2008 NHRPA Irish Grand Prix
Casey’s cruise
Tipperary Motor Speedway, April 19/20

22 cars were in attendance, though only 21 raced after a practice-collision with the wall for Anthony Butler. Winnie Holtmanns was the furthest travelled entry, other visitors being from the North: Stewart Doak, Keith Martin and Tommy Maxwell, and from England: Chris Haird and Stu Carter

Heat 1 grid:
761 996 961 921 467 74 994 967
923 369 200 970 115 420
Stewart Doak made pretty easy work of this one, a good battle behind him involving Tom Casey, Shane Murphy and Des Cooney. Orey Stanley was docked two places for excessive contact in a couple of instances.
Result: 996 961 970 921 761 74 967 994 923(X-2) 115 200 467 369 420 nof

Heat 2 grid:
967 115 970 200 925 87
142 151 57 925 85 777
An entertaining and controversial race, Tipperary-style. The race required a caution early on as Trevor Cusack clouted the home straight wall, and then did a lap of coating the already greasy track from the misty rain, with oil. Neville Stanley quickly showed a good mastery of the conditions, leading from start to chequers, but behind him was the story. Late on in the race, Haird was trying daring outside line passes on Mike Riordan, but came unstuck when they came upon a slowing Joey Butler. Haird was spat out and into the turn 3/4 wall, and a caution period ensued. With just over one lap remaining the race went green as apparently decided by the starter though not communicated via raceceiver to the drivers. The majority of the drivers were watching the flags and lights however, and Murphy and Mike Oliver swept past the 142 Tigra dropping Riordan from 2nd to 4th.
Result: 967 970 57 142 85 777 200 923 151 nof

Heat 3 grid:
777 85 925 57 151 142
420 994 74 467 921 961 761 87
This was stopped and completely restarted as Holtmanns and Eddie Wall collected the home straight wall. Both made the restart, and Holtmanns was quite the revelation of the race, holding down third position for the majority of the race until he too spun onto the infield. Conditions were well slippery by now, even though the drizzle wasn't heavy. Keith Martin put on a good show in the conditions to head the race almost from the start, Carter putting some serious pressure on him in the closing laps. Casey made good ground too, putting a pass on Cooney for third, Doak and Riordan battling away behind.
Result: 994 85 961 921 142 996 761 151 777 57 74 467 420 87 nof

Final grid:
970 996 967 994 761 777 151 200 420 369 925
961  85 921 142  57   74 923 467 115  87 179
Although Tom Casey won the Irish Grand Prix with relative ease, it might not have been the case had pole-sitter Shane Murphy not blown his diff just as the green flag dropped on the rolling lap. Tom took full advantage of the ensuing confusion to pull off into an unchallenged lead for the entire 40 laps, but there was plenty happening throughout the race to keep the spectators on the edge of their seats.

We lost Mike Oliver early in the day with a broken front left stub axle - irreplaceable at short notice apparently - although Anthony Butler made the grid for the first time of the weekend. The tie for pole position had been resolved in Shane's favour after he and Eileen Casey tossed a coin, and we were all expecting a cracking tussle. Alas the Murphy diff ate itself and Tom took a comfortable victory from Des Cooney, who, with third placed Stuart Carter, gave those of us who enjoy "proper" Hot Rod racing, cause for optimism. Carter held the advantage for much of the race, Cooney regularly having looks at the outside of the 85 Tigra. Eventually he went for it and after several laps on the edge, he made the pass stick.

Behind them, Stewart Doak and Mike Riordan had been having a similarly exciting race, the Riordan Tigra eventually calling it quits with no brakes left. Keith Martin and Chris Haird completed the top 6, Haird particularly impressive given his lowly grid position after a disappointing qualifying session Saturday.

Neville Stanley had been in the mix too up to the halfway point, when the crank broke and his engine was left in many small parts on and around the raceway. Some shenanigans involving James O'Shea and Orey Stanley saw the steward exercise his black cross in the direction of car 74.

Irish GP official result:
961 921 85 996 994 115 151 200 761 467 925 179 87 420 923

The meeting final is best left unmentioned, managing to disappoint those of us who appreciate Hot Rod racing. You can't have it twice in one day I suppose....
Meeting final: 151 74 200 777 925 179 87


2007 NHRPA European Championship
Boardley adds another
Tipperary Motor Speedway, October 13/14

Graham Brown reports:  Carl Boardley added the European championship to his world title at Tipperary, with Chris Haird again having to settle for second after a typically hard fought Rosegreen encounter.

Although minus a few Ulster based cars (due to Darren McKinstry’s pis…erm, stag night), there were still more than enough cars for this, the last major championship of the year.

35 of them in all, which at a quick round up, I reckon to be made up of 14 ROI drivers, 12 from England, 6 NI, and one each from Scotland, Wales and Germany. In the ‘notes for anoraks’ dept., James ‘O Shea was out in his superbly presented not-very-ex-Julian Arnold Fiesta, the one seen as # 33 at the NEC early this year, although Arnie never actually raced it.

With all due respect to James however, the entry which brought a glint to the eye of a few fans, was Colin White, now armed with an ex-Jamieson Tigra. Very smart it looked too, in traditional 718 turquoise with pink numbers, even if it did seem to be missing a little black paint. No matter: those who have been waiting to see if Colin’s less than stunning performances of late have simply been due to the lack of a decent ride were about to have their questions answered.

The car is, incidentally, the later of JJ’s two Tigra’s (and please don’t complicate matters by pointing out that there’s three of them, you know what I mean), the one James never really cared for that had the orange prismatic lettering on the rear quarters.

Colin christened his new toy by whelping the wall in practice and busting all sorts in the front end, but by then, he’d already been going fast enough to prove that the three time world champion is definitely still a force to be reckoned with.

Everyone else was driving pretty much what you’d expect, and with the draw done, the field was split into four groups, with each driver racing in two of the four heats.

Heat one had a couple of false starts, when we all discovered that the traffic lights at the rostrum weren’t working in harmony with the starter. During one of these, Barry English pulled off the track, not to be seen again until Sunday.

Eventually, the race got underway for keeps, with Mike Riordan leading a powerful local trio comprising himself, Shane Murphy and Tom Casey. After a few laps, Chris Haird became the only UK driver to threaten them when he managed to get on terms, but by this stage Riordan and Murphy were starting to stretch their legs.

As the lead pair got steadily further clear and nearing the finish, the battle for third intensified, with Stuart Carter getting in on the act too. After a bit of physical in the dying seconds, it was Carter who came through to collect third spot, only to get docked a couple of places for his manner of passing Haird and Casey, handing third and fourth back to them.

Dick Hillard and Brendan O’Connell quickly established themselves in the premier places in heat two but with Carl Boardley rapidly carving through the pack to come after them. But when Boardley went spinning on the pit bend and got collected by Jay Austin, yellow and then red flags came out.

Under normal circumstances, a yellow flag caution would have been all that was necessary for this situation. Only when it soon became apparent that there was going to be no way of determining the running order of the placemen from about 8th backwards, due to the closeness of the racing back there, was the subsequent decision made to go red. This is no reflection on the lap scorers, who, with the best will in the world, were always going to be caught 'on the hop' by this incident. With no transponder system yet in operation at Tipp either, there was little option but to take the restart in lap sheet order from the last recorded (note that I didn't say completed) lap, with all cars back in their positions at that time.

Of course, everybody was always going to say that Boardley was very lucky indeed that things turned out the way they did. With computerised scoring to rely on, and whether he was deemed to be the cause of the stoppage or not (he wasn't incidentally, Austin was), Carl would have had to restart a lap down. Naturally, Jay  benefited from this situation too, but I notice nobody was talking about him restarting seventh - odd that!

I believe it was Richard Petty who once said, "If I could be lucky or good, I'd rather be lucky". On this occasion, the world champion was both.

So Boardley was certainly fortunate that the restart enabled both he and Austin to go back to their previously held places. But he was still going to have to prove that his car hadn’t suffered any ill effects from the incident, and pass the ones still starting ahead of him.

He wasted no time overhauling O’Connell to get up with Hillard, Dick giving Carl a good run for his money, as the pair raced side by side for a couple of laps. Boardley eventually made his outside pass stick as they crossed the start line, carrying on to notch up his first win.

Meanwhile….

…as the cars took the restart, Blackman got the jump on White to snatch eighth place, with White chasing him hard immediately that happened and probably not happy about being caught napping. Colin's car was absolutely flying and looked quicker both into and out of the corners than almost anyone. He piled the pressure on Blackman until finally a muffed inside pass saw the 911 car go spinning and White collect a black cross for it. This was eventually going to see 718 dropped two places in the final analysis.

After the finish, O'Shea protested that he had been in front of Stewart Doak up until the time of the stoppage, but that the race order for the restart was incorrect as Doak was started ahead of him. As the drivers ran to the finish in the exact same order, the steward decreed that the only reason Doak finished ahead of O'Shea, was that the line up had been incorrect, and reversed their finishing positions.

All of which added up to one of 'those' races, pretty messy all around and not the way I like things to run at all. Our good friend Darren Black recently remarked of an event, "everything that could [go wrong] seemed to go wrong". Believe me, I know just what he means.

By contrast, heat three was undoubtedly the race of the night. Mike Oliver got away fast and first to set up an exciting four way dice between his aging (but still quick) Peugeot 205, Malcolm Clein’s 206cc, White’s new Tigra and Boardley’s similar car.

White got his flame spitting car up to second and then tried for the outside pass on Oliver while Boardley battled to pass Clein. Then White and Boardley swapped places a couple of times before Carl finally managed to get up the outside of Oliver and away.

White was forced back to fourth, but had still recovered to second by the finish, eloquently demonstrating the pace of his new mount, while if Boardley had enjoyed an "easy" win first time out, this one certainly made up for it!

The final qualifier was marred by an early pile up after Simon Bentley lost an oil line going into turn one, a number of cars crashing into either him or each other, including Andy Steward, who required medical attention as a result. Fortunately Andy was basically only winded, but it was all enough to keep him out of Sunday's race. Des Cooney, who was right in the middle of this lot, also took a heckuvalot of damage.

At first, Bentley was not aware of what had happened, but he certainly was by the time he'd driven round to the pit gate. As the line had first parted company just after the start/finish, this meant there was now copious quantities of oil virtually all round the track, necessitating a lengthy cement dusting operation.

The restarted race saw Andy Holtby making all the running, hotly pursued by John Christie, once he’d impressively managed to leave Blackman behind in third.

Christie tried very hard indeed to wrest the lead away from Holtby – including one highly ambitious outside swoop through turns one and two, but in the end wasn’t quite able to make the pass.

Boardley (pole) and Haird shared the front row of the grid for the 50-lap final, and ultimately the race was going to be all about these two. But first, they had to shake off the attentions of row two starters Casey and Riordan, the four of them haring around together for a number of laps.

Others were not going so far or so fast, however. Tommy Maxwell had a spin coming up to take the green flag, Ronnie McKenzie headed for the infield almost immediately, then Shane Brereton was out before Winnie Holtmanns had a spin and then retired. Eddie Wall had an 'off' and Orey Stanley also pulled out.

None of which bothered the front runners of course. Eventually, the gap between the first two and third and fourth grew inexorably wider and the race settled down to Boardley versus Haird, Casey versus Riordan, with all four pursued by Doak.

Haird never gave the leader a moments peace and when they encountered the inevitable traffic (33 cars started), Chris piled the pressure on in an attempt to reverse the world final result, even looking up the outside at one point. Carl never put a foot wrong though, and they'd just got back into clear air when the yellows were waving, O'Shea having come to a halt in mid-track.

Just prior to this, Blackman had sent White spinning out of ninth place, an incident which was going to have consequences later.

Following the restart, little had changed for the front runners, with the lead pair still able to go immediately clear. But now Haird definitely looked the quicker of the two and, as the laps counted down, was pressing harder than ever. With less than four laps to go, they came upon a backmarker, and Haird so nearly unseated the leader with a dive up the inside. But Boardley just about had the situation covered, only to find the yellows waving once more for a spun and stalled car.

The sprint finish turned out to even more of a sprint than anyone had bargained for as, following the caution, there was only just about time for the green to be shown before the chequered. Obviously, the scorers had been counting the laps run under yellow - certainly not illegal, I even checked the rule book - just not quite what we were expecting.

Whether another couple of green flag laps would have made any difference, we'll never know, but I daresay Chris Haird would like to have found out! As it was, Boardley beat Haird into second in a major championship again, but you now have that inescapable feeling that it is only a matter of time before Chris wins a biggie.

Casey always managed to keep ahead of Riordan in their fight for third, with Doak and Clein next up as they had been for most of the race.

The White-Blackman feud carried on after the race and ended with the 718 car well and truly planted in the wall by the pit end, the ramifications of this meaning that both drivers are barred from taking any part in world qualifying action for the rest of the year.

As has become traditional, the Davy Evans Memorial race saw the grid lined up in reverse order to the European, thus giving those who haven't done so well out of the meeting up to this point, a chance to shine.

Things didn't start ever so well, with English spinning out of turn two on lap one, a very bad time for that, with the still tightly bunched pack close behind. He was hit hard by Holtmanns and Shane Murphy, with Brereton also out of the restart.

Simon Bentley made a great start but not great enough to carry him past Richard Spavins, who assumed an immediate lead. 'Dodgy' stayed in front despite Bentley clamouring for a way past all the way, these two having left Joey Butler a quarter of a lap adrift.

The steward wasn't keen on Spavins' line however, and after numerous warnings about this over the Raceceiver, he finally allowed Bentley past up the inside three laps from home.  Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 142,970,115,961,85(-2),994,369,348,923,59,962,57,151,198,420,187.
Heat two: 41,31,761,74,996,921,985,427,718(-2),777,992,61,3,911,467,943,87.
Heat three: 41,718,985,961,996,369,348,31,467,427,57,87.
Heat four: 61,962,911,967,115,85,992,74,142,761,930,151.
European championship: 41,115,961,142,996,985,61,962,911,970,718,85,31,                          151,967,427,777,467,87.
Davy Evans Memorial: 59,3,151,142,74,923,985,962,992,31,761,777.


Motorfest 2007
The Butler did it!
Rockingham Motor Speedway, September 15/16

Graham Brown reports:  Joey Butler emerged as the surprise winner when the National Hot Rods took part in Rockingham's Motorfest 07 event, the Irishman doing some sterling work to fight off stiff challenges from Matt Simpson and Carl Boardley.

28 cars eventually made up the entry for the two-dayer, an entry which certainly had a real cosmopolitan feel to it. Simpson, Boardley, Stu Carter, Carlos Perez, Chris Haird, Gavin Murray, Richard Spavins, Colin Gomm, Neil Stimson, Andy Holtby, David Brooks, Dick Hillard and Steve Burgess represented the 'English' element of field. They were joined for the first time in a long time by Shane Brereton who, like Boardley, was doubling up with his SCSA racing. Shane was in the Corrado he used when he was last racing Nationals, but superbly turned out in new livery which rendered it looking much like his big stock car.

There was a touch of Scottish representation, in the shape of Robbie Burgoyne (in the ex-Alan Conroy Mini) and Ronnie McKenzie, although Ronnie is of course a registered English racer.

Mark Heatrick, Wayne Woolsey and Davy McKay were the NI visitors, while ROI were out in force with Butler being joined by Les Compelli, Tom Casey, James O'Shea and Neville and Orey Stanley.

The continentals, perhaps spurred on by the impressive showing from John vd Bosch last year, were showing more interest this time around, with John being joined by Wolfgang Pawlaczyk (#8) in a 206 and Laurens vd Velde, his smart lhd Tigra carrying #75.

The cars were allowed to come to the grid for their first race in any  order, with whatever grid they came up with being reversed for the second heat.

Burgoyne had pole for the first outing, but his car staggered off the grid at the green and was very slow away indeed, suggesting it might have been in the wrong gear. His failure to re-appear further suggested that whatever was wrong, it was terminal, although he did make it to the finish.

It was Butler who leapt away at the off, with Simpson - the defending champ - and Haird immediately disputing second. McKay had a spin and Boardley, left with nowhere to go, ran into him, the incident putting paid to both men's races on the spot.

Haird got the best of his dice with Simpson to set about Butler, but they hadn't managed to drop Simpson and once they were joined by vd Bosch, these four drew clear, still engaged in a right old battle. Haird got past Butler going through turns one/two, only to have Joey hare past again coming onto the back straight, Simpson getting towed along into second.

Next time around, it was Simpson who zipped to the front as they left turn two, and immediately began to pull out a bit of an edge. Haird again put himself in front of Butler, only to find Joey going quicker in a straight line.

By this point, Holtby and Hillard were already parked on turns three and four respectively, and they weren't the only ones in trouble either, as Haird was forced to let vd Bosch, Heatrick and Casey all past before pulling out.

Coming into the last couple of laps, Simpson and Butler were well established in the premier places, leaving Heatrick third ahead of vd Bosch and Casey, although Tom found a way past vd Bosch along the home straight with two to go.

Colin Gomm looked to have sixth wrapped up as the chequers neared, only to have his gearbox break almost in sight of the flag, the Colt coasting to the finish and managing to eventually drift across the line plus a couple of feet, but minus eleven places!

Vd Velde shot away from pole to lead heat two, with a repaired Boardley making an even better getaway to charge through from the third row to second place on lap one. It wasn't long before Boardley had the lead down in turns one/two but nobody else was in a position to tackle the Dutchman, who was giving every bit as good an account of himself as vd Bosch last year.

As Brereton fell by the wayside, Simpson was storming through the pack after starting well back.

Holtby and Spavins collided with each other and the wall exiting turn four, while another going in the right direction was Casey, who'd overtaken Heatrick shortly before the latter's retirement, and then Woolsey.

Nearing the finish, Brooks - running third - inched his way up to vd Velde to mount a real challenge for second spot. As Stimson departed the scene on the last lap in an ominous cloud of smoke, vd Velde and Brooks fought tooth and nail over second, with the Dutchman just getting there first and Brooks similarly just managing to stay ahead of the very fast finishing Casey.

The two races had clearly taken their toll on the machinery and no less than 8 cars had vanished from the field by Sunday morning. As for the remainder, Simpson was looking good for a repeat win, having bagged pole from Casey. But row two certainly raised a few eyebrows, with Butler and vd Velde's solid performances having put the pair rather further forward than maybe anyone was expecting. John vd Bosch hadn't been idle either, and was sharing the third rank with Brooks.

So: not much to choose between the pace of Simpson and Casey. Laurens vd Velde - highly experienced on the old kilometre track at Baarlo and undoubtedly quick, but had he shown us everything he could do? And then there was Boardley. That non-finish had hurt alright, but he still wasn't far enough back to be considered out of it. Nobody was talking about Joey Butler….

As they charged turn one, Casey was the first to show as Brooks went sliding sideways into the corner and a smoky spin. But as they exited the bend, it was Butler who had the lead, with Simpson, vd Velde, Gomm and Boardley strung out behind, many of the others having been delayed by the first bend incident - notably Casey.

Boardley went past Gomm, as Simpson got up with the leader and piled on the pressure, Butler countering a near pass on the back straight with a bit of blocking. With Joey's car clearly getting very loose under acceleration out of turn four, it looked to be only a matter of time before one of Simpson's blasts up the outside of the home straight was going to succeed.

But, every time Matt got alongside, his car seemed to run out of breath. At first it simply looked like he was just being a trifle cautious, but gradually it dawned that the Tigra simply hadn't got anything else to give. In fact it had developed a misfire and as the two duelled for the lead, Boardley - now ahead of vd Velde - was catching up fast.

Suddenly the 303 car was coasting with the engine off. Butler didn't have long to enjoy the respite however, as Boardley soon replaced Simpson in the tormentor role. With six laps remaining the win was still very much in doubt.

Butler and Boardley were a very long way clear by now, so the rest were left to argue about third. Gomm was looking good for it, having passed vd Velde as well, the Dutchman's pace seeming to fade the longer the race went on. Casey was next to take advantage of this.

Something of a stalemate had developed up front, where Carl kept diving down the inside going into turn one, only to put himself on the wrong line, meaning that Joey was always back in front at the exit. As Butler seemed perfectly capable of staying ahead around the rest of the track, it was becoming hard to see how matters were going to be resolved in Boardley's favour. He must have known it too and tried a different tactic on the last lap, sweeping far to the left going into turn three before cutting back to the inside at the last second, only just failing to get ahead at the line.

Gomm held onto third at the death, just ahead of the fast finishing Andy Holtby, who'd extracted an excellent result considering he'd started almost last on the grid. Vd Velde was still impressive in fifth with Casey's clearly ailing car limping home sixth.

Butler's superb drive had put him into the King of the Rock final, which was going to be run on Rockingham's 'National' circuit, apparently the track used by the BTCC recently. A somewhat serpentine affair, the track utilises the outer oval's home straight before cutting off just after turn one and onto the 'infield', where it snakes back and forth, finally coming up the straightaway we'd been using to line up the dummy grids all weekend. It rejoins the outer oval at the exit from turn four and back to the start finish.

The cars used were ten identical enduro racing VW Beetles, although they are actually as much a VW Beetle as a NHR Tigra is really a Tigra. They have spaceframe chassis and a mid-mounted 1800 Audi engine developing around 130 bhp, with the inline transmission driving the back wheels.

Clearly there was going to be no repeat of last year's farcical propshaft throwing contest. Unfortunately, excitement was never going to be the event's strong point either. The ingredients were all there, but the cars looked a little breathless whenever they got onto the outer oval, the only place where they could be properly seen most of the time.

Colin White was well and truly in charge almost all the way, and had pulled out was undoubtedly going to be a winning advantage, when a spurious late race caution period lost it all for him. Superstox racer Jason Cooper - who'd previously dropped back a way after an earlier spin - made a better fist of the restart. With time rapidly running out, Colin couldn't quite get back up with him, although he had a darn good go at it going into the final bend.

I would have said Colin was robbed, but it later transpired that the drivers had agreed to share the ten grand between themselves whatever happened. This means that Joey Butler, who finished a distant 9th, should still have gone off with £2,000 in prize money, not a bad weekend's work at all, no sir. Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 303,151,961,960,c6,50,967,67,c75,3,85,95,777,c8,278,286,74,900
Heat two: 41,c75,67,961,303,151,3,278,c6,943,286,31,74,777,960
Final: 151,41,278,61,c75,961,348,c6,286,31,3,943,95,67,923,74


2007 NHRPA National Championship
Blackman’s first National
Hednesford Hills Raceway, Saturday/Sunday 4th/5th August

Graham Brown reports: Malcolm Blackman successfully fended off the challenge from Carl Boardley to take his first ever National championship victory, the two fighting for the lead throughout the 75-lap classic.

The big entry from all over the UK and Ireland certainly needed the six heats scheduled for Saturday - in fact – exactly as we said last year, even the eight heats once seen at the Nats might not have gone amiss.

Although the car count was very slightly restricted this year, by the fact that Incarace were forced to close the entry some days prior to the event due to lack of pit space, the number of cars available was still testimony to the relatively healthy current state of National Hot Rod racing generally.

And this was despite a degree of unrest presently within the driving strength, mostly with regard to rumours surrounding the numbers of cars which might be on track at any given time in the coming (English) qualifying rounds. Mark you, this was nothing compared to the reaction in the pits when problems arose with regard to the tyre marking procedure in scrutineering.

This all started because one member of the scrutineering team had not been briefed about what exactly constitutes an “old” tyre. This does not simply mean “looks like it’s been used”, but actually, “must have a scrutineering mark on it from a previous meeting”. It was as simple as that. Well, almost. Of course, the teams know perfectly well what “old” means here, so how come some of them showed up at scrutineering with tyres which had been used or scrubbed in practice but never marked, hmmm? But like dropping a pebble in a pond, it is not necessarily the initial mistake or splash that is impressive, but the way the ripples spread out from it.

I’m certainly not in the business of apportioning blame here, nor am I really interested in making anybody’s excuses for them. There was a time (long, long ago) when I would be sat on the terraces, and always expected the bad guys to get what was coming, the good guys to win, that nobody cheated, and the steward always saw everything that went on. In other words, everything was either black or white and shades of grey were for other people.

I’d probably been ingesting too much of a certain substance (naughty, I’m talking about Castrol ‘R’, what did you think I meant!?) and was still walking around with an unhealthy dose of 1960’s naivety.

Sadly, out here in the real world I’ve discovered things do go wrong, life isn’t always fair, people sometimes make mistakes and there’s no Father Christmas.

Any promotion faced with a huge weekend meeting, involving hundreds of drivers and pit crews, and multiple different formulas, is under immense pressure. And unless you’ve ever tried it from the inside, you don’t have an opinion, sorry. There are rarely enough staff with the right skills anyway, and when tired and pressured people are trying to multi-task at a meeting like that, sometimes somebody mis-cues. Sh*t happens. Get over it.

What we should all be remembering, is that Incarace gave us two sun-filled days of great racing, including eight National races, one of which was the best National championship I’ve seen in a wee while.

Just as last year, the pits had a very cosmopolitan feel, as there were no less than 24(!) Irish cars on hand, an even twelve each from the North and the Republic. This was a tremendous effort from all concerned and proves just how popular this event has become. In fact, the visitors actually outnumbered the ‘home team’, even with two Scots included, but this still all added up to a mighty impressive 45 cars in total, one more than last year even with the early closure on entries. There could still have been more too, with one driver missing the booking deadline, Simon Bentley forced to cancel and Eddie Foott failing to arrive. Andy Holtby had his car sat in the pits ‘just in case’, but in the end was simply too busy having a baby to actually race. Well alright, not actually him, but you know what I mean!

What with all the if’s, but’s and maybe’s who in the end didn’t race, there will one day be over 50 cars show up for this, if the entry remains un-capped. Do you think if we got a large enough Portapower on those pits…..

Heat one saw Chris Haird out in the lead by the third lap, with Matt Simpson chasing him once he too had overhauled Gavin Murray. Shane Murphy and Keith Martin were the next to come upon Murray, but Martin went very deep into the West bend and Murphy got black crossed for shoving him out there, before he too went by Murray. Martin pulled off with a flat, while Boardley got up with Murphy, spurring him on to catch Simpson in the closing stages.

With two to go Haird looked like he had it sewn up, and there was still all to play for regarding second, but at the flag it was still Simpson from Murphy and Boardley. Although Shane was originally docked a couple places, mostly for the ‘incident’ with Martin, he got the penalty overturned on a protest, not least because it transpired Keith’s ‘moment’ and subsequent retirement had been caused by a separating split rim and rapidly deflating tyre.

After an early dice between Ivan McMillan and John Christie ended in tears, it was Phil Spinks who darted through to take the lead in heat two. McMillan and Christie both lost huge amounts of ground after their collision, and it was Stewart Doak and Steve Thompson who gave chase to the leader. Orey Stanley was giving a good account of himself in fourth spot, but without doubt the fastest thing on the track was the 911 car, Blackman making huge strides in the right direction from his back-of-the-grid start.

Stanley’s car had been smoking for a while, but when it suddenly worsened, he was black flagged off. That left Ian Thompson in fourth with Blackman fifth and still looking for better. Approaching the finish, Steve Thompson made a big effort to get up with Doak and finally managed to snitch second at the line from a virtual dead heat. Spinks was a quarter of a lap ahead of them by then, while Ian Thompson successfully parried Blackman’s attentions for fourth.

Heat three saw Gary Woolsey make the break at the green, but soon had his mirrors full of Mike Riordan as the pair left Ronnie McMillan, Keith Martin and Doak trailing. Nothing much changed about this mob for most of the race, other than that Woolsey and Riordan continued to get further ahead of McMillan. By the time the five lap board came out, Martin and Doak had both made it past, with Haird also having relegated Ronnie a further position. Riordan had obviously been gathering himself for one big final effort and came back at Woolsey hard on the run in to the flag, all to no avail however. Over a quarter of a lap back Martin claimed third, he in turn another quarter of a lap in front of Doak.

The fourth heat was going to be Blackman’s almost all the way. He swiftly relieved Alan Wilson of his early lead and then got going in earnest. Malcolm might just have been a little surprised to find that the one member of the pack he couldn’t easily shake off, was Joey Butler, the Southern Irishman staying totally in touch for quite a time.

But it was to be another ROI driver who eventually caught and passed Butler, Murphy having worked his way through from tenth place on the grid in some style. Shane went on to record a telling second spot, only a very short way behind Blackman by the finish. Butler still did alright out of this with third, even if he was nearly half a lap adrift of Murphy by then. Also going well was fourth man Mark McKinstry who got home still ahead of Boardley.

Heat five developed into a tooth-and-nail scrap between Andy Steward and Boardley, but only after Carl had survived a pointed attack from Ian Thompson, who had tried to go by down the outside in an opportunistic move during the opening laps. The world champion soon put a stop to that, but still had to fight his way past the once again impressive Tommy Maxwell before he could square up to Steward.

Boardley had time to try several outside passes – all frustrated – before Colin Smith battled his way into third and began closing on the leaders. Then Richard Spavins took a spin coming off the West bend and got hit hard by Les Compelli, bringing out the yellows. Thompson had also had a spin earlier, and found himself positioned between Boardley and Smith as a back marker for the restart. This situation didn’t do Smith any favours, and even once he’d got shot of Thompson, Colin found himself under the cosh from a different direction, as Phil Spinks put pressure on from behind.

Steward managed to successfully defend his lead to the death, a death which came slightly early as the chequered and red flags came out together, James O’Shea’s car having caught fire while parked on the infield. And although it may not have been an especially spectacular drive, the fact that Murphy was running fifth at the time turned out to be crucial in the final analysis.

With the front row all to himself, Tom Casey looked odds on for the win in the final heat, and it was he who duly led the way at the off. But he had determined looking company in the shape of Malcolm Clein and Neil Stimson. Clein got through into the lead as well, with two laps gone, Stimson going past Tom as well. Casey didn’t look like he was beaten though, and soon re-passed Stimson on the inside of the West bend, and them did the same to Clein along the back stretch.

Once back in front Casey got busy pulling clear, leaving a heck of a battle going on in his wake, as Clein now led a right old who’s who of Stimson, Barry English, Riordan, Blackman, Steve Thompson and Gary Woolsey. English was the one gradually being forced backwards in this dispute, but not much else changed about the positions of the various combatants by the end. Casey had a large gap between himself and Clein, who also had a reasonable buffer zone, but there was still an eight car train going hard at for third all the way to the finish!

Coincidentally, it was Casey who won the final heat last year too.

As we said earlier, Murphy’s fifth place in his last heat was fairly important, as it clinched pole position for him – a darn good result in this fairly exalted company, with Blackman alongside him, Boardley inside row two, followed by Doak, Spinks, Haird, Riordan, Casey….well, almost every top driver in NHR today ranged out behind.

The Grid Outside Inside 911 970 996 41 115 14 961 142 985 303 940 198 170 271 944 967 491 151 921 31 286 994 901 984 85 21 427 95 844 629 962 777

With Murphy on pole, a first major championship looked like a distinct possibility for the young Irishman. But as they came down for the green it was outside front row man Blackman who got the jump with Boardley storming through in his wake. Currently the ‘big two’ of National Hot Rod racing, they were soon putting a gap between themselves and the rest, setting the pattern for the rest of the race.

Murphy in fact, looked a little at sea in the early laps, losing out to Doak and Haird as well before coming under pressure from Spinks, Casey, Riordan and Simpson. The number of the pole sitter’s tormentors was reduced by one when Spinks went spinning on the West bend exit. Although everybody avoided the stricken black Tigra, a yellow wasn’t much longer in coming for an incident at the same spot, when English and Dick Hillard had a coming together and then got hit by Jay Austin.

Although this allowed the field to close right up, when they went back to racing, the Blackman-Boardley express was soon roaring away again. The Doak/Haird/Murphy dice over third was just about managing to keep the lead pair in sight, but as the first five drew steadily further clear of the rest, it became obvious that barring some catastrophe befalling all the front runners, everyone else was going to be arguing over the minor places at best.

Casey did look as though he was making progress at one point as he followed Murphy past Haird, but Tom was out of it soon afterwards. The list of retirements was growing rapidly now, as Martin, Ronnie McMillan, Steward and Stimson all retired within a few laps of one another.

But, with rarely more than a car length between them, the battle for the lead continued unabated and, once they’d gradually left the rest behind to the tune of over a quarter of a lap, Boardley got really serious about trying to wrest the lead from Blackman’s grasp. His pressure was telling too, as Blackman had a huge moment exiting the East bend. Boardley instantly went for the outside pass, Blackman somehow gathered it up enough to get that covered, Boardley switched back to the inside and was all but through before Malcolm managed to block that line of attack too.

Blackman thus managed to cling onto what seemed to be becoming an increasingly precarious lead, and Boardley, sensing the fact, piled the pressure on even more.

Anybody who could spare the time to glance at ‘the rest’ would have found they were still well worth watching, with an eight car dice for third going on at one point! By mid-distance, they were almost half a lap adrift, with Doak still fighting off the combined thrust from Haird, Riordan, Murphy, Simpson, Steve Thompson and Clein.  Doak was now continuing to hang on despite trailing smoke from the right front of his car. No doubt the rest were plotting moves for when his brakes finally gave out, but in fact this was nothing more serious than hot grease leaking from an over packed wheel bearing.

Up front Boardley was still repeatedly trying for the outside pass, although one sensed a kind of stalemate had developed between the two when they were open road.

Again, those who could tear their eyes off the two leaders would have been rewarded with some action, as the third place war broke up just a little when Riordan went spinning on the West bend. Clein smacked into the barriers as he tried to avoid the resulting melee, and Haird attracted a dubious black flag for causing it all, the penalty later overturned on a protest.

Back with the leaders, every approaching knot of traffic saw Boardley close right in on Blackman ready to pounce. With 25 laps to run, Carl got on the outside trip and stayed out there for a couple of laps, still without quite being able to make it stick.

Finally, with the two of them over three quarters of lap ahead of the placemen, it became clear they were going to come up behind the fight for third. This too was still raging going into the closing stages and it certainly didn’t look as though any of them were going to step aside for the leaders, blue flag or no blue flag.

Boardley upped the ante by once again trying it up the outside as they were rapidly reaching the point where they would forced to try and put all those dicing placemen a lap down. Woolsey stepped politely aside to let the leaders go haring past, but was anyone else going to? Still not very likely.

In the end, Blackman knew that as well as anybody, and managed to both slow the pace enough that he didn’t actually have to lap the other cars, while at same time ensuring Boardley didn’t get past. This was a delicate balancing act and it was a very close run thing for Malcolm, as Carl got completely alongside with three to go, and again a lap later, when the two rubbed panels furiously on the back straight.

At the line however, it was still Blackman from Boardley, with Doak’s smoky car still third just a little less than a lap down. Steve Thompson, Simpson, Murphy (his car smoking from the right rear towards the end, probably a wheel bearing) and Carter – the last car on the lead lap – followed them home.

It was clear Blackman and Boardley had greatly enjoyed their tense race, as the pair were all smiles when they climbed from the cars. Carl probably summed it up best when he cheerfully remarked to Malcolm, “I got the one I wanted - now you’ve got the one you wanted!”

A discrete veil is probably best drawn over the Grand National, the meeting final, which was frankly, one of “those races". Leaving aside all the bashing and crashing that went on – which somehow only resulted in one major race-stopping shunt – Stimson steered a path through it all to claim another final win, this time from nowhere near the front of the grid. But some of the others were left with rather a lot of work to do before the next time any of their cars grace an oval track, on either side of the Irish Sea.  Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 115,303,970,41,985,85,95,961,31,271,940,142,491,151,369
Heat two: 14,170,996,901,911,921,198,967,944,844,963,777,629,420,179
Heat three: 940,142,994,996,115,303,944,271,961,14,198,985,777,74,54
Heat four: 911,970,151,21,41,967,984,31,923,427,921,491,962,286,963
Heat five: 198,41,491,14,970,996,944,286,151,629,31,427,95,901
Heat six: 961,985,271,142,911,170,940,967,984,303,115,962,994,85,921
National Championship: 911,41,996,170,303,970,85,940,151,962,491,921,21,967,629,95,844
Grand National: 271,984,142,286,31,923,777,179,967,420


National Hot Rod 2007 British Open Championship
Nuttscorner Oval, Sunday 22nd July

Darren Black reports:  Stewart Doak was crowned British Open Champion at Nuttscorner Oval when he powered his still-new Tigra to victory in the 50 lap showdown. Gary Woolsey and Malcolm Blackman had earlier claimed the heat wins, although Doak’s brace of third places saw him start the big race from pole position.

After the previous days racing at Ballymena, there were only 16 cars on hand for the British. It could have been more, with a further three in the pits failing to grid for any races at all. Matt Simpson had dropped a valve in practice, Les Compelli was suffering engines woes too, whilst Ronnie McMillan tried his car in practice, but his knee injury was still just too painful to consider any serious racing.

Gary Woolsey had notably swapped his Tigra for the Corsa overnight, and the visiting contingent included Malcolm Blackman, Chris Haird, Stu Carter, Dick Hillard, Neville Stanley and Mike Riordan.

Heat One
940  994 996  31  946  369 85   967
962  960 115  142 943  911 980  21
Woolsey wasted no time taking up the lead in heat one from pole, but fellow front row sitter John Christie wasn’t so fortunate, as he got caught on the outside line for quite some time before getting back into the train. Newly crowned Irish Open Champion Keith Martin had settled into second, with Doak close at hand in third.

Blackman was making strides towards the front from his lowly start position, but everyone was then brought up short by a waved yellow flag period when Ivan McMillan and Dick Hillard (feeling much better after his Saturday illness) clashed exiting turn four. Woolsey made good his escape on the resumption of the race, coming home for the win ahead of Martin, Doak, Christie, Republic of Ireland visitor Mike Riordan and Blackman.
Result: 940 Gary Woolsey, 994, 996, 962, 142, 911, 115, 967, 960, 85, 369, 31, 980.

Heat Two
21 -    911  -     142 115  960 962  980
967  85  369 946  31  996 994  940
Mark McKinstry stepped off pole for the early lead in heat two, before the reds got an airing on lap 2 when Blackman and Stu Carter clashed entering turn one, and were then joined by Tommy Maxwell before the whole field seemed to get involved entering the back straight, with cars heading off in all directions. Fortunately only Maxwell and Neville Stanley would fail to make the re-run.

McKinstry was again first to show at the second time of asking, but Blackman soon slipped underneath for the lead, and was soon followed by the rapid looking Riordan, although Mike did pick up a black cross in the process. Doak was again making real progress, with the Tigra really looking the part, and he easily took Chris Haird to go third nearing the end. Blackman came home to the chequers ahead of Riordan, who went un-penalised, Doak, Haird and McKinstry, whilst further back Christie somehow got underneath Martin on the last lap for eighth spot.
Result: 911 Malcolm Blackman, 142, 996, 115, 21, 946, 940, 962, 994, 960, 31, 980.

Final
996  142 994  962 31   21    946
911  940 115  960 980  967 369
Two third places had gained Doak pole for the 50-lap title race, with Blackman alongside and Riordan and Woolsey behind. The start was always going to be important, and Doak got it bang on to lead them away. Blackman couldn’t find a gap at all, and struggled to get back in, with Gary Woolsey also losing out big style too. Riordan was now second, and was putting up a serious bid for Doak’s lead. Having tracked Stewart for a while, he then looked outside of the similar Cirrus Plastics car. It was almost as if Mike had forgotten about those behind, as in an instant he was back to fifth and the train dropped underneath him.

Doak was now beginning to edge clear once again; with mechanical gremlins the only thing that looked like depriving him of a famous victory. Riordan was starting to make moves towards the front again, although he collected a black cross as he bumped his way under Christie in turn three. Martin then had damper problems, and he fell right off the pace as Doak took the chequered flag and a major title on just the second serious weekend of competition for the Tigra. Stewart says there is more to come from his new machine too! Blackman was a very gallant runner-up, whilst third across the line Riordan was docked two places to fifth. This allowed Christie to add third in the British Open to his third in the World, with Martin inheriting fourth. Behind Riordan, Gary Woolsey, Ivan McMillan, Mark Heatrick and Neville Stanley completed the runners.
Result: 996 Stewart Doak, 911, 962, 994, 142, 940, 946, 960, 967.  Darren Black

National Hot Rod 2007 Irish Open Championship
Ballymena Raceway, Saturday 21st July
Heat 1:
32   21   994  50  911  85  777  944 369
943  980 962  77  115  198 967
Result:  994 21 50 962  77  198 911  85  115 943
Heat 2:
  -    940 996  303 904  976 946  960
369  777 85   911  50    994 21   32
Result:  940 996  303 911  50  994 904  976
Heat 3:
944  967 198  115 77   962  980 943
960  946 976  904 303  996 940
Result:  944 967  960 976  115 303  77  962 940  904
Final: the Irish Open 2007:
994  303 21   944  976 996  967 904  946 980  369
50   940 911  77    962 115  960 85   943  32
Winner & 2007 Irish Champion:  994 Keith Martin
2nd 940, 3rd 911, 4th 303, 5th 996, 6th 21, 7th 962, 8th 85, 9th 946, 10th 115
30th Anniversary Trophy Race (reverse of Irish grid)
369  946 904  967 77   303
32   85    960 9521 21 943
Result:  962 946  303 21 85 967.
Results & grids as noted trackside and not confirmed.
 

National Hot Rod World Championship 2007

Back to back Boardley

July 7/8 2007, Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich. World Championship 2007:

Graham Brown reports:  The National Hot Rod season reached its traditional zenith with the World Final at Ipswich, the annual 75-lapper giving Carl Boardley the victory he was looking for to purge the bad taste of last years tainted win. There was no such controversy this time, as Carl overcame early race reversals to eventually pass long time leader John Christie.

Entry & Qualifying

No doubt the biggest surprise when it came to the entry, was that Andy Steward cancelled himself sometime on Friday. His call to Deane Wood cited pressure of work as the reason. As he was seen at the track both days, this excuse really doesn’t appear to hold a lot of water. But after spending most of a year qualifying for the event, just like everyone else, his non-attendance was puzzling to say the least. Rumours were running rife that he’d been asked to pay a ‘good behaviour bond’ before being allowed in the race, but beyond stating that I know for sure that this is untrue, anything else I said here would be pure speculation. I might have gone and sought Andy out and asked him if I’d had time, but frankly, I didn’t. Once we knew the score, things like making sure the reserve knew he’d be in the race, and then arranging another reserve, were simply added to the list of million-and-one other things to do, and that was that.

Speaking of which….all of the above meant that Richard Spavins would therefore be making his world final debut, and created just a chance that Colin White (the new reserve and equipped with the newer of James Jamieson’s Tigras) would once again appear on a world grid.

Everyone else was in their expected cars (Matt Simpson having finally plumped for the Tigra over the Corrado), including Russ Wilcox, who’d beautifully re-prepared his Fiesta as a Peugeot 206, which looked very good in it’s met. blue colour scheme.

Mick Reece and Mick Bensley headed up the eagle-eyed team of scrutineers and found all sorts to keep the teams busy with on Saturday morning. The most entertaining of these items was the fact that several Peugeot 206cc’s were missing the little canards they are supposed to have on their boot lids. By chance, somebody (Volker Timm’s mechanic?) had a quantity of aluminium sheet and tools for working it, with them. He became quite a busy man….

Slightly more significantly, James Jamieson’s car fell foul of the scrutineering team shortly before the timed laps were due to begin, when there arose a query over the amount of protrusion on his front spoiler/air dam/splitter. He was made to cut back the length of it by a couple of centimetres. Unsettling perhaps, but significant? Read on.

The timed laps produced the usual crop of woes and the occasional surprise. In the surprise department without doubt, was David Brooks, although perhaps it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. Some unofficial timing (all there was available) had him as one of the quickest cars at press day, after all. It’s probably fair to say nobody – perhaps with the exception of Dave himself – was expecting the kind of pace he produced when it mattered. In terms of overall times, only Boardley, Jamieson and Malcolm Blackman managed to outrun the Brooks Tigra, and ultimately, only Boardley and Blackman. Impressive, even if it did only get # 67 to the front of group three.  

Once the non-English group got on track, Christie very soon proved to be the fastest of them again – although interestingly, his time didn’t beat that of Brooks. And this year, Christie “only” managed inside second row as opposed to outside front row last time, but nevertheless still raised eyebrows with his elderly Fiesta.

If Brooks was a bit of a surprise, there was certainly no shock about the speed shown by Phil Spinks, who annexed his now traditional position at the head of his group, even if it was four this time instead of three.

But in the end, it was to be an all-English front row this year. Blackman headed the times for quite a while, then it was briefly Jamieson, before Boardley snatched the pole by around five hundredths of a second from Blackman.

Jamieson’s best time separated Boardley and Blackman, but of course, James was only vying for the front of group two. Vying that was, until his car failed the post lap time weight check. And then failed another, carried out with a different set of scales. There was no doubt the car was under, anywhere between half a kilo and three kilos depending on who you asked. Of course, the argument (well one of them) was; it wouldn’t have been light if they hadn’t been forced to cut a lump off it. But in all truth, it didn’t look like the pathetic little pile of bits of plastic cut from the front of the Tigra, added up to more than a few ounces in any case.

In the end, and after a drivers meeting, the “mustn’t weigh less than 700Kg at any time” rule was adhered to, basically on the grounds that anybody who ran a car that close to the bone to start with, was taking a big risk. This reversal saw JJ relegated to the rear of his group, putting the Scot back from inside row four, to outside row six. Frankly, as sorry as one had to feel for James, he was probably lucky there are no rules (yet!) governing what will happen to a car found light under these circumstances, only precedent. At a world series round, Jamieson would have found himself loaded up, and with a two meeting ban to boot.

The Grid Outside Inside 911 41 303 962 170 996 940 61 961 59 305 115 85 67 970 271 31 994 50 14 219 921 291 278 967 984 3 467 277 2 93 734

The Race – 75 Laps

It looked as though the weather forecaster’s predictions for the weekend were going to hold good. ‘Mainly warm and sunny with occasional showers’, had meant just that on the Saturday, and luckily, there had just been the one occasional. Sunday looked like providing more of the same, but a very long, black almost sausage-shaped cloud spent the entire world final race straddling the stadium, which was worrying.

Nevertheless, warm and sunny it was going to be. Just for fun, no less than three RACEceivers packed in terminally amongst a grid of only 32 cars - good average eh?

Some last minute work on Matt Simpson’s carbs (he’d been searching a problematic misfire all weekend) and they were off on their pace laps, reserves Colin White and Tony Goodsir departing to the infield once it was realised they wouldn’t be needed.

There was no doubt that the opening lap was always going to be fiercely contested by the two men on the front row, never mind anyone else. Blackman stole a small march coming up to the green, but Boardley had evened things up after they clashed in turn one. Half a lap later they were rubbing again, both cars sliding wide in a clinch that let the eager Simpson through with Christie glued to his bumper.

Des Cooney had already spun out during the frantic early seconds of the race, as Steve Thompson was the next to exchange paint with Boardley. This saw the defending champ slide back to fourth, going on fifth with Blackman still right in there too. But when Tom Casey and Simon Bentley came together on the pit bend and got collected by Neville Stanley, the yellows came out with three laps gone.

This caution period was to have consequences for Blackman, whose car was spotted with flames licking underneath it. A dose of extinguisher got it out, but also got him disqualified for receiving outside assistance – a sad end to his race, and a pretty early bath for the second year running for the 2004 champ.

Stanley’s car had destroyed its radiator in the shunt, so a quick clean-up of the water and any anti-freeze he’d left behind was necessary.

When the race resumed, Simpson still led briefly, but his motor was definitely sounding fluffy as the rest streamed through, with Christie at the front. He now led a tight knit group comprising Thompson, Boardley, Stewart Doak, Chris Haird and the ailing Simpson. Andy Holtby took a spin at about this point, rounding the pit bend, Barry English doing likewise shortly afterwards.

With the leaders now in traffic, Christie gained a little breathing space as Boardley, Doak and Haird ambushed Thompson in among the back markers, Steve losing out badly in the skirmish. But another yellow was coming when Brooks and Winnie Holtmanns crashed on the back straight, a fair proportion of the crowd going wild as Boardley came through with the lead. He’d passed Christie just as the yellows came out though, and the steward ordered the line up put back to Christie, Boardley, Haird and Doak for the restart. This time, it was the Northern Irish who cheered!

And Christie clearly meant to get some space between him and the driver he rightly perceived as his biggest danger, John getting his head down and really going for it when the green came back out. It was working too, as the black Fiesta gained a big gap on the others inside just a lap.

Approaching the 50-laps to go point though, and Boardley was calmly reeling the leader in again, with Haird not too far back either. After Chris, there was a gap back to the Doak versus Thompson dice, with Simpson running just behind them. Matt was just hanging on though, probably hoping his sick sounding car might recover. It didn’t. Another lap and the 303 Tigra was parked with what eventually turned out to be a flat battery, a sad reminder that even brand new batteries sometimes come with a duff cell. Matt followed another high profile retirement onto the grass, as Wayne Woolsey had pulled up just a few seconds earlier.

Simpson’s departure probably gave Thompson the impetus to really try for a pass on Doak, Stewart spinning into retirement after the pair clashed down the back stretch. The incident slowed Thompson for just a few seconds, but this meant that the first three were now left clear, with Boardley really closing in on Christie as they neared a clump of back markers. It still didn’t really look like this was going to be the place where the race was won or lost – but it was.

The two about-to-be-lapped cars that were really going to matter were Mike Thurley and Richard Spavins – and they were clearly engrossed in their own private places fight. John Christie said later, “I thought about going outside, but then thought I might get stuck out there, and decided I’d better stay in tight. But that little hesitation meant I didn’t really do either one and made a half-hearted attempt at the corner instead”.

It was of course, exactly that kind of hesitation Boardley had been waiting for. By the time they were into the turn four exit, the yellow Tigra’s nose was under the Fiesta and there was no way back for Christie, as Haird powered through in Boardley’s wake. Thurley still seemed determined to race the leaders and especially Christie, despite an uncharacteristically sharp rebuke from steward Paul Gerrard via R/C, but eventually the leaders broke back onto clear road for a while.

It wasn’t the end of lapped traffic by any means, even if it was beginning to thin out a lot now as they approached 25-laps to go. And the next back marker coming up for the leader, was Ken Marriott. There must have been a touch of déjà vu for Boardley as he came up on the #2 car, just as they entered turns one and two – but this time, the pass was executed without incident.

The first three (Boardley, Haird and Christie) settled down with roughly equal gaps between them for many laps after that. Thompson was another short way behind, now being challenged by Jamieson, the Scot going better and better as the race wore on. He’d already dispensed with Neil Stimson and Gary Woolsey as his most recent victims, and clearly hadn’t given up hopes of getting further up the order just yet.

Those hopes were finally dashed when he came across Klaus Kilianski, who was in the process of pulling off just as JJ came along. They touched, and then James too was on the infield, a buckled rim and flat tyre ending his run.

Haird continued to stay within striking distance of Boardley, but now oil was appearing on the track as the final ten laps neared. Christie’s car liked the slippery surface even less than the pair ahead of him and he fell back a bit. There was also a smell of gear oil in the air. Whether it was from Stu Carter’s car, and he finally broke a wheel bearing and crashed when the wheel came off, or the oil was someone else’s and Stuart was simply caught out by it and hit the barriers, wasn’t clear. What was, was that Stu was firmly in the back straight wall and one of his wheels was bounding along the track.

Just what a long time race leader doesn’t want to see at this stage - a late race yellow. And the cars had to sit for a while too, giving the race a bit of a twist in it’s tail – a five lap dash, a sprint finish in fact, on cooling tyres and overheating engines. In other words, an anything can happen situation.

But this final restart saw Boardley immediately stamp his authority on the race, quickly pulling all the gap he needed on Haird to make certain of the win.

Chris Haird and Christie deservedly joined him on the podium, with Chris probably rueing a qualifying series that hadn’t left him in group one, and Christie definitely regretting his loss of the lead in that way. But with Thompson home fourth and apparently showing no ill effects from his recent brush with meningitis, the podium certainly had a very young look to it – second thru fourth all have time very much on their side.

Fifth was our old friend Phil Spinks after his traditional late race charge. He’d been picking ‘em off like a good ‘un throughout the race actually, and though I’m sure you’re all bored with me saying this now, if he ever took in every qualifying round…..well, you know the rest!

Sixth fell to Gary Woolsey, who’s Tigra had seemed to stagnate as the laps wound down, but still no bad result for a virtually new car. Four-finals-in-a-row man Neil Stimson was next over the line, again not a bad outcome at all from his starting slot, it’s just the starting slot that needs to improve for next time. Shane Murphy rounded out the top eight, the last car on the lead lap, and once again pointing up the fact that he is definitely an Irishman who always looks pretty much at home round Ipswich.

There has already been some discussion about the places beyond 10^th and the NHRPA will be looking at video evidence this week to try to determine, with certainty, the exact order of the remaining six cars still running at the finish. Graham Brown

Result:  2007 World Champion:  41  Carl Boardley
2nd: 115  Chris Haird; 3rd: 962  John Christie; 4th: 170  Steve Thompson; 5th:  14  Phil Spinks; 6th: 940, 7th: 271, 8th: 970, 9th: 31, 10th: 291, 11th: 219, 12th: 3, 13th: 2, 14th: 734, 15th: 277, 16th: 467.
 PHOTOS

Spedweekend Support Racing:
H1:  718 57 55 639  950 75 491  369 95 77 74 6  151 286  141 467  777 946  10
H2:  491 151  95  639 77 946  777 75 718  950 6  427 369  141 55 467  985 10
H3:  491 77 639  718 95 151  777 75 74 985  55  427 369  141 946  38  10
Allcomers:  777 14 291  271 911  74  278 3  95  967 141  984 985  75  369 10 93


Thunder 500, Ipswich, June 23rd 2007
Simpson steals Blackman's Thunder

Graham Brown reports:  Matt Simpson wound up winner of the Thunder 500, after on-the-road victor Malcolm Blackman was penalised following an on-track clash between the pair.

As has become the norm for T-500's, it was a very cosmopolitan entry, featuring some English world final qualifiers, some from further afield, and some non-qualifiers. Joey Butler and Neville Stanley were flying the flag for the ROI, while Northern Ireland was represented by John Christie, Tommy Maxwell (having his first outing this side of the water) and Keith Martin.

They were joined by Gary and Norman Woolsey, Gary having his first outing in his brand new Tigra, its colours slightly reminiscent of the old Gold Leaf Team Lotus colours, to my eyes at any rate. The car really was brand new, and had never turned a wheel before the start of the meeting. Norman was using the 206cc formerly raced by Gary, but equipped with a new motor destined for Wayne's car after Norman had given it a shakedown.

Despite having tested his new Tigra during the week, Matt Simpson elected not to use it for this meeting, sticking instead with the trusty Corrado. Other points of interest included Colin Smith re-making his acquaintance with the T-500, Steve Burgess re-appearing for the first time in about a year, Billy Bonnar rejoining the fold too after a long absence for various reasons, and Winnie Holtmanns once again journeying over from Germany.

Due to take part but forced to cancel, was Steve Thompson, who was suddenly taken ill and rushed into hospital a couple of days before the event. He's escaped the clutches of the medicos now though, and will be raring to go on Press Day.

This was a Thunder 500 which actually did feature some thunder unfortunately, as heavy rain both before and throughout the early part of the meeting was accompanied by the sounds of God moving the furniture about.

Coincidentally, the first race was all about Simpson and Blackman, with Matt leading - having drawn pole - and Malcolm chasing him all the way. The gap between them stayed pretty stable throughout, with attention centring instead on the fight for third between Tommy Maxwell, Dick Hillard and Andy Steward. Despite his relative inexperience (and none at all at Ipswich) and having to survive a three-wide moment with the other two at one point, it was still the Ulsterman who held sway at flag fall.

Steward had gone spinning out of this dice and backwards into the far turn wall long before the finish, but this didn't mean Maxwell got any peace, as Neil Stimson joined in the scrap instead.

'Doughnut' wasn't the only one to suffer a spin either, as Butler seemed to spend a large part of the race with the track going round him instead of the other way round.

At the finish, Simpson still had quite a big gap over Blackman, who was nearly three quarters of a lap ahead of the impressive Maxwell, while there were contact penalties in store for Hillard and Stimson in the final analysis.

Heat two kicked off with Christie spinning out of the pack and across the infield. Stu Carter set the early pace in this one, pursued by Gary Woolsey.

Woolsey's new acquisition was clearly working pretty well straight out the box, and he gradually inched up on the leader before going ahead about seven laps from the finish. A quarter of a lap behind, Hillard took third, with Simpson fourth, a placing likely to be important from a final grid position point of view. Phil Spinks' still new Tigra got home fifth, having passed Carl Boardley early on. Carl was in fact trying to nurse the car home, as his transmission was making expensive noises. Having no wish to wreck it completely, he decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and loaded up.

German racer Winnie Holtmanns got away first in heat three, not the first time he's shown a liking for the wet. But few drivers can out-run Andy Steward when the going gets slippery, and he took it up on lap two. A brief caution period, thrown when Richard Smith spun and got hit by Maxwell and Terry Hunn on the pit bend, made no difference to Steward's position. Blackman managed to relieve Chris Haird of second long before the finish, but even he made little impression on the leader's buffer zone.

The circuit had managed an upgrade to just 'greasy' for the final, which allowed a clutch start and looked like making passing difficult to say the least. Obviously no-one had told Simpson though, as he cut down to the inside off the clutch start, thwarting any attempt by Woolsey to nip past. Simpson then harried pole winner Blackman through all the early laps, until the pair had drawn slightly clear of the rest.

At this point, Simpson went straight up the outside exiting turn four and hauled himself easily alongside Blackman going down the home straight. But the pair collided at turn one, both men sliding out wide onto the really slippery stuff. Fortunately for them, Woolsey had his hands full with Carter by this stage and wasn't able to turn the situation to his advantage.

From that point on, and only briefly interrupted by a yellow for the spun car of Tony Goodsir, Blackman clearly had the upper hand as the track dried further and pulled away to leave Simpson fending off Haird and Woolsey. However, the steward deemed the earlier incident to have been blocking on Blackman's part, giving him a two place penalty and elevating Simpson and Haird to first and second. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 303,911,369,85,95,31(-2),271(-2),994,198,291,962,844
Heat two: 940,85,31,303,14,41,115,95,467,491,286,55,291,962,967,844,742
Heat three: 198,911,115,14,940,467,994,61,491,286,38,151,55
Final: 303,115,911(-2),940,14,198,491,85


Mallory Park British Long Track 2007, 17th June.
Gomm masters Mallory Mile

Graham Brown reports: National Hot rodder Colin Gomm came out on top at the British Long Track championships, taking a heat and final double in the Open Hot Rod class, as well as second in the other heat.

Although the usual huge entry for this meeting was a bit depressed, due to the proximity of both the National and 2.0 Hot Rod world finals, there were still plenty of cars on hand. Combining Nationals, Outlaws, Super Rods and even Classics into one group made for some fairly good fields here, although the Nationals were always going to dominate proceedings.

There were just the seven of them mind you, with Mark Heatrick hauling all the way from Northern Ireland in company with his Lightning Rod team mates, to join Colin Gomm, Colin White (in James Jamieson's older Corrado once more), Matt Simpson, Richard Spavins, Warren Farazmand and Malcolm Blackman. Blackman and Heatrick showed up with windscreens fitted, sparking some debate about whether they should be allowed to do so, particularly as Colin Gomm had previously been told he couldn't! It was eventually decided that as the rulebook says 'screens are OK in Nationals, that they should be permitted, although Heatrick had lost his by start time, while Gomm had quietly fitted one he happened to have with him.

I suspect that all the Spedeworth drivers had probably been told they couldn't use windscreens either, judging by the improbable depth and height of some sun visors and sh*t shields (very necessary on a dry day at Mallory!) fitted to various Stock Rods and 2.0 Hot Rods. Stuart Smyth's results were especially impressive, given that all he must have been able to see of the track was the sort of view you might get through a letter box!

Anyway, with the Nationals off the back of the grid, Open hot rodder Trevor Ward had a chance to lead several laps in the first race, but with recent ex-NHR racer Brian Loram edging ever nearer. Nearing the finish however, the Nationals really got into their stride, and it was Colin White in the Jamieson Corrado who eventually headed Gomm and Richard Spavins home. Blackman was out before he'd even really started in this one, with gear selection troubles.

Colin Crocker led the way for the Outlaws briefly in the second encounter, but now Gomm was really flying, taking over the lead at the start of lap two. He was then caught by Matt Simpson, the pair dicing to the finish, Gomm staying pretty much in front all the way, apart from one optimistic dive up the outside by Simpson going through the Esses.

Both White and Gomm got absolute flyers at the start of the final and were soon hunting down early leader Loram. With three laps done, the Nationals held the first five places, the battle for the lead centring on Gomm, White and Malcolm Blackman. Blackman took White leaving Gerrards with three laps to go and caught up with Gomm, but his only serious attempt at getting past exiting the Esses, saw the pair touch. This allowed White past Blackman, but Gomm had gathered it all up well enough to take the victory.

The Allcomers really lived up to its name, in that the 2.0's got combined with all the other rods this time as well! Gomm and White fought hard over the lead in this, particularly on the last lap, but with the purple Colt still in front when it mattered. Star of the show in this though, was Danny Brosnan, who got his screaming Mk2 Escort Classic home a fine third. Graham Brown.
Results:  British Long Track Championships, Mallory Park
Open Hot Rods
Heat one: 718, 278, 3, 303, 262 Brian Loram, 285 Trevor Ward, 960, 121 Colin Crocker
Heat two: 278, 303, 718, 911, 3, 960, 637, 262
Final: 278, 718, 911, 3, 303, 262, 637, 285
Allcomers: 278, 718, 9 Danny Brosnan (Classic), 96 Kevin Randell (2.0), 44 David Garrett (2.0), 112 Charlie Schembri (2.0), 666 Graham Fulker (2.0), 40 Kenny Coleman (2.0).


National Hot Rod Continental Cup 2007
Warneton Motor Speedway, May 12 & 13

Martin Kingston reports:  The weekend of May 12th and 13th saw the National Hot Rods make a return trip to Warneton in Belgium for the Continental Cup. Richard Spavins, Carl Boardley, Terry Hunn, Andy Holtby, Dave Brooks and Chris Haird made the trip from England, while Joey Butler, Les Compelli and Neville Stanley made the even longer journey from Ireland.  Winnie Holtmanns was also there, along with two other “local” German drivers: Klaus Killanski and Helmut Laumann. The meeting consisted of practice on the Friday and Saturday morning, two heats on Saturday with two further heats on Sunday, plus the final.

Heat 1
3        967   151 61   85  93
467  777  39   67    115   41
Although the entry wasn’t huge, the racing was excellent.  Neville Stanley was an early casualty with the wall on the Friday was but soon back and running for the first heat with the cars lined up in “graded” order. Killanski elected to start all his races from the back of the grid and Laumann decided not to race at all; these two cars being well off the pace of the Nationals.  Spavins half-shaft broke as they started the clutch start and miraculously everyone missed him. Second time around Stanley led them away.  Haird was flying, and was soon through to take up the lead as the cars fought to find the best lines. Brooks was chasing hard and eventually found his way past Haird to take up the running. Boardley spun out but rejoined, so at the flag it was Brooks from Haird, Carter and Holtby.
Result:  67, 115, 85, 61, 967, 777, 151, 467, 93

Heat 2
3      967  151  61   85    41
467  777  39 67   115 93
The second heat saw the same grid as heat one. This time, Spavins made it away and soon opened up a gap, while behind him, Holtby Boardley, Brooks, Haird and Carter were all chopping and changing places. Holtby and Boardley managed to break away a little and caught up with Spavins, while Holtmanns had a coming together with the wall. Spavins held on to take the win with Holtby, Boardley, Brooks and Haird all right behind him.
Result:  3 ,61, 41 67 115  85  151 777  39  967

Heat 3
67   115   3   777   467   93
61 85     41  967  151  39
This saw a different line-up for the grids and this time it was Brooks - from pole - who took up the running.  He was quickly hounded by Haird and Holtby, these two eventually finding a way past,  while Boardley seemed to be struggling a little and Compelli spun out with damaged bodywork.  Hunn had a coming together with the unforgiving wall.
Result 115, 61, 67, 85, 3, 41, 151

Heat 4
39   151   777     3   115 67
41   467   967   85   61  93
Heat four saw Hunn on pole leading them away, with Butler getting the better of Boardley to slip into second with the rest of the pack behind.  Butler found his way past into the lead as Hunn lost the best part of his rear bodywork.  Boardley caught up with Butler but it then took many laps as the two raced round side by side before Boardley finally managed to edge his way past Butler with 5 to run. Haird was the next to find his way past with 2 laps left, Boardley the winner from Haird, Butler, Holtby and Carter.
Result:  41, 115, 151 61 85 467  777

Final
115  --      41    3             93
61   85   151   967   777
Torrential rain just before the final left the track soaking wet but starting to dry, which left the cars with a dilemma over tyre choice.  This ranged from slicks all round through to wets all round and several different combinations in the middle!  The grid was based on the results from the heats and saw Haird on pole with Holtby alongside, Carter on row 2 (with a space for the absent Brooks); Boardley on row 3 alongside Butler. Holtby managed to get the advantage over Haird at the green and with the cars taking different lines around the drying track to suit their tyre choice the lead swapped back between Holtby and Haird a couple of time before Holtby finally made the lead his.  Haird gave chase until Boardley managed to get by with Carter and Spavins right behind in fourth and fifth respectively. Holtby managed to open up a gap as Boardley then defended his position from Haird. As Holtby gradually pulled clear, Spavins dropped back a little leaving the fight for second between Boardley, Haird and Carter - these three eventually crossing the line in that order some distance behind Holtby. Just for the record, Holtby and Boardley had three wets, and a slick on the near rearside, Haird had two and two, while Butler was the brave one on slicks all round!
Result 61, 41, 115, 85, 3, 967, 777, 151, 93

A great meeting - and in hindsight probably enough cars - the racing was exciting without the track being crowded, and there was relatively little damage with the unforgiving concrete wall on both the inside and outside.  Perhaps the only concern w