.

The resulting caution (during which Bourne got disqualified for getting out of his car) saw Brooks assume the lead, only to lose it again as Steve Burrows slipped by exiting the far turn six laps from the finish.

Heat three was also interrupted by stoppages. The first wasn’t long in coming and sparked off a red flag when too many cars tried to get into too small a space along the home straight. Chris Harvey, Mikey Godfrey, Stu Carter, John Holtby and Tony Moss were all involved to some extent or other, and a complete re-start with all available runners was called for. Carter and Holtby were unable to go, but the rest set off again.

Hunn went quickly clear but didn’t have long to enjoy his lead as there was a bout of yellows coming when Ralph Sanders crashed hard on the back straight and tore a wheel off. Poor old Chris Harvey clearly wasn’t having the best of races and ended up in the barriers with him.

Back under the green it was Hunn who had his nose in front again, the Essex man staying that way for the duration despite Mike Loosemore giving chase throughout. Although he was a long way behind them at the death, it was still a noteworthy drive by Malcolm Blackman to claim third here, the 911 car having looked really sharp throughout this one.

The oval had dried out completely for the final. This time, Loosemore was able to beat Hunn away to take up the early lead. Hunn was with him every step of the way though and, after a couple of stabs at getting past, made a big effort going down the back straight that saw the pair collide. Loosemore was fortunate not to vault the infield embankment and was in fact able to continue in fifth, but Hunn was long gone by then.

Burtenshaw and Brooks had a big dice to decide who would go after the leader, with Brooks going by only to have something important break going into turn three that put him out in a welter of sparks and smoke.

All of that left Hunn a quarter of a lap clear, although he wasn’t having the easiest run, as the backmarking traffic seemed often to be unaware of his presence. Despite getting blocked in several times, Terry appeared to remain calm and never did anything hasty that I spotted.

Mark you, he was helped by the fact that Burtenshaw didn’t have a free hand to chase him either once he came under pressure from the fast finishing Phil Spinks. It really is remarkable how often Phil has done this over the years, appearing to do very little for about half a race and then end by passing almost everything in sight! His efforts here were ultimately to be rewarded with second in any case, after Burtenshaw was dropped places for using the infield to overtake. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 130,100,39,17,85,192,911,278,60,14,67(-4),174,95,162,780,115,190,224,369,306,152,339.
Heat two: 116,67,14,174,31,742,27,72,60,162,190,17,152.
Heat three: 39,780,911,219,95,115,100,31,199,116,192,742,92,72,27,74.
Final: 39,14,780,130,278,100,(-4),116,742,31,911,115,174,369,60,95,199,192,219,72,74,92,190,17.
Penalties: 67 dropped four places in heat one for contact on 190 and failing to hold a racing line. 369 disqualified from heat two for causing the turn three incident with 199. 74 disqualified from heat two for passing cars under the yellow flag. 199 removed from race for exiting car under yellow flag – note that this offence carries no penalty points. 306 disqualified from heat three for contact with 100. 100 dropped four places in final for forceful overtaking.
Meeting photos at www.mkpics.smugmug.com/Nationalhotrodcom

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 13
Moss gathers up the win
Hednesford, Monday 2nd May 2011
Graham Brown reports:  Tony Moss fended off a stiff challenge from Carl Waller-Barrett in order to gather up the final honours at Hednesford Hills Raceway on Bank Holiday Monday, but it was the only time double heat winner Carl was headed home all afternoon, his substantial points haul propelling him well up the points chart at a time when that will soon become vital.

Even with the World Final starting to shimmer on the horizon and probably quite a few drivers now absolutely sure that they can no longer qualify, entries continue to hold up well, with no less than 38 cars on hand for this one. They included Winnie Holtmanns making another welcome visit and Colin Smith returning to the fray with the now fully rebuilt BMW for the first time since his big crash at the World last year. He wasn’t the only return-ee either, as John Holtby was another it was good to see back in the fold after too long an absence.

Also back in action was Terry Hunn in a new Tigra rather than the venerable Corsa which became very much “not well” (as Mr Hunn Snr might say) at NIR. The car, or the chassis at least, that Terry was using is actually the one Dave Polley had on display at the NEC, all the result of a bit of behind the scenes “horse trading”.

And it was Terry who led the opener away with his new mount but soon found that it had quite a dose of under-steer mid-bend, which led to his position being assaulted by Dickie Burtenshaw, Waller-Barrett and Ray Harris. Hunn and Waller-Barrett traded the lead back and forth – sometimes twice in the same lap - until all the in-fighting resulted in Hunn (who’d suddenly found his car could switch to over-steer without warning too) and Harris colliding. Harris went out after slamming the back straight wall, an impact which left him with a wheel pointing in very much the wrong direction, while Hunn just lost a load of ground.

All that left Waller-Barrett well clear but with Gavin Murray closing him down fast in the final laps. It looked for a few seconds as though the backmarking Shaun Taylor car looming up ahead might hold the key to their dice, but Carl dealt with that situation decisively enough that he was still just ahead as the pair went over the line in a near dead heat.

A couple of incidents near (and even after) the end of the race involving Chris Haird and Steve Thompson ultimately led to the latter getting loaded up.

Heat two was all about Burtenshaw, Ralph Sanders and Moss. It was also a race where all sorts of cars seemed to just be stopping in various places around the track, sometimes for no easily discernible reason! Burtenshaw and Sanders disputed the early lead, with Burtenshaw eventually gaining the upper hand and pulling clear. But late in the race, Sanders was able to get back on terms, with Moss now shadowing the pair and no doubt hoping for mistakes. None were forthcoming however, and the trio remained in that order, with John Holtby putting in a storming comeback drive for fourth.

A Legend (was it just the one? – I didn’t realise a Legend held that much oil!) did a good job of lubricating much of the home straight and most of turns 1-2 in their previous race, necessitating a lengthy clear up session and dust down. The heat three runners also got five ‘installation’ laps in which to try and blow some of the excess away.

Hunn had another turn at leading in this one but it was a short-lived turn this time, as Chris Harvey took over at the front after a couple of laps, Chris in turn falling victim to the fast moving Waller-Barrett. Carl made fairly easy work of recording win number two, but man to watch in the dying laps was definitely George Turiccki, the former BriSCA F2 star charging through to third by flag fall. He had, incidentally, been running in a tight freshly rebuilt motor in his earlier heat, just in case anybody was wondering why he elected to go off the back.

Hunn was the first to show again in the final but was fairly quickly overwhelmed by the battling placemen, with Moss and Waller-Barrett going through to start a fight for the lead that was going to last the rest of the race. They were interrupted by a bout of yellow flags along the way though, when James O’Shea went spinning at the end of the home straight in an incident that was to get Turiccki disqualified.

Waller-Barrett kept the leader under the cosh all the way to the chequers, but Moss never put a foot wrong and hung on for a well taken victory. Turiccki would have got another impressive third out of this had he not been dropped from the result altogether, which promoted Haird to the final podium slot.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 162,95,174,303,100,27,734,369,199,(170),115,31,60,130,742,39,92,74,6,(467),116,152.
Heat two: 100,734,192,6,503,14,72,303,491,780,60,85,219,339,67,(467),152.
Heat three: 162,503,186,192,199,95,85,278,39,115,491,72,74,780,742,219,130,(467),27,116,92,339,17.
Final: 192,162,(186),115,503,27,130,303,199,278,95(-2),174,60,72,780,92,369,85(-4),491,339,100,39,152.
Penalties: 170 loaded up for two incidents with 115 in heat one, one of which was after the chequered flag. 186 disqualified from final for contact with 74 and overtaking on the infield. 95 dropped two places in the final for contact. 85 dropped four places in the final for two incidents of contact.
Martin Kingston & Trevor Hill’s photos in the Gallery

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 12
Spinks turns up the heat
Northampton, Friday 22nd April 2011
Graham Brown reports:  With the sun beating down on one of the hottest Good Friday meetings for some years, every race at NIR produced a different winner but it was Phil Spinks who made all the right moves to annex the final.

A visit to NIR on Good Friday, with our always welcoming Autospeed hosts, has become a traditional fixture everyone seems to enjoy. What was odd about this one though, was that this is normally followed by Ipswich on Monday and this year, due to the cramped calendar in terms of bank holiday placement, something had to give. That ‘something’ turned out to the Ipswich event which meant, for me personally, this was to be the quietest Easter I’d spent in forty years! Of course, in the 1970’s, anybody who’d only done two meetings in a four day weekend would have been regarded as a wuss. Six would have been perfectly possible and, in the crowd I hung around with, seen as the norm. Mark Willis was telling me that someone had been complaining to him that they had too many meetings to do over the next week or so. Unfortunately, they had been within earshot of his dad at the time, who promptly set them straight about what might constitute “too many”, and it isn’t three meetings in ten days either!

Anyway, at least for our one Easter-time event, the sun shone, the weather was hot and, with 39 cars on hand, there wasn’t likely to be a shortage of competition either.

Among those 39 were a couple of ‘newbies’ too. Danny Hunn joined brother Terry for his NHR debut at the wheel of the recently acquired ex-Andy Holtby Tigra. Danny has chosen to leave the car largely in the colours of its previous owner, no bad thing, seeing as it was/is one the best looking rods for years.

Also having his first ever NHR outing was Jack (son of Peter) Blood, also in a Tigra, although this time a Haird ‘B’ version. Jack has considerable experience in Outlaw Hot Rods at Buxton and elsewhere to fall back on, and neither of the newcomers ever looked overawed or out of their depth in their unfamiliar surroundings.

Ray Harris held the heat one lead up until the first caution of the day when Terry Hunn slammed into the back straight barriers, severely damaging his venerable Corsa. The impact put an end to Terry’s day right there and may even have put an end to the Corsa by all accounts.

There seemed a fair chance that one of his pursuers might get the jump on Harris when the race re-commenced, but Ray made no mistakes of that sort and managed to fend off the hard pressing Russ Wilcox too over the last four laps.

Luke Armiger got disqualified from this for overtaking under the yellows and he wasn’t the only one in trouble with the stewards either, a further four penalties for contact being handed down. Clearly, however frenetic the action, the crackdown on contact wasn’t going to be de-railed.

Heat two was minus a couple of its expected runners, Tony Moss having to work on his brakes after they’d all but disappeared, while Carl Waller-Barrett had experienced an oil line failure in practice. He’d got that fixed only to run into further problems.

The race almost provided an action replay of heat one, with Harris leading once more until another bout of yellows, this time for Tim Moody, who’d clouted the wall and torn a wheel off.

The re-start saw Harris still in charge but Wilcox, having worked out that he’d left it too late to mount his challenge in the first race, made a big effort around the outside that took him to the front. Harris had also lost out to Steve Burrows and Graham Luscombe by the end, with Luscombe just getting up to pip Burrows out of second at the line.

Chris Harvey was the first to show in heat three but soon found himself under the cosh from Burrows and Armiger, this trio later being joined by Kym Weaver. They were all brought up short again however, when several cars got involved in an incident along the home straight, George Turiccki taking a spin and getting T-boned hard by Steve Thompson, with Andy Lane and James O’Shea also involved in more minor ways.

Prior to this, Weaver had been looking pretty good for the win, but the interruption had done just enough to spoil his rhythm for the last few remaining green flag laps. Harvey still led them away but was judged to have jumped the re-start, handing victory to Burrows this time.

A motor problem on the grid put Harris out of the final, something of a shame after his earlier results, but good news for non-qualifier Dick Burtenshaw as it enabled him to get in as a reserve.

Harvey tried hard to make amends for his earlier misdemeanour, leading Wilcox, Armiger and a host of others until yet another caution was thrown for the spun and stranded car of Ralph Sanders, which was stuck across the inside line on the exit from turn two. Harvey actually went spinning right on the yellows but was re-instated to the lead. This was great if probably unexpected news for him, but not so good for Jason Kew. Kewy had taken an earlier spin in company with Matt Simpson, and had been busy ever since trying hard (but very carefully) to get his lap back from the leaders. Harvey’s demise looked like he’d made it, only to suddenly end up back a lap down again! Unfortunately, he was out anyway soon after the restart.

Harvey’s re-gaining of the lead only lasted a few laps, as he lost it again after contact with Armiger that got the latter black flagged.

All that left Luscombe, Moody and Spinks to fight it out for the top slot, with Spinks putting in one of his characteristic outside charges to settle the matter.

All in all, a pretty satisfying day’s racing, even if I did get a mild case of sun-burn on the back of my hands and fingers. There’s always somewhere you forget to put the sun block, eh? What was that?  Sun block, at Easter? Yes, you read that correctly madam!  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one:  224,219,742,17,67,14,115,911,85,74,199(-2),95(-2),72,734,192,278,92,27,186(-2),(66),(467),369(-2),152.
Heat two: 219,742,116,224,155,209,31,60,303(-2),170,174,14,130,85,780,(66),100,199(-2),(467),339,152,911.
Heat three: 116,(519),503(-2),209,303,31,155,369,60,27,95,130,115,72,278,74,734,92,(66),339,(467),100
Final: 14,742,17,209,67,130,31,85,60,95,170,911,503,115,27,72,278,369,199,339,74,92,100.
Penalties: Heat one: 199,95,186 & 369 all dropped two places for contact. 519 black flagged for ignoring yellow flags. Heat two: 199 dropped two places for a jumped start. 303 dropped two places for contact. Heat three: 503 dropped two places for a jumped start. Final: 519 black flagged for contact. (Two black flags = load up)
Steve Weston and Trevor Hill’s photos in the Gallery

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 11
Ralph Sanders: maximum man
Aldershot, Sunday 10th April 2011
Graham Brown reports:  Ralph Sanders set a pace that was almost as hot as the sunny weather when the Nationals made their annual visit to Aldershot, the ever-green racer taking a maximum points haul back to Devon with an immaculately taken hat trick of victories.

30 cars for this one – quite enough within the tight confines of the Rushmoor oval – with no non-English registered drivers willing to chance their arm at this one. Those who were there were all driving what you’d expect them to be in, so little to report on the runners ‘n’ riders front.

Sanders certainly started the day as he meant to go on, stepping off pole to head them away into the first heat. He had plenty to keep him busy throughout most of the race though, with Dave Brooks and Carl Waller-Barrett pressing the leader hard in the early going, these two being joined by James O’Shea and Dickie Burtenshaw after a few laps.

However, Mark Paffey was clearly the fastest man on track. Although always game for the outside pass, the 60 car looked to be on rails, turning in tighter than any other and obviously able to hold the inside line such that any error by those in front automatically let Mark through. As Paffey started to carve his way up the places, he gradually broke up the pack assaulting Sanders’ lead. Once Paff was third, Brooks really had to start paying attention to his mirror, the ensuing dice allowing Sanders to finally draw clear over the last four laps. Paffey eventually made it past Brooks when Dave had a little bit of a swoon going through turns 1-2, taking Waller-Barrett through in his wake, but it was too late for either of them to affect the final outcome.

Those puzzled by Steve Thompson’s behaviour at the start of the second heat, when he pulled onto the infield during the warm ups and then rejoined the grid just in time for the off, might be amused to know that Steve had stopped to remove a spanner from under the throttle pedal. I jokingly remarked that if was an 8mm he needn’t have bothered, while a 22mm might have represented a bit more trouble! It was in fact a 13mm ratchet spanner and quite large enough to be problematic.

With no Sanders in this one, someone else got a shot at the podium. O’Shea was the first to show, swiftly leaving the rest to squabble over the places, where Ray Harris was fending off Waller-Barrett, Steve Burrows and Graham Luscombe.

Waller-Barrett and Burrows had slipped through to second and third when Harris went spinning in turn two, probably the result of Tony Moss laying oil there when his dipstick fell out (insert smutty comment of your choice here), which brought out the yellows.

Once hostilities recommenced, O’Shea and Waller-Barrett scrapped for the lead until the latter got out front and O’Shea found himself railroaded down the order. With the Irishman relegated to sixth, it was Tommy Maxwell, Phil Spinks and Jason Kew who argued over the places. They finished in that same order, their dice allowing Waller-Barrett to clear off to the tune of a quarter of a lap.

Heat three turned out to be another Sanders benefit, the West countryman leaping away at the start and quickly extending his initial advantage to over a quarter of a lap. Behind him, Mikey Godfrey and Brooks disputed second and third to the end, while Paffey was again good value in fifth, having tried very hard in the closing stages to relieve Mike Loosemore of fourth spot. Elsewhere, Spinks made several big efforts to go round outside, although his valour mainly led to him losing places rather than gaining them, and Steve Burrows nearly had a closer look at the wall than he would have liked on turn four.

It wasn’t long before Sanders was edging away from them all again in the final. A brief spat over third between Brooks and Waller-Barrett led to them touching and then getting momentarily locked together, losing the pair a load of ground.

In Sanders’ wake, O’Shea was left having to square up to Burtenshaw and Godfrey, with Godfrey nipping up into second as O’Shea began to struggle in the handling department.

Sanders was a long way in front by that point (a quarter of a lap up on Godfrey, who had a similar advantage over the rest) and Ralph was already looking the easy winner, when a series of small collisions in the pack saw Lee Pepper launched skywards by Andy Lane and out into the wall, bringing about a caution.

Naturally, the yellows had lost Sanders his big lead, but he is an old hand at this game and was soon working on building it again in a stoical manner when they were back to green flag racing.

Paffey was still the man to watch here though. He’d already made significant strides forward prior to the interruption and now finally found a way past O’Shea to go third. He had just started a big charge up the outside to try and relieve Godfrey of second when Chris Haird went spinning in a huge cloud of smoke as an oil line parted company with his motor going into turn three. No NASCAR driver ever blotted out the scenery any more effectively than the world champion on this occasion, the resulting small fire and clear up operation curtailing the race with three laps to run.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 734,60,162,67,(742),100,369,199,278,174,115,186,72,192(-2),519,911,31,780,155,74.
Heat two: 162,369,14,174,(742),74,(303),72,155,116,170,911,130 (-2),186,503,17.
Heat three: 734,27,67,780,60,95,199,278,115,170,303,100,130,14,31,116,503,---,519(-2).
Final: 734,27,60,780,174,72,911,186,74,95,100,369,278,199,170. NOF.
Penalties: 742 disqualified from heat one for contact with 780 & 74. 192 black crossed and dropped two places for contact in heat one. 742 disqualified from heat two for contact with 503; 742 loaded up (two black flags in one meeting = load up). 303 disqualified from heat two for contact with 155. 130 black crossed and dropped two places for contact with 17 in heat two. 519 black crossed and dropped two places for contact in heat three.
Photos by Martin Kingston and Keith Duke in the Gallery

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 10
Sanders takes sole Foxhall victory
Ipswich, Saturday 26th March 2011
Graham Brown reports:  With just one World Series meeting scheduled for Ipswich prior to the Thunder 500 this year, there was a huge 40-car entry eager to gain track time at the circuit, and ever-green West Country racer Ralph Sanders was the man who lifted the trophy at the end of it.

A rather similar English entry to that of Northampton for this, but with the addition of Ray Harris in his nowadays unique Audi. Out for his debut run was former Stock rodder Shaun Taylor, although he is much better known to most of us officials as the long suffering video man in the box. Shaun is usually the poor bloke who gets to find controversial incidents on the track cameras and then re-play them over and over and over (etc.) again; I don’t think I have once heard him complain no matter how often he gets to see each clip or how long after a meeting we have managed to keep him there. He is definitely going to be missed in that role at NHR events, although fear not all other non-contact racers! Shaun will still be catching you “at it” as usual the rest of the time.

The interlopers looking for that Foxhall practice included Glenn Bell and Gary Woolsey with his new Boardley-built Tigra, although Gary decided wet weather practice was not really what he was after and the car stayed safely in the pits all night. David O’Regan came along to represent ROI, with Winnie Holtmanns and Laurens van der Velde providing the continental flavour.

An extraordinary drivers’ briefing was held prior to the start of the meeting in an attempt to try and keep things a bit more orderly on what was going to be a very busy night with that number of cars and only time for three heats. By and large, the plan seemed to work, with two of the three heats passing by without any stoppages, and all three remaining penalty free into the bargain.

Unfortunately, however well behaved the drivers intended to be, heavy rain just before the start of the meeting had left the oval in a very slippery state which it would remain, away from the racing line, for the rest of the night.

Nevertheless, the opening heat provided a great race, easily the best of the meeting. Terry Hunn took the early lead but was then caught and passed by Carl Waller-Barrett. Hunn came back at him hard though and re-passed in traffic, only for Waller-Barrett to return the compliment. That ended when Waller-Barrett clipped the spun car of Holtmanns going through turns one-two, but Hunn now had Kym Weaver to contend with. A similarly hard dice eventually went Hunn’s way after Weaver seemed to slow somewhat in the closing stages.

The circuit had deteriorated to a one-line track by the second heat, providing a relatively easy win for Chris Harvey, who managed to keep Tommy Maxwell at arms length throughout.

Heat three didn’t get far before the first caution of the night, thrown when Andy Holtby went spinning along the back straight, Steve Thompson retiring with a flat during the pause. A Southern versus Northern Ireland tussle ensued once they were back under the green, with James O’Shea fending off Maxwell until the latter allowed Dave Brooks past. Maxwell eventually redressed that situation but, by then, O’Shea was long gone to the tune of a quarter of a lap.

The final kicked off with Sanders relieving Hunn of the early lead on lap one, O’Shea following Ralph through to take up second spot. But this was another race that was going to be interrupted by a stoppage, when Steve Thompson, Gavin Murray and others got involved in a shunt on the back straight.

Sanders’ seemed to have put his lacklustre heat performances behind him and re-assumed the lead after the yellow flags. O’Shea initially provided a challenge to the leader, but Sanders was able to pull well clear and looked to have it won. However, despite the order remaining fairly processional for almost the entire field and with the laps winding down, O’Shea came right back at Ralph and it was very close between the pair when the race ended suddenly on a red flagged last lap after Chris Haird crashed in turn one. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 39,209,503,519,199,303,(482),192,31,115,278,911,17,60,95,(467),(9),174,742,(78),780.
Heat two: 503,369,519,209,192,303,61,130,162,14,74,742,224,170,911,95,100,60,85,155,(9),72,(78),186,(467).
Heat three: 74,369,100,67,14,17,155,27,199,85,72,39,174,734,130,31,278,(78),(467),(9),152,(482),780,(208).
Final: 734,74,519,369,503,67,780,155,278,17,174,911,60,27,152,115,14,162.
Penalties:
130 disqualified from final for overtaking the pace car under yellow flag. 482 loaded up for incident with 742 in final.
Photos by Martin Kingston, Trevor Hill & Clive Marchant in the Gallery

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 9
Almost perfect Loosemore
Northampton, Sunday 13th March 2011
Graham Brown reports:  As the National Hot Rods got back on the world qualifying trail after their winter break, it was Mike Loosemore who had the almost perfect day as he recorded a near hat-trick. Tony Moss was the only driver to officially finish ahead of Loosemore all afternoon when he won the opening race, the west countryman going on to record a heat and final double.

The long winter break had thrown up the usual crop of new cars, rebuilt cars, new paint jobs and new driver/car combinations, all of which were providing plenty of interest in the pits pre-meeting. Fortunately, spectators and crews alike were able to mill around the 36 cars in attendance and enjoy it all without getting soaked, a situation which had looked distinctly unlikely on the way up the M1!

Hoping I haven’t forgotten anything of significance (and apologies in advance if I have), here’s a quick rundown of what Jim Gregory used to call “the parish notices”.

Perhaps most significantly, former BriSCA F2 star performer George Turiccki had made the switch to NHR’s during the winter. He looks set to really try and make an impression in his debut season too, armed as he is, with Chris Haird’s world winning Tigra B. That’ll be the one Chris had decided he wanted to keep, rather than the brand new one he’s actually ended up with! I guess sometimes people make an offer you just can’t refuse.

Don’t take this the wrong way, because in no way is this any sort of a complaint, but I don’t really get what it is with these top F2 drivers who suddenly think hot rod racing of any sort, is a good idea. I mean, if they just want to spend more money and do a few less meetings, wouldn’t F1 make more sense?  Like I say, no complaints from me whatsoever; when drivers of the standard of Dave Polley and Turiccki (or Neal Smith in the past) want to race with us, it can only be good for the formula.

Anyway: to get back to the notices. Given that Turiccki was in “his” car, that meant that Haird was sat in an all-new Tigra B, while there were further brand new Tigra’s – although this time of the Ludlow variety – for Graham Luscombe, Mark Paffey and Tim Moody, all three men having forsaken the Mercs they were driving last season.

Another leaving an SLK behind (at least for the moment) was Dave Brooks, who’d reverted to the Ford Puma we saw briefly last year, the car now painted to resemble the scheme seen on his ex-Boardley Merc in 2010.

Ralph Sanders also has his Tigra back in action rather than the 206cc seen last session, although in his case, I’m not entirely sure it isn’t the same car with a change of panels.

James O’Shea was debuting a beautifully turned out Peugeot 206cc, which really took a bit of getting used to after so long of seeing him in the Fiesta, now destined for his son to drive, although not at this meeting.

Although there was no way to tell without being told (if you see what I mean!) Matt Simpson was actually driving Jeff’s car, having decided he liked it better than his own during close season testing.

And last but by no means least, Jason Cooper was another with a totally new set of wheels, in the shape of another Haird-built Tigra B. Now, I always liked the paint job on the Peugeot, but the new car – while being basically the same colour – is absolutely stunning.

With all these unknown quantities in the way of the aforementioned new driver/car combinations, there was always potential for this meeting to turn out a lively one.

Ken Marriott (sporting a really nice new gold paint job) was soon out front in the first race with Loosemore wasting no time zipping through to second shortly before the first caution of the day, caused by Luscombe hurling a loose door skin into the fray. They didn’t get a lot further before another stoppage, a more serious one this time.

Brooks’ Puma had been plugging round with a sick motor which finally caught him out, the Ford spinning into a T-bone with Sanders who then got hit by Paffey’s spanking new Tigra. Paffey’s impact shovelled Sanders’ car straight up in the air before crashing down on top of its assailant.

With the green back out, Marriott went on to cross the line first, with Moss just beaten home in second after having passed Loosemore around the outside shortly before the finish. Unfortunately, the winner’s car failed a post race weight check, elevating Moss and Loosemore to the premier places.

Two runners were lost from heat two almost before it had got underway, with Russ Wilcox pulling out almost immediately and Jason Kew suffering a blow out which sent him cannoning into Simpson, spinning Matt out.

Tommy Maxwell headed them away before coming under pressure from Moss. Tony had his nose in front several times without managing to make the pass stick, the pair finally getting together with the challenging Andy Holtby on the fourth turn, sending all three of them into the wall. This gave Moody the lead though he couldn’t hold off the battered but fast moving Paffey car, and it was he who collected the honours this time.

In passing, it has to be said there are not many people who can bring out a brand new car and have it need a new roof panel before it has even completed a single race, so take a bow Paff! Mind you, coming back from that to immediately win the next one probably requires an even deeper bow. And for his next trick….well, that would have to wait until the final.

Maxwell, incidentally, earned a disqualification for his part in that turn two crash, literally adding insult to injury as Tommy had got a bit of a sprained wrist out of the shunt.

Terry Hunn was the early heat three leader but soon lost out to Loosemore, who shot up the outside and away coming off turn two. Mike was nearly a quarter of a lap to the good by flag fall, Cooper’s new Tigra claiming second.

A packed grid for the final saw Chris Harvey (another with a fresh paint job) setting the pace initially before Loosemore ducked underneath him and cleared off into the distance. His lead vanished however, when Phil Spinks blew his motor and laid oil going into turn one, the resulting mayhem leaving Cooper on top of the barriers with Paffey the man underneath yet again!

Following the red flag clear up, Loosemore swiftly shrugged off an attack by Moody and went on to record a clear win. Moody was a similarly safe second, while Steve Thompson just managed to pip Gavin Murray for third at the line. Matters had got very slippery nearing the finish and there was a strong smell of gear oil in the air, Scott Bourne finally having to give up sixth spot when his axle cried enough just over a lap from home.

And what of our new recruit, Turiccki? It is really hard to think up any other description than the hackneyed cliché “impressive”, because he was surely that. Starting off the back all day remember, in an unfamiliar car, going the wrong way round on racing tyres and without being allowed to hit anybody (which he didn’t) he finished sixth in heat one (check out who he passed along the way), picking up twelfth in the next one and tenth in the final. One to watch? Oh yes.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: (2),192,780,199,742,219,186,278,170,115,31(-2),95,911,174,116,369,39,519.
Heat two: 60,17,482,192,130,115,(369),911,27,95,72,14,209,155,74,503,85,303.
Heat three: 780,482,61,130,170,85,31,209,742,303,39,186,278,116,155,734,519,503.
Final: 780,17,170,95,115,31,209,85,303,186,278,911,130,174,155,74,116.
Penalties: 2 disqualified from heat one and loaded up after failing post race inside and rear weight check. 31 dropped two places in heat one for contact with 519. 369 disqualified from heat two for contact with 192 which led to incident involving 369,192 and 61.
Photos - by Martin Kingston, Dave Smith, Trevor Hill and Steve Weston in the Gallery

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 8
Luscombe’s but not Luscombe’s
Hednesford, Sunday 7th November 2010
Graham Brown reports:  In what would have been a fitting climax to the season, Graham Luscombe won the final by a couple of inches from Steve Burrows whose race long pursuit was the feature of the event. Unfortunately, the transponder computer showed that Burrows was in front and subsequent checking of the cars discovered that Luscombe’s SLK had the transponder fitted in the wrong place, making him technically illegal and handing victory to the second man.

38 cars for this, the last outing of 2010 and a return to Hednesford’s firework meeting for the first time in a number of years. Unsurprisingly, this late in the season, there were no newbies or returnees among the entry.

A slightly dusty track (there having been no practice) and blinding sunshine greeted the heat one runners and made for a lively first few laps. Chris Harvey led them away and was able to establish quite an advantage too, as Ralph Sanders diced for second with Jason Cooper, Graham Luscombe and Steve Burrows.

Cooper and Burrows were both ultimately able to turn the outside line to advantage, the pair advancing to second and third, and then reeling the leader in as the laps counted down. With two to go, Burrows’ challenge on Harvey resulted in Harvey spinning, an incident which sparked off a multi-car crash in its wake. Yellow followed by red flags brought the race to an early conclusion and, with the result taken from the last completed lap, a somewhat fortunate Harvey was still able to claim the win. Cooper would have been second but copped a two place penalty, elevating Burrows and Sanders to second and third.

Heat two lined up with darkness falling and an opportunity to see how the new track lights worked, which was rather well as it happens, with none of the “pools of light and dark” that used to be a feature of night-time racing here. Carl Waller-Barrett had a bit of a dither about whether to start or not and eventually settled for going off the back of the grid. No such indecision for Mike Loosemore however, whose car was belching smoke on the grid, Mike wisely deciding to park it before the off.

Willie Hardie did get started but definitely wasn’t going to be having a good day. He’d been forced out of heat one with a busted half shaft which took some removing. Now, some bits remaining in the axle case (unbeknown to the team) had got into somewhere nasty and smashed his diff! Sometimes you just can’t win…

The race turned out to be a battle of the west countrymen, with Sanders leading and chased by Luscombe, who went by down the inside of the West bend after a couple of laps. Sanders didn’t give up the fight though and was still running a strong second when the yellows flew for some debris on the course, actually Steve Thompson’s left side door. Steve had been involved in a first heat altercation with Kym Weaver that meant the 170 car coming out for this one heavily bandaged in race tape. Unfortunately, it hadn’t kept the door on, or indeed, most of the left side sill either, Steve being forced to call it a day during the stoppage.

Luscombe soon managed to gain a clear upper hand after they got going again, leaving Ralph to have a “race” with Colin Gomm, who was trying to unlap himself following an earlier rotation. Colin’s always gentlemanly attempts to get by didn’t manage to spur Sanders into closing the gap on the leader though. Luscombe was fairly well clear by the time the reds flew again for another early finish when a whole bunch of cars collided with each other or the barriers on the West bend exit. I’m told (never saw it I fear) that it started with some sort of contact between Sammy Shudall and Tim Moody. Shudall smacked into the wall, Mark Paffey, Phil Spinks and others getting involved in the aftermath.

Harvey looked all ready for a repeat win in the third heat but that reckoned without Jason Cooper who went by down the inside going into the East bend, Jason having already relegated Ray Harris soon after the start. Burrows had also found a way through shortly before David Brooks somehow managed to get airborne going through the West bend, landing awkwardly on the front of Stu Carter and then getting bulldozed into the barriers by the blinded Carter! Yellows for this was a given. Carter did try to get back into the action but a trail of steam from his holed rad told its own story and he was soon on the infield.

Cooper and Burrows duelled over the lead following the restart but this wasn’t going all that far either, as Gavin Murray smacked the wall along the home straight and ripped off a back wheel, giving rise to more yellows.

Cooper and Burrows got back into it for the lead the rest of the way in an entertaining dice, one of those where Jason always looked able to hang on and Steve always looked like he might make it by too. Meanwhile, Harris’ Audi had clearly not enjoyed the last of the caution periods and had been missing on and off ever since the green came back out. It looked like it finally came back on all four cylinders at just the wrong moment exiting the West bend, causing the car to snap sideways and into Malcolm Blackman. Malcolm then ricocheted off and into Matt Simpson, sending Matt on a path that led straight into the infield embankment and a very sudden stop. The impact was not that dissimilar to John Holtby’s earlier in the year, with comparable implications for the 303 car’s chassis I shouldn’t wonder.

This race did actually make it to the end, despite Matt’s incident, Cooper and Burrows remaining tied together at the line with Cooper still just ahead.

The final kicked off with first bend crash involving many of the front-of-grid starters and a complete re-start. I say “first bend”, but this was really a start line incident, brought about by Cooper getting a demon start and then trying to insinuate his car between front row men Sanders and Harvey where there simply wasn’t room for it. All three ended up in the fence, then got collected by James O’Shea and Tim Pullen.

With the mess cleared up and Cooper disqualified, at the second time of asking Luscombe got a great start and ripped past Ray Harris to set the pace. Harris had dropped another spot to Burrows before long and now the race was on with a vengeance. Luscombe stayed well clear until he encountered a large group of backmarkers, and then Burrows carved large chunks out of his lead.

Luscombe always managed to keep a tantalising gap and a couple of backmarkers between them until suddenly, there wasn’t. With four laps to go the gap was down to half a car length and then Luscombe lost it going through the West bend. Somehow, he gathered it up again and still managed to stay in front, but Burrows went straight for an outside pass, leading to the pair running much of the last two laps side by side.

Everybody in the box including the lap scorers knew for a fact that Luscombe was still clearly a shade in front at the line but, in the end, it was only going to be good enough for second. Because the timing computer said Burrows was in front, that earned both cars a check on where their transponders were mounted. Steve’s turned out to be exactly the regulation 1.8 metres back from the furthest forward part of the car, Luscombe’s was way further back and this little chunk of self-imposed penalty was going to cost him.

Don’t get me wrong, Burrows was a more than deserving winner anyway. He was miles behind at one point but never gave up. He clawed his way up to the back of the pack where the leader was bogged down and hounded Luscombe through the traffic working for a break. He finally got on terms, forced a mistake from Graham that should have got him by and, when that didn’t work out, got on the outside line and ran alongside for most of two laps before just losing out by inches. All in all, hardly the best way to round off a year but rules are rules I guess. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one:  503,116,734,482(-2),27,(444),742,278,155,17,61,303,162,115,95,170,209,31,130,138,199,500,369,67.
Heat two: 742,734,224,192,27,100,85,17,174,130,911,31,60,219,14,278.
Heat three: 482,116,500,503,192,60,174,115,199,911,209,138,100,219,224,369.
Final: 116,742,115,27,519,60,162,100,174,95,170,911,31,278,138,72,209,130
482 dropped two places for contact in heat one.
444 loaded up after heat two after crew member was abusive to another driver.
482 disqualified from final following incident at start involving 503 & 734.
Note that 742 actually crossed the line first in the final but had the victory disallowed after his transponder was found to be incorrectly positioned.  Martin & Trevor’s photos

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 7
Godfrey’s big night out
Birmingham, Saturday 30th October 2010
Graham Brown reports:  After a season fraught with crashes and set-backs, Mikey Godfrey finally made it all come right at The Wheels, the Tigra ‘B’ driver winning his first ever final as well as one of the heats and was only one spot short of a hat-trick.

With the 2010 season starting to wind down a slight drop off in entries is only to be expected, but 36 cars was still quite enough around Birmingham, even spread over four heats. Sadly though, we’d lost another before we even started, James O’Shea having had a long journey for not very much after his motor let go in afternoon practice. It’s funny, I’ve noticed before that English drivers usually have to go all the way to Tipp or NI to blow an engine up, it can’t happen at Aldershot for example, can it? Seems the same is also true in reverse!

Godfrey kicked off his evening by leading the opening heat away and was obviously keeping his head down and concentration turned right up as he kept the chasing Mike Loosemore a comfortable distance behind. The gap remained stable (no doubt helped by the fact that Loosemore had to keep at least half an eye on his mirror where Tim Moody and Gavin Murray were looming large) from half distance to the end resulting in a rare win. Moody – going far better than on most of his recent outings – was still eventually forced to give best to both Murray and a hard trying Dick Hillard nearing the finish.

If Godfrey had enjoyed a relatively easy win earlier, heat two was a very different story. Tony Moss got away first but was soon under pressure from Russ Wilcox. Luke Armiger and Graham Luscombe were having an even fiercer scrap over third, a scrap which got them both black crossed in the space of a lap. And, to spice that up even further, they were going to be joined before too long by Dave Polley.

They were only four laps from home when Wilcox finally found a way past Moss, but it was a way that the steward didn’t approve of, a two place penalty handing the win back to Tony. The feature of the race though, was undoubtedly the progress made by Polley, the ex-BriSCA F2 star making good use of the outside line to get from a mid-grid start all the way through to an eventual second place. OK, he was probably helped by having slightly fresher tyres than his opposition, but it was still a brave and committed race from a driver in somebody else’s car and only his second NHR meeting.

It looked for a while as though Godfrey was going to add the third heat to his tally, once he’d managed to shrug off the early attentions of Ralph Sanders. But Wilcox was on a mission again, by-passing Sanders and making no mistakes this time as he drove around the outside to snatch this one away from Mikey as they exited the pit bend.

An early bout of yellow flags interrupted the last qualifier, Graham Luscombe holding point both before and after the pause, brought about when Jason Cooper looped coming off turn two and got collected by a few people, notably Jason Kew, who certainly got the most damage out of the incident.

Luscombe’s slowing Merc soon lost out to Moody’s similar machine after the re-start, the newly published author dicing the rest of the way with Phil Spinks and Murray. It seemed Moody was finally going to get his hands on a win at last but the sight of the two lap board spurred Spinks onto the outside line as he put an absolutely classic pass on Moody to seize the win.

Spinks wasn’t going to do a repeat performance in the final however, as he went spinning on the opening lap. It was Godfrey who had his nose in front from the outset but with Luscombe soon hot on his heels this time. Graham kept the pressure on, goading Godfrey into going flat out and causing both men to draw well clear of any pursuit.

Once they had a quarter of a lap in hand, it was clear the win was going to one or other of the pair. There were a few black crosses being bandied about to the pack, where things were getting a bit fraught from time to time. As if that wasn’t enough to keep things interesting, a fine drizzle started to dampen the track around half distance.

With the track becoming increasingly difficult now as the laps dwindled away, the under steer which had plagued Luscombe’s efforts all night re-appeared with a vengeance. This helped set the seal on Godfrey’s maiden final victory, a popular win with many on the terraces and in the pits judging by the reaction all around. It also seemed to go down quite well with Mikey himself, who never got off his mobile the rest of the night, no doubt broadcasting the good news to all and sundry!  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 27,780,95,31,17,61,303,278,170,115,67,130,155,444,482,224,---,100(-2).
Heat two: 192,138,219(-2),519,14,85,742,911,162,72(-2),174,369,199,60,116,500.
Heat three: 219,27,67,31,734,85,72,115,192,278,519,61. NOF.
Heat four: 14,17,95,155,303,911,170,138(-2),444,130,742,780,116. NOF
Final: 27,742,780,31,192,138,95(-2),170,130,(85),72,911,278,14,444,155,303,369,100.
100 originally disqualified from heat one for contact, later reduced to a two place penalty after steward’s enquiry.
219 & 72 both dropped two places for contact in heat two.
162 disqualified for heavy contact with 199 in heat three.
138 dropped two places for contact in heat four.
85 disqualified from final for contact. 130 initially disqualified from final for contact, later re-instated after protest heard.

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 6
Steve makes his a double!
Ipswich, Saturday 16th October 2010
Graham Brown reports:  Steve Burrows’ recent switch from a Tigra to a Peugeot stood him in good stead at Ipswich as he made off with a heat and final double, a pair which could well have been a hat-trick if the car hadn’t let him down while leading another heat.

Although playing a supporting role for once (to the Superstox 50th Anniversary World Final) the 40 car entry still managed to pack out the track all night. In amongst those 40 was Kym Weaver, back for another shot at Nationals and driving the beautifully turned out Tigra already seen upon this website previously. Joining him was David Polley, finally proving out the rumours we’d heard about him switching away from BriSCA F2 some months ago. I’d always figured we weren’t going to see him until the F2 world final was out of the way for this year, and so it turned out, Dave having borrowed Ricky Hunn’s Tigra while he finds out if he likes his new formula. For all you number fetishists out there, Dave was going to have #38, but as Richard Smith wishes to retain that for the time being, he picked 138 instead. As for perhaps using 306, Dave says ‘Maybe later!’

It was also a ‘welcome back’ to Lee Wood, his car returned to his rather more familiar black livery, even if the ‘JPS-style’ lettering wasn’t in evidence.

Without a couple of cancellations we’d have had 42 cars for this meeting which, under normal circumstances, would have had us pressing for four heats. However, it was just never going to happen at this meeting and, as things turned out, it’s a good job nobody tried to make it happen. Just the same, 40 cars and only three heats was definitely going to make for a busy night in race control as well as on track.

Frank West and Danny Brosnan were the first to show in the opening heat, but Burrows was past both of them with two laps gone. He went on to open up a yawning half lap advantage over the rest, ‘the rest’ being pretty busy to say the least with a huge pack of no less than 17 cars fighting it out for the minor places. That particular scrap always looked like it might end in tears for somebody, and it was Phil Spinks who eventually got spat out and backwards into the wall at turn one.

Burrows still looked to be home free until he got caught up with a spinning Andy Holtby on the back straight. Burrows was fortunate to have just got going again as the yellows came out, was not going to be deemed the cause of the yellow and had been far enough in front to have retained his lead. The caution had brought the pack up on his shoulder though, and Lee Pepper had him under pressure until Burrows’ car suddenly went sick three laps from home (caused by a mis-mounted fuel pump, a problem which had reared its head at Tipperary originally), which handed Pepper the win. Tommy Maxwell got over the line second but lost a couple of places to the steward, promoting Tim Pullen and Carl Waller-Barrett instead.

West had another spell out front in heat two, although challenged by Chris Harvey and a now sorted Burrows but, when a backmarking George Hamlyn got underfoot, West and Harvey went spinning. Burrows had to survive another stoppage here, this time when Mikey Godfrey crashed exiting turn four and got side swiped by Scott Bourne (who also briefly caught fire at the rear) and then collected by Wood.

The resumption brought no repeat of Burrows’ first heat dramas though and Steve went on to collect the win in a shortened race as time constraints started to bite.

Ralph Sanders and Tony Moss disputed the early third heat lead, and raced a lot of laps side by side as Moss tried desperately to get down the outside. His perseverance paid off as he finally went ahead coming off turn two and was duly rewarded with the victory. Not for the first time, Colin Gomm proved what a fast finisher he can be when he puts his mind to it as he went tearing past Sanders – with Pepper in tow – as they neared the finish. A clash between Willie Hardie and Steve Thompson in the dying seconds saw the points leader go spinning down by the start/finish and was to get Thompson disqualified.

With time to the track curfew becoming a real problem now, the final was shortened to 25 laps and was always going to be a lively affair.

Sanders and fellow front-of-grid starter Mike Loosemore collided on the opening lap and went out. West took up the early lead but swiftly retired, leaving Moss to fight it out with Burrows. The pair managed to draw clear of the warring pack, as did third and fourth men Maxwell and Dave Brooks. Brooks took Maxwell to go third but was now too far back to bother the leaders.

The lead battle was still far from resolved with five to go but, like his opponent a couple of hours earlier, Moss’s car suddenly cried enough and it was effectively all over. Burrows won by half a lap, with the again seriously fast finishing Colin Gomm snatching second away from Brooks by about an inch at the line. Another incident involving Thompson as the laps wound down (Jason Cooper went spinning this time) got him disqualified for a second time, the two penalties adding up to a ‘technical load up’. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 155,500,162,369(-2),278,199,(170),174,444,115,303,224,519,130(-2),160,31,780(-2),100.
Heat two: 116,734,67,369,500,519,174,61,199(-2),911,72,115,162,209(-2),(60),482,74,138,444.
Heat three: 192,278,155,734,60,67,130,780,31,303,911,17,209,224,100,(170),130,482,219,74,---,---,33(-2).
Final: 116,278,67,369,162,303,115,911,130,60,31,209,138,100,(170),72,500,(199),482.
Heat one: 130, 369 & 780 dropped 2 places for contact.
Heat two: 209 & 199 dropped 2 places for contact. 60 disqualified for moving out of line and overtaking the pace car on a restart.
Heat three: 33 dropped 2 places for contact. 170 disqualified for contact with 72.
Final: 170 disqualified for contact (482), two disqualifications for contact equals a load up. 199 disqualified for contact.

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 5
Gomm splashes to victory
Great Yarmouth, Sunday 26th September 2010
Graham Brown reports:  Heavy rain greeted the National Hot Rods return to the Caister Road raceway for the first time in many years, conditions which suited Colin Gomm just fine as he raced to a heat and final double. Stu Carter was another who clearly liked the slippery track as he notched up two heat wins as well.

A 28 car entry would normally be regarded as very average, such is the current healthy state of the formula. However, for a Sunday night meeting a long way from many drivers bases and, what’s more, held on a track many of them had heard bad things about (too narrow, too short, post and cable fence, etc.) it was probably better than many people expected. Had the nay-sayers witnessed the rain that was teeming down from well before start time, they would no doubt have been doubly glad they stayed home. Well, you know what? Those who stayed away (on either side of the fence) missed what was actually a darn good meeting, with some proper hot rod racing, side by side lead battles and in truth, relatively little damage to the cars at the end of it.

Chris Harvey set off into the pouring rain and the lead of the first heat and had built a bit of an advantage before he had the throttle stick open at a very embarrassing moment going into turn three and slid headlong into the fence. That gifted the lead to Tim Moody, but he was already under pressure from James O’Shea, the Irishman bravely taking to the outside to snatch the lead. Even once in front, James continued to drive very close to the fence – particularly exiting turn two just by the pit gate – and I was worried several times, even if he wasn’t! Nevertheless, James stayed out of the wires and went on to win. Moody suffered a spin with five to go, which put Dickie Burtenshaw up to second and Jason Kew third.

Following an unsatisfactory start to heat two, Mikey Godfrey was the first to show. But it was Dick Hillard who was game to try the outside this time as he hit the front going down the back straight with four laps gone. Hillard had towed Stu Carter through in his wake however, with Carter pressing hard until Andy Lane somehow got just a bit too wide leaving turn four and smashed hard into the fence. The b-bang-b-bang-bang nature of the shunt told you he’d hit several posts, and the car didn’t stop until it had crushed the left front wheel against the last upright. Ouch. This resulted in swiftly implemented red flags.

Following the restart, Hillard and Carter were at it again until Stu finally managed to get up on the outside going into turn one to take the lead and a worthy win. Mind you, Hillard was coming back at him hard in the dying seconds – an excellent race.

Moody had another go at leading in the third race once he was past early leader Godfrey. But once Carter was past Godfrey too, he was soon able to get on the outside trip again, Stuart obviously unfazed by the closeness of the fence or the blinding spray. Once ahead Carter extended his lead at will and eventually crossed the line just about half a lap clear, Moody holding onto second the rest of the way. Tim had to fend off challenges from Burtenshaw and Mark Paffey, while a last bend schmozzle saw Gavin Murray go spinning in an incident which was to get a disgruntled Kew disqualified.

Heat four turned out to be the race of the night and, amazingly, was joined by Lane at the last minute. There must have been a massive effort made in the pits to get him out again and in that weather too – respect! There was quite a bit of left side bodywork still missing and it’s probably as well nobody pointed him in the direction of any scales…

Colin Gomm quickly assumed the lead with Hillard not too far behind. Dick got up with the leader and had several attempts at passing but couldn’t quite manage to get it done. The longer their dice went on, the nearer third man Scott Bourne got to them until it became a three way battle over the final three laps. It was all extremely close, with Hillard looking like he’d lost second several times but nearly taking the lead several times as well! Gomm just managed to stay ahead at flag fall with Hillard second by a mere five hundredths of a second in a near dead heat with Bourne.

The rain had intensified (yes, that was possible) for the final and now blinding spray was a real problem. O’Shea clipped the home straight fence early on and was forced into retirement while Gomm got away fast and had built what looked like a race-winning quarter lap lead when Luke Armiger crashed at the end of the back straight, bringing out the yellows.

That closed the field up and now put Hillard in position to mount a serious challenge. There should have been four backmarkers between them for the resumption, but three were unable to restart and the other – Jason Cooper – only made one further lap before joining the others on the infield. That left the lead pair duelling away for many laps.

Much as in the last heat, their scrap allowed the third man – Carter this time – to close in. The trio went at it throughout the closing stages but, nearing the finish, Gomm was able to find a bit extra to both lap Tommy Maxwell more speedily than the others and draw clear once more by the chequers. It was in fact a red-and-chequered together finish, after Godfrey went spinning on the final turn, Bourne stopping by the start/finish (right on the exit from turn four at Yarmouth) with the back axle half out of it, presumably having tagged a post going down the back straight.

It must be said that every driver who had the lead always held a great line whenever they could and not once did I see anybody try anything silly to cling on at the front. If the drivers all showed each other half that much respect on a dry, sunny day at Ipswich, we’d never get some of the problems we do. As some wag remarked afterwards, maybe that’s the answer; run every meeting on a track with a post and cable fence. And in the wet.

I must also add that, not having been to Yarmouth for six years, I was well impressed with the stadium re-vamp and their high-tech race control too. I counted 17 computer or TV monitors and keyboards in there, even if most of it is directed at looking after the dog racing. Mind you, the exposed wind and rain-swept spiral stairway, elevated gantries and walkways leading to it mean that officials with creeping vertigo need not apply!

But the Yarmouth team of Dave Smith, Nick Thomas, Chris Studd, Derek the timekeeper and everybody else up there, were a pleasure to work with. I did feel sorry for Angie, who was out on the infield spotting all night in that lot, the rain having penetrated even our normally monsoon proof wet weather gear by the end of it. I was also just a little sorry for whoever it is who normally keeps the infield grass areas looking so immaculate. They’d have had their work cut out for them after the breakdowns had finished at this meeting…  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 74,100,174,199,61,369,72,444,17,519,303,734,162.
Heat two: 85,31,60,278,95,14,911,115,170(-2),27,224,482,742.
Heat three: 85,17,100,60,(174),170,72,14,61,27,95,74.
Heat four: 278,31,199,303,911,115,224,519,130,482,444,369.
Final: 278,31,85,911,100,170,174,60,72(-2),130,369,482,17.

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 4
Maxwell hammers to victory
Ipswich, Saturday 11th September 2010
Graham Brown reports:  After a meeting peppered with yellow flags and penalties, it was Ulsterman Tommy Maxwell who emerged from it all with a well taken final victory after driving easily his best race since joining the English series.

With nearly 40 cars and only three heats it always looked as though it could just be a bit of a lively evening, particularly bearing in mind the kind of event that this same meeting was this time last year. Perhaps it is something about the autumnal Foxhall air…

Most of the regulars were out for this of course, joined by our very welcome Dutch visitors, Laurens vd Velde and John vd Bosch. Ken Marriott returned for the first time in a long time, while Graham Luscombe made a surprise appearance in the ex-Neil Buchan Mercedes. Apparently, the price of the car made it too good an offer to pass up, and Graham was not the only National driver who showed an interest either, apparently. It was he who made the long haul from the west country to collect the SLK however, the car looking virtually brand new inside and out. Graham’s mount was not the only surprise coming from the south west either, George Hamlyn making his long awaited first appearance, although he still managed to miss his first heat.

Dick Hillard, having got something of a reprieve from his afternoon appeal hearing, was able to join in the action too, taking the total starters to 38.

My apologies if the rest of this reads like, this happened followed by a stoppage, that happened followed by a stoppage, but that’s pretty much how it felt.

The opening heat kicked off with Luke Armiger leading and getting well clear before the first yellows of the night flew after Colin Gomm spun and got hit by Ray Harris, the impact sparking off a fire in Colin’s Merc and on the track behind him. With the fire suitably dealt with and vd Bosch banished to the infield for getting out of his car and working on it under yellows, the rest set off again.

Armiger had built a similarly large lead again over an intense places battle between Mike Loosemore, James O’Shea, Luscombe, Lee Pepper, Steve Burrows and Chris Haird, before another caution interrupted matters. This time points leader Willie Hardie had somehow got backed hard into the wall exiting turn four, Carl Waller-Barrett going off at the same point. Armiger repeated his lead building exercise once more in the final sector, while the places battle which raged on behind eventually saw Haird emerge with second spot which he claimed on the last lap after an absolutely superb effort round the outside.

One complete restart and two further cautions blighted heat two.

The first attempt at getting underway saw Andy Holtby and Scott Bourne rubbing on the first lap, with Holtby finally smacking into the wall on the exit from turn two, bringing about a complete restart. Bourne got disqualified later for the incident after video evidence was viewed.

When they finally got going, Terry Hunn and Maxwell busied themselves arguing over the lead. Further back, Hillard managed to get involved with Harris and went spinning down by the start/finish. Then Harris took a spin himself after a run in with Sammy Shudall, which got Sammy black crossed and was later going to lead to another disqualification. With the TT stuck across the track at turn four, another yellow halted proceedings in order to remove it.

Of course, the caution closed up the field right up and left Hillard – a backmarker now – right behind the lead pair. Now, I have always thought that one of the cardinal sins when driving a race car, is to race the leaders when you’re a lap down. If you race them so hard that you put yourself in a position to take both of them out and cause a multi-car, race stopping crash in the wake of it, disqualification is probably the least you’re going to get, frankly. In my book, you have to be very careful indeed how you go about un-lapping yourself and that doesn’t mean sticking your nose in where it isn’t wanted, like between the first and second placed cars. Nothing is ever going to change my mind about that, so there’s no need for anybody to waste their breath – or keystrokes.

Not surprisingly, this was all good for another yellow. Fortunately, last winter’s ORC rule revisions/clarifications still allow the steward to put placed drivers back in their positions if accidentally taken out during such an incident. With Hunn and Maxwell luckily both able to continue, they set off at the head of the field once more. Maybe Hunn’s car had suffered somewhat less in the incident, but he was able to pull clear this time and go on to take the win, leaving Maxwell to be overtaken by Dickie Burtenshaw. Burtenshaw would later inherit the race for reasons which will become clear in due course.

Maxwell made a fair fist of leading the third heat until a fierce challenge from Armiger put him ahead, only for Luke to get involved in a far bend shunt with Tim Moody and David Brooks a couple of laps later. That handed the initiative to Burtenshaw, who gratefully accepted the gift and went on to pick up what would ultimately turn out to be his second win of the night.

After a ruck from officials about the general driving standard, the final looked, for many laps, as though it would pass off without serious incident. Well, 99% of it did anyway…

Hunn, Armiger and Maxwell disputed the early lead at the start with Hunn eventually getting the best of the dice. Maxwell was then able to turn the tables from the earlier race and shrug off a challenge from Burtenshaw to gradually close down Hunn’s lead. With the front runners having to thread through increasingly heavy traffic nearing the finish, the placemen were all able to close up and fireworks in the last couple of laps always looked possible, not least because there was a pack of no less than 20 cars arguing over the minor placings at one point!

Maxwell finally managed to get up with Hunn and then took to the outside to make a great pass that sealed him victory. But a dramatic finish ensued, when Hunn, Armiger and Pepper got into a clinch on the last lap that ultimately kicked off a race stopping crash, bringing out the red and chequered flags together. A further incident after the flag involving Armiger also led to Hunn’s disqualification from the entire meeting.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 519,115,780,303,74,911,155,162,199,95,67,174,224,116,2. NOF.
Heat two: (39),100,174,369,115,130,734,(66),17,170(-2),(78),60,116,14.
Heat three: 100,74,155,444,303,95,(39),72,911,61,14,369,170(-2),130,60,(78),2,519.
Final: 369,(39),519,115,100,155(-2),162,95,174,72,61,303,170(-2),14,130,911(-2),74,742,(66),(78),2,199(-2),2,17,1 92.
199 disqualified from heat two for contact with 61.
31 disqualified from heat two for contact with 369.
444 disqualified from heat two for contact with 224.
170 dropped two places for contact in heat two.
170 dropped two places for contact in heat three.
170, 155, 911 and 199 all dropped two places for contact in final.
39 loaded up for incident with 519 after the final.

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 3
Life in the fast Lane
Northampton, Monday 30th August 2010
Graham Brown reports:  Despite being chased down by Carl Waller-Barrett in the dying seconds, Andy Lane held on at the front to take the final honours watched by a huge crowd at NIR’s Bank Holiday Monday meeting.

A 37 car entry for this one and spread over only three heats meant that there was never likely to be a shortage of cars on track whatever else happened. Certainly, with the biggest crowd on hand I’ve ever seen for a ‘normal’ NIR meeting (i.e. not a F1 European or something), it probably did no harm for any newcomers to see plenty of cars in the races rather than thinly spread grids. By the by, one has to speculate, were all those people there for the Banger Caravan racing (possibly not, as people were leaving before that came on) or was this at least partly a spin-off of what is rapidly becoming known as the “Gears & Tears factor”? With crowds well up seemingly all over just at the moment, it would appear that not only F1 has benefited from the TV exposure.

Anyway, just a couple of ‘parish notices’ before we begin, one being that rumours which have been circulating about David Brooks having purchased the Boardley Merc have finally proven to be true. Not surprisingly, the car looks completely different in its new livery, and very smart too. One can’t help wondering however, what will happen to the Puma…?

Also at the wheel of a new mount was Luke Armiger, the team having traded up to a self built Ludlow Tigra. The car has been a while in the construction, Luke having missed some racing as a result, but the finished article definitely looks the business.

Joining the fray for the first time was Matt Smith, formerly an Incarace driver in various formulas, you may remember that Matt had tried to get a start at the last Birmingham without ever making it on track with the ex-Neal Smith (etc!) 206.

Frank West headed them away in the first heat pursued by Mikey Godfrey and James O’Shea, once the latter had dodged around some early spinners. But the man to watch here was always going to be Malcolm Blackman, his currently depressed average putting him a lot further forward on the grid than is customary. Blackman’s challenge on Godfrey ended with Godfrey spinning, giving the former world champion a free hand to chase down West and take the lead around the outside of turns 1-2.

As this took place before half distance, Malcolm was soon on his way to claim his expected victory. Behind him however, there was still plenty to watch. West fought hard to try and hold onto second as Lane tried equally hard to take it away from him. Andy got too deep into turn one eventually, allowing Carl Waller-Barrett through, Carl then darting down the inside of West as they crossed the start/finish. He had, unfortunately, picked up a black cross during all this though, as had Dick Hillard during his dice with Lane. Video totally exonerated Dick but no such luck for Waller-Barrett, who got dropped from second to fourth, elevating Hillard and Mark Paffey (who’d recovered well from a poor start) to second and third respectively.

The heat two runners were greeted by a track covered in copious quantities of plaster dust after a Stock Rod blow up in their previous race. Godfrey again started well in this and was leading all the way up to a yellow flag period, thrown when an incident on the back straight saw Tommy Maxwell get loose and smite the wall, the aftermath involving Stu Carter - who lost a door- and O’Shea.

Godfrey was still holding sway at the restart with Ray Harris and Russ Wilcox breathing down his neck but of course, Blackman had been brought a lot closer to all of them by the caution.

He swiftly turned fifth into fourth at Armiger’s expense and was trying hard to move up again past Wilcox, when a three wide moment further back in the pack didn’t quite work out, leaving Tony Moss in the barriers and setting the yellows flying again.

This still left Blackman slightly more work to do than in heat one, particularly as we were now coming into the closing stages. Off the back of this second interruption though, Blackman got straight on a charge and swiftly worked his way to the front. By-passing Wilcox straight down the outside, Harris got relegated by the same route. But Malcolm wasn’t the only one to have benefited from the pack having been closed up, as Chris Haird and Willie Hardie weren’t far behind. When Blackman drove underneath Godfrey through turns 1-2, they were right there and had the leader under maximum pressure on the last lap. Blackman managed to stay in front to the flag only by the skin of his teeth and had to parry simultaneous thrusts up the outside from Haird and Hardie down the inside in order to do so. Had there been another lap, the outcome would have been rather different for sure but, as there wasn’t, it was still just Blackman from Hardie and Haird at flag fall.

Terry Hunn was the first to show in heat three but a couple of big understeer-type moments convinced him to stop, handing the initiative to Harris. Before that though, there was all sorts of off-the-ball action going on, with Jason Kew’s car breaking loose on him at the first corner and pitching him into Phil Spinks, the impact putting Phil on the infield. Then Dickie Burtenshaw ended up in the wall at the exit from turn four (sorry, didn’t see how that occurred) and then Tim Moody also had a loose moment coming off turn two, which saw Lane collide with the Merc.

Despite all this, the fleeing Harris was able to get well clear until a caution brought Lane onto his back bumper. The caution was a result of Wilcox taking a spin at turn one after Colin Gomm had inadvertently run into him. Inadvertent or not, the impact put Wilcox out of the race, and the meeting as he’d banged his head, and led to Gomm’s disqualification later.

With Lane now in close attendance, Harris had to work hard to keep ahead the rest of the way, but still managed it nevertheless. Moody, incidentally, continued to have an “interesting” race, having got in a clinch with Tim Pullen shortly before managing to get involved with Matt Simpson too, Tim taking a spin across the start line while Simpson shot off across the infield. None of this was especially relevant to the front runners, but gave the rest of the field something to think about in the last few laps!

West had another turn at leading in the final which kicked off with Sammy Shudall, Mike Loosemore, Hunn and Godfrey all taking spins, while ‘offs’ were recorded by Armiger, Harris and Gomm.

Meanwhile, Lane was going well again and had just overhauled West for the lead on the outside into turn three when Matt Smith went hard into the barriers at the same spot, tearing a wheel off and bringing about a caution.

Naturally, the yellows closed the field right up, but the leader was able to pull quickly clear. Once West had retired from second though, Waller-Barrett was left with an open road to begin eating into Lane’s advantage. It did look, for a while, as though maybe he wouldn’t need to catch or pass Andy, the 130 car trailing a thin veil of smoke into the corners for many laps. It might have been a detached gearbox breather or something, never got any worse and was never enough for consideration of a black flag.

There is always a question mark in your mind about how long a car is going to last that emits smoke of any sort, but she lasted the distance OK, and although Waller-Barrett got pretty close at the death, he eventually ran out of time to mount a serious challenge.

Hillard was a solid third over the line, having stayed comfortably ahead of Blackman for many laps, only to lose the place later after an un-logged tyre was discovered on his car. This put Blackman up into the top three and could have serious consequences for Dick, the stated penalty for this offence being a two world qualifying round ban. He has lodged a protest however, so all is not said and done about the matter just yet. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 911,31,60,162(-2),278,130,95,74,72,170,115,199,100,482,155,160,192,61,85,174.
Heat two: 911,72,115,27,224,219,95,303,60,61, 500,14,444,742,519,734,17,85,55,116,39.
Heat three: 224,130,500,444,170,31,162,174,(278), 742,155,199,116,303,734,55,482,780,67.
Final: 130,162,(31),911,500,72,60,115,95, 61,303,170,174,199,444,780,14,155,39,734,519.
162 dropped two places for contact in heat one.
278 disqualified for contact with 219 in heat three.
31 disqualified from final for use of unauthorised tyre.

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 2
Murray mints a victory
Hednesford, Sunday 15th August 2010
Graham Brown reports: Gavin Murray saved the best till last at Hednesford where, despite not managing a top three finish in any of the heats, he staved off a stiff challenge from to take the honours in the final.

37 cars for this second round, still not a bad turn out as there were several absentees one might normally have expected to be racing, including Lee Pepper, Colin Gomm and Neil Stimson. There was one newcomer however, in the shape of ex-banger and nowadays Classic Hot Rod driver, “Deadly” Daz Owen, who was having an outing in Mike Oliver’s car. Daz was, as I had expected, right on the pace and had no trouble at all keeping up with those starting ahead of him at the rear of the grid. However, he was also understandably nervous about the possibilities of wrecking someone else’s car, a worry which eventually saw him load up sooner than he needed. He did profess to having enjoyed his afternoon never the less and I’d say there’s a chance we might well see him again if he acquires a car of his own.

Another somewhat unexpected entry was Billy Bonnar, making the trek from Scotland once again for the first time in a long while.

Frank West was slow away from the line in the first heat which almost caused a first lap shunt for Hunn and Russ Wilcox as they collided trying to avoid running up the back of him. Danny Brosnan set off in the lead but was quickly under pressure from , who went by coming off the East bend. Brosnan’s determined rear guard action failed to stop and Willie Hardie moving up to second and third, Hardie looking particularly quick as he ducked under Hillard to claim second. The Scot had the leader under the cosh too nearing the finish but Cooper managed to gain just a few yards on the last lap to wrap it up.

You may remember that I wrote about Hardie apparently benefiting at the Nationals from some sterling pit work by Davy McCall, and that we could only wonder what changes he may have been making to the #72 car in light of where the ex-41 Tigra now resides. Although we are none the wiser about they’re doing differently in the camp these days, there is no doubt that young Willie is presently looking a much more serious contender.

Heat two featured the unusual sight of two Audi TT’s sharing the front row and in fact gave something of a lie to the fact that there’s no variety in National Hot Rods these days, as the eight cars in the front group on the grid were Audi TT, Audi TT, Merc SLK, Tigra, Tigra, Mitsubishi Colt and Peugeot 206cc.

’ TT headed them away but it was the Tigra of Wilcox that soon assumed the lead. He was still out front when Mikey Godfrey suffered brake failure going into the East bend and crashed heavily head on into the barriers, knocking himself out. Fortunately, there seemed to be no lasting ill effects for Mikey, although the same could not be said of his Tigra ‘B’…

They’d barely got going again when Tim Moody went spinning on the West bend exit and was then hit head on and very hard by an unsighted , cueing another round of yellows.

Wilcox still led after all this but was then immediately under pressure from Hillard, Gavin Murray and Hardie off the back of the second caution. Hillard lost out to the other two, after which Murray and Hardie traded second place back and forth until Hardie finally got up the outside to grab the lead and the win ahead of a blanket finish for the places covering the next six cars. Please see my earlier remarks about Hardie.

Brosnan was again the early leader in the third heat, pressed by and Cooper, until they were interrupted by a stoppage when Andy Lane blew his axle up and hit the wall. Brosnan lost the lead when he was turfed off the track for not slowing sufficiently when the yellows came out. Following the lengthy caution to clear up and dust down all Laney’s diff oil, David Brooks – who had slipped through to second shortly before the hiatus – mounted a serious attack on Cooper (now leading) and was nearly by several times before a charging Steve Thompson caught them. As Brooks had been looking the likely winner, I was somewhat mystified as to why he slowed momentarily, allowing Thompson to dive through to second. Steve tried very hard to wrest the lead from Cooper over the final two tours but was still just behind at flag fall, while Brooks had tapped off as he’d already had very minor contact with the leader a couple of times and said he needed the points and didn’t need to get disqualified again!

There was a full compliment of 32 starters for the final which looked likely to provide some fairly frenetic action.

Once more, Brosnan was the first to show at the front with the Harris TT keeping close company and the battered Moody SLK (a large part of which was now held together with race tape) not far behind. Harris snatched the lead away along the back stretch shortly before the yellows were flying again after a series of collisions on the East bend exit, where Brooks had spun, the aftermath leaving several front runners on the infield, , James Jamieson and Thompson among them. Thompson had actually looked game to continue, despite a very bent rear axle, although he might well have found a Tigra that acted like a crab a bit of a handful.

The restart went nowhere fast, as Hunn spun out, taking Hardie and Hillard into the wall with him just before Mike Loosemore went for a much wilder rotation midway along the home straight. Cue more yellow flags and another disqualification for Brosnan for not obeying them fast enough.

After that, the race stayed under green all the way to the finish. Harris led away for this final restart but now under serious pressure with Cooper all over him and the first seven cars locked into a serious battle. Spinks tried hard for an outside pass that would get him to the front but couldn’t make it stick, before Chris Haird made a huge sweep that got him up to second just as Cooper grabbed the lead.

Cooper and Haird had only just squared up to one another when Haird got alongside, only to get smeared solidly into the barriers. That got Cooper black flagged and handed the baton to Murray with Spinks still gamely trying for the win too. They squabbled over it the rest of the way, Spinks making a do-or-die effort going into the last bend that didn’t come off, leaving him second with Carl Waller-Barrett – who’d driven a sensible race throughout – third. Moody’s commendable efforts to get out again were rewarded with fourth spot, easily his best result yet since his return to the formula. Graham Brown.
Results
Heat one: 482,72,31,219,199,60,85,500,303,130,(33),74,17,116,734,369,174,192.
Heat two: 72,219,31,95,115,170,305 224,780,742,162,160,871,369(-2),18.
61 & 14 disqualified for getting out of their cars under yellow flags.
369 black crossed & dropped two places for contact with 17.
67 disqualified for contact with 17.
Heat three: 482,170,67,61,14,95,199,500,192,60,303,174,115(-2),780,305(-2),74,734,844,39.
33 disqualified for failing to obey yellow flags.
115 & 305 dropped two places for jumping the restart.
Final: 95,14,162,17,72,199,224,61,844,74,174,60,100,85. NOF.
33 disqualified for failing to obey yellow flags and loaded up.
482 black flagged for contact with 115.

Added 18/08/10
Brosnan suspended
Story: NHRPA. English registered driver #33 Danny Brosnan has been handed a two meeting NHRPA suspension from racing. He has accumulated the 20 penalty points that automatically triggers the ban. Accordingly, his licence is revoked until September 12th 2010.

2011 Ludlow Motorsport World Series England round 1
Holtby city
Birmingham Wheels, Saturday 24th July 2010
Graham Brown reports: Despite crossing the line behind Willie Hardie when Hardie copped a penalty it was Andy Holtby who left Birmingham Wheels with the final win when the Nationals got back on the World Series trail in the second city.

Recession or no recession, entries continue to hold up for the moment, with 41 cars booked for this ‘back to work’ event. These included ‘new signing’ Tommy Maxwell, who is going to try and ‘do a James O’Shea’ by qualifying here instead of in NI. Hmm, rather too many inverted commas in that paragraph…

Speaking of O’Shea, he was back for another try at being an English qualifier, while Mark Paffey was re-entering the fray after (unbelievably) seven years, with his beautiful looking SLK. Joining them was David Brooks for the first time in a while, David tracking his all new Ford Puma, an interesting addition to the grid even if it didn’t look entirely finished as regards paintwork. Colin Gomm turned out in his Peugeot rather than his Merc, although he had the SLK with him and – I think – practiced with it in the afternoon. Tim Pullen was back for another go, his car now looking completely different in white with fluorescent yellow numbers, while South westerners Mike Loosemore and Graham Luscombe were also back on the WQ trail. Oh, and talking of new paint, Chris Haird naturally turned out with a gold roof. It sounds obvious, but it still momentarily struck me as odd when I noticed it. I say old boy, isn’t that on the wrong car…? I guess after four years, anything becomes habit forming! Chris though, was very much in evidence throughout the meeting and obviously well up for a year of being a worthy champion, no doubt with carefully laid plans to repeat the exercise next July. Meanwhile, his predecessor was sunning himself at his East coast caravan and very far indeed from the madding crowd.

41 cars booked then, but no #41. We were however, only going to get 40 actually on track, as new recruit and former Incarace Stock Rodder Matt Smith arrived too late to take part. He had to content himself with getting his ex-Neal Smith/Alan Connolly/Jonathan Stevenson 206 scrutineered and merely spectating.

With the ‘clock re-set’ on the average system, the grids had taken on the usual unfamiliar look that they get at this time of the year. With everything now based on their last three meetings only (to reflect just what they’ve been doing recently) it all looked very topsy turvey although, on past performance, it won’t be long before the good guys are rising to the top of the points and average tables.

The 40 cars did mean that we needed and got four heats, with Tim Moody the first to show in the opener but under pressure from Scott Bourne. Bourne eventually got past, taking Brooks’ new Puma and Luscombe through in his wake, the latter pair dicing with Steve Thompson the rest of the way before Thompson finally claimed the runner up slot.

Graeme Callender’s Colt held sway at the front for some time in heat two until fellow Scot Willie Hardie caught up and went by for the win. Callender fell back thereafter, Jason Kew getting the best of the heated fight for second that ensued, beating off Steve Burrows, Matt Simpson and James Jamieson to do so.

Callender had another spirited go at leading in the third race but was again gradually caught by the chasing pack. This time it was Tony Moss, Sammy Shudall and Phil Spinks who were arguing the toss about who would be first to have a go at the leader, with Spinks the man who got up to take this one going away.

Three relatively uneventful heats then, with no penalties and no cautions - at Birmingham? What was going on here!

The last heat encounter repeated the early fight for the lead between Moody and Bourne with Bourne once again coming out on top. Moody clung onto second for a while before losing a lot of ground after a skirmish with Luscombe. However, a couple of late cautions interrupted proceedings. The first came with seven to go when Mark Fuller tried to put his SLK over the infield embankment going down the home straight.

After that excitement was sorted out, they set off again but hadn’t got very far when Mark Paffey took a spin at turns 1-2 and caught fire. That too was quickly sorted and, with the field closed up, Bourne had to survive at the head of a three lap dash to the flag but managed to cope with that admirably.

Moody headed Callender at the off in the final with Tim not having to worry about Bourne this time as he was a very early retirement.

Hardie looked to be much more of a problem though, as he advanced up the places. Unfortunately, an incident with Luscombe on his way to the front got him black crossed and was to have consequences later.

Moody’s lead was only threatened, however, by a caution thrown when Luke Armiger went spinning into turn three and then got stranded right in the middle of turns three and four, very close to the racing line. Following that, Callender briefly got by Moody before Tim fought back, but then Hardie eclipsed the pair of them and went on to take the win until the stewards intervened. Moody, meantime, had vanished from the places after a wild ride along the back straight that nearly caused a monumental shunt, although everybody did avoid him in the end, more by luck than judgement I suspect.

Andy Holtby – having successfully fended off the attentions of Simpson in the closing stages – accepted the honours instead of Hardie, with Simpson second and Hardie relegated to third. Graham Brown.
Results
Heat one: 199,170,67,742,61,14,192,85,130,278,17,500,519,162,27,155,95,734.
Heat two: 72,174,303,116,305,911,115,444,871,31,60,224,219,271,482,369,68,39,74,100.
Heat three: 14,444,85,911,115,305,871,500,130,271,192,27,67,780,100.
Heat four: 199,174,742,170,303,61,482,(278),17,116,155,519,219,224(-4),74,734,369.
278 disqualified for contact with 60, causing 60 to spin. 224 dropped 4 places for jumping the restart.
Final: 61,303,72(-2),174,(170),115,14,85,871,444,500,271,305,742,482,155,911,116,17.
72 dropped two places for contact with 742. 170 disqualified for contact with 482, causing 482 to spin. 130 disqualified for contact with 519, causing 519 to spin. Protest lodged by 170, result remains provisional.

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