Northern Ireland 2008 - a National Hot Rod review of the year

Darren Black reports:  2008 will go down in the history books as yet another year when the big one, the World Championship, eluded the Northern Ireland drivers for the third successive occasion. However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, as there were more than enough plus points to allow us to call the past twelve months a certain success. From record car counts at times (we still tend to spend as much time over here talking about entries rather than the racing!), to Gary Woolsey’s excellent double victory in both the Thunder 500 and British Championships. Throw in John Christie’s deserved Irish Open win, and the continued revival of the international weekend in Ulster, and we most certainly have the best base to build on that we’ve had in quite some time.

Coming into 2008, the NI World Series - which would see six drivers qualify for the Ipswich based World Final - was delicately poised. With ten of the sixteen rounds completed, British Champion Stewart Doak had edged out a 35-point gap at the top of the chart, having led the way right from round one and having started off the back of the grid ever since. John Christie was second, a mere 2 points ahead of Keith Martin, whilst Gary Woolsey, Ronnie McMillan and Mark Heatrick were hotly disputing the final three spots some 50 points further back. Most notably though, Tommy Maxwell and Ian Thompson Snr. were still in with a good chance of breaking into that all-important top six.

In January, McMillan, Maxwell and Martin had all successfully taken part in the South African Tour, where they had joined up with the UK and Republic of Ireland’s drivers to compete against the locals. It was to prove troublesome for them too though, as with Easter and the traditional start to the season at home falling early – very early in fact – the cars were only due back from their journey across the globe with literally days to spare before the first meeting. Martin had little option but to get his car ship-shape asap, whilst Maxwell’s 206 needed a little more tlc. Tommy actually purchased another SWM-206 from Rich Lee in England and it was given the Keith Martin Motorsport treatment to get him out on the grid for the Easter encounters. McMillan was another with a new mount, as he had built himself up a pristine new Ludlow Tigra since returning from the trip. He was unwilling to commit to it for the openers though, but his own 206 had been through the wars in SA with little time to effect repairs. He was actually given special dispensation by the NHRPA to bring both cars to the first Ballymena meeting on Good Friday, but chose to go with the Tigra when it impressed straight out of the box.

So when the racing finally got underway at Ballymena on Good Friday it was bitterly cold, but the action on track was certainly not, as they all got “back to school” so to speak with a coming together early on in heat one that left a number of cars damaged, not least Doak’s, who had a back axle resembling a banana to end his consistent streak. Tommy Maxwell made good use of his unfamiliar mount to grab all three wins, and propel himself right back into the hunt for World Final qualification. There were a pleasing 17 cars in action, including five visitors from the Republic, whilst former Lightning Rod ORCi and National Champion Mark Keys made his debut in a SHP 206, alongside former Autograss man Steven Hanna in a Haird Motorsport 206cc. One notable absentee was Thompson Snr, whose no-show heralded the end of his qualification bid, and he wouldn’t be seen on track again throughout the year.

Nuttscorner Oval a few days later on Easter Monday was no warmer (Easter in March is not a good idea – period!), but the action was just as hot as at Ballymena even through the sleet showers! The wins were well spread out, with McMillan giving his Tigra its maiden win with Martin grabbing the other heat, before Heatrick put his Ballymena final retirement behind him for victory in the feature race. John Christie had carded a few decent results to mark his new Tigra as one to watch during the day, whilst the long awaited debut of William Buller in the Nationals raised a few eyebrows. The youngster was aiming to try and dovetail his circuit commitments in the Formula BMW Europe Championship with a limited assault on the Nationals, and starting off the back he did beat a few of the big boys in all his races, albeit with 4 new tyres bolted on as it was his first outing. Oh, and he won the 2-Litre Hot Rod final on the day just for good measure!

There followed another outing at Ballymena, with the entry again into the teens as former 1600 Hot Rodder of years gone by, Alvin Christie, made his debut in the ex-Robin Morrow 206cc. Maxwell’s good work in the points chart over Easter was slightly undone as he had a night to forget, whilst Heatrick bagged a double including another final win to do his tally no harm at all.

The first rest from World Series duty of the year came next, as the Irish Grand Prix was staged at Tipperary in mid-April. Martin, Doak and Tommy M were the travellers to Rosegreen, with both Keith and Stewart grabbing heat wins to claim spots near the sharp end of the grid. Tom Casey was untouchable though, leading from the green flag when pole-sitter Shane Murphy unfortunately blew a diff on the line. As Casey retained the title from Des Cooney and Englishman Stu Carter (third for the second year running), Doak came home fourth after a superb battle with Mike Riordan’s similar car, with Martin in fifth.

It was back to the final three rounds of the World Series next, interspersed with the Long Track Championship at Mallory Park. Buller, fresh from a top ten finish in the Formula BMW’s at Barcelona, was the class of the field in Nuttscorner’s round 14, reeling off a faultless hat-trick of wins in only his third outing after he’d also impressed at a test session at a Tipperary meeting. A disastrous outing for Tommy Maxwell saw him slip right out of contention for the World Final, with the top six now consolidated as Doak, Martin, Woolsey, McMillan, Christie and Heatrick.

Mallory Park provided a welcome break from the pressures of World Qualifying for the Long Track Championship, with Tommy Maxwell the lone Ulster traveller to an event that saw an increased number of entrants due to attendance points being offered to the English World Series runners. Certainly a controversial call by the powers that be, but what it did produce was some stunning racing on the one-mile oval. It does take some acclimatising to, and Tommy did splendidly to claim a heat fourth and seventh in a closely fought final on his first visit. The final turned into an absolute classic, only being decided at the last bend in favour of Matt Simpson ahead of his returning father Jeff, with Malcolm Blackman and Shane Brereton also in the mix in a memorable finish.

Ballymena staged the penultimate round of the series, and boasted two more newcomers as well, as John Steele wheeled out the ex-Mark Willis Corsa and Jonny Stevenson debuted the ex-McMillan/Connolly/Neal Smith 206. Gary Woolsey claimed a rare and welcome win in heat one, before Maxwell took both heat two and the final with ease from Heatrick, who held on with some spirited defensive driving, something which is becoming a bit of a trademark for him. It all meant the NI title would go down to the wire at Nuttscorner Oval’s final round at the end of May, where the dropped scores would come into account just to make things that little bit more interesting...

Buller was once again the star of the show as the season came to an end, carding another faultless hat-trick to underline his potential in the big Rods, and this time from further back on the grid too. Heatrick and Martin claimed second and third respectively in both heats to bring them right into contention for the title, whilst Woolsey’s aspirations of retaining it were so far gone that he decided not to even contest the meeting final. It turned out to be just a tad controversial, as Doak, Christie and Maxwell all clashed to bring a premature end to what had been a superb season all round. The result was declared from the previous lap, and thus Doak was crowned NI Champion 07/08, and deservedly so having led the way right from round one, race one. Christie got hit hard for his consistency across the season, as he had to drop a huge chunk of points. Martin capitalised and finished second in the final table, just eight points adrift of the new champion. Keith in turn was just six ahead of Heatrick who had gained massively from his dropped score too. Christie had to settle for fourth, ahead of McMillan and Woolsey. The final meeting also saw the debut, although only during practice due to licence issues, of a certain young Glenn Bell in the formula in the ex-Wayne Woolsey 206cc, and we would hear quite a bit about the World Stock Rod Champion in the coming months…

So, as World Final time loomed, it was the traditional warm up event, the Thunder 500, which was up next. Woolsey, Christie and Buller (for his first taste of international competition) were the three travellers, and between them they achieved probably Ulster’s best results of the season. Buller opened up with an impressive second behind Jeff Simpson in heat one – certainly old guard against new there! Better was to follow, as Woolsey superbly outfoxed World Champion Carl Boardley (albeit in his back-up Duratec-powered car) to land the win in heat two, before Christie took his turn with the chequers with a flag to flag win in heat three, which unfortunately saw another Buller charge halted by a flat sustained in a clash with Gavin Murray. Woolsey and Christie shared the front row for the T500 final, and Woolsey soon grabbed a lead he would never lose, despite heavy pressure late on from Christie as Ulster took a great one-two ahead of Colin Gomm in third. Buller produced a scintillating drive from down the grid to come home sixth, having accounted for some big names along the way and leaving quite a few wondering what might’ve been had it not been for the puncture in his second heat. Over in the 940 and 962 camps though, everything was looking rosy for the return trip to Foxhall in a fortnight…

Young Buller had certainly announced his arrival on the scene with a bang. Three meetings at Nuttscorner Oval had produced two hat-tricks (the other meet being his first ever and off the back), whilst he also had a sensational “test” outing at Tipperary which brought rave reviews as well before heading to the Thunder 500 and making the English sit up and take notice. To say it was disappointing that we wouldn’t see him again would probably be the understatement of the season. The oval racing was impacting just too much on his more important circuit aspirations in Formula BMW – it was taking him too many laps to get the oval racing out of his system seemingly – and it was decided that the road racing would take priority from now on. Off went the Tigra to Clive Richardson, with his 2.0 Hot Rod heading to the Heatrick stable as well. As likeable and decent a young chap as “Buck” you’ll struggle to find, but I know for a fact he loves his oval racing, so let’s hope he comes back our way at some stage soon. Then again, I hope we never see him again, because he deserves, with the talent and backing he has, to go a long, long way in motorsport. You may have noticed recently he was running in the Formula Renault Autumn Trophy, again with Fortec Motorsport, and this is where he is likely to head in 2009.

In a break from tradition, Ulster had two representatives at the annual World Final Press Day, something that hasn’t happened for many, many moons. British Champion Stewart Doak was getting his newly revamped Tigra dialled in for the big race (and co-incidentally with no transponder for anyone to check his times!), whilst Mark Heatrick was getting some track time at Foxhall before his debut in the big race. It’s a long, long way to go for what is merely a test session – respect!

So, next up was the big one, as once again a large contingent from the province made the trip across to Foxhall to cheer our qualifiers on. Hopes were high, with everyone in their usual mounts and happy with what they had below them. Early morning rain soon threw things up in the air though, and after a wet practice, the lap times were controversially going to become null and void as the different groups were going to be running on an ever-improving track as the raceway dried up. This might not have been a problem for the English runners who were running in their groups, but it made slotting the Ulster, Irish and Continental entries into these groups impossible, so a public draw was the only way. But what group would each Ulster driver go into? Well that’s where the times were to be used, as all the non-English qualifiers went out together to decide who joined what group for the draw. Even that didn’t run faultlessly either, as the almost dry track soon got swamped in another nasty shower, just when some of the more fancied runners were getting wound up for their hot laps. The result? Session stopped early and the rare sight of no Ulstermen in the top group, as Mike Riordan and Des Cooney were the fastest two. Martin (who would draw 8th) and Woolsey (10th) were next up in group two, with Christie in group three (16th), Doak in group four (20th), and big race rookies Heatrick (27th) and McMillan (28th) towards the rear. A lot of very unhappy racers about, but there was very little option left to the NHRPA. Sure everyone said “it’s the biggest weekend of the year for Nationals, run the lap times later on” – great idea, but the running order of the event is actually part of the planning permission from the council, so juggling things about is an absolute non-starter. Others commented about the track being too crowded for the qualifying, but surely they all had to run together at the same time in order to compare their times – the changeable condition of the track was the very reason the whole thing had just been changed! So a public draw it was, and everyone retired to gather their thoughts for Sunday’s big race.

Fortunately Sunday dawned dry and sunny, and Carl Boardley, looking for his third title in succession led them away for the World Final. Once things had settled down, Martin was our top runner in eighth spot, with Woolsey not far behind. Doak went around and lost bags of time after a skirmish with Phil Spinks, and he would soon retire the Cirrus Plastics car, and was joined shortly afterwards by Martin whose brakes had gone on the 206cc. As Boardley overcame a jamming throttle to cruise to an easy World Championship victory number three, Matt Simpson held off Riordan for many laps to take the runner-up spot ahead of the man from Cork. Woolsey was our best finisher in a lowly eleventh place, with Christie in thirteenth and McMillan the only other to go the distance in fifteenth – certainly one to forget given the success gained at Foxhall over the years.

We also had a trio competing in the support races over the popular Ipswich Spedeweekend. The Maxwell brothers, Tommy and Terry, were joined by young Glenn Bell for his first race outing in the formula. Tommy M kicked off with a fine second in heat one, with Glenn then carding fourth in heat two before going one better in the next one with a fine third as he more than got to grips with his new steed - and on quite a daunting stage too. He then guided the car home to fourth in the meeting final, a race that provided loads of entertainment value, along with more controversial moments than the Stewards could shake the proverbial stick at. Tommy M was in the thick of it all race long, and found himself in the lead on at least one occasion only for the race to go under waved yellows and others get re-instated ahead of him. The surface was indeed tricky, but you couldn’t fault Tommy’s drive or enthusiasm, although it counted for nothing when he eventually spun out of contention. It was a depleted field which contested the weekend’s last event, the Out of the Hat final, and young Bell steered to his first ever victory in the Nationals with a commanding win to mark his arrival on the scene in fine style.

With the World Final still a vivid memory for most, three weeks later the ball began rolling once again as the 2009 campaign got underway in late July at Nuttscorner Oval - support to the 2.0 Hot Rod World Championship weekend. There were a record number of local cars on hand for this meeting, with sixteen taking to the grid in front of the bumper crowd in a showcase of everything positive in Ulster oval racing. Clive Richardson made his return in his newly acquired Buller Tigra, while Bell had his first local run. Davy Gurney, the Londonderry-based former Lightning Rodder made his debut in the class in a SWM Fiesta, while it was good to see Jason Winning back in action for his first run of 2008. The new rules stopping the lesser names starting at the rear made for some good tight racing all evening, and quite rightly so as it was a problem that had been blighting the National racing in Ulster for quite a while. Richardson got off to the worst possible start on his return to racing, as first heat problems would render his night finished, and start an almost unbelievable run of bad luck for the former British Champion. On track, Woolsey came through to win heat one as if to remind everyone that even with more cars on show the big boys still ruled the roost, before Bell claimed his maiden local win with a controlled drive in heat two. Tommy Maxwell had popped up on the winner’s rostrum more than anyone else in the previous series, and he continued that sequence with an excellent win in the final, holding off Woolsey, who continued to use his ageing Corsa at Nuttscorner, to the flag. Things were looking very good indeed for the domestic season after the record turnout had produced some excellent racing.

It was back to championship duty next though, as the usual large number of Ulstermen took on the challenge of the National Championship at Hednesford Hills Raceway. As well as the regular suspects, John Steele and Davy McKay were having an away foray as well, the first such international outing for Steele. The drivers once again contested six heats between them before setting out for a 75-lap final to determine the National Champion of the year. Martin got things off to a steady start with 7th in heat one, while real drama occurred in heat two when Terry Maxwell and Christie, one of the favourites for the crown, clashed in a big way entering the back straight, causing considerable damage to the #962 Tigra and denting his title aspirations no end. Tommy Maxwell led the race for a while, and took an eventual second behind Steve Thompson, as another favourite hit trouble with Gary Woolsey parking up for the weekend with a blown motor. More drama followed in heat three, as McMillan was driving a superb race only to be punted into a spin whilst relieving Gavin Murray of the lead. Ronnie fought back though, and still managed to grab fourth spot with Murray’s four-place penalty little consolation as the Kells man could easily have been celebrating a win.

Martin’s consistency continued with third in heat four, whilst Christie’s crew had worked a minor miracle to get him back out again for this one following the earlier damage. Seventh was the reward for the sterling effort. Martin was marked down as a serious contender when he carded a fourth in heat five, a race that also saw Mark Heatrick’s best return in sixth. McMillan gained a sixth in heat six, as the final grid saw Steve Thompson grab pole for the big one from Boardley, with Martin the top Ulsterman in an excellent third. Keith stayed in contention briefly early on, as Boardley controversially got ahead of Thompson for the lead just as the yellows came out for an incident. Boardley went on to complete the World/National double yet again, with Thompson and Malcolm Blackman completing the podium ahead of an impressive Christie. John had worked his way through the field from the very back to grab fourth after a fine drive. Some might say that it was a depleted field following the scrutineering issues pre-final, but that can’t be taken away from John as he showed excellent pace from flag to flag as he picked off cars almost at will. Fourth was scant reward, as the team considered just what might have been possible without the bad luck of Saturday. McMillan crossed the line seventh, with Heatrick the only other local finisher in twelfth spot.

It was back to World qualifying duty again for the drivers, with four quick-fire outings inside a month to really get the 2009 series underway. First up was Round 2 at Ballymena in mid-August, and it produced a very healthy 17-car grid – the best domestic turnout I can remember since my first forays around the ovals in the early eighties. 2-Litre man Thomas Dilly made his debut in the class in the ex-Steve Hanna 206cc, whilst there were returns for Rab Forsythe and Ian Thompson Jnr. Thompson got a nice welcome back to the class, as he got run up the wall early in the opening encounter and was left dangling from the top rope with a wheel out of the 206cc!!! Recent convert from the Lightning Rods, Davy Gurney, was the star turn as he impressively took both heat wins in his Fiesta, but was beaten into second place in the feature race by the new young charger, Glenn Bell, for his second final win in three outings.

Bell successfully defended his World Stock Rod title a week later again at Ballymena, and on what was a very busy night for him, he also claimed another win, this time in the opening heat in his National. On an evening with another welcome entry of sixteen cars, Clive Richardson finally got to grips with the ex-Buller Tigra to take the other two wins, one of which was of course the final. So after three rounds, Woolsey held the lead in the points chase from rookie Bell and Doak.

August Bank Holiday weekend saw the return to Nuttscorner Oval, for round four of the series. Richardson’s bad luck was back with a vengeance, and he had loaded up before practice had even finished. He must have driven over a black cat or something when he collected the car from Buller! It was a night for those starting nearer the front of the line-up, as Dilly withstood vast amounts of pressure to hold off an array of star men in heat one to win by a whisker, before Jason Winning got the better of him to take heat two, and start what would turn into quite a little “winning” streak for Jason at Nuttscorner. It was Ronnie McMillan who capitalised in a hard fought final, fighting through to take the win – quite a contrast to the last meeting there when he had been sidelined early on by engine failure.

Ballymena staged round five on a very wet and miserable night, and we were joined once again by Republic visitor James O’Shea, on his second visit in as many meetings. Heatrick took a rare win in the first heat, before Doak warmed up for his upcoming British title defence with victory in both heat two and the final, and in very convincing style at that. Another fancied runner in the following week’s international meetings, Christie, suffered heavy damage when he collected the spun Gurney on the last lap of the final.

In recent years, as things National Hot Rod have taken an upturn in the province, so the annual international meetings have began to grow in stature once again. This was evident again this term, as a very healthy field descended on Ballymena for the British Championship, with Nuttscorner Oval being the venue for the Irish Open the next day – a straight swap to what each venue had held the previous year. World Champion Boardley led the visiting posse, but the weekend couldn’t have started any worse for defending British Champion Doak, who didn’t even get the chance to defend his title after engine trouble in practice.

It was top quality wheel to wheel action that the fans were lapping up as Ronnie McMillan steered his Tigra to a win in heat number one, from Chris Haird, who was giving the Ulster scene its first glimpse of Emmings VW power in his 206cc. Mark Heatrick took a controversial win in heat two, as local favourite Christie crashed heavily out of the meeting after a clash with Dilly. Dilly was loaded up for his part in the incident, but most observers were left wondering if he really was the main culprit, and not the eventual race winner from behind. During the heats, Woolsey had notably beaten Boardley home in both of them, and this was enough to grab him pole slot for the final, with surprise package Shane Murphy alongside. English visitors Haird and Boardley occupied row two, ahead of Heatrick and Bell. Woolsey immediately set about building a gap over Haird, but it was soon Bell who was doing the chasing, only for his car to develop problems allowing the Cambridgeshire man back into the runner up slot. Nearing the end, Woolsey’s lead all but evaporated and the first three were together for a grandstand finish. But try as he might, Haird was always going to have to settle for second behind Gary who annexed his third British title – even if he believes it to be his fourth after he lost the 2000 title in a Steward’s enquiry after clashing with John Steward after the chequered flag! Bell meanwhile picked up third in his first international meeting, even with his own 206cc badly trailing smoke nearing the finish.

Next day and it was the tight confines of Nuttscorner Oval for the Irish Open Championship, defended by Keith Martin. We had 21 on hand this time, with excellent efforts from Doak who had replaced his motor, and even more so by Christie, whose team had worked ‘til 5am getting the Tigra back ship-shape. Boardley took the win in his first ever race at the venue, but Christie had astonishingly slipped through to second from mid-grid. Woolsey took the honours in the reverse grid second heat from Dick Hillard, but Christie had done enough to claim pole for the final from Tom Casey. Casey almost made it into the lead only for a restart to be called from which Christie made no mistake. He continually pulled away to edge out an enormous lead as Boardley challenged Bell for second and eventually edged through. That’s how they finished, with Christie claiming his first ever Championship victory and in most emphatic style at that. The World Champion was a gallant runner up, with young pretender Bell again on the podium for the second time in as many days.

Late September saw Ballymena’s last World Qualifier of the season, with Martin surprisingly at the wheel of the Haird VW-powered car, and he duly took the win in the night’s first race. Heat two fell to an improving Davy McKay, and he was then first across the line in the final but controversially got docked two places for not obeying the Stewards instructions to hold his line. Christie inherited a somewhat fortunate win, but a win nonetheless, with Woolsey still holding sway at the top of the point’s table.

A week later and it was the first of two visits to Nuttscorner Oval to finish the World Qualifiers for 2008, both of which would suffer from horrendously greasy track conditions. Martin took the victory in heat one of Round 7 (back behind the wheel of his usual car), while Christie notably was forced to load up for the night after this one with engine trouble. Doak took victory in heat two, after an outstanding late charge on a very tricky outside line to jump from fourth to the win. Jason Winning was the man to beat in the final though, getting himself ahead and controlling the race all the way to the flag for a deserved victory.

Before the final qualifier of the year, it was off to Rosegreen for the European Championship, on what could have been (hopefully not) one of the final 2-dayers at the Tipp track following their planning problems earlier in the year. The Ulstermen were again travelling in numbers, with eleven present, although John Steele failed to get past practice with car trouble. Things started well in heat one, with Martin (back in the Haird car) claiming third behind winner Colin White, with Christie fifth, Woolsey seventh and young Bell in tenth. Richardson was back on form as he battled with Malcolm Blackman all the way to the flag for the victory in heat two, with the former World Champion just getting the nod. Clive looked good in second, and he was followed home by a train of other Northerners in McMillan, Winning (on his first trip away from home) and Tommy Maxwell. So far so good, but things took a turn for the worse in heat three when Woolsey severely damaged his Tigra in a multi car accident. Stu Carter took the win in that one, with Christie fourth, Martin sixth and Bell eighth. World Champion Boardley cruised home in the final heat, with Heatrick our best finisher in a fine third, and Richardson in eighth.

Consistency had bagged Shane Murphy pole spot for the final ahead of Matt Simpson, with Richardson well up in fourth spot, Martin fifth and Christie seventh – John no doubt rueing his first heat when he had a terrible getaway from the front row and a possible win. Murphy has knocked on the door a few times in the past couple of years, and he made no mistake by taking the win in the European final, ahead of Boardley and Christie, after Martin (gearbox) and Richardson (brakes) had failed to go the distance. Maxwell and Heatrick were the only others to go the full duration. To round the meeting off, Christie also got a third spot in the Davy Evans Memorial race, behind winner Des Cooney.

So it was back to Nuttscorner Oval for the final outing of the season, and it was as if we’d never been away as the conditions were almost identical to that of a fortnight earlier – greasy, one-line stuff would be the order of the day. Winning never put a foot wrong all evening, and took an impressive hat-trick on what was a lacklustre meeting if ever there was one. After eight of the sixteen rounds of the series, Woolsey still leads the way, but just fourteen points ahead of defending champion Doak. Rookie Bell is only four points adrift of Stewart in third, and most definitely not overawed by his much more experienced rivals. Heatrick, McMillan and Martin round out the other all-important qualifying spots for the World Final, with Tommy Maxwell and Christie just below the cut at this stage – John paying the price for his engine troubles that saw him drop two races at the penultimate domestic meeting of the season.

Highlights of the year?? Christie was usually right up there, with his Irish Open win very impressive, as well as podium finishes at the European and Thunder 500, and the never-to-be forgotten run from the back in the National final when he was showing superb pace. Woolsey’s excellent wins in the British and Thunder 500 were also every bit as noteworthy, and Doak too, who took the NI points title and on a number of occasions his never say die attitude on the outside was like a breath of fresh air. Young guns Bell and Buller were excellent recruits to the big stage, and Tommy Maxwell, McKay, Heatrick and especially Winning matured into possible front runners at most meetings. For all the ups there certainly were some downs too, not least of all another poor performance on the World Championship stage at Ipswich. Losing a newcomer with the ability of young Buller was a blow too, but fortunately made up for in the rise of Bell into a star performer.

As for 2009, let’s hope we don’t see the credit crunch hitting our favourite form of motorsport. The numbers did dip towards the end of the season, and fingers crossed it was just the effects of a long, gruelling campaign. Unfortunately we have lost McMillan who has sold up and gone back to the 2.0 Hot Rods, and it looks like Richardson will bow out too with his car and transporter for sale at present. We will however have a couple of replacements, as 2 Litre racer Paul Cregan is all set to step up, whilst the return of Andrew Murray to the fold, a former European Championship runner-up of course, will be much anticipated. There is also talk of new cars for some others, and they will all be striving to make sure that the World title returns to Ulster again in ’09. Only once in the last thirty years has there been four years on the trot with no NI success in the big Ipswich showdown – it would take a brave man, or woman, to bet on it becoming twice….. Darren Black

Most photos with thanks to Brian Lammey. Additional shots by Martin Kingston and Steve Robey