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 was that the track is built to be run anticlockwise, and the entrances to the track are built that way too. Running clockwise, this meant the pit gate was fully exposed, and an old Volvo banger was used to stop any errant cars that might hit it!  Still, a great weekend, roll on next year…
Martin Kingston.

See more of Martin’s great photos in the GALLERY


Irish Grand Prix 2007
Tipperary Motor Speedway, April 14 & 15

Darren Black reports:  Tom Casey got his 2007 season off to the best possible start when he took victory in the Irish Grand Prix at a sun-drenched Tipperary Motor Speedway. Following the Co. Waterford driver home in the final were Barry English, Stu Carter and Keith Martin. The three Saturday heats wins were taken by Martin, Casey and Carter.

With World Final qualification on a knife-edge in all three regions, it was still pleasing to see a nineteen-car entry for the first international meeting of the year. Eleven locals, including a pristine new Haird-Motorsport 206cc for Anto Butler, were joined by four from England, three from Northern Ireland and usual Welsh visitor, Mike Oliver. From England came points leader Malcolm Blackman, reigning Irish GP champion Chris Haird (still in the Duratec Fiesta), Stu Carter and former World Champion Colin White, who was at the wheel of the Malcolm Clein SHP 206cc once again. From NI came European and National Champion Keith Martin, Stewart Doak and Ivan McMillan, the latter making his international debut following some excellent home performances over Easter.

Heat 1
179  761 151  984 777  994 115 
       74  930  996 85   57   967
Anto Butler’s new machine failed as the grid formed and he was a non-starter to heat one, as Neville Stanley and Haird set off side by side from the front row for the first tours. Oliver was tight behind, and contact by him on Stanley into turn 3 saw the leaders go wide and Mike move through to the lead, but with a black cross waiting next time around.

Stanley immediately dropped to the rear; Haird struggled on the outside as Martin and Carter slipped underneath to go second and third. Carter then got inside the European champion, dragging Haird back through with him, and set off after the leader. Stu was soon right with Oliver, but the slightest of touches between the two into turn 1 saw the Welshman spin to the infield and out of contention. Carter took the second black cross of the meeting on his next tour, as Doak and Joey Butler had a coming together at turn 1, putting the Ulsterman out with broken suspension instantly.

Carter showed impressive speed to take the flag, but was docked two places for the contact on Oliver, handing the win to Martin. Haird inherited second, with Barry English and Les Compelli completing the top five behind Carter.
Result:  994 115  85(X-2) 984  777 967  57  930 761  151

Heat 2
179  420 921  718 911  961 946
       115 994  777 984  151 761
Two relative newcomers to the National Hot Rod scene, Tubbs O’Connell and Ivan McMillan, shared row one for the second of the night’s qualifiers. As McMillan got railroaded from his outside start, Tubbs held on at the front only to spin it all away early on. Casey accepted the invitation to take up the running, ahead of English and Blackman. Blackman was looking at every angle to get by English, and almost allowed Compelli through on his inside at a time – now that would have been one Les would have dined out on for quite a while!

Further back Martin was relegated by White, Des Cooney and Haird in quick succession, before Des hit the outside to look for a way past White, only for it all to go wrong entering turn 3 and his still-new motor clouted the wall hard. Casey was still clear at the front, with Blackman unfortunately having to settle for third behind English as the yellows got an airing for Cooney just as he’d found that elusive gap on the inside. Compelli and White completed the first five home.
Result:  961 984  911 777  718 115  994 946  761 420  179

Heat 3
946  961 911  718   -    420
967  57    85    996 930  74
James O’Shea stepped from the front row to lead heat 3 away, followed early on by White, Doak, Carter and Blackman. Dermot Meenehan spun into the infield tyres as Carter wasted no time showing his hand as he slipped underneath Doak to go second behind White, as O’Shea got shuffled backwards.

Blackman and Casey soon relegated the Doak Corsa too, as White was blue flagged to give Carter a shot at the lead. As Casey got underneath Malcolm, Carter got inside the leader exiting turn 2 to take up the running. White soon spun it all away under pressure from Casey, as Carter took the chequers for the second time, and this time it was for keeps. Casey came home as runner-up, ahead of Blackman, Doak and Oliver.
Result:  85  961 911  996 57 946  74  718 420  967 930

Final: Irish Grand Prix 2007
961  984 994  777 946  967 930  996 151  921
85   911  115 718  57    761 420  74  179
Casey had pole for the final in his Corrado, with Carter alongside, and keen not to repeat his start from the same position in last year’s European Final. First time away an incomplete start was called as Haird got swamped, but they did get away at the second time of asking. Casey took it up ahead of English and Blackman, as Carter did have the nightmare he must have been dreading to wind up fifth early on behind Martin.

There was early drama too, with Butler, Doak (these two not for the first time over the weekend) and Oliver clashing as they entered the back straight, causing an immediate caution period. Doak and Butler were out on the spot with damage, whilst Oliver’s outside assistance saw him fall foul of the steward and he was finished too.

At the restart Casey immediately moved away into a lead, as English moved into defensive mode against Blackman and Martin, who had got past Carter at the greens. Blackman’s efforts at every side of English were to no avail, as he only succeeded in letting Martin through to third. As Malcolm tried to regain the inside line though, he was tagged slightly by White, and in an instant the #911 rod was spinning to the infield, with the hesitation allowing Carter and Haird back past Colin too.

Casey by now was long gone, as Blackman interestingly rejoined right in front of English, the man he had tried so hard to overcome. Martin then tried to wrestle second from Barry, and he failed too, only letting Carter back through to third.

As Casey came through to take the first major title of 2007, Blackman was all over him like a rash in a bid to unlap himself, having run down the gap between the two. Whether Tom knew he was a lap down was a different story however! English claimed quite easily his best ever Nationals result with second, ahead of Carter, Martin, White, Haird and Compelli.
Result:  961 984  85  994 718  115 777  921 967  946 761  74  911 930  420

Meeting Final result: 921  57  984 718  961 115  930 179 Darren Black

European Championship 2006

Tipperary Motor Speedway, October 14th & 15th

Martin is Euro victor again

Graham Brown reports:  Keith Martin may not have managed a win at Tipperary until Sunday's final, but that was the one that mattered, the popular Ulsterman utterly dominating the 50-lapper to retain his European title.

As is becoming traditional for the European, a large and cosmopolitan entry was on hand, with 38 cars in the pits. Without wading through them all, suffice to say there was representation from almost all areas covered by the NHRPA and even beyond, with itinerant racers Mike Oliver (Wales) and Winnie Holtmanns (Germany) joining in the fun.

Amongst them all, there were some items of interest for students of Hot Rod runners and riders. Alan Wilson turned up without his regular TT, but brought instead the ex-Mark Willis/Billy Bonnar (and maybe others - I didn't recognise the met. green paint job at all!) Corsa. This car is a previous winner of the European of course.

Joey Butler turned out in his new Haird built 206cc - and very nice it looked too, as indeed did the similar car of Richard Spavins, his Focus replacement resplendent in a very orange colour scheme. Nobody is going to miss this one coming, in other words. Mark you, it wasn't going anywhere fast on the Saturday unfortunately, first suffering engine problems with its regular motor, and then more trouble with its scheduled replacement. Like I always say, how come you need to go to Tipperary to wreck a motor or two - it can never be somewhere right on your doorstep can it?!

Andy Steward was another one changing major units after practice, a gearbox in his case.

Former 2.0 Hot Rod and more recently, BriSCA F2 driver Mark McKinstry, was in doubt as a starter right up to the eleventh hour, but the Ulsterman finally took his NHR debut at the helm of his ex-Ian Thompson 206.

Four heats were run on Saturday to determine Sunday's grid, to the fairly usual format, each driver doing two of the four with drawn and then reversed grid positions.

Dermot Meenehan led the first of these, by dint of hanging back on the rolling start and then taking a flyer at the green. He still eventually lost out to John Christie, by running wide on the pit bend exit.

Meenehan wasn't the only who'd made a bit of a demon start, Tom Casey taking a flyer of his own, something he probably figured he needed to do from the very last grid position. Apparently, this didn't quite come off, as he ran into Terry Hunn, proving beyond doubt that the back of Terry's car is a lot tougher than the front of Tom's VW! I never actually witnessed this, I just saw Tom retiring with most of the Corrado's front hanging off, so I could be doing him an injustice there.

Meenehan lost a couple more places when Des Cooney and Joey Butler went by, but Christie was off and running by this stage, getting further clear with each passing lap.

He was still leading when the red flags came out for an early finish after Andy Steward went spinning on the pit bend with a locked up gearbox and Hunn took a ride up the wall. Terry took the resulting damage philosophically.

"I was following Colin Gomm, and thought to myself, 'I'm going faster than him, maybe I can get by. But I didn't want to hit him or anything, so I was looking for a way up the outside. Then it suddenly came, and I was feeling all pleased with myself - until I realised why they were all slowing up!"

Heat two featured a terrific four way lead dice between Neville Stanley - another who made a very fast getaway - Gary Woolsey, Malcolm Blackman and Chris Haird.

This developed into a classic bit of hot rod racing, with young Mr. Haird driving an absolute stormer, and certainly one of the best races I've seen all season. He'd started way back on row five and wasted no time at all catching up with the leading trio. At this point, Stanley was still heading Woolsey and Blackman, and Chris went straight for the outside pass as soon as he caught them. I thought to myself, 'Are you sure?'

But Chris was absolutely sure and quickly overhauled Blackman. Woolsey gave him more of a hard time but Chris hung it out there until he could make good the pass crossing the start/finish. Now: what to do about the leader, who'd made some ground while all this was going on. Unfazed, Chris soon clawed that back just as the backmarking Eddie Wall car loomed up ahead in timely fashion. Wall started to pull wide just as Stanley had decided on an outside pass, enabling Haird to out fumble both of them with a lightning quick dart down the inside.

Hard work all done, it looked like Chris had only to drive to the finish to claim a spectacular victory. But no sooner did he have his hands on the lead, than there was a commotion on the back straight as the 115 car looned all over the track, the resulting moment leaving Stanley up the wall and stopping the race. Several observers reckoned Chris had clipped the wall first, while Chris said that a front wheel's split rim bolts had disintegrated, causing instant deflation of the tyre. I have no reason to doubt the veracity of what Chris says, but if the wheel bolts fractured all on their own, it's certainly something I've never seen before. What I will say is, I could see no evidence on the car, or its other wheels, of it having been in the wall, even gently.

Whatever happened, it was a sad end to a great drive.

Woolsey took it up for the restart and went on to win, pulling steadily clear all the way. In fact, the real interest in the rest of the race, was the battle for third engendered by the yellow flag hiatus. This had enabled Oliver to close up on Blackman and then spend the rest of the race not only looking faster, but trying very hard to get past!  Clearly, this would have been something of an embarrassment had Malcolm allowed it to happen - but he didn't.

Incidentally, this one also came to a truncated finish, when Anto Butler stopped on the pit bend exit in a dodgy spot.

Long time leader Ronnie McMillan and Andy Holtby wound up fighting for the lead in heat three, once Holtby had shrugged off the attentions of Shane Murphy. Almost un-noticed, Haird was out of this one early on when his throttle linkage fell apart, leaving him with a zero score from the heats which unfortunately, was going to leave him in the ranks of the non-qualifiers.

Further back, Alan White was running sixth and making a fair fist of hanging onto the place as well. But an eventual challenge from Ian McReynolds and Stewart Doak saw them hare past, Alan swooning all over the home straight in their wake before going straight on into the second pit gate - just as Mike Thurley and McKinstry arrived on the scene. The impact between the two Saxo's was sufficient to eliminate Thurley from the meeting, and needless to say, brought about another round of yellows.

McMillan and Holtby continued their lead dice upon the resumption, but now joined by an eager looking bunch comprising Wayne Woolsey, Murphy and Clive Richardson. A serious dice ensued, with Murphy and Richardson getting past Woolsey, and then Richardson taking Murphy. Having dropped back from the leader for a bit, Holtby zoomed in for the kill once more with four to go. But a clash between the pair saw them traverse the home straight locked together and slowed by the process. This was all the invitation Richardson needed to slip through and away to victory. The steward decreed that Holtby had started his passing move on the kerb and handed down a two place penalty for doing so.

Despite another suspiciously speedy getaway, Tom Casey was soon in command of the last qualifier, and on his home ground, didn't look very likely to do anything other than stay that way for the duration.

There were some interruptions along the way however, the first coming with a yellow for Hunn, who'd spun in turn one, involving one or two others. Terry's car looked as though its earlier battering might not have been fully fixed, as it was definitely sitting rather low in the left front and sounded like it was touching the track.

Casey continued leading, tracked by Gomm, Stuart Carter and Dick Hillard, with Malcolm Clein and Martin next up. Martin took Clein down the inside of the far turn, with Oliver and Blackman following on as Clein got railroaded down the order. But the next stoppage - with very necessary red flags this time - was on its way.

Hillard had his throttle jam wide open going into turn three, launching him into a wild and scary ride up the wall, the car showering sparks everywhere and looking for a few seconds as though it was going right over the wall. It didn't, but it was a close run thing. Thankfully, Dick was relatively OK after the experience (apart from having bitten his tongue, which is what you get for shouting "****!" at the vital moment Dick!) but his passable Herman Munster impersonation the following day made it no surprise that he wasn't going to take up his place on the final grid.

The restart saw Tom still leading, now with Carter and Martin locked in combat for second. A few months ago, you wouldn't have had a lot of money on Stuart hanging onto the place against an onslaught from the former world champion, but Carter has looked a different proposition since his acquisition of the Tigra. He stayed in front of the eager Martin the rest of the way, which turned out to be quite significant for the eventual make up of Sunday's grid. Mind you, Stuart might not have been so keen to get that aggregate second spot from qualifying if he'd known what his reward was going to be...

So: all of that eventually put Richardson on pole for the thirty car final, with Carter right alongside. Row two looked probably the biggest threat to those front starters, with Martin and Wayne Woolsey griding just in front of Blackman and the impressive Mike Oliver.

When Wall departed to the infield with a failed clutch, the eager Haird team were all for getting their man on the back of the grid as his replacement. Unfortunately, even if the steward had been about to halt proceedings and open the pit gate (which he clearly wasn't - there are time constraints at Rosegreen these days), there were still non-qualifying drivers who actually had some points who would have been more entitled to take the start than Chris, who had none. Unfortunate, but true.

The race was really won and lost on the opening lap, as Richardson got loose going into the first turn and left a yawning gap up his inside. Martin was in it like a shot, Richardson having to slot in behind as Carter got railroaded, with seemingly no way back in from the outside line.

The front four broke away a bit, with Martin heading Richardson, Woolsey and Blackman into the traffic. Clive closed up a bit going through the backmarkers, but Keith went clear again when they got back on open road.

Carter started something of a revival for himself after Colin White and Joey Butler clashed on the far turn, allowing Stuart past both of them.

The order settled down a little, with Martin still leading Richardson and Wayne Woolsey, then a gap back to Blackman, then a bigger gap back to Oliver and Christie. JAC was making distinct overtures about getting by, having already made it past Gary Woolsey somewhere along the way.

But there was a caution flag period coming up (actually something of a surprise it had taken this long), when Doak and Les Compelli went spinning in unison on the far turn exit, Oliver spinning at the other end at almost the same moment.

With the green back out the first four were naturally all together, which saw Woolsey and Blackman able to relegate Richardson, Clive's car not looking so great after the brief rest. It wasn't long before Martin was easing away from the rest once more, but he was also starting to become enmeshed in backmarkers again too.

It looked like maybe Oliver blamed Christie for his earlier rotation, and was definitely obstructing him when John came up to lap the #57. Christie survived the clinch with just a loss of time rather than places, but Mike went on to get involved with other cars following, causing a melee which led to Gary Woolsey taking a ride up the pit gate and out of sixth spot. He was predictably unimpressed.

With no yellow necessary for the incident, the race entered its closing stages, and it was definitely Woolsey who now represented the biggest threat to Martin's lead. Wayne's 206cc - which is one of the prettiest Nationals ever to grace an oval and has looked, quite frankly, horrible to drive - had seemed a completely different animal right from Saturday's practice. I watched him hurtling around, skimming the wall and driving perfect, apex clipping, corners. Even if he was on his ownsome with nothing to compare him to, I didn't need a stopwatch to see that the blue and silver car had suddenly become a lot more sorted.

Or in other words, very dangerous to Martin's repeat title ambitions, especially as Keith seemed to be slowing a little for the first time. Indeed, he slowed so much that I started to suspect tyres which had gone off, or maybe even a flat.

"Oh no, I was just making sure it was safe!" Keith laughed afterwards.

All well and good, but sometimes that attitude can get you passed. It certainly allowed Blackman and Richardson to get back in on the act too, and with Woolsey looking very keen indeed for an outside pass, the leader suddenly turned up the wick again to make his back-to-back titles safe.

Richardson went very wide exiting turn four with three to go, but lost only ground rather than positions, therefore still finishing fourth. Christie yet again impressed with fifth, a long way clear of Joey Butler, Carter, White, Casey and Steward.

The Davy Evans Memorial featured the usual reverse of the European grid, with non-qualifiers at the front to give them a shot at some glory. Most of us suspected that this was probably all the encouragement Chris Haird needed - if indeed, he needed any at all.

Norman Woolsey joined on the back of the grid, as something of a 'novelty entry' in his Classic Hot Rod, and quite incongruous it looked too, out there with all the modern stuff. Perhaps unsurprisingly, giving away around 50-plus bhp, it sounded rather breathless, probably not helped by what sounded like Northampton gearing still in it. Norman wisely pulled the car up not long after they started lapping him.

There was a little amusement caused before the start too, when Holtmanns and Casey collided coming out of the pit gate! Luckily, it was quite gentle and no real harm was done on either side.

Spavins had finally made it on track for the first time and had clearly decided to make it count too, as he slotted straight in behind pole man Haird at the off. Not that they were going very far at the first time of asking, Des Cooney, McReynolds, Wilson, Murphy, Oliver and Joey Butler all ending up hard in the wall on the pit bend right after the start.

This was of course, grounds for a complete restart, although this made no difference to Haird and Spavins, who shot off at the head of the field once more.

Not surprisingly, Haird was swiftly off into a nice safe lead of around a quarter of a lap, leaving Spavins to try and fend off the rapidly advancing Casey. Tom went by to claim second with five laps to run, by which time, the leader was all but half a lap away. Casey had eaten into that a little by flag fall, but Haird was never in any danger, going on to lift the coveted Davy Evans trophy as some consolation from his weekend.

Casey too, had ended the day on an upbeat note, while Spavins must surely have been happy to both get his new car running and show that it works pretty good too.

All in all, a superb weekend at Tipperary, great racing, great weather, almost impossible to fault in fact. It was just that, without Sean Crotty rushing around everywhere, fag in hand and insulting everybody over the PA in his inimitable fashion, it simply wasn't quite the same. Get well soon my friend. Graham Brown.

Heat 1
930  980 777  984 291    -   996  977 198  103
962  921 151  994 467  31    85  278   39 961
Result:  962 921  151 994  85  777 198  31  996 291  977 278  39  930 467  103 980  984

Heat 2
967  940 911  57  179 985    -   55   -    420 21
-      963 718  74  115 976    50  970 61 944
Result:  940 911  57  718 976  50  985 61 970  74  944 55 21 420

Heat 3
944  61    970 50   976  115 74 718  963   -     21
103  198 977  996 -      291 984  777 980  930
Result:  976 50 970  61(X-2) 996  718 944  977 74 777  930 21 198  980

Heat 4
961  39  278 85 31 467  994 151  921 962
420  -   55   -    985 179  57  911 940  967
Result:  961 85 994  278 57 911  151 940  962 985  420 467  39  558 179

Final: 2006 European Championship - 50 laps
976  994 911  940 151  970 996  777 944  977 198  420 21 55 980
85   50   57   961 718  61    278 985  961 74   921 930  39  467 179 (reserve)
Result:  994 50 911  976 962  151
 85  718 961  198 970  985 996  977 278 74 777  467 930  55

2006 Davy Evans Memorial
Result:  115 961  3 467  50  21  962 718  278 74 963  179

***

Solid as a Rock
Rockingham Ovalfest, September 9th/10th 2006

Graham Brown reports:  Matt Simpson emerged as the eventual victor at the inaugural Rockingham Ovalfest, where eight different short oval formulae put on two days of super racing in glorious sunshine. Simpson's solid drive in the final needed to be every bit as good as it actually was, in order to see off somewhat unexpected challenges from Dutch racer John vd Bosch and Ulsterman Alan Wilson. Matt was, however, just one of several drivers who failed to stop UK Truck racer Jack Eames from making off with the 'King of the Rock' title.

Although there'd been a few last minute cancellations, there were still plenty of cars on hand to contest the first meeting on Rockingham's makeshift "short" oval. There really wasn't anything very short about it, with the official track length given as 0.6 of a mile - which I make to be a kilometre in new money. It certainly looked longer than that, but maybe with the very short corners, that measurement could have been right.

Whatever: even after our initial view of it on Press Day, two things were certain. Number one, everybody was going to need a gearbox with a full spread of ratios and the right diff to go with it. And number two, they'd better have some brakes that did the job too, although that was kind-of a swings and roundabouts thing. Yes, they were going to have to slow the cars from over a ton twice a lap, but on the other hand, they would have those long long straights on which to cool down.

That entry was a fairly cosmopolitan one, with vd Bosch hardly a regular visitor to the English tracks for a start. Then we had a number of Irish visitors from both sides of the border, Will Scott, Alan Wilson and Stewart Doak representing the North, along with John Murray, having an outing in Davy McCall's car. Ian McReynolds could be counted as a Northerner or a Southerner, and if it were to be the latter, he had Les Compelli and Neville Stanley for company.

Then too, we had a Scot, in the shape of Davy Philp at the wheel of Ricky Hunn's car - note that there is no "Jnr" after that name - this is the original, accept no substitutes, Davy Philp! Aside from his recent blast at Knockhill, even he couldn't remember when he'd last raced in Nationals.

And as if that wasn't enough in the "blast from the past" department, last but certainly not least, a certain Barry John Lee was out in the Haird Fiesta, meaning that the car finally had the driver to match the number its been carrying on its flanks all along.

Drawn and reversed grids were the order of the day for Saturday's heats, with Chris Haird swiftly into the lead in the opener. He lost the spot to Colin White in the 3-4 turn on lap one just before they were reigned in by a yellow flag thrown for Compelli, who'd stopped in the 1-2 turn.

The showing of the green coincided with Haird's car going very sick, but White didn't have the lead all to himself for very long, as Carl Boardley raced past Mike Thurley and vd Bosch to have a go at the leader.

Carl had a lunge up the outside going into turn one but then suddenly slowed, having lost his second transmission of the weekend. In fact, blown up gearboxes accounted for quite the majority of the retirements in all classes over the weekend.

From that point on White was unchallenged, with the impressive vd Bosch second ahead of Thurley, Rob Hadfield, Richard Spavins, Colin Gomm, Dick Hillard and Simpson.

Leo appeared to be passing everything in sight on the pace lap for heat two, but was in fact merely coping with a dodgy clutch and heading for a his correct grid position on row three.

But it was front row men Wilson and Doak who set off in an immediate scrap for the lead here, tracked initially by Colin Smith. However, Boardley's repaired Tigra was going like train from the word go this time. He might have been on row nine to begin with, but was up to fourth in no time and, barring another gearbox blow up, clearly on his way to a win this time.

Carl relegated Doak going down the home straight with two laps to go and just over a lap from home, zipped past Wilson on the inside of the 3-4 turn. Perhaps fortunately, the world champion didn't need to subject his transmission to another full lap at racing speed, as an early red came out after Stanley had stopped in mid-track along the back straight. Wilson, Doak, Smith, Simpson, Andrew Burgess and a comfortable looking Lee filled the next few places.

Overall, vd Bosch's pace had been good enough to net him pole for the final, but with Simpson alongside and clearly ready to make a fight of it. Not that he needed to do all that much fighting in the end. The Dutchman was clearly the first to break at the green, but managed to get into turn one way too deep, giving young Matt just the opening he was looking for.

Nevertheless, he might have had the lead, but there were still going to be plenty of opportunities to lose it again. As Diggy Smith had already proved in the 2.0 Hot Rod final, a missed gear at the wrong moment was all it took to turn what looked like a win into something else.

Incidentally, Boardley was soon gone from this one with, yes, you've guessed it....

Although Simpson later allowed that he had "got it wrong once or twice", he never made a gear shifting mistake bad enough to lose him any ground, and in fact, he pulled out a few more yards on his pursuers with every lap.

They had their own dice to think about in any case, with vd Bosch and Wilson going at it hammer and tongs for a long while. Eventually, Wilson started to drop back into the clutches of Nigel Steward, who'd picked the final to start to look really quick. He never did manage to make it past though, he and Wilson ending up nearly a half lap ahead of the rest, who were fronted by Spavins and McReynolds.

All in all, not a bad start to "short" oval racing at The Rock - assuming it is a start, and not just a one-off. But isn't it a pity they never did get around to building a proper short oval there. Or at least, not yet....
Graham Brown.

The 2006 National Championship
Hednesford, August 5/6

Martin’s close National

Graham Brown reports:  Keith Martin finally put his Hednesford jinx well and truly behind him as he took his first ever National championship victory, despite several stoppages and having to fend off a serious challenge from Steve Thompson over the closing stages. Keith also had to manage the latter while battling with savage brake fade.

The big entry from all over the UK certainly needed the six heats scheduled for Saturday - in fact, even the eight heats once seen at the Nats might not have gone amiss.

Although the entry was still pretty impressive, it never quite breached the fifty mark some had been hoping for, due to one or two last minute cancellations and no-shows. Even those who fully intended to race didn't always make it either. Ulsterman Alan Wilson and itinerant German racer Winnie Holtmanns both suffered blown motors in practice, and Pat Casey discovered he had engine problems while loading his car up, meaning that he turned up but the car didn't.

Nevertheless, 44 cars was the eventual total present and ready to race, with a very cosmopolitan feel to the pits too, as there were nine Southern Irish cars on hand, and ten from the North - those figures depending on how you class Ian McReynolds and Mike Oliver. Alternatively, Oliver was the sole Welsh representative - as he generally is - with three Scots too, including Stock rodder Davy Philp Jnr, having his second Nationals outing courtesy of Ricky Hunn.

In amongst those NI cars, both Gary and Wayne Woolsey were persevering with their new 206cc's, while Ian Thompson Snr was making his NHR debut on this side of the water in Jnr's 206 from last season. Sadly, it was a visit which didn't last all that long, as this was another car quickly by the wayside with motor ailments.

James Jamieson's spare VW was again pressed into use for Colin White, while another Hunn - Terry - made his NHR debut at the wheel of the older 639 car. Another debutant was a further Stock Rod refugee in the shape of Dean Stimson, having a twirl in brother Neil's Fiesta. One final footnote to the "entries news", was the first appearance of Ralph Sanders' new 206cc - the one we were expecting to see at the World - and very smart it looked too, with its bright red paint and huge rear spoiler.

Saturday's weather didn't start out looking too promising, but the persistent morning drizzle eventually and reluctantly gave way to a dry track by start time.

It was the Corrados of Jamieson and Matt Simpson that headed them away, with Keith Martin third once he’d passed Philp, Davy having had quite a tussle early on with Joey Butler. Far away from those arguing over the major places, there was an interesting scrap going between Rob Hadfield, Mike Riordan - with the left side door hanging off - and Ian Thompson Jnr. Riordan's extra wide car was making passing difficult and was clearly frustrating Thompson, until Mike attracted a black flag for the problematic panel.

Shortly after that, Barry English, Les Compelli, Keith Woods and Rob Hadfield all got together in the East bend in a clinch which looked fairly certain wasn't going to see all of them clear the corner safely. It didn't. Hadfield went in very hard indeed, severely buckling his spaceframe among other things, and finishing his racing for the weekend.

Rob was still able to laugh about this the following day, while showing off the harness marks on his shoulders, and telling a tale of the medic who came to his wrecked car to see if he was all right. Rob commented that he was mostly fine, but that his nuts really hurt! The medic said he hoped they were going to be alright, as he wasn't going to examine them!!

The caution period for Hadfield’s crash put the three lead cars  - 305, 303 and 994 - together, with Martin overhauling Simpson after a couple of attempts, but unable to catch Jamieson.

Heat two kicked off with Nigel Steward and Stewart Doak vying for the lead. But Chris Haird was looking supremely confident and went straight up the outside and raced around the pair of them. Haird marched away thereafter, while Doak passed Steward, Nigel seemingly in trouble as the race progressed, Carl Boardley and Dick Hillard both going by before the finish.

Boardley had earlier been involved in a home straight incident which saw Oliver go spinning as they crossed the start/finish and attracted Carl a black cross. Both drivers were interviewed by the steward afterwards, Oliver apparently accepting that the incident had not been Boardley's fault.

The third heat was an action-packed affair, with far too much contact going on. Les Compelli hung onto the lead for many laps, firstly pressed by Gary Woolsey, and later Pat Canavan, Alan Connolly and Ian Thompson – at least until the latter attracted a black flag for sending Mike Riordan spinning. Quite how Mike managed to rotate so fast in the middle of the pack, almost without making contact with anyone, remained a mystery.

With Compelli, Canavan and Connolly locked in combat for the lead, Malcolm Blackman managed to get up and join in too. Eventually Compelli went into the West bend too deep and allowed Canavan and Connolly past, with Pat going on to take the win. Compelli's efforts to hang onto third saw him cannon off Blackman, sending Malcolm into a very smoky spin which lost him a lot of hard won ground as he eventually trailed in eleventh.

Also worthy of mention in this one was Woods, who slickly took advantage of the dice between Doak and Boardley to zip past both of them and swipe fourth spot.

Heat four provided a flag to flag win for Steve Thompson who never looked remotely like being challenged. Des Cooney was closing for a time, but once the leader stretched his legs again he finished well clear. Dick Hillard (third) and Simpson (fourth) both recorded telling results as far as their eventual grid positions were concerned.

Along the way in this one, James O' Shea clobbered the wall hard, Phil Spinks spun out of contention on the East bend, and Jamieson had obviously hit something, as he was trailing smoke from the right front, where bodywork was touching the tyre. In the same boat was Martin, only in his case it was from the left rear.

Retirement seemed to be beckoning for the '05 world champion, but maybe his Hednesford luck was on the turn; the smoke eventually died away. Presumably he'd either worn a sufficiently large groove in the tyre to clear the body, or ground away enough of the body to clear - usually the tyre goes flat before either of these things happen. You could be forgiven for thinking 'So what: he only finished ninth' - but in the strange topsy-turvy land that was qualifying at this year's Nats, not only was that going to be classed as a good finish, in the final analysis, it didn't hurt anything like a non-finish would have done.

A restart was precipitated in heat five, when Blackman was sent spinning as they took the flag at the first attempt. Steward Paul Gerrard couldn't decide who'd taken him out, and so deemed it an unsatisfactory start.

Once they were racing, it was Andy Holtby and Stu Carter who set the pace. Carter was eventually to lose out to Martin, but the leader was never in any danger, while the manner in which debutant Dean Stimson achieved his fourth spot ahead of Connolly was noteworthy. Keeping in front of a driver of Connolly's calibre was good, but knowing when to let someone like Martin through showed considerable sense too.

The last qualifier had popular Irishman Tom Casey on pole and looking to break his duck. Despite a couple of yellow flags Tom did everything expected of him to lead every step of the way, despite the best efforts of pursuers Colin Smith, Ian Thompson, Ronnie McMillan and Gary Woolsey.

English had a massive impact with one of the infield tyre walls after a coming together with Ian Thompson, while the first of those yellows was thrown when Compelli went into the wall hard on the back straight. The other caution came about when Sanders got stuck on the East bend exit.

This last minute success wasn’t enough to convince Casey to take up his place on the grid, with a car that was less than great and starting so far back. Aside from that win, Tom really hadn't had a terrific day, and he was in some good company. As I said earlier, qualifying produced some really odd, against the form book results. And I'd like to have seen what odds you could have got Saturday morning on Dean Stimson, a first-time-outer remember, out-qualifying Spinks, Riordan and Casey, and very nearly equalling Blackman's score into the bargain!

With Casey and Butler both declining their starts in the final, this allowed second reserve Spinks into the line up of 32 qualifiers. Phil probably wished he hadn't bothered though.....

Martin, on the other hand, had ended up claiming pole, with Steve Thompson alongside. Row two comprised Hillard and Simpson, these two having been tied at the top of the points scorers after the first round of heats.  But the pre-event favourites were scattered throughout the rest of the grid, a few examples including Boardley (grid 10), John Christie (11) and Ian Thompson (18).

Steve Thompson was the first to break but Martin went ahead in turn one, and it was their battle which was ultimately to be the story of the race.

Simpson, Holtby and Hillard tucked in behind them, but Martin was soon drawing clear once he was in the groove. When he started encountering back markers though, Thompson closed in again just before the first bout of yellow flags for Les Compelli who’d spun on the West bend exit and become stranded there. By this stage, Cooney had already had a spin, Neville Stanley was out, Ian Thompson had gone a lap down and Spinks had spun to a halt on the West bend and been forced to reverse very carefully to safety.

Compelli was stuck a bit further round than where Spinks had been, backed into the bank, and didn't move for a while. When he did finally get a gear, it was a forward one - just as Martin arrived on the scene!  Having given Keith and a number of other people - including the steward - a heart attack, the yellows finally came out.

Thompson was all over Martin at the restart, but Keith was equal to that and with Simpson and Holtby for company, the first four broke clear for a time. This only lasted until the next hiatus, caused this time by Ronnie McMillan having suffered the same fate as Spinks and Compelli.

Another restart, and another restart with similar results, Martin continuing to lead Thompson, Simpson and Holtby. Further back, Boardley appeared to be on the move at last, passing Connolly to set about trying to relieve Gary Woolsey of sixth. But his attempt to get by down the outside merely served to let Connolly by again, Alan taking Christie and Jamieson through in his wake. Then they were all brought up short again, this time when Keith Woods and Davy Philp collided with each other and the wall.

From that point on it was a race to the finish, with 37 of the 75 laps remaining. Thompson was not even slightly impressed with the back marking Ian McReynolds being positioned right where he'd been prior to the stoppage, i.e. between himself and the leader. But McReynolds immediately sidestepped the pack, and once again we were back to Martin being chased by Thompson, with Simpson, Holtby and Hillard in the places. Boardley was still the man to watch further back as he started to really pick up the pace and some positions.

Nearing the finish, Martin made the unwelcome discovery that he had virtually no brakes. Suddenly Thompson was on him like a rottweiler, with the others rushing to join in too. Thompson went for an outside pass, but ducked back in again when he realised how close Simpson now was.

With Martin being slowed by his problem, the first five were soon line astern, with Hillard looking up the outside of all of them from the back of the train and Boardley hurrying to get involved too. In fact, Hillard's try up the outside was what allowed Boardley to move up to fifth.

With only five laps left, and the lead pair now slightly clear of the others, Thompson had nothing to lose and everything to gain. He went outside again and got alongside several times, but in the end couldn’t quite manage to get his nose in front and keep it there, the pair going over the stripe still side by side in one of the closest finishes ever. Simpson had kept third throughout, likewise Holtby fourth, while Boardley just managed to pip the fast finishing Hillard for fifth at the line.  Graham Brown

Heat 1:  305 994  303 901  962 29 977  940 170  61
Heat 2:  115 996  41  31  75  944 491  911 50 718
Heat 3:  939 77 777  25  940 41 984  996 142  977
Heat 4:  170 921  31  303 75 718  962 61 994  305
Heat 5:  61  994 85 27 77 50 170  962 911  303
Heat 6:  961 491  901 944  940 921  142 718 31 25
Final: the 2006 National Championship
994  170 303  61  41  31  940 115  305 911
Allcomers Grand National:  57  151 14 961  75  718 27 777


2006 World Final Support Races - GB’s report or scroll down.

The 2006 National Hot Rod
Championship of the World
Ipswich, July 1/2

Carl’s controversial climax

Graham Brown reports:  The National Hot Rod season reached its traditional zenith with the World Final at Ipswich, the annual 75-lapper coming to a thrilling and controversial climax when Andy Steward and Carl Boardley clashed on the last lap. Pre-race favourite Boardley pressed on to ultimately take the win, with Steward heart-breakingly denied victory right at the death for a second time, exactly ten years after it last happened.

Qualifying

The timed laps produced the usual crop of woes and some surprises. Simon Bentley lost another diff in practice but got this sorted before the timed laps, although definitely in the woes department came Stuart Carter, who wrecked his motor before he even got on track. The engine produced at least one impressively mangled bearing shell, which no doubt gave rise to the rumour - untrue as it turned out - that the mill had never had any oil in it to start with. The team attempted to acquire a spare being carried by Tom Casey, although with several cars now using his motors, Tom was understandably reluctant to allow his solitary spare to end up anywhere else. Ultimately, it was Team Haird who came to the rescue with another motor, but it was never going to be fitted in time to allow Stuart to get in any timed laps.

Dick Hillard was another who lost a diff right at the end of his session, while Andy Holtby got to run his laps, but then the beautiful new Tigra sadly failed a weight check - only by about 1Kg - but unfortunately enough to get his times disallowed.  Davy McCall very nearly met with the same fate when word was passed to the steward's box that his new cc was carrying too much inside weight. This turned out to be a false alarm, but nevertheless gave rise to a second lot of grids having to be prepared.

Defending champion Keith Martin was another who ran into motor problems and was painfully slow by his standards. This was brought about by a fairly last minute change of cam wheels, which were not marked in the usual manner. By the time Keith realised that the valve timing was way off, it was too late. Fellow Ulstermen and expected front runners Gary and Wayne Woolsey were similarly off the pace, their immaculately presented new cars simply failing to live up to expectations, despite the previous day's testing at Northampton. And McCall, even with his times reinstated, also looked to be sat in a new car which probably wasn't going to permit a repeat of 1990 or 2002.

No real surprise about the speed shown by Phil Spinks, who annexed his now traditional position at the head of group three, but only by a scant 1000th of a second from the surprisingly pacey Bentley Colt. Not for the first time Chris Haird also posted a quick time for a driver excluded from group one, another such being Mike Thurley.

Not much surprise about Boardley’s pole setting run either, unless you count the fact that he was the only driver to break into the 14.5 second bracket, at 14.529 to be precise. And if anyone were in any doubt about just who the favourite was here, even Carl's second best lap would still have been good enough for pole, while the 14.529 put him anywhere between three and four tenths of a second ahead of almost all his immediate rivals. OK, Spinks, Haird and Bentley all managed 14.6's, but they were not in the group one sort of "immediate rivals" category. Although no one can ever repeat qualifying lap times in the race, if the nett margin between the 41 car and the rest were maintained, a relatively easy win was now looking a distinct possibility.

But perhaps the biggest shock came from young John Christie, who managed to put the same car his father used to win the race ten years ago on the outside front row, outrunning a lot of much more modern, costly and better funded equipment. As such, he certainly did qualify as an immediate rival for Boardley, and John's achievement in gaining a front row start at his first attempt simply cannot be overstated. But even the persistently cheerful and enthusiastic pilot of the 962 Fiesta was level headed enough to know that a two tenths of a second deficit to the man now due to be starting on his inside, wasn't going to be overturned in the race without either a big struggle or divine intervention.

Away from the lofty heights of the top groups, came the last minute struggle to make the field even in a reserve slot. With Hans Frey a no-show, the first reserve to step up would be Hughie Weaver, and with Hughie therefore almost guaranteed a start, another reserve would be required to fill his shoes. Fairly or otherwise, these are still currently drawn from the English series, which raised a problem - the next driver after Hughie on the table was in fact two drivers, Ken Marriott and Andrew Burgess having tied on points. Thus, they were both sent out to do lap times in order to split them, with Marriott winning that particular battle. However, once Weaver came off after his lap times, he declared the car unfit through a persistent misfire and abdicated his position to Marriott.

The Race – 75 Laps

With race day temperatures well into the 30's Centigrade - as indeed they had been the day before - this was always going to be a hard one on cars and drivers, with brakes and motors bound to go through mechanical Hades. This situation might have given the rest of the field some faint hope regarding Carl's notoriously fragile brakes in days gone by, so it was probably just as well most would have been unaware that there has been a completely new braking system under the 41 car recently...

That the teams knew just how bad the temperature situation was going to be, became clear when the time came for the field to form up. Several cars at the sharp end of the grid remaining over by the wall in the narrow strip of shade offered by the grandstand roof until the last possible moment.

So: was it going to be just a cakewalk for Boardley, or was something weird about to happen? After all, this race had so often gone against the form book in the past, and the blistering heat might well turn this into a war of attrition in any case.

A slow and very controlled pace lap eventually saw the green flag fly, with Boardley clearly the first to break. As expected, Blackman was tucked in tight behind, giving Christie no option but to slot into third. Blackman was already piling the pressure on Boardley, but also nearly spun midway down the home straight! It quickly became clear that there was oil down already, as Spinks' car was spraying oil onto the circuit, his dry sump tank having been punctured in a first lap clinch. Phil soon coasted to a halt on the infield, but the damage was done and cars were sliding about everywhere. Finally Tom Casey and Ricky Hunn collided and spun in turn one, Blackman running into Casey to bring out the reds.

A lengthy halt ensued while Blackman and Casey's cars were repaired, Malcolm's requiring a track rod replacing, while Tom's Corrado looked like an application to Band Aid for sponsorship might be well in order, the VW ending up sporting more tape than Ricky Hunn on a bad night at Wimbledon. Spinks' problems were rather more terminal unfortunately, so there would be no exciting last quarter charges up the field from The Black Brick this year. As this was a complete restart, Andy Burgess got the call up to join on the back of the grid, and they all set off again. Well, almost all; second row starter Des Cooney had his car quit just before the off, and another likely-to-be-interesting runner was gone.

The rest ploughed through a massive cement dust storm with Boardley again grabbing the lead, this time from Christie and Blackman, but Malcolm's set up was undoubtedly compromised and after a couple of big moments he fell back down the order fast, eventually to retire.

The order at the front had just settled to Boardley leading Christie (and already pulling out a useful gap), Steward, Steve Thompson and Chris Haird, when Haird's motor suddenly went sick, and he was gone. That left Neil Stimson and Casey's battered car fighting over fifth just ahead of Mike Riordan, Simon Bentley and Hunn.

At this stage, Boardley was not dropping Christie behind that much, and Carl appeared to have already selected cruise control. Hunn moved up a place at the expense of the clearly ailing Casey Corrado, which was soon to be on the infield as they began dropping like flies. Gary Woolsey had already been parked for some laps, Dick Hillard and defending champ Martin the next retirements.

Andy Steward was now third and looking like he was getting into the groove as he gradually edged up on Christie, eventually going ahead down the inside on the pit bend exit.  Not only that, but during the next few laps Andy was slowly but surely closing the gap to the leader as well, particularly any time the two were running on open road. It began to dawn that Boardley may eventually have to face up to a challenge from a rather unexpected quarter. Even Carl probably thought that if anybody rained on his parade, they would have an Irish accent, and if they didn't, then it would be Blackman.

But 'Doughnut' has been a very different driver these past eight or ten months - quite likely due to Tick's input - and where he was previously known as a wet weather expert, there's no doubt in my mind that he's every bit as quick in the dry these days. It doesn't get much drier than Foxhall on this day, so....

Just the same, it wasn't going to stay completely dry for much longer, as more drama was about to follow.  Something slippery and invisible (antifreeze?) found its way onto turn three, and cars started spinning and crashing all over that end of the track, Riordan, Christie and Gomm going in hard as Boardley and Matt Simpson collided to set the reds flying again.

A significant episode this, putting Riordan out of fifth, Christie out of third, and had that little contretemps done the leader's car any harm? Worse still for several drivers involved, the race ran on for a lap before the reds came out, giving rise to numerous places being lost when the cars were re-lined up.

The restart, with 36 laps to go or just short of half distance, had Boardley still heading Steward, with Steve Thompson now third ahead of Neil Stimson, Bentley, Hunn and Thurley. But, no sooner were they underway again than Boardley was pulling further clear with every lap. It was just beginning to look like Carl really did have it in the bag, when he came upon the back marking Ken Marriott. Ken - about to go two laps down - apparently motioned Boardley with a waved hand to go by on the inside.

Whether Carl simply misunderstood the signal or Ken's concentration might have understandably slipped in the heat is unclear. However it happened, the pair arrived in the pit bend only for the leader to find the lapped car going in a completely unexpected direction. The pair collided, Marriott went spinning and with Boardley forced to drive around the outside of the spinning # 2, Steward was able to slip through down the inside.

Despite the psychological blow of not being in the lead for the first time, Boardley quickly recovered his composure and was soon back on Steward's tail. But with Carl no longer able to speed along as he liked, third man Thompson was now closing in as well to provide a further threat.

Further back, Stimson was beginning to look like he was in trouble, perhaps with tyres that had gone off?  First Bentley, then Hunn and Thurley had all gone by.

With the laps starting to dwindle away to a lot less than a normal heat and Thompson getting nearer, Boardley tried an outside thrust, had it parried, Steward took a blue flag and Thompson got nearer still.  He wasn't yet near enough to stop Boardley falling back just a little, possibly 'resting' his tyres and certainly trying to get some air through his rad, ready for a final assault on the lead.

Sure enough, the pair were back together again as the laps unwound. Carl piled on the pressure, even love tapping Andy one time but, with little traffic ahead, mistakes by the leader (especially one as experienced as this) looked unlikely. Suddenly, it was five to go. But the laps carried on counting down with Boardley still not making his move until the last board came out.

Carl rocketed up the outside into turns one and two in what might well have been a desperate last gasp shot at a pass which was probably doomed to fail. But Andy, no doubt still haunted by the nightmare of a decade earlier, moved across to try and block the move. With Boardley already alongside contact with each other, and the wall, was inevitable. Video evidence appeared to show Boardley's car cannoning off like a snooker ball and into Steward, although Carl maintained he was rubbing the Armco for many yards and didn't remember any rebound.

However it happened, Steward was spinning and Boardley headed for the line, somehow making it home still ahead of the rapidly closing Thompson, despite damaged wheels and deranged steering.

A lengthy steward's enquiry ensued, taking the dairy off the victory for Carl somewhat, but in the end, the result was declared as the cars crossed the line.

Bentley, Hunn and Thurley claimed third thru fifth, all three having put in steady and commendable performances to both finish and finish well on a day many others had not.

And if the results for those three were commendable, it has to be said that Christie's eventual arrival at the line in sixth was little short of remarkable. Although there aren't many circumstances when a driver manages to turn a front row grid position into a sixth place finish and get called 'remarkable' for the right reasons, there are always the "what if's" for every driver. In this case it has to be said that without the unfortunate far turn escapade and its consequences, this rookie would surely have had some sort of podium at his first attempt.

As for the rest, Holtby surely must have been rueing the weigh-in problem, because even with that handicap he still got home seventh. Nigel Steward's eighth we can reckon would have been a lot higher without his unfortunate qualifying problems, while Shane Murphy's ninth would probably have been higher had he still been sat in the Corrado rather than the relatively unsorted Mini. Rounding out the top ten came another rookie, Malcolm Clein, who even professed that his car was going the best it had ever gone nearing the finish! Now, if you can just persuade the promoters to make every race 75 laps Malcolm, you and Colin can stop worrying about those pesky set up problems.....

But spare a thought for 'Doughnut' in all this. To come so close twice, at the opposite ends of a decade, is frankly soul destroying, however it happened. Remember how he drove that '96 race with the exhaust burning a hole in his leg and still refused to give in?  This time, he'd battled so hard to both get, and stay, in front that his hands when he stepped from the car were blistered and bleeding from the blisters that he had still forced to keep gripping the wheel. The last time I saw a driver get out of a car in that state was at the one and only Crewe Grand Prix round back in '79, when the rough track and similar high temperatures took their toll on several of the front runners.

Understandably, immediately after the race Andy was all for chucking it all in. But surely, that kind of determination deserves to succeed one of these fine (or even wet) days?  Graham Brown.

The result in full, with thanks to MyLaps.com
1    41    Carl Boardley 75 laps in 19:34 mins
2    170   Steve Thompson 75 19:35
3    59    Simon Bentley 75 19:37 4  639 Ricky Hunn 75 19:38
5    291   Mike Thurley 75 19:39  6 962  John Christie 75 19:39  7 61 Andrew Holtby 74 8  75  Nigel Steward 74  9 970  Shane Murphy 74  10  303 Matthew Simpson 74 11 985  Malcolm Clein 74  12  85 Stuart Carter 73 13   141 Rob Hadfield 73  14  996 Stewart Doak 73  15  734 Ralph Sanders 73 16 286  Steve Burgess 73 17 467  Winnie Holtmanns 73 18 277  Andrew Burgess 72   DNF 198 Andy Steward 74  DNF 271 Neil Stimson 68 DNF 2    Ken Marriott 46 DNF 142 Mike Riordan 37  DNF 278 Colin Gomm 36  DNF 942 Davy McCall 33 DNF 50 Wayne Woolsey 31 DNF 844 Billy Bonner 29  DNF 994 Keith Martin 21 DNF 961 Tom Casey 18 DNF 31   Dick Hillard 16 DNF 911 Malcolm Blackman 8 DNF 115 Chris Haird 5  DNF 940 Gary Woolsey 2  DNS 921 Des Cooney 0.

World Final Support Races

Thompson's tale of what might have been

Graham Brown reports:  It was certainly a story of what might have been for Ian Thompson at Foxhall '06 where, having failed to make the World Final line up, he demonstrated that should he be on the grid next year everybody had better watch out. 

(Before that though, I had intended to mention both Mike Riordan and Des Cooney within the World Final section, above. Blame some pages of my notebook getting stuck together in the heat!  It should have said something along the lines of what I said to Jim Gregory at the time - "I seem to have been waiting a long time for those two (142 & 921) to come to Ipswich and show me what I know they are capable of - and now they have"  Sadly of course, neither's excellent lap time was to morph into a placing. I was a bit fed up to be honest, that Des went out before he even got started, and Mike ended up in the wall - but that's racing.")

Back to the support racing.  It's not as if the National and British champion's previous ride had been a poor or slow one, but the stunning new Tigra he brought to Ipswich was undoubtedly a step up to the next level. What's more, get a load of that paintwork - it's all sign written (Brian Evans) with not a sticker in sight.

Ian was not, however, in the first heat of Saturday, although there were plenty of other takers. With a sizable support entry this year the races were split into a three heat, two thirds format, with world qualifiers only allowed in if they'd booked in advance. They were then allocated to the races in such a way as to prevent the 40-odd car mob that tried to get out for one of the races last year! The intent was for the Support cars to have their own final on Sunday afternoon, followed by the traditional meeting final, but the best laid plans....

Saturday's first race saw Richard Spavins swiftly see off an early challenge from Russell Wilcox, the Focus driver then having to stay ahead of Curly Baines and Colin White, still at the wheel of Malcolm Clein's cc.  The three time world winner wasted no time going to the front of the field, as you might expect after starting on the third row, and romped off to win by a fairly hefty margin over Spavins and Baines. Happy as he was to be back on the control car, Colin's opinion of the new cc ("still far too loose") remained unchanged.

Hughie Weaver, Andy Burgess, Neville Stanley and James O'Shea filled the rest of the major places here, after Les Compelli (sixth on the road) got docked a couple of places for blocking.

Heat two had an all NI front row in the shape of Thompson and Ronnie McMillan. Thompson got a terrific launch at the off, only for Ronnie to make an even better job of it and snatch the lead away in turn one. Keith Martin was out in this one and suffering yet more car trouble as his 206 was soon heading for the infield sounding very sick indeed with a plug lead off.

There was an intriguing dice for the lead going on here, with McMillan still holding on despite Thompson trying inside, outside, anywhere to get past. It became even more interesting when the Welsh Wizard, Mike Oliver, got up to join in as well! Finally the pressure told on the leader and McMillan went wide in the far turn, allowing the other two through.

Impressive as Oliver was, Thompson was pulling away once he had some clear air to work with. McMillan was involved in another interesting scrap over third, with Tony Goodsir - I certainly can't remember those two ever meeting up before. And even further back, for those who had time to watch it, another eye-opening dispute was alight between Davy McCall and Ricky Hunn, with the one time world winner out-fumbling the two time one around a backmarker to go ahead.

The gold Tigra eventually ran out the winner by around a quarter of a  lap over Oliver, McMillan and Goodsir, with Colin Smith, a returning Keith Woods, Pat Casey and a sharp looking Eddie McGrath next home.

Heat three featured an early dice up between Neil Reeve, Woods, Joey Butler and Smith, with Smiffy using both inside and outside lines to dart his way quickly to the front, showing he's lost none of his talent while resting.

He was soon off and running, which looked like being the end of matters as far as the destiny of the win was concerned. But when Reeve went spinning on the pit bend and ended up stranded partially across the racing line, a bout of waved yellows ensued, closing everybody up.

This set up another interesting situation with the restart order, Smith now heading Woods, Andy Burgess, White, Weaver, McGrath and Ian Thompson.  Ho ho, we thought - this should be good; White versus Thompson - bring it on!

With the green back out, Woods car starting pouring smoke from the cockpit, and he was soon out of it. Thompson immediately dealt with McGrath and promptly out-foxed White going around Weaver. The ease with which Ian managed this spoiled any chance of a classic confrontation there, and he didn't waste a lot of time by-passing Burgess either. He was reeling the leader in at a rate of knots too, but eventually simply ran out of time to mount an attack on Smith's lead.

Behind them, White was making hard work of overtaking Burgess, allowing McGrath - starting to look really good now - to catch up and interfere. Eddie got underneath Colin and then went past Burgess too to claim an excellent third spot behind Smith (who was lucky to avoid last minute entanglement with Alan Conroy) and Thompson. Burgess took a fair fourth place with Weaver also having somehow found a way past White for fifth. Colin's sixth place took him over the line ahead of Barry English and Baines.

This was where things started to go a bit awry on the organisational front as, with the world final itself having run way overtime, several races were cancelled on the Sunday. Very unfortunately, one of these was what would have been the Support Car Final. Quite apart from the loss of a race for some competitors, this provided a bit of a headache as to how to arrange the meeting final grid. In the end, the sensible option seemed to be to have the support cars starting in the order they would have been anyway had their final taken place, with the world qualifiers behind them.

As this put Ian Thompson on pole, the winner certainly looked a foregone conclusion, and so it turned out. Fellow front row starter Smith gave chase all the way, as did second row man White, but it was something of a vain chase nevertheless. Although there are a lot of factors to take into account regarding fuel load etc, etc, it is worth noting that Ian's race pace in this one (he had been even quicker in the heats) was faster than anyone in the World itself, other than Boardley. Food for thought indeed.

As for the rest in this, the long weekend and the heat had undoubtedly taken its toll and some of the driving standards left a bit to be desired. Various shenanigans saw a yellow flag thrown at one point after a clash between Spavins and Wayne Woolsey had left the # 3 car stranded (Malcolm Clein managed to get caught up in that as well), Woods clout the wall very hard with the left front corner and Baines lose first a door and then a wheel near the end. And that was all without a last lap difference of opinion about whose bit of track was who's between Neil Stimson and Stanley, which left the Puma head on hard into the wall. Now, I know it's traditional to end a meeting with a DD, but.....

We'll just round off by mentioning, yet again, how good McGrath looked in this one too, lifting another noteworthy placing in fourth. If rumours of his retirement prove to have any foundation, it would be very sad indeed after his showing on this weekend.

And finally finally, those who were expecting to see Barry Lee racing in either a spare Ralph Sanders' car, or the new and experimental Ford Duratec powered Fiesta sat alongside Team Haird's bus, were to be disappointed. The Fiesta is naturally a bit of a prototype and the team had run into clutch problems not quickly and easily resolved just prior to the meeting. But, no doubt there will be another day. Graham Brown.


2006 Thunder 500
Garry Staines trackside update from Foxhall Raceway
Heat 1:  303 198  940 911  41  271 962  985 291  85
19 cars, all-in. Holtby debuts a stunning Tigra.  Good racing
between 41 and 911.  303 won from pole position.
Heat 2:  291 41 31 491  115 271  198 962  940 303
Very eventful heat.  985 black flagged after clash with 911,
3 getting caught up too. Lenient blue flags for 31 & 115 battle.
Heat 3:  198 940  115 111  3 85 962  491 41 911  291
Do’nut looking very quick tonight as he wins third heat.
Nasty crash for Dick Hillard.
Final: 41 198  115 911  962 940  111 271  985
Superb final - 41 lapping all up to 3rd, 198 flying in 2nd.
Great race 962 & 940.  Big cheer as 41 lapped 911!
Results as seen trackside and not confirmed. With thanks to Garry.

2006 Irish Grand Prix
Tipperary Motor Speedway, May 13/14

Chris Haird wins Irish Grand Prix

Darren Black reports:  Having dominated proceedings throughout the meeting, Chris Haird claimed his first major title in National Hot Rods when he took the honours in the Irish Grand Prix at Tipperary last weekend.

Although not the biggest entry ever for a championship meeting, especially one at Tipperary, there were still a few interesting items amongst the 14 cars that did arrive. Most notable was the long awaited and eagerly anticipated return to the sport by three times former World Champion Colin White, who took to the track in Malcolm Clein’s pristine new SHP Peugeot 206CC. The CWS team spent all day Friday at the circuit shaking the new rod down, and would experiment with set up right throughout the weekend. With World Qualifiers in abundance over the past month or so, Colin had Haird as his only companion on the trip from England, although Ireland’s best loved Welshman Mike Oliver joined them on the ferry too.

With World Final qualification on such a knife-edge in Northern Ireland, it was perhaps no surprise to see only two make the journey down South, and both drivers had forsaken their usual mounts in fear of damage at such a crucial stage of the season. World Champion Keith Martin had borrowed the Des Cooney car as family commitments kept Des off track, whilst Stewart Doak commandeered his fathers Peugeot 205 – in actual fact the very car that had taken Stewart to victory in this event in 2004.

Of the locals, it was perhaps a little disappointing to see just nine of them turn out, with Les Compelli debuting his recently delivered Keith Martin Motorsport Focus-206 conversion.

Malcolm Clein, in his usual SHP 206, stepped off pole to lead them away in heat one, but was soon under pressure from Haird, as his fellow front row starter White dropped off the pace with a still ill-handling new motor. Clein seemed to have everything in hand despite the close proximity of Chris, but a slippery track caused by axle oil from the Compelli car saw him slide wide, allowing Chris through on the inside with 5 to run to claim first blood. Clein gathered things together to follow him home, with Pat Canavan, White and Neville Stanley next up.

Tom Casey looked to have heat two all sewn up, only to coast into retirement with a broken half shaft with only 1 lap to go. We all then looked to the monumental scrap for second as to where the race winner would now come from, but it all ended in tears. Lap after lap Martin had tried to wrestle second from Butler throughout the race, only for Joey’s tidy but effective inside line driving to keep him at bay. Martin was wringing the neck of his borrowed machine, but couldn’t find a way past. Haird tried for a time too, but also to no avail. Then on the last tour, as they stumbled upon the stricken Casey machine, Keith hesitated slightly, and Haird thought he could claim the inside for turn three. Keith, however, was committed to coming back inside the #115 rod into the corner, the resultant side-on-side contact sending Martin to the grass for a wild ride which continued right across the tarmac and hard, right-rear first, into the retaining wall. Keith was obviously in trouble, and the medics were with him right away, but the Dungannon man is made of stern stuff and was back up and about in no time, although bruised and battered. Incidentally, Butler held on for a fine, if fortunate, victory, from Haird, Canavan and Clein.

Haird made no mistake at the start of the Grand Prix final, and immediately took up the running. Clein settled into second early on, as the other front row starter Pat Canavan dropped back having smitten the back straight wall. Further back a great scrap was developing for fourth involving Oliver, Casey and White, which ended in tears when Casey optimistically dived under Oliver, only for the two to almost rotate. White took advantage as they tripped up, only to be knocked into a half spin at the next bend by the recovering Oliver. Casey then arrived on the scene and dealt the White car a glancing blow, which put Tom out on the spot with suspension damage. Tom reckons this could be the last we see of the #961 Focus after many years of sterling service, with the new Corrado almost ready to take over. White dropped back to eighth in the incident, but soon relieved Pat Casey and Doak of their positions as he recovered.

Haird however was in a class of his own, sweeping home to collect the spoils over a quarter of a lap to the good. Clein had a similar margin over third placed Joey Butler, while Oliver recovered for fourth at the flag, ahead of Canavan, White and Pat Casey, with Doak and Compelli the only other finishers.

The rods had two open support races after the Irish Grand Prix final itself, and for these they were joined by Eddie Foott, Des Cooney with his car repaired after Martin’s accident the previous night, and Shane Murphy, in his all-new Keith Martin Motorsport Mini. Race 1 saw Barry English claim the win, from Mike Oliver, the again impressive Haird and Clein. A few had loaded up before the weekend’s final encounter, which saw the spoils taken by Canavan from White, Clein and Doak, after English’s retirement only spared him the black flag that was awaiting after a clumsy challenge on Pat Casey which saw the #99 car sustain damage too.
Heat 1: 
985 115 967      996 984 994 777
718 939 99         74 151 57 961
Result: 115 985 939 718 967 99 984 994 961 57 74 996 151
Heat 2: 
961 57 151 74          99 939 718
777 994 984 996      967 115 985
Result: 151 115 939 985 718 99 996 961 57
Sunday - final grid:
115 985 151 57 961 984 74
939 718 99 996 967 994 777     994, 967 & 74 dns
Result: 115 985 151 57 939 718 99 996 777
Allcomers 1: 984, 57, 115
Allcomers 2: 939, 718, 985
Darren Black

2005 European Championship
Tipperary Motor Speedway, October 15th & 16th 2005

Martin adds European to list

Graham Brown reports:  World champion Keith Martin stamped his mark on the National Hot Rod European championship at Tipperary, the Ulsterman claiming pole after the heats and leading every lap of the final into the bargain.

Although his performance in qualifying was not without parallel (Mike Riordan also took a win and fourth from the heats, Martin only claiming pole on the toss of a coin), Keith really did look the class of the field all weekend.

The entry…well…where to start? This meeting seems to just get better year on year, and there was certainly no shortage of cars this time around. No less than fourteen cars came from the English World Series, including Dick Hillard, Carl Boardley, Simon Bentley, Andy Holtby, Nigel Steward, Stuart Carter, Alan White, Chris Haird, Rob Hadfield, Andy Steward, Hughie Weaver, Matt Simpson and Ricky Hunn, not forgetting sole Scotsman, Alan Conroy.

Simpson, sadly, emulated his dad’s feat of a few years ago, of being at Rosegreen without ever starting a race, and for the same reason – a large hole in the side of the engine after practice. It never ceases to amaze the writer that a driver always has to go miles from home to have that kind of luck. It never happens at Wimbledon, and if it did, it would happen to somebody like Conroy or Billy Bonnar. Maybe not Sod’s Law; call it Rod’s Law.

As we said, even with Simpson relegated to the role of spectator, there were still more than enough cars cramming even the temporarily enlarged pit area. Winnie Holtmanns had made the long trek to take part, while the Ulster racers had a rather shorter journey, Stewart Doak, Ian Thompson, Gary Woolsey, Will Scott and Martin himself being the ones who made it.

And of course this all reckoned without ‘the locals’, who were unsurprisingly out in force, headed by points leader Mike Riordan. He was aided and abetted in the quest to bring the title to the Republic by Shane Murphy, Charlie Daly, Les Compelli, Malcolm Clein, Des Cooney, Pat Canavan, Neville Stanley, Tom and Pat Casey, Eddie Wall, Joey and Anto Butler and Barry English. And just to keep things totally cosmopolitan, Mike Oliver was there to fly the flag for the Welsh, even if he is regarded as an honorary Irishman these days!

A day of really quite unseasonable weather for Tipp in October greeted the assembled racers on the Saturday, with mild and pleasant sunshine throughout the day. Even when the wind got up in the evening, it was never exactly what one might have called ‘cold’.

With the traditional infield draw having suitably divided up the cars for their four heats, the first of them got underway, although it didn’t actually get all that far at the first time of asking. Charlie Daly managed to involve himself in two separate incidents before they’d even completed a lap officially, the first time with Murphy and then Compelli, which stopped the race.

The complete restart was much more orderly. Stanley took the lead from pole, but Murphy wasn’t letting him have it easy and spent quite a while trying to pass around the outside. He couldn’t make it and eventually tucked in behind as the first four began to march away, Stanley leading Murphy, Daly and Weaver.

Weaver fell back from the others, eventually into the clutches of the fast moving Clein, who’d managed to break clear of the pack first. Hadfield and Bentley were next to do so but they were soon being threatened by Martin, who was already looking the class of the field, having started stone last.

Murphy made further attempts at passing the leader down the outside, a stance which finally let Daly through. As the laps dwindled Stanley at last began to eke out some sort of lead, as Daly and Murphy duelled on, with Clein, Weaver and now Martin right behind. Murphy still seemed to think the outside was the way to go (or maybe his car just worked better out there) but all he achieved in the end was to allow both Clein and Martin through as well.

If the opening heat hadn’t exactly been a gift for track expert Stanley, heat two certainly looked as though it might be for Boardley. He was away fast from his pole start and swiftly left second man Carter well behind. However, Carter wasn’t able to hold onto the spot for long, as Mike Riordan went haring past. He was soon carving into Boardley’s lead too, as Andy Steward relieved Carter of third.

Behind them, Eddie Wall was causing something of a blockage. Nigel Steward and Hunn got by, but there was still at least another seven cars clamouring to overtake Wall, who was now being energetically blue flagged every lap. Inevitably, not all of those following were going to be blessed with huge quantities of patience and when Ian Thompson dived for the inside down the home straight, he and Wall collided. Wall went spinning across the infield before shooting back across the track and collecting Doak, White and Joey Butler, bringing out the yellows.

The restart was clearly going to be all about whether Riordan could get the jump on Boardley, but Carl left like a scalded cat and had obviously worked out that he needed to!  Riordan was soon all over him and not just Riordan either, Andy Steward breathing down their necks too.  Carter departed the fray after riding the infamous back straight wall, and as he came to a final halt between turns one and two, the leaders arrived just afterwards. Boardley takes up the story:

“I was just having a little adjustment on my brake bias, thought I had everything covered, and then suddenly, there was this back marker coming across me….”

The back marker in question was Anto Butler, and in a trice Carl found himself boxed out as Riordan and Steward zoomed through. The major places were probably sorted right there and then, but the race failed to go full term in any case, a pit bend altercation between Thompson, Haird, Hillard and Doak bringing about an early red flag finish.

Heat three – the first of the reversed grids – saw White on pole with Canavan alongside. Now it has to be said, that this looked like a clear recipe for a Canavan win right from the off, but not a bit of it. White got away briskly, while Canavan got railroaded backwards by Joey Butler, Thompson, Haird, Hillard et al.

Driving easily his best race since joining the Nationals, White managed to cling on at the front for quite a time and without seriously blocking in order to do so either. But if Butler and the rest couldn’t get past, the same wasn’t true of Thompson, who worked his way up to second, the National and British champ then simply driving around the outside and away into the distance.

By the time Hillard had manoeuvred his way into second, White had quite a queue forming behind him, headed by Nigel Steward. Nigel was definitely on the move and went past Hillard to claim second, despite (or maybe because of!) the presence of Riordan not far behind. Butler was providing some entertainment both for himself and everyone else at the back of the places pack by twice riding the wall, fortunately without any dire consequences.

With five to go, Thompson was in cruise mode, more than half a lap clear, but Steward certainly wasn’t and whittled the gap down to a little over a quarter of a lap by flag fall. A terrific scrap between Hillard and Riordan over third went all the way to the wire, with Dick just keeping the position by an inch or two.

With Martin on pole for the final qualifier, there didn’t seem much doubt about where the win was going in this one. But just in case he was tempted to take things easy, he had Woolsey and Doak tracking him from the word go.

There were all sorts of shenanigans going on behind them however, with first Oliver and Tom Casey clashing and going off along the back stretch. Tom’s brother Pat, in company with Hadfield and Compelli, did the same thing a lap or so later, and then Oliver got in trouble again by spinning on the pit turn.

Meanwhile, Martin, Woolsey and Doak had spread out whilst still maintaining Ulster’s dominance of the major places. Hunn now had his hands on fourth, ahead of Cooney, Bentley and Doughnut. The leader had to deal with quite a bit of traffic, but it never looked very likely he was ever going to present Woolsey with a shot at getting on terms.

So, in the latter part of the race, the focus switched to the battle for fourth, where Doak was fending off an extremely determined looking Hunn. Three times at least Ricky tried to hurl himself round the outside – once he even made it fully past, but only at the expense of getting into the pit bend too deep and handing the place back again. He lost so much time over that, that Bentley nearly got past, but Hunn shrugged it off and soon worked his way back up for yet another go at Doak. This time a massive blast round the outside going into the pit turn carried him by at the exit. No place was harder won this day.

With Ricky now breaking up the NI trio, Bentley and Murphy were next to try their hand at relegating Doak, but this all ended in tears when the three of them got together down the troublesome back straight, and the race again ended early under reds.

In truth, there hadn’t looked to be all that much between Martin and Riordan for pace throughout the heats (even if you did get a gut inkling that maybe Keith still had plenty in reserve), and so it proved when the points were totted up. They resulted in a tie for pole, one resolved by the toss of a coin in Martin’s favour.

But if either of those two thought they might be able to take it easy during the early laps at least, a glance at the rest of the first few rows would have told them otherwise. Nigel Steward and Hunn’s consistent placings had got the pair the second row (Nigel inside), while Hillard had also done well to claim the inside of row three with Thompson alongside. With Andy Steward and Boardley completing the fourth rank, this was never going to be boring.

A wet morning that left Tipperary very damp and overcast when it stopped, left the track in a half-and-half state, that was fortunately just erring on the side of dry.

With Compelli suffering last minute clutch problems which forced him to take the start rolling off the back, and Pat Casey obliged to become a last minute spectator, the rest set off en mass. Somehow Hunn was sent spinning in the pack, but had amazingly recovered very sharply to go no lower than fourteenth place. But he was going to get another chance anyway, courtesy of Andy Holtby, Andy riding the wall in a real wall-of-death act exiting turn two, before flipping right over onto his roof. Naturally that set the red flags flying for a complete restart.

The restart had Martin and Riordan locked in combat throughout the opening lap, with Mike refusing to back down from the outside line. The end of the lap saw Martin finally edge ahead as several cars headed for an early bath, Wall and Joey Butler both pulling up with fouling bodywork. Carter also stopped, and then Compelli hit the wall hard and retired with the left front wheel pushed back. Conroy hit the wall on the entrance to the pit bend, not apparently all that hard but hard enough to hurt the driver at least slightly, although this was not discovered until later.

The rest pressed on, with Hillard taking a spin on the pit bend, quite possibly with some help from Andy Steward, who picked up a black cross. The leaders had settled down into the order Martin, Nigel Steward (who’d slipped past Riordan somewhere along the way) and Riordan, with a small gap back to Hunn and Thompson, then another gap back to Boardley and Andy Steward.

Just as Martin started wading through back marking traffic, White rotated leaving the far turn and unfortunately for both him and those following, came to rest nose into the wall right on the exit. This was, as the saying goes, a very bad spot for it. Riordan hit the stationary Fiesta still virtually flat out, Clein went in just about as hard, and by the time they’d all finished piling in, Haird, Cooney, Doak, Holtmanns and English had all managed to get involved too.

Following what was naturally a fairly lengthy clear up session, those still able lined up for the restart over the remaining 40 laps. With half the field accounted for by attrition, there was now the prospect of the rest of the race running without any further stoppages.

Thompson took a real flyer at the off and was clearly past Hunn and into third before the green flag was raised, never mind dropped. He got an immediate black cross for that, but nevertheless set about trying to relieve Nigel Steward of his second place. While they were busy arguing about that, Martin took the opportunity to put some space between himself and the rest.

The race began to enter the stage now where all the podium places were going to be decided. After pestering Hunn for a way past for a time, Boardley went by to claim fourth as they rounded the pit bend, with Doughnut following through suspiciously easily. Ricky was clearly in trouble when Woolsey was allowed past as well, the 639 car coasting to a halt soon afterwards.

Up ahead, Nigel Steward was turning up the wick, the car demonstrating his increased pace by flapping its bonnet at one side. But he was beginning to leave Thompson behind, which has taken a bit of doing for anybody this season! Then too, Nigel may just have been helped in his cause by Thompson going slightly slower, because for whatever reason, he was soon under the cosh from Boardley.

By this stage the order was Martin, Steward (Nigel), Thompson, Boardley, Steward (Andy), Woolsey and Stanley, with the next bunch comprising Daly, Bentley, Oliver, Weaver, Canavan and Hillard. It was this mob that Martin was going to be forced to lap soon, and if anything was going to interrupt his stately progress and allow Steward a shot at getting near him, this was it.

But the world champion was soon dealing with the traffic in masterly fashion, while Boardley’s pressure had spurred Thompson to close up on Steward again. Boardley was clearly getting impatient to be on his way and probably didn’t relish the prospect of having Steward – to say nothing of the looming back markers – underfoot while he was trying to pass Thompson. Carl made several pointed thrusts down the inside until finally Ian tried just a tad too hard to shut the door going down the back straight. Carl immediately lifted but after a big swoon going into the pit bend, Thompson ploughed on into the wall and his race was run.

With the five lap board out, Martin was as safe as houses, but second was far from decided, as Boardley was still in maximum attack mode. He reeled Steward in and then piled on the pressure for a while until suddenly, with just over a lap to go, Nigel was pulling away again as the Tigra’s apparently fragile brakes cried enough.

Martin still had a quarter of a lap cushion in hand as the chequers swept down, leaving Steward, Boardley and Doughnut to collect the rest of the trophies.

Following the traditional champagne spraying presentations, and thankfully before the threatening skies finally dumped their contents on Rosegreen and surrounding area, came the annual Davy Evans Memorial Trophy race.

Those still fit lined up in the reverse of their Euro grid positions, thus giving one of the ‘lesser lights’ a shot at a decent pot. English and Pat Casey were the men who set the pace at the front for this one, but it was soon clear where their main challenge was going to come from, as Mike Oliver moved up to third. As the finest of drizzles dampened the oval, he found a way past Casey, although by now English looked to have made good his escape.

That was, until Daly had a spin at the far turn and got clobbered by Canavan, bringing out the caution flags. This closed them all up of course and naturally put English’s lead in some peril from Oliver. Just how much, became clear when the starter caught Barry on the hop by dropping the green when he not only wasn’t expecting it, but apparently couldn’t even see it as he was under the gantry at the time!

Oliver needed no second invitation however, and blasted off right on cue, leading before they got into turn one. English stayed right with him for most of the rest of the way, but dropped back a shade in the last couple of laps when threatened by Boardley and Andy Steward. In fact, this trio had a very hairy last lap when Boardley made a stab at passing English which Steward turned to his advantage to nab third instead as they headed for the flag.

With all the NHR racing done, the weather finally closed in, as it had been longing to do almost all day, and the heavens opened, too late to spoil anybody’s fun. Graham Brown

Heat 1: 967 121 985 994 970 210 59 939 141 940 57 921 61 177 467 84

Heat 2: 142 198 41 639 75 31 961 115 901 99 996 420 179

Heat 3: 901 75 31 142 151 61 985 115 210 939 85 967 121 980 84

Heat 4: 994 940 639 996 970 59 41 198 921 467 57 420 179

European Championship Final: 994 75 41 198 940 967 57 31 121 141 984 939 467 980

Davy Evans Memorial: 57 984 198 41 99 31 85 467 967 141 982 639 75

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2005 British Open Championship
Nutts Corner September 2, Ballymena Raceway September 3

Thompson storms the British

Darren Black reports:  Ian Thompson continued the excellent start to his National Hot Rod career when he took the spoils in the British Open Championship staged over Nutts Corner Oval and Ballymena Raceway on September 2/3. Consistency over the five qualifying heats gained Thompson pole position for the final and he never looked back to record a commanding victory ahead of Stewart Doak and Malcolm Blackman.

A good entry of 17 cars competed over the weekend, with the visitors headed by European Champion Blackman, who had Chris Haird, Dick Hillard and Wilson Hamilton for company from England. From the Republic of Ireland came a quintet of Tom Casey, Des Cooney, Joey Butler, Mike Riordan and Les Compelli, while the local entry was boosted by the return of defending champion Clive Richardson. Three all in heats would be raced at Nutts Corner Oval, before a further two and the final at Ballymena.

Heat 1
< 996  976 151  142 980  901 921  994 961
< 940  50    911   177 962  115 904  31
Stewart Doak stepped off pole into an early lead in this one but the reds were soon flying when Clive Richardson clipped the wall entering the back straight before ploughing headlong into the turn 3 fencing with broken steering. John Christie was another to get caught up in the melee and both were missing from the restart, which saw Dick Hillard take a rolling start at the back with clutch problems. Doak again made no mistake, with Gary Woolsey getting a better start this time to hold second. His brother Wayne was in third ahead of Blackman, while further back Ian Thompson was making great strides towards the front. Wayne W then spun his third place away at turn 2, gifting the place to Blackman who was now under severe pressure from Thompson. Doak held on for a good win, ahead of Gary W, Blackman and Thompson, who had a small fire in his brakes at the end. Chris Haird showed well in fifth, ahead of Des Cooney and World Champion Keith Martin.
Result: 996, 940, 911, 901, 115, 921, 994, 961, 151, 31, 142, 980. nof

Heat 2
< 115          177               31   940  911 962  50
< 901  921 142  961       994 996  151 980     
Thompson beat Haird away from the clutch start to heat 2, but those expecting him to drive off into the distance were in for a surprise. Haird had got the Corrado well dialled in to the new track, and was soon following Thompson’s every move. It all ended in tears though, as Chris smacked the wall on the River Bend, eventually getting going again in midfield. Next time around Joey Butler met the same fate as it became clear that some kind of fluid was on the track, and the reds were quickly called for. It turned out to be gear oil from a blown diff on the Wayne Woolsey car, and a major clean up operation was required before the restart. Thompson led them away again ahead of Cooney and Mike Riordan, with Martin, Doak and Gary W making good efforts as they moved through the field. Blackman was struggling to get past Tom Casey, and as the starter readied the blue flag for the Waterford man, Blackman got his nose in and turned the #961 car aside, earning himself a black cross next time around. John Christie’s torrid night continued, as he was the innocent party of the incident after getting baulked by Casey’s spinning Focus. Thompson led them home, ahead of Riordan, Martin, Doak and Cooney.
Res: 901, 142, 994, 996, 921, 940, 115, 911 (x-2), 31, 962, 151, 961. nof

Heat 3
<        994         961          151 921  996 901  142
<        31    962                   911         940  115 177
Hillard grabbed the lead from the outside ahead of Martin in the final Nutts Corner qualifier, a race that turned out to be no great advertisement for National Hot Rod Racing. Martin looked outside Hillard a number of times but couldn’t quite make it, whilst further back Thompson was making good progress through a field that seemed intent on swapping paint at every opportunity. Martin’s efforts ended when broken front suspension forced him to a halt and retirement. Frequent NI visitor Hillard held on for a popular win, ahead of the consistent Doak, Thompson, Blackman and Cooney.
Res:31, 996, 901, 911, 921, 961, 115, 940, 962. nof

Heat 4
<  31  911  940 115  50    901 177
<  980 996 904  142 961  994 921
On to Ballymena for a further two heats, and Hillard was looking to capitalise again with a front row draw. Christie, Butler and Richardson were absent, so we were down to just 14 cars for the nights racing. Dick duly led them away, while a slow starting Will Scott baulked points leader Doak. Stewart really needed to get to the inside as he fell back, but his efforts to cut in front of Wilson Hamilton saw him get bumped into a spin, which gave the waved yellows an airing. Hillard was still ahead, but had Blackman, Gary W and Haird right with him, but none prepared to risk anything on the infamous Ballymena outside line. Further back Wayne W and Thompson were having a real ding-dong battle, Wayne no doubt incensed that Ian had possibly used the grass to get inside him at the start. Wayne was all over Thompson, but when he looked wide for the pass he only succeeded in letting Martin through instead. Hillard held on for another good win from Blackman, Gary W, Haird and Casey.
Result: 31, 911, 940, 115, 961, 901, 994, 50, 996, 921, 142, 980, 177.

Heat 5
< 921  994 961          904 996  980       177
<          901         115 940  911  31
Riordan had loaded up before the last heat, and we were also missing Wayne W who was still working to rectify problems in the pits. Cooney led them away, but was soon relegated by Martin who took up the running. Thompson immediately looked outside Cooney, before Casey hit Des from the rear into turn 3, taking Thompsout wide with him. Casey moved through, but Ian soon found a gap on the inside to take second back as Casey lost out big time when helped into a spin by Cooney. Martin was well ahead by now though, Keith taking a well deserved victory ahead of Thompson, Haird and Hamilton.
Result: 994, 901, 115, 904, 996, 911, 940, 921, 31, 980, 177, 961.

2005 British Open Championship Final
< 901  911 940  921 961  980
< 996  115 31   994  177 50
Thompson made no mistake at the start of the big race, and duly took up the front running position. A slow starting Blackman allowed Doak to get to the all important inside line in second, and back in the field a coming together saw Haird, Cooney, Casey and Hillard all lose valuable time. Doak was giving it all he had, but just had no answer to Thompson, who gradually pulled out a gap that would be the length of a straight by flag fall. Stewart withstood a bit of heat from Blackman initially before making second his own. Casey and Les Compelli both retired, and Hillard spun on to the infield, but nothing could stop Thompson from taking his second major title in a month, and all this just a few short months into his National Hot Rod career. Doak claimed a fine second, ahead of Blackman and Gary W. Martin had a lonely race to fifth, ahead of Wayne W, who nursed a very sick car for most of the final to sixth, Cooney and Haird.
2005 British Open Championship Result: 901, 996, 911, 940, 994, 50, 921, 115, 980.

Thompson now has his eyes set on the European Championship at Tipperary in October. “Two down, two to go” as he continues his quest to win each of the four majors at his first attempt. Darren BlacK

Photos in the Gallery

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National Championships 2005, Hednesford, August 13/14

The Thompson twins triumph

Graham Brown reports:  Following speculation in the programme about whether somebody named Thompson, either Ian or Steve, might win the Nationals, the pair wound up first and second respectively following one of the hardest fought races of recent years. And with Ian scoring a rookie victory, and Steve finishing runner up at only his second attempt, John Christie continued the theme of new blood success by lifting an outstanding – and it has to be said generally unexpected – third spot.

There was a fairly whopping entry which teetered on the brink of being 50 cars until a couple of last minute cancellations. Even so, 45 of them actually raced, and with Incarace only able to accommodate six heats due to time constraints, one thing there was never going to be was a shortage of cars on track!

Plenty of interest among that entry too, not least the NHR debut of Scots Stock rodder Davy Philp at the helm of Ricky Hunn’s spare Corsa. Andy Carlin was back in action after a long break in the family’s ex-Richardson 206 while son Lee takes a break himself. Ian McKellar was there for another welcome blast in the Team Haird TT, and Russell Wilcox was giving his ex-everybody (most recently Neal Smith – Malcolm Foskett) Fiesta an airing, while Ralph Sanders had his ex-Leon Fasey car repainted and sign written in his own slightly more familiar colours.

There was a massive Irish invasion from both sides of the border, which included ROI racers James O’Shea, Pat and Tom Casey, Mike Riordan, Joey Butler, Les Compelli, Mike Riordan, Des Cooney, Neville Stanley, Shane Murphy, Barry English, Malcolm Clein and Pat Canavan.

The North weighed in with all three Woolseys, John Christie, Keith Martin, Stewart Doak and Thompson too of course. Even more of an international flavour was added by the appearance of Winnie Holtmanns, who will soon be able to manage more than just the odd word of English if he spends much more time here!

In fact, we had almost anybody who is anybody in National Hot Rod racing in the pits, with just a few exceptions, most notably Nigel Steward (illness), Phil Spinks (working at Olympia), Mike Thurley (harvesting) and Clive Richardson (undisclosed).

So with all those cars in place ready for a weekend of action and six full quality races laid out in front of us, Saturday’s racing seemed set fair to be an absolute classic. Well, even if you weren’t there, you can probably guess what happened next – oh yes; rain.

The drizzle which had started around 9 am had converted to the forecasted real thing by late morning, and was still hard at it when start time rolled around.

It was two of the Southern Irishmen who splashed away into the heat one lead, with Cooney leading and Pat Casey second until he went very wide leaving the East bend, allowing Chris Haird, Stanley, Ricky Hunn and Rob Hadfield through. Stanley adopted an extremely wide line which eventually gifted third to Hunn. As the leaders headed into backmarking traffic Haird closed up to have a go at Cooney while Hunn closed in on the pair of them. Things looked to be shaping up for a grandstand finish, but in the end, Cooney began to draw clear of Haird again and Hunn couldn’t quite get on terms so that was how they finished. Wayne Woolsey doesn’t look to have inherited his dad’s detestation of the wet incidentally, as he got home in fourth.

The rain was falling even harder for heat two, in which Norman Woolsey underlined his love of rainy conditions by pirouetting on the first lap. The race kicked off with a ’04 v ’05 world champions battle, Blackman leading Martin. It was Tom Casey against Steve Thompson for third/fourth and, as might have been expected, Andy Steward was going like a train from his rear of grid start.

As the rain intensified Canavan and Murphy both crunched into the West bend barriers. The leaders started to spread out a little, with Casey dropping Thompson and then overhauling Martin for second. Carl Boardley put the Tigra ahead of Thompson too while Martin fell off the lead pace as his car went sick, undoubtedly with wet electrics.

Seven laps from home Casey got up with Blackman and applied some pressure for a while, but was eventually defeated by simple lack of vision when he got swamped with spray from the leader’s car. And if Norman Woolsey was as unhappy as ever in the rain, it clearly doesn’t bother the boys much, with Gary putting in a sterling performance this time to claim fifth.

With the rain still persisting down for heat three, there only ever looked one winner, with Steward parked on the outside of row two. He might well have been bemoaning a lack of decent wet tyres, but still took less than a lap to get in the lead and never looked anything other than very comfortable staying there throughout.

As for the rest, it was Andy Holtby and Ian Thompson who were carving up second between them, with Thompson going by eventually as they rounded the West bend. That wasn’t the end of it though, as Holtby came back at the Ulsterman hard when they encountered traffic and regained the place with a classy outside pass, only to have Thompson relegate him again when they had to deal with another back marker.

All this was allowing the fourth placed Boardley to close in fast, and he too managed to pass the hard trying Holtby nearing the finish. By then most eyes were on Thompson, who very nearly got on terms with the leader in the dying seconds but eventually ran out of laps.

Although the track was still very wet, the sun had emerged by the time the fourth heat came on track. Wets were still the tyre of choice, so naturally, no one on the grid was best pleased by a delay to the start. This was caused by Tom Casey having apparently come out for the wrong heat and then refusing to leave the track when asked. For the normally placid Casey to be this adamant about something, there clearly had to be a problem of some sort, one Tom himself later laughingly described as “A language barrier!”. During the draw he’d become convinced he’d got “D10” when in fact he should have been “C10”, and as both he and the ‘real’ D10 (Riordan) had so far been showing up for the correct races, it had taken a while to come to light.

When they did get going, the blinding sunshine wasn’t helping drivers or officials much, but Murphy made the best of it initially to take the lead. Wayne Woolsey obviously still felt the wide outside was the way to go however, and proved it by taking over at the front along the back stretch. Murphy lost a further place when Colin Smith went through and another to Blackman later on.

Blackman was clearly in the groove by this stage and overhauled Smith too with six to go. Like Thompson in the previous race however, he ran out of time to do anything other than narrow the gap between himself and the leader.

The oval was bone dry when qualifier five rolled around, bringing with it a phenomenal increase in speeds, even more than might be expected normally. Maybe it was something to do with all that rain having washed the asphalt exceptionally clean, perhaps added to the cool damp air now available to the motors. But whatever the reason, by the end of the evening lap times were falling into lap record areas.

The higher speeds brought about an increased number of incidents too. Things started badly for Holtby and Wayne Woolsey, who both ended up in the West bend Armco, and it wasn’t long before the yellows were waving for Norman Woolsey and Canavan, who were propping up the barriers at the other end in a dodgy spot.

The RoI pairing of Barry English and James O’Shea were in charge up to and beyond the caution period, but with the cars closed up for the restart, third man Boardley suddenly looked ‘the man most likely to’.

Carl got the jump on O’Shea the moment the green came out, James staying in touch until a ‘moment’ leaving the West bend allowed Philp, McKellar and Dick Hillard by. Further back, Cooney went spinning with some help from Tom Casey as Boardley set about relieving English of the lead. While Carl busied himself with that, McKellar found a way past Philp and took Hillard through with him. Boardley piled the pressure on the leader, English having a bit of a swoon as he left the East bend. Boardley went for the resulting gap and the pair made contact, English falling back to fourth by the time he’d recovered with Boardley getting the lead but a black cross to go with it.

Black cross or not, Boardley was off and running once in front. He swiftly pulled out a quarter of a lap gap over what was becoming an increasingly hard dice for second between McKellar and Hillard, with Christie now fourth and closing on those ahead too. Such was Boardley’s pace that he’d extended his lead to almost half a lap by flag fall, but that didn’t save him from a two place docking for the incident with English, the penalty therefore handing the win to McKellar.

The final heat didn’t start well, with two crashes and two restarts. The first was sparked off by a collision between Colin Smith and Murphy and quickly involved Sanders and Clein too. Murphy was in the wars the second time as well, Compelli, Riordan and Blackman also becoming entangled.

When the race finally got underway for keeps, it was Doak leading with Matt Simpson second ahead of Hughie Weaver, Steve Burgess, Neil Stimson and Ian Thompson. Thompson was looking really handy by this stage and was soon up to third, taking over second before too much longer. Doak still had a healthy enough lead, or at least, he did until Billy Bonnar spun on the West bend exit and obstructed the leader as he went round. That was all it took for Thompson to hit the front.

It was initially a short lived lead however, as the yellows came out for Bonnar and closed everyone up, with the order behind Thompson now Doak, Stimson and Tom Casey.  Thompson made an electric start though with Stimson able to catch Doak napping as well, Stuart going down another place when Casey nipped past too.

Thompson looked to have it all wrapped up until he suddenly slowed entering the last bend. Stimson and Casey were now at it for second but fortunately for the leader, were just too far back to take advantage of his last minute loss of speed.

With qualifying over, the importance of putting together three good results was underlined yet again once the grids were compiled. Despite having won nothing at all so far, Blackman was sat on pole with Boardley alongside, an almost entirely predictable front row really. Casey accompanied by Haird on row two certainly wasn’t though, and there was plenty of interest not far behind either. Wayne Woolsey/Doak row three, Martin and Ian Thompson (despite missing one heat altogether) row four, McKellar (still showing his class) and Steve Thompson row five and Hillard/Christie (starting to show his) on the sixth rank.

It took a little while to get the race going, with several last minute problems. Martin had had problems with his brakes even before the grid formed up, and once it did, Steward was forced to retire with clutch trouble. Then Riordan had to cure a misfire and sadly we lost McKellar at the last minute with a flat he discovered too late to effect a change. Steward and McKellar’s problems allowed reserves Mike Oliver and O’Shea to join in, and then they were off.

Predictably Blackman snatched the lead from the drop of the green with Casey keeping Boardley back in third, Haird, Wayne Woolsey, Martin, Doak and Thompson the next to stream through. With Doak stuck on the outside he got railroaded back a whole bunch of places while somewhere in the frantic opening laps, Woolsey got his right rear bodywork punched up onto the tyre. He tried to continue with smoke pouring from the car but a black flag and eventual deflation of the tyre at the same time put him on the infield.

Up front Blackman, Casey and Boardley were tied together vying for the lead with a gap back to Haird, Martin, Ian Thompson, Steve Thompson, Doak, Hillard and Christie. It wasn’t long before the leaders were in traffic, but negotiation of the back markers changed nothing about the order. Once back on open road for a bit, Blackman started to drop his pursuers and Martin overtook Haird, who looked to be in some kind of trouble for a while as both the Thompson’s went by too.

Next Doak had a spin crossing the start/finish which cost him six places, shortly before Boardley finally put a successful pass on Casey to go second. Another Woolsey car – Gary’s – was trailing smoke now and he was forced to abdicate twelfth place shortly before mid-distance.

At that halfway point, Blackman was still leading but with Boardley closing fast, Casey and Martin were dicing for third, it was Thompson versus Thompson for fifth, then Haird, well clear of Hillard and Christie carrying on a long dispute over eighth, Burgess, Simon Bentley and Doak, with Stuart now the last car on the lead lap.

Once Boardley caught Blackman, the race was on with a vengeance and it really did look as though whoever got the best of this battle would take the title. In and out of traffic they went with Blackman always in front but Boardley all over him and trying inside, outside, anywhere for a pass.

But the pace was starting to tell now as the infield became littered with retirements. Compelli, Cooney and Stimson all departed in quick succession, then Martin’s car started a smoke trail which looked suspiciously like a big brake problem and he too was gone before long.

Still the lead dice raged on, with Boardley heaping on the pressure and continuously looking up the outside until he actually bit the bullet and hauled himself alongside. But the battle had been slowing the pair of them down, and suddenly, Casey was back there with them, forcing Carl to stay outside whether he wanted to or not. This was the pivotal moment; if Boardley got by now….

But he didn’t. This race was notorious for destroying braking systems as long ago as the 1970’s and despite the technical advances since then, it still is. As they hared down the home straight Carl hit the brakes going into the East bend and had the pedal go to the floor with no warning. That he only smote the wall a glancing a blow was a miracle, but he still couldn’t stop the stricken Tigra rolling back off and down onto the racing line right on the exit. Those following had no chance. By the time the reds were out, Oliver, English, Hillard, Stanley and O’Shea had all joined a pile up that added considerably to the list of retirements.

The restart was bound to be interesting, with Blackman, Casey, and now Ian and Steve Thompson all closed up. Casey left a gap just as the green flew and Thompson was in it in a flash. Tom’s attempt to shut him out sent him spinning and into retirement once the yellows came out again, as Clein had rotated too.

The final restart probably produced the surprise of the race and not incidentally, sealed the fate of the win too. Blackman’s previous stranglehold on the lead ended when he somehow gave Thompson the room to sneak under him, taking namesake Steve through with him.  Malcolm clearly wasn’t beaten yet and stayed right with them, but now the leader was steadily pulling clear.

Further back, young Christie put a successful pass on Haird and obviously hadn’t given up the idea yet of being on the podium himself. When Blackman tried to retake Steve Thompson round the outside it was all the invitation Christie needed to duck underneath and claim third. He was game to try and relive Thompson of second too, and was still trying when the flag fell to signal Ian Thompson’s rookie victory.

Thompson later revealed how close he’d come to not winning, stating that he’d settled for a lowly finish (if he finished at all) due to his brakes hardly working before the late stoppages gave them time to cool. His car was also leaking petrol from a holed fuel line while the presentations were going on.

John Christie was perhaps the revelation of the weekend, and proved conclusively that talent still matters above all else if you have enough of it. After a week spent scrounging parts from all over to repair the engine (he broke the crank at Nutts Corner the previous weekend) he showed up at Hednesford towing behind an aging Fiat and proceed to keep the car running with a boot full of decidedly second hand looking tools. No compressor, no coach, no awning, obviously not much money, oh and, no Ormond to tell him what to do either. Just bags of enthusiasm and a driver who can drive.

George Polley, watching one of the wet heats, was seriously impressed with the junior Christie and commented: “Look how smooth he is! His dad must have taught him well.” Personally, I think Ormond has actually taught John very little, with the possible exception of self-reliance….

The final footnote to the weekend was the now traditional Grand National event, a chance for those who’ve done less than brilliantly to grab some glory for themselves. No one was more determined to do that than Canavan, who started on pole and was revving the motor fit to bust long before the green flag came out. From the moment he left twin tyre marks virtually all the way to turn one, there was only going to be one winner here.  Graham Brown

Heat 1:  921 115  639 50 996  303 967  467
Heat 2:  911 961  994 41 940  170 61 198
Heat 3:  198 901  41  61  996 111  85  985
Heat 4:  50  911 491  970 115  940 994  170
Heat 5:  96  31  41(X-2) 962  59  984 115  57
Heat 6:  901 271  961 996  286 142  911 994
National Championship Final: 1: 901 Ian Thompson
2: 170  Steve Thompson
3: 962  John Christie 4: 911  Malcolm Blackman  5:  59 Simon Bentley  6:  996 Stewart Doak 7: 115  Chris Haird 8: 286  Steve Burgess
Grand National:  939 141  985 911  142 491  50  921

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Super Spinks saves best ‘til last

National Hot Rod 2005 Championship of the World Support Races
Foxhall Raceway, Ipswich, July 2/3 (scroll down for World Final story)

Graham Brown reports:  Not for the first time, Phil Spinks left it just a little too late at a World Final event to show exactly what he was capable of, only this time it was in the support “final final”, where at least he had a big pay out as some consolation. He certainly had to earn the money however, by dint of a superior drive to win a classic lead battle with Carl Boardley.

After initial fears that maybe the support car entry wouldn’t be that great for this year’s Spedeweekend, in the end, the number of world qualifiers who elected to take part at the last minute (frequently without booking in advance) gave grids that were plenty big enough. In fact, far too big in the case of at least one race, were some of the runners had to be turfed off the track to get the field into even vaguely manageable proportions!

Some clue to the way things were going was provided by the first support race on Saturday, when no less than 30 cars showed up, including 13 qualifiers. At least three of them were using spare cars, but the others were clearly taking something of a gamble, particularly with the oval as crowded as it was going to be.

Biggest talking point of the support entry (who were all to be starting ahead of the qualifiers incidentally), was the appearance of Matt Simpson, his Corrado decked out in colours which had many people convinced it was ‘Slim’ back out again. Apparently, the writer bears at least some blame for ‘Son of Slim’ taking up NHR’s, due to a throwaway remark made at Press Day, when I told Jeff over lunch that it was about time Matt gave up Legends and got into Nationals.

It appears Jeff went home, sought out what cars were for sale, decided Dave Fry’s Corrado fitted the bill (and yes, it is the prototype, ex-Timm machine, chassis # 001), and went and bought it. Originally, a steam clean and a repaint was supposed to be the sum total of its re-prep, but by Sunday night the team had decided they could do better than that, and reduced the car to its component parts. By Monday night (when I saw it last before the weekend, having gone to deliver them a rule book) the frame was back from powder coating and had gained some suspension and one quarter panel back again, giving rise to my asking if this pile of bits was actually going to be a racing car again by the weekend!

It was of course, but stocks of midnight oil must be severely depleted in and around Berks by now…..

Back to the plot.

Latest Scot to try his hand at Nationals, Alex Sharp, lined up on pole for the first race, but quickly found his Pinto motor wasn’t really up to the job. Neil Reeve took over at the front with Mike Oliver and Simpson following, but Matt’s debut race wasn’t to last long, a pit bend collision involving him, Oliver and Neville Stanley tearing a rear wheel off the 303 car and setting the reds flying.

The restart order saw Reeve still heading Oliver, Hughie Weaver and Ian Thompson, but Thompson was clearly not only racing before the green came out, he went past Weaver too – a fact immediately noted by the steward. Oliver overtook Reeve, taking Thompson in tow to start a Wales v N. Ireland dice for the lead. It wasn’t to last long however, Oliver getting pushed off going down the back straight and into a lurid spin which looked for a second or two, as though he was about to wipe out quite a few grand’s worth of new Mercedes pace car! Mike managed to avoid that and settled for hurtling a Hoosier banner skywards before clawing his way back on track. Thompson was long gone by then but the steward, who’d been going to dock him for a jumped start anyway, upgraded that to a total disqualification following the incident with Oliver. This handed the win to Reeve over Deane Wood, Andy Steward and James O’Shea.

The second heat was the one when about 36 cars decided to take part, necessitating some pruning of the qualifiers to get things to a sensible grid. There were still 27 of them took the green flag, and trouble wasn’t long in kicking off, with Pat Casey and Joey Butler getting together on the pit bend, lap one. With a wheel ripped off the 151 car and running loose, this gave rise to a swift caution.

They were soon away again with Oliver heading Wood and O’Shea but another caution was in the offing as Les Compelli suffered a series of spins, the last one involving Simpson, Paul Uden and Neville Loosemore.

Oliver and Wood were at it for the lead again once they’d restarted, with O’Shea trying to fend off the hard pressing Thompson in third. James was forced to let the Ulsterman past, Colin Smith and Andy Steward following on. Thompson’s next target was Wood and wasn’t awfully polite about his attempts to pass either. This is never a great idea with Deane, and Ian got a much closer look at the pit gate next time by than he’d bargained for!

Thompson was able to pull away nonetheless and had Oliver under the cosh with three to go. Mike has been a different driver since his acquisition of the Blackman 205 however, and proved equal to everything that was thrown at him.

A number of drivers, particularly the qualifiers, had decided it was getting a bit late by the time heat three rolled around, so it was just 14 cars that lined up for this one.

The repaired Simpson car was on pole for this one but took an early spin exiting turn two, leaving O’Shea and Thompson briefly duelling for the lead. Briefly, because Thompson wasted no time going by and clearing off into the distance, leaving O’Shea a quarter of a lap down by the finish, James having a pretty big advantage himself over Reeve by then too.

The difficulty of putting together three decent results soon became apparent when the aggregate results were totted up for Sunday’s meeting final, producing a slightly surprising front row of O’Shea (pole) and Tony Goodsir. Unfortunately for them, Thompson hadn’t done too badly either and was nestled in behind them. He made second as soon as they hit turn one, Goodsir having an off down the back stretch in any case following a clash with Reeve.

That left O’Shea to face up to Thompson’s onslaught alone, but as in the third heat, Thompson soon hit the front. His onward march was interrupted however, by a clinch between Colin Smith, Ricky Hunn and Weaver going down the home straight which planted all three in the wall and brought out the yellows.

Thompson was off like a shot when they restarted, leaving the rest trailing in his wake with O’Shea heading Reeve, Stuart Carter and Compelli. That was the way they stayed too, except that Carl Boardley had replaced Compelli in the top four by chequered flag time.

Simpson was in the wars again, a spin exiting turn four sending him sliding across the speedway track and broadside into Weaver’s stationery car at undiminished speed. The resulting impact did neither car any good whatsoever. In fact, when an enquiry was lodged with Team Simpson as to whether they were going out for the £1,000 Staffhire sponsored finale, “Slim” was heard doing a passable imitation of Robert Duval in ‘Days of Thunder’: “I want you to go out and hit the pace car….”

But, looking like a refugee from a band aid factory, the VW was indeed going out again for the last race, which this time had the world finalists at the front, with Boardley on pole and looking for at least some sort of result from his weekend. Billy Bonnar was lined up alongside but could nothing to prevent Carl snatching the lead from the word go.

What Billy could do though, was not only stay with the leader but even apply some pressure to try and get past. Carl wasn’t about to allow himself the ignominy of being overtaken by his old car and got his head down to edge away from the Scot. By this stage Steward and Mark Baines had been overhauled by Spinks, who was looking really sharp now.

Once Phil was past Bonnar rounding the far bend and chasing down Boardley, everybody knew we were in for a serious race.

It took a few laps for Spinks to close down the leader, but eventually they came together, Tigra versus Saxo for what both drivers thought was a “grand to win” dice. They certainly drove like it too. Spinks headed straight up the outside, Boardley sportingly giving him the room to do it.  Three laps they ran side by side, and then a fourth, a fifth, maybe a sixth before finally, Spinks went ahead down the back straight to tumultuous applause.

No one had even got their breath back on the terraces, when it dawned that Malcolm Blackman was after a top three finish too, despite only being sixth with two laps to go. Blackman was in the mood to perform miracles as well, as he raced up to fourth past Steward and Chris Haird, finally pipping Bonnar to third on the line.

It subsequently transpired that the prize money should actually have been £500 for first, £300 for second, £200 for third, but nevertheless, a nice little earner for all three to round off a great weekend’s racing. Graham Brown
02/07: H1: 221  302 198  74  55  967 271  57  177 99
H2:  57  901 491  198 271  844 74 55 700  286
H3:  901 74 221  55  151 278  967 996  177 99
03/07: Support Final:  901 74 221  41  85  14  961 911  198 151
Staffhire £1000: 14 41 911  844 115  198 291  961 901  996
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At last, it's Martin!

National Hot Rod 2005 Championship of the World
Foxhall Raceway, Ipswich, July 2/3

Graham Brown reports:  After so many attempts and two second places in the last 15 years, Keith Martin finally ascended the top step of the podium in a National Hot Rod World Final, the Dungannon ace taking a popular victory from a real thriller of a race. Defending champion Malcolm Blackman finished a close second, having been back in fourth at one point, while Steve Thompson took an impressive third from his first ever world event. Eire’s Shane Murphy was an equally impressive fourth, which meant that all the main areas running NHR’s got a look in on the podium.

As usual there were all sorts of minor dramas before racing ever got under way, not least English points winner Ricky Hunn struggling to get his car accepted at scrutineering. There had been all kinds of rumours in the week since Press Day about whether the controversial subject of the missing roof cross bars would be addressed, either by Ricky or someone else, before his car(s) were presented for scrutineering. Jeff Simpson seemed fairly sure that a Corsa would be turning up at his shop during the week for modification, but it never happened and in any case, Team Simpson had other matters on their minds. In the end, the yellow cars showed up at Foxhall unchanged and the issue appeared to come to a head – or rather, not – when chief scrute Mick Reece carefully read the rule amendment sheets and decided that by the letter of what was on there, the 639 car was still legal. This led to a great deal of discussion amongst all the NHRPA officials present, the eventual outcome being that clarification of what the rule actually meant, rather than what it presently says, would be provided and that in the meantime, the scrutineer’s decision was final.

Phew. The prospect of running the World without the English points champion had held no appeal for anyone, fans, other drivers, TV – you name it, so a resolution (albeit temporary) with the “right” outcome was pretty welcome.

As expected, both Clive Richardson and Malcolm Blackman had abandoned any ideas of using their Tigra’s for the race, while Carl Boardley had no choice, having sold his 206 to Billy Bonnar. Speaking of whom, Billy was a welcome arrival at Ipswich and actually brought both cars with him, the pair almost indistinguishable. For the record, the one with the gold wing supports is Billy’s original car; the one with the red ones is the ex-41 car.

Following Dick Hillard’s last minute engine rebuild, he’d added to his dramas by having the throttle stick open during testing at Northampton, and he’d ended up testing their Armco as well.

Neville Stanley’s eagerly awaited Ford Puma was – somewhat surprisingly – the car he showed up with, and very nice it looked too – far better than in the “preview” pix.

Perhaps the worst drama of the early part of Saturday befell Keith Woods, who wasted a motor in practice and was forced to make a swap before the lap times. Fairly crucial stuff this, as Keith was having to use the times to sort out his three way tie with Stu Carter and Colin Gomm about who was going to move up a group on the grid in the absence of Neal Smith. It did look for a while as though he wouldn’t be ready in time, but in the end all was well.

As usual, the real talking point of lap times though, was whether pole was going to an Englishman or an Irishman this year. It turned out to be the latter, with Martin just beating Hunn out of the top slot by a whisker. Neil Stimson looked pretty rapid in the first session as indeed, he was, beating the rest by almost two tenths of a second. No big shocks in this group though, unless you count the fact that South African Neville Loosemore was able to out-run several English drivers in an unfamiliar car, track ditto. Peter Blood was fairly despondent about being so far off the pace, and was equally delighted when he discovered later that he’d been trying to do the job with an almost flat tyre.

As expected, Phil Spinks and Boardley were the class of the next session, Phil beating Carl out of the quickest time by less than two hundredths. Whacking the wall in the dying seconds wasn’t part of the plan however, Phil having to go all the way back home later to get the car fixed.

The funny thing was, after all the hoo-hah trying to get his car out there, Keith Woods only managed a handful of laps before it ran out of gas (don’t laugh, Andy Steward did it too), and yet he still managed to comfortably outpace both Gomm and Carter to claim the ‘move up’.

The gauntlet was truly going to be thrown down by the next session which, as last year, featured all the Irish from either side of the border. They were all (Joey Butler apart) down in the 14.0’s, but Martin was seriously quick on 14.598s. It was already looking like pole for the popular Ulsterman, unless one of the English aces had something truly spectacular lined up. Almost (but not quite) incidentally, Murphy was second fastest, and was ultimately therefore, on his way to a row two start for the second year running.

Chris Haird was commendably the fastest in the last run offs, but couldn’t of course, claim a place at the head of the grid in any case, so it was Hunn who did. But, his 14.628s wasn’t good enough to see off Martin, who thus claimed the honour of pole.

The Grid     Outside Inside     Ricky Hunn Keith Martin (Vauxhall Corsa) (Peugeot 206)     Shane Murphy Malcolm Blackman (VW Corrado) (Peugeot 206)     Simon Bentley Steve Thompson (Mitsubishi Colt) (Peugeot 206)     Mike Thurley Chris Haird (Citroen Saxo) (VW Corrado)     Davy McCall Des Cooney (Peugeot 206) (Peugeot 206)     Andy Steward Colin Smith (Peugeot 206) (Peugeot 206)     Clive Richardson Phil Spinks (Peugeot 206) (Citroen Saxo)     Keith Woods Tom Casey (Peugeot 306) (Ford Focus)     Dick Hillard Andy Holtby * (Peugeot 206) (Peugeot 206)     Neil Stimson Carl Boardley (Peugeot 206) (Vauxhall Tigra)     Neville Stanley Stewart Doak (Ford Puma) (Vauxhall Corsa)     Stuart Carter Colin Gomm (Peugeot 206) (Mitsubishi Colt)     Joey Butler Neville Loosemore (Peugeot 206) (Peugeot 206)     Rob Hadfield Billy Bonnar (Peugeot 206) (Peugeot 206)     Mark Baines Winnie Holtmanns (Audi TT) (Peugeot 206)     Steve Burgess ** Peter Blood (Peugeot 206) (Peugeot 206)     * Non-starter   ** Reserve

If there were minor dramas earlier in the weekend, there were more major ones coming once they were on the grid. Andy Holtby had an oil line fail and got pushed off, bringing reserve Steve Burgess into play. Bit of a role reversal there for Steve, who had to cry off at literally the last minute last year, allowing Mike Thurley into the race.

Of course, the burning question of the day was the obvious one: could Keith Martin finally do it?  He’d got pole, he’d got provably the fastest car out there, and we knew he had the credentials to get a car to the finish. But we also knew he was third as long ago as 1987 (yes really, 18 years ago!) and had managed two second spots since. Had his time simply passed, and with it, his best chances, pole position or no pole position?

We weren’t going to have to wait much longer to find out. But first, the boys were playfully going to try and turn it from National Hot Rods into 'Formula Restart'!

Martin was the first to break after a relatively orderly final pace lap and, as Hillard went spinning out of the pack, it was Martin from Blackman, Thompson and Murphy. Hunn got stuck on the outside and was being railroaded backwards, his loose looking car finally going into a half spin rounding the far bend where he got tagged by Haird, which finished the spin off. Unfortunately, the incident soon had Woods, Casey, Doak, Richardson and Hadfield all involved in the aftermath, bringing out the red flags.

A lengthy stoppage ensued, while Boardley’s crew tried to sort out a mashed oil cooler, damaged in those hectic few tours. He’d plastered the track with a swathe of oil too, so a long clear up and dust off was going on anyway. Even so, the 41 crew didn’t seem to be managing the job with their usual alacrity. They’d gone to swipe the cooler from Holtby’s sidelined car, but then found that (a) the threads had got damaged during the removal somehow, and (b) the fittings weren’t the same size anyway. Finally forced to admit defeat, Carl became a reluctant non-starter, and the rest lined up for another go, with the distance now down to 70 laps.

This time Hunn stayed alongside Martin all through the first lap. Martin obviously felt a move to a slightly wider line might get rid of him, but not only did it not force Ricky to back off, it allowed Blackman to get his nose underneath and the trio hit the back straight three wide and tried to stay that way. It was all a bit too fraught this early in the race and something had to give, Keith losing it altogether next time through the pit turn, leaving Blackman heading Thompson, Haird and Thurley, with Martin down to fifth. Hunn had lost out in the earlier clinch even more however, and finally tangled with McCall, and then Casey at the end of the back straight. With Stanley spinning at the same place, and Hunn and Casey ending up locked together with Holtmanns, this cued the reds again.

With Casey (severe left front damage) and Hunn (slight right front) both out of the next restart, they got set for another go, with another cut in distance. This was, as one wag put it, Keith Martin’s “get out of jail free card”. Especially as, in Ricky’s absence, he was now alone at the front. Off they went again, McCall had an “off”, and the front runners stacked up in the order Martin, Blackman, Murphy and Thompson. Only they still weren’t going to get very far. This time Gomm and Carter got together at the end of the back stretch, causing yet another stoppage and yet another cut in the number of laps.

Carter wasn’t fit to go this time (damaged right front) but the others were and now, they were racing for keeps. Well, it might have been just 55 laps, but it wasn’t going to be boring, that’s for sure.

It was Martin who beat Blackman to the punch, but with Malcolm having several early attempts round the outside. He couldn't make it by and settled into second with Thompson and Shane Murphy close behind. The rest of the race was clearly going to be all about this quartet.

Des Cooney lost a lot of places as he got stuck on the outside, then with five laps done, McCall spun into retirement. So, whoever else denied Martin this time, it wasn’t going to be his nemesis of 1990 and 2002!

Experienced watchers keeping a weather eye on the bulk of the pack for any unexpected – or even expected – challengers to the four leaders, noted that Clive Richardson was on the move for a while. But eventually his challenge faded. He got as far as eighth before his march forward stalled, but was never close enough to bother even the lesser placemen like Bentley, Thurley and Haird very much.

But most eyes were glued to the leaders, and with good reason. Nobody would have taken any bets on the likely outcome of this, even with the race well and truly underway. First, Martin would pull out a small gap, and then Blackman would close it up again. Then Thompson and Murphy would stop dicing with each other long enough to reel both the leaders back in. Suddenly Thompson got in place to really have a go at taking second and drove up Blackman’s outside going through turns three and four. He stayed out there for a while too, but couldn’t get it done and in the end, his bravery merely let Murphy past.

With that settled for a moment, Blackman had another good go up Martin’s outside, but couldn’t make that stick either. He hadn’t given up on the idea yet though and was still trying to edge alongside when Murphy managed to close up and drive underneath. Worse still, from the defending champion’s viewpoint, Thompson was still welded to Murphy’s bumper and in a trice, Blackman found himself fourth.

Malcolm may have been put to the back of the lead bunch but he was clearly still spoiling for a fight. Exciting as all this was though, it was just playing into Martin's hands. Keith was gradually eking out his slender lead now as the places war raged on.  Next Thompson found a way past Murphy exiting turn four, Blackman getting "towed" through this time. The reigning champ wasn't done yet either, as he piled the pressure on Thompson and was eventually rewarded with second spot back again.

Meanwhile, as Richardson’s charge ran out of steam, Phil Spinks became the man to watch coming from the latter part of the field. It’s become a feature of his world finals, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise, but when he finally overhauled Richardson everybody knew for sure, he was at it again.

With the laps dwindling away by this stage, Blackman was obviously back in the groove now and carving huge chunks out of Martin's lead. He caught him and made a couple of big lunges around the outside, one of which saw him go way too deep into the pit bend. Furthermore, the dice was slowing them sufficiently for Thompson and Murphy to get back in on the act too….

With the five lap board about to be shown, Martin cleared his final back marker hurdle, headed onto what was sure to be clear track for the remaining distance, and it looked to be all over. But Blackman was only gathering himself for another huge effort and again zoomed up to the back of the leader's car starting the final tour. The slightest of love taps as they rounded the pit bend for the final time could have unsettled Martin's car, but it didn't, Keith hurtling over the line still with a sliver of daylight between himself and Blackman to record the longest of long overdue wins.

Blackman was hardly disgraced, as the defence of his title had been worthy, stubborn and if it had been ultimately unsuccessful, losing to Keith Martin isn’t exactly a disgrace in any case. As for Thompson and Murphy, they’d been very much in the hunt every step of the way, Thompson on his first shot at it, remember. Steve drove an extremely level headed race, not overawed by the occasion or the fact that he was hustling for the lead. As for Murphy, it may not have been his rookie event, but after that performance, he surely now has some claim to the title of “man most likely to” down Tipperary way.
Graham Brown
1st: Keith Martin #994 (NI)
2nd: Malcolm Blackman #911 (Eng)
3rd: Steve Thompson #170 (Eng)
4th: Shane Murphy #970 (RoI)
5th: Simon Bentley #59 (Eng)
6th: Phil Spinks 14 (Eng) 7th:  Chris Haird 115 (Eng) 8th:  Mike Thurley 291 (Eng) 9th: Clive Richardson 976 (NI) 10th:  Keith Woods 25 (Eng)
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Thunder 500, Foxhall Stadium Ipswich, Saturday June 18 2005

Thunderous Thurley's 500

Graham Brown reports:  Mike Thurley did more than enough to justify his unofficial "most improved driver of the year" tag by qualifying on pole and then producing an immaculate flag-to-flag drive to take the annual Thunder 500 in fine style. Nigel Steward raised both joy and sadness with an equally impressive second spot (joy that he did it, sadness that he won't be in the World), while Chris Haird's third place further underlined his current good form too.

As for the entry, well: where to start? Not a huge one, but probably the most interesting and cosmopolitan line up seen anywhere so far this season. Unfortunately, Dick Hillard went missing after his motor cried enough in practice, giving him, as he put it, "More stress just when you don't need it". That stress started with an unscheduled trip to Mallory Park the following day to deliver the reluctant mill back to its builder for urgent attention.

But there was certainly a lot else to keep the fans interested. Ian McKellar was back in a National for the first time in a long time, happily accepting a loan of the Team Haird Audi and running it under his familiar 96 number. Looking quite unlike the teenager he was when he lifted the world crown a decade ago, it was an altogether older, wiser and more seasoned driver who knuckled down to sorting out the still very new car.

Whilst it certainly felt good to have this multi-talented pilot back in the fold, however briefly, probably of more importance to students of form for the upcoming world race, were the track debuts of Carl Boardley and Malcolm Blackman's Tigra's. Although both cars were ultimately sidelined with rear axle woes, they both looked good when they were running, Carl's in particular. Blackman's was so recently finished the team were, most unusually, late in arriving and actually missed the first heat.

As for the rest of the field, well, we said "cosmopolitan", and it was. Winnie Holtmanns was over from Germany, new "coming man" Ian Thompson weighed in for Northern Ireland, as did John Christie at the wheel of his dad's Fiesta, John getting his first run on the hallowed tarmac which has been the scene of so many great days for his legendary father. Clive Richardson made it an Ulster threesome and also a trio of Tigra's with his ex-Trevor Stroud car.

Mike Riordan - sadly not a world qualifier - represented the Republic of Ireland, but oddly perhaps, wasn't joined by any of those who have made it. They are all planning their test sessions for Press Day apparently. With not even Keith Martin around either, it was certainly a T-500 field with a difference.

Three all-in heats is a difficult thing to arrange grids for, but a scenario Incarace have had to cope with frequently in other formulae. So, following the draw for heat one, the Paul Gerrard devised and computer generated system was put in place for the following races. This worked out well, with the best aggregate scorer from the heats going to pole for the final as usual, and so on.

With the massive heat of the day little diminished by evening, many drivers were not happy about having to push their four allocated tyres through three heats and a 40-lap final, and permission was given for the use of a further two used tyres if needs be.

Heat one saw Andy Steward become a non-starter after a stone or other debris holed his rad during the warm up laps. Chris Haird got the jump on pole-sitter Colin Smith at the start with Colin unable to prevent Riordan and Richardson from demoting him as well in the early going. While Richardson got on with looking, and eventually finding, a way past Riordan, Smiffy found himself coming under pressure again from what was probably an entirely unexpected quarter - John Christie.

A long way behind the leaders - and likely unnoticed by much of the crowd - Thurley was beginning to show his pace as he caught and passed Thompson to move up to eighth. Going into the closing stages Christie's impressive Ipswich debut came to a premature end, the black Fiesta slowing with a rough sounding motor to let Nigel Steward and Boardley past. John pressed on with what ultimately turned out to be a dropped valve and limped home in eighth place but his meeting was over by flag fall. Boardley too, had pulled out by then, with the order at the front remaining unchanged, although Riordan had clawed back some of the ground Richardson had made up earlier as the Tigra's handling looked to be going away somewhat. With first blood going to Haird, his team-mate-for-the-day got the TT home in tenth despite a cockpit full of fumes where the gearbox breather was venting onto the exhaust, and handling which had Ian looking for different springs as soon as he was back in the pits.

Blackman's arrival for the second heat produced an inside line which had all three Tigra's lined up behind one another, Boardley's at the front.  A minor skirmish between Smith and Phil Spinks, which left Phil sculling about on the infield, saw them all brought back under reds for another try.

Not surprisingly, Boardley went straight out into an immediate lead while Holtmanns and Neil Stimson both spun on the far turn, delaying Spinks, Andy Steward, Riordan and McKellar in the process. Up front, Boardley's car had assumed a bullet-like quality as he drew away from Nigel Steward and Thompson. Blackman was running fourth for a time but suddenly pulled up with a blown diff, handing the place over to Thurley, who was really getting into his stride now.

Mike was soon forcing Thompson to watch his mirrors again as they vied for third, with Thurley slipping past to make the place his just as the two lap board came out. That quickly became second as Boardley coasted to a halt on the infield, another victim of diff disease. He had set the clear fastest lap of the race by then, if that was any consolation. This left Nigel Steward to collect the win, with Thurley's second place putting him in a really good position to challenge for the final pole if he did well in the last heat. Incidentally, a considerable difference of opinion over the minor places between Andy Steward and Riordan, which had seen both drivers spin at different times, eventually led to the pair getting disqualified.

Heat three looked like being very interesting, with Thurley on pole and Blackman alongside. Malcolm absolutely launched the Tigra the moment he saw the starter's eyelids flutter, but Thurley obviously wasn't that impressed and soon latched onto the back of the world champ's new toy, pestered him for a while and then simply overtook down the inside of the pit turn! Blackman stayed with him for a time but finally slowed into retirement again, this time from the meeting.

That left Thurley well clear of Hughie Weaver, who was looking very comfortable in second, at least until the chasing Andy Steward and Richardson caught up. Steward went by through the pit bend, but Richardson's attempt to follow on saw him ride up and over Weaver's right front wheel, putting Hughie out instantly with a flat, Clive stopping a few yards further on, also with damage sustained in the incident no doubt.

Way behind the leaders, there was a fine old dice going on between Stuart Carter, Haird, Smith and McKellar. McKellar had already had the cheek to pass his car's owner once, but as the scrap drew to a conclusion, the pair had a coming together that put Chris in the wall!

A tot up of the points revealed that Thurley had put a lock on pole for the final, undoubtedly helped by the problems some of the expected front runners had encountered, and the seeming difficulty of putting three decent results together, but a great result for him nonetheless. Nigel Steward was to start beside him, with Haird and Smith occupying the second row ahead of a third rank comprising Thompson and Riordan.

Given his recent results and rather more determined outlook, it seemed a distinct possibility Thurley was going turn this into his first major win, and so it turned out.

He went quickly away at flag fall and didn't hang around to see which of the others might be going to mount a challenge, as he put a gap on second man Haird and third man Steward fairly swiftly. Thompson had assumed fourth while behind him, Smith got sideways exiting the pit bend. This tempted Richardson to go for a pass, but he tagged Colin's car and instantly lifted, which merely caused the closely following Riordan to punt  Clive off instead - a classic case of 'racing incident' if ever there was.

With Richardson retiring soon afterwards, that left the order as Thurley, Nigel Steward, Haird, Thompson and Smith, with Riordan and Andy Steward at it again for sixth and McKellar now after them. Riordan seemed very slow indeed coming off the bends, which was soon causing problems all round for those following, which now included Spinks too. All sorts of in-fighting ensued amongst this crowd as they tried to get in position to take the green Colt, but it was finally McKellar who got on the outside and blasted past.

Spinks was soon to follow suit but the writing was well and truly on the wall by then, as Riordan had also been passed by Thurley, who'd lapped everyone up to sixth by now and was on his way to a resounding victory. Nigel Steward had managed to cut Thurley's lead down a bit as they negotiated backmarkers but never got close enough to worry the leader, while Haird was a similar distance back in third. As for McKellar, the writer's prediction that he would just about have the car how he wanted it by the end of meeting, was nearly right. He got home sixth, but had clearly enjoyed the experience. "Maybe we'll just have to buy another one", he mused later.

A good night's racing then, the best of weather, a firework display, TV coverage and the superb F1 stock cars the only other formula on the bill. What more could you ask for? Well, more time to spend looking round the swap meet would have been nice….  Graham Brown

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