2008 World Series England round 13
Hednesford, Monday May 5th

Results as seen trackside by Marlene Clarke and not confirmed
Heat 1:  67  170 41 10 59 601  278 303  734 92
Front row was 53 & 217
Heat 2:  601 85 278  92  217 629  31  911 155  61(X-2)
Front row was 217
Heat 3:  59  170 911  41  31  95  734 155  61  14
Front row was 53
Final: 734  67  491 61 303  41  14  115 59 155 tbc


2008 World Series England round 12
Sanders' spring sortie
Hednesford, Sunday April 13th

Graham Brown reports:  Ralph Sanders’ last minute acquisition of Graham Luscombe’s Tigra paid dividends at a spring-like Hednesford Hills, the veteran south westerner using his new mount to make off with a smoothly taken hat trick of wins.

Indeed, Luscombe's unexpected and sudden departure from the scene, and immediate sale of his potent car to Ralph, was undoubtedly the main point of interest on the 'runners and riders' front. This car in Sanders' hands had the equal potential to have 'triumph' or 'disaster'  - depending on whether the car suited him or not - written all over it.

Luscombe has apparently become quickly tired of the 'needle' that often exists in hot rod racing, made all the more apparent to him, no doubt, by the fact that he's been sat in a more than competitive car this season. Rumour has it, that he might be looking at BriSCA F1, where most of the agg is usually sorted out with the bumper!

Not to be overlooked however, were the entries of two drivers normally thought as purely Arena-Essex racers. Simon Smith was making his first NHR outing in some twelve years, while Waine Souter had finally made good on his long time threats to have a go at 'the real thing'.

Dave Newall set off fast in the opening heat but soon came under pressure from Sanders, who was clearly enjoying his new ride. Sanders took his time about picking a passing spot, finally diving down the inside going into the East bend to claim the win. Not that Newall made it easy for him, nearly fighting his way back in front on one occasion.

Elsewhere, Gavin Murray took a first lap back straight spin in the aftermath of Ken Marriott having a bit of a moment just ahead of the pack. Keith Woods got black flagged for contact with David Brooks, although the resulting penalty was later rescinded by the steward after he'd given the matter due consideration.

But the main talking point of this one definitely concerned the fight for the minor places, where Carl Boardley and Malcolm Blackman were dicing hard with each other while at the same time trying to work their way through the pack. It all came to a head when they bore down on Luke Armiger, Carl diving up the outside just as Luke managed to leave enough room up the inside for Blackman - who'd looked for a moment as though he was going to be boxed in - to get through on the bottom of the track. This led to the trio arriving in the West bend three abreast with Boardley trying desperately to get back to mid-track. He got clipped by Armiger and Blackman, sending the 41 car sharp left into the wall, very much out of the race and with the frame twisted into the bargain.

As far as who was going to win was concerned, heat two followed a very similar pattern. Newall was again the early leader with Marriott and Armiger in pursuit, but once he was into his stride, it was soon clear that Sanders was likely to be the danger man once more.

There was all sorts going on in this one, including some three wide racing early on featuring John Holtby, Richard Smith and Jay Austin. Billy Bonnar bounced off the home straight wall and then spun on the East bend. Richard Spavins and Austin were both trailing smoke from fouled bodywork, while Andy Holtby gave himself a scary moment when he locked up and slid straight on into the East bend wall, after he'd hit the brakes and ripped a front pad lining clean off the back plate!

Murray and Colin Smith were having a right old ding-dong, which culminated with Smiffy hitting the wall hard exiting the West bend, slowing the car dramatically. This caught the closely following Boardley out, Carl literally jacking up the 491 car, doing neither car much good.

Lee Pepper was having another impressive run, and was more than holding his own in a close fought duel with Matt Simpson as the pair battled their way into the top six. In Simpson's case, this was despite the car emitting smoke from a persistent and incurable oil leak, the team having gone to some lengths with shielding to try and prevent the oil going on the car's own tyres.

Meanwhile, up at the front, it took Sanders a little longer to close down the leader this time. But, once there, he played the same game that won him heat one, patiently awaiting the right chance and seizing it when it came. It was on the East bend again, but around the outside this time.

Actually, this was a day of mechanical woes for just about everyone. Leaving aside those already mentioned, John Sibbald had had to deal with a savage misfire, while Chris Haird had apparently had transmission or diff trouble. And there was more to come…

Peter Blood, Richard Smith and Steve Burgess all took turns at leading heat three, with Burgess finally holding sway until a caution period caused by Dave Brooks and Phil Spinks colliding with each other and the infield winner's ramp. No light impact this, with Brooks out for the day having mangled the front of his space frame, while it was Spinks who somehow managed to get the worst of it, exiting the car with a hurt shoulder.

Burgess was passed almost immediately by Hughie Weaver when the green re-appeared. Hugh looked to be home free, despite having to cope with a track that was becoming increasingly slippery. That was, until he went straight on into the East bend wall. The slippy track had been caused by oil coming from a holed hose on the 210 car, which had finally burst, coating his own left front tyre.

This gifted the lead to Colin Smith, who then had to fend off an insistent and fast finishing Malcolm Blackman to land the win.

The final kicked off with Peter Blood getting the jump on Armiger to lead Luke and Newall into the opening lap. Richard Smith was right with them though, Richard diving in to try and pass both Armiger - who'd gone wide on the East bend - and Newall. But they ended up exiting the turn three wide. Maybe Armiger touched the wall, or maybe he was just trying to stay away from it, but the three collided heavily and stopped in mid-track, before Smith broke free, careering on down the track before ploughing into the wall at the other end. With Marriott also stopped on the West bend exit, this was all more than enough to start the yellows flying.

Smith was unsure as to the cause of his car's refusal to take the bend, but figured either that something got broken in the steering department during their initial clinch, or that maybe that he'd cut the left front tyre which had subsequently gone down and come off the rim. Either way, the car didn't look well as it limped to the infield with the left front wheel almost under the bulkhead.

Blood was still in charge when the green came back out, but swiftly lost out to Newall, although none of them were going much further at this attempt either. Weaver's earlier oil line problem had probably done his motor a power of no good, as the car suddenly poured smoke from what looked like a very blown engine. With oil sprayed around roughly half the track and Spavins cruising to a stop out by the wall on the home straight, it was cue yellow flag time again.

During the stoppage, Boardley pulled out with a badly leaking radiator (no doubt a legacy of his earlier strife), completing the worst day so far of the current world series for the reigning champion.

When the race finally got going for keeps, in the end it still came down to a fight between Newall and Sanders again. But, this time, Colin Smith managed to get involved too, he and Newall enjoying a great scrap for second once Sanders was through to the front and romping away to win number three.

While all that was going on, Murray took a spin along the back straight courtesy of Mike Thurley, who subsequently got disqualified as a result.

Smith eventually got the best of his dice with Newall, David falling back slightly to mount a last minute defence of third against a fast finishing Simon Bentley. Graham Brown.

Results
Heat one: 734,601,14,303,911,519,59,3,85,61,67,291,844,2,95,427,10.
Heat two: 734,601,2,59,303,155,170,41,491,519,6,95,38,31,286,92,3,53.
Heat three: 491,911,115,6,170,155,286,25,629,85,291,31,277,53,10.
Final: 734,491,601,59,14,303,155,844,61,25,911,85,170,115,31,95,10,2.


2008 World Series England round 11
Bonnar's sunny Skeggy!
Skegness, Sunday April 6th

Graham Brown reports:  Bucking the seemingly countrywide trend of severe snow storms, Skegness remained, for the most part, sunny and even quite mild in the spring like sunshine on April 6th. It was Billy Bonnar who took advantage of the conditions to record a rare and welcome final win, narrowly beating double heat winner and 'man of the day', Mike Thurley over the line.

A somewhat reduced turn out for this one, no doubt prompted by various factors, not least the aforementioned weather in various parts of the country. Add to that the fact that Skegness has never been served by the best or most direct roads in the country, and that it could be considered rather a long haul from a lot of places, and there you have it. Nevertheless, 26 cars was more than enough and would, in fact, have been considered very good indeed not so long ago.

That long haul (three and a half hours to home in his case) didn't deter Deane Wood from making his first visit to Orby, and it was he who took on the stewarding mantle for the afternoon.

Tony Goodsir was the initial leader in heat one, chased by Bonnar for a time until the Scot was overhauled by the fast moving Thurley. As Bonnar fell back (Keith Woods went by to claim third) Thurley fairly quickly eroded Goodsir's edge, subsequently taking the lead and the win in workmanlike manner.

Meanwhile, there was a terrific scrap going on for the minor places, involving Colin Smith, John Sibbald, Stu Carter, Chris Haird and Colin Gomm. Even further back, anyone who took time out to watch the rear-of-field action would have been impressed with the way Lee Pepper was holding his own in a fight with the usual aces having to come from the back. Pepper - despite a flapping door - looked quite at home in this company, having saddled himself with an inordinately high three meeting average.

A lot of the action in this was on the last lap. Carter managed one of his characteristic bursts up the inside of the pack going down the home straight to grab fourth place and Bonnar got swamped by those following and went from fourth to twelfth in a trice.  Gavin Murray and Steve Thompson clashed, an incident which wound up with Murray spun backwards into the barriers on the pit bend, Thompson ending up trapped in there with him.  The steward was unimpressed and gave both of them two place penalties.

Heat two gave Russell Wilcox a shot at leading, but the car was trailing smoke from the off and didn't seem awfully happy. Sibbald went by to take it up, but Russ was still managing to hold down second, the various dices going on behind helping to slow his pursuers down a bit. John Holtby and Keith Woods were arguing over third, a short way ahead of a similar scrap between David Brooks (lucky to make the grid after a lengthy diff change) and Andy Steward, Jay Austin and Richard Spavins racing for the next couple of spots.

Haird took a spin on the far turn, which got Dick Hillard black crossed, another coming out for Brooks after he and Gomm got together exiting the pit bend.

By this stage, Wilcox was starting to get overtaken, 'Doughnut' going through to second as he really got into his stride, with Woods the next to move up at Russell's expense. Steward was soon chopping into Sibbald's lead and finally went ahead down the inside as the entered turn three. He was well clear by flag fall, but Sibbald looked safe enough in second until he too blew the diff on the last lap, limping over the line neck and neck with the fast finishing Woods, the transponder computer making Woods in front by around six hundredths of a second.

'Doughnut' wasn't the only one getting into his stride either, the steward hitting Hillard, Brooks and Malcolm Blackman with two place penalties.

Wilcox had another turn out front in the third encounter until he took a spin exiting the pit bend, elevating Bonnar to the top slot. Then Goodsir spun crossing the start line, which got the rejoined Wilcox a black cross to add to his woes.

As far as the destiny of the win in this one was concerned, it was clearly going to be all about whether Thurley - soon through to second - was going to be able to catch Bonnar before the end or not, and whether he'd be able to get by if he did.

Elsewhere, the interest centred on the hard battle for places going on much further back. Notable movers and shakers were Carter and Carl Boardley, who were coming round the outside of the pack in fine style, hotly pursued by Blackman. They left behind further interesting dicing, involving John Holtby, Andy Burgess, Pepper and Matt Simpson.

Back up front, Thurley did indeed catch and pass Bonnar well before the finish for win number two, but Billy's second place showed he was undoubtedly getting quicker as the afternoon wore on.

Simpson was the 'beneficiary' of the eagle eyed steward's displeasure this time, with another two-place docking.

It would have been a full compliment of starters for the final, but Pepper was forced to withdraw with a u/s Raceceiver.

Wilcox had pole but was pretty slow away at the green, allowing Bonnar to get the jump on both front row men from the second rank. As Wilcox stopped briefly on the far turn, it became a Scottish civil war out front, with Bonnar initially under the cosh from Sibbald.

But gradually, Bonnar got the upper hand and drew steadily clear. With Thurley equally steadily reeling in Sibbald before long, it soon became clear from where any eventual problem for Bonnar was most likely to come.

Various spins and retirements aside, the centre point in this was always going to be focused on the lead. Could Thurley get up with Bonnar in time and, if he could, could he get past again, or would Billy be able to hang on?

Slowly but surely, Thurley wore down the gap to Sibbald, going by and into second as they rounded the far turn. Mike was now clearly running faster than Billy, but did he have enough laps left to make it count?

Thurley was catching up fast until the five lap board came out, which seemed to spur Bonnar on to bigger efforts to stay ahead. Nevertheless, Thurley was still on his tail with two to go and went straight for the outside pass as they took the last lap board. He drew level going into the final bend, but it was still Bonnar who had the lead coming off the corner. Steward and Sibbald - both of whom had shown plenty of pace almost throughout the meeting - claimed third and fourth, with everybody managing to escape any penalties this time.  Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 291,55,25,85,491,115,277,41,629,155,61,844,278,519,-,-,170(-2),95(-2).
Heat two: 198,25,629,219,303,6,170,61,31(-2),911(-2),278,3,14,115,427,67(-2).
Heat three: 291,844,491,3,85,41,911,155,6,277,31,303(-2),95,519,427.
Final: 844,291,198,629,115,278,85,303,911,41,170,14,25,95,277,519,491.


2008 World Series England round 10
Simpson no quitter!
Ipswich, Monday March 24th

Graham Brown reports:  It's an old racing expression that "Quitters never win, winners never quit", and if anybody embodied the truth of that adage, it was Matt Simpson at Ipswich. Having crashed out of his first heat through no fault of his own, he missed his second heat while his crew raced against time to try and repair a massive amount of damage in freezing conditions amid frequent snow and sleet showers. They eventually got the car going, Matt rewarding their efforts by taking the win from a final that was easily the race of the year so far.

The weather forecasters had never been very optimistic about the possibilities for Easter Monday, and particularly, not anywhere near the East coast. They'd already had quite a bit of snow in the Ipswich area, evidence of which could be seen laying all over the surrounding countryside. We'd driven through a snowstorm lasting all of the M25 on the way up, so there was plenty of reason to take the weather predictions seriously.

Sure enough, flakes were already drifting gently down when we reached Foxhall, a harbinger of what was to come.

Not quite so many cars for this one as there'd been at Northampton, but 35 was still going to be plenty, a notable addition since Friday being Hughie Weaver, back with an immaculate new Tigra.

With the cars all lined up for heat one, the drifting snowflakes finally decided it was time to get on with it too, thus giving us the sight of Nationals racing in a snowstorm again just a year and six days after the last time it happened.

Steve Burgess was the man who set off first into what was fast becoming a blizzard, with Alan White and Ken Marriott spinning in unison at the pit bend. Steve stayed in the lead for a few laps before Mike Thurley slipped by down the inside into turn one, at which point the snow stopped as suddenly as it had begun, leaving the track just somewhat damp.

This made no difference to Thurley, who marched off into a sturdy lead, as Dick Hilliard overhauled Burgess to go second, leaving Steve to fall back and dice with Keith Woods and Gavin Murray. Hillard never gave up trying to narrow the gap to Thurley and when Andy Holtby retired going down the back straight, causing those following to hesitate for a second or two, Thurley was baulked sufficiently for Dick to close right up.

Mike had to really work to stay in front for the last three tours, but managed to stay ahead, as did Burgess of his challengers, some quarter of a lap adrift.

Heat two had something of a messy start, with Weaver and Thurley getting together and going off down the back stretch. This put Richard Smith into a lead he immediately spun away at the far turn, leaving Steve Burgess out front. That was, until the yellows came out, after Dave Brooks had collided with Simpson exiting turn two, sending Simpson into the wall and leaving the Tigra stranded in mid-track with the rear axle half out of it.

Burgess was still holding sway for the restart, ahead of Wiz Farazmand and the handy looking Lee Pepper. As Pepper looked to advance further, Andy Steward went spinning hard into the pit bend wall after contact from Graham Luscombe that got the latter black flagged. Well, it would have done, had he not been asked to leave the track first via Raceceiver.

Pepper overhauled Farazmand into turn one and rapidly carved big chunks out of Burgess' lead, the pair fighting hard over the win long before the five to go mark. Meantime, White had a spin at the far bend that got Brooks black crossed, and Carl Boardley was starting to make a real impression. The world champion had worked his way through the pack and wasn't done yet either as he ripped past Colin Smith and John Holtby to claim fourth, relieving Farazmand of third with three to go.

As Boardley clearly wasn't going to get up with the leaders in time, it was just down to Burgess and Pepper to decide the fate of the race. Lee had merely been applying gentle pressure right up to the last knockings, but the sight of the '2 Laps' board prompted him to try a more serious dart up the outside, followed by a swiftly altered attack down the inside. There was no doubt that the former 2.0 world winner really meant business, but Burgess had seen it all before and remained both calm and firmly in charge all the way to the flag.

Further falls of snow and sleet had left the track slippery in the extreme for heat three. Richard Smith made a much better fist of leading this one, starting out front from the word go and staying there for a number of laps. His eventual problem probably came from a rather unexpected source, as it was not Hillard or even Pepper that burst out of the pursuing pack to give chase, but Hughie Weaver.

In fact, the nasty track surface seemed to suit both Hughie and his new mount remarkably well. Not so the rest of them. Malcolm Blackman's sterling efforts to get through the field came to an end when an attempt to cut through the traffic saw him tagged by Chris Haird and end up in the wall, a fate which also befell Neil Muddle and Farazmand at the other end.

To further add to the fun, snow was falling steadily again long before the finish.

With five to go, Weaver was looking pretty safe up front, as Jay Austin, Hillard and Pepper disputed the places. Hillard went for an inside pass on Austin entering the pit bend, the pair touched and Jay spun, leaving Dick to face up to Pepper's assault instead. Lee went by down the back straight but was never going to catch Hughie, who was more than a quarter of a lap to the good by then.

Further snow had left the track very wet for the final which, even with 28 starters, didn't really look all that promising. That appeared especially true after the previous race winner had spun during the warm ups! But we were in for a pleasant surprise.

In fact, there was never a dull moment right from the off. Richard Smith, Steve Burgess and Marriott were hard at it for the lead straight away, with Burgess and Smith side by side throughout the opening lap. Smith got ahead down the back straight with Marriott following through in order to grab the lead himself on the pit bend.

Once in front, Ken was soon working on pulling out quite a big lead, giving rise to the thought that just maybe, Matt Simpson had left his (demonstrably good) wet set up on the car!

Behind the leader, Smith was duelling with Farazmand for second, ahead of John Holtby (with his wing hanging awry) who was racing with Thurley, not far ahead of Steve Thompson and the aforementioned Simpson. Matt's crew (and helpers) had effected a minor miracle getting him back out there at all, let alone in competitive trim, and he was obviously doing his damnedest to pay them back.

As Farazmand moved to second, Thompson headed Simpson past Thurley, Holtby and Smith. With a dry line starting to form, Farazmand became the next victim of the flying Thompson-Simpson duo, Simpson managing to out fox Thompson just before the pair of them caught up with the leader.

Matt went straight down the huge hole Marriott had left up his inside going into the pit bend to accept the lead, with Thompson through to second not long afterwards.

That pretty much looked to be game over right there, with the sort of car/driver combinations that might have offered any last minute fight, nowhere close. Boardley, for example, was going the right way for sure, but still back in eighth, while Blackman was simply nowhere - well, twelfth.

Blackman might well be good in the snow - it was he who won at that snowy event of twelve months ago after all - but as the track dried a touch further, he definitely moved up a gear here.

With Simpson pulling clear fast at the front, Blackman moved up to eleventh, tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth….looking good but surely, he was going to run out of laps before he could do anything truly spectacular?

While that was going on, Thompson unexpectedly found himself under pressure from Thurley and the leader was mired in traffic for a time before breaking back onto open road, still seemingly untroubled.

Boardley looked quite likely to be Blackman's biggest stumbling block as Malcolm tried to move up to fifth, but Carl must have realised he wasn't in a position to stop this particular charge, stepping politely aside on the far turn to let the #911 by.

Blackman picked off Keith Woods next, diving down the inside of Thurley into the far turn to go third. And, with six laps to go and both Thompson and Blackman now closing in fast on Simpson, it began to look as though it was very much "on" for Blackman.

Thompson staved off the attack for three more laps before Blackman got by in turns 1-2, Malcolm desperately clawing ground out of Simpson's lead as they came round for the last lap board. He was right on the back bumper of the Tigra through three quarters of the last lap before making the snap decision to go for a s**t or bust last bend, last lap outside pass.

It was the sort of move of which champions are made, but there just wasn't the grip out there, and it was still Simpson's race, and who was to say he didn't deserve it after the day he'd had?  Thompson took advantage of Blackman's bravery to claim second by a matter of inches, something Malcolm must have known was going to happen if he got it wrong, which made his effort all the more creditable.

Spectacular driving wasn't the only way to get good points from this race however, with Woods' steady drive netting him a well earned fourth ahead of Thurley and Boardley.

It wasn't all that long after the finish, with night falling fast and the pits emptying even faster, that the snow finally got serious, turning Foxhall Heath into a freezing white out that quickly settled. But we'd got away with it by then, and had some darn good racing into the bargain. Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 291,31,286,25,95,844,427,41,491,911,170,59,14,742,277
Heat two: 286,155,41,637,170,115,6,85,67,491,(467),277,(66),38.
Heat three: 210,155,31,629,95,844,59,61,115,85,67,38,(66),2,(467),427,911
Final: 303,170,911,25,291,41,38,427,637,277,61,95,85,59,155


2008 World Series England round 9.
Two out of three ain’t bad
Northampton, Friday March 21st

Graham Brown reports:  As the title of the old Meat Loaf song says, two out of three ain’t bad, and that was the story for Graham Luscombe at Autospeed’s annual Good Friday Northampton bash, the west countryman making good on the promise shown by his new car at Birmingham.

Despite the dire predictions of the met. office, Northampton was nowhere near as bad, weather-wise, as we had been led to believe it might be. Nevertheless, it was still cold enough for brass monkeys to be advertising for welders. The aquatic nature of the pits wasn’t great either. But, on the plus side, we had 40 cars booked in and every single one of them turned up, leading to a pre-event drivers meeting so that they could decide what exactly they wanted to do about the final. Clearly, ‘all in’ wasn’t really an option, and in the end, the top 28 on the day was the decision about who should start the feature race.

As it turned out, that was exactly the number of cars still running by that stage, so everything worked out quite handily.

Notes about runners and riders here, included the returns of Alan White with his Citroen and Tony Goodsir in his smart Peugeot. David Newall made the long trek down from Scotland for his NHR debut with the neatly turned out ex-Marriott/Hunn Corsa. Ken Marriott, in turn, was back out with the ex-Simpson Corrado.

Meanwhile, Chris Haird was sat in his regular car – it having returned from its South African voyage – and was probably soon wishing he wasn’t. The regulars were added to by the welcome appearances of John vd Bosch (in what might be termed his first “proper” UK hot rod meeting) and Winnie Holtmanns.

So: 40 cars, which meant, pretty crowded heats too. The first of them was no exception.

Peter Blood swiftly set out to capitalise on both the extra pace he found at Birmingham and a still favourable grid position. He led White and the rest in the early laps, but it was soon clear that Lee Pepper was going to be the fast mover here. The former 2.0 world champion shot past Steve Burgess, dealt with a risky looking pass on White without drawing breath, and then took the lead from Blood as they crossed the start/finish.

Lee was a quarter of a lap to the good on the field when Mike Thurley came to a halt in a very dodgy spot on the back straight, necessitating a yellow flag.

Blood went spinning just as the green came back out, leaving Pepper to tear off into the distance, extending a lead of nothing, back to over a quarter of a lap in no time flat. That left all the interest in this one rather further back, where Carl Boardley was making big strides in the right direction once he got into the groove. With five to go he was up with Burgess (now third) and past him shortly afterwards. Pepper was never going to be caught, but Keith Woods was now the man barring Boardley’s way into a second spot, the pair fighting hard over the place throughout the last lap, with Carl just nicking the position coming off the final turn.

Luscombe looked even better than he had at Brum in fifth, while two notable retirements here were Steve Thompson and Haird, the latter out of the meeting for good with a blown engine. This was a GM unit incidentally, not a VW.

With the 24-car grid all assembled for heat two, and on slicks naturally, down came the rain. The sudden downpour soon rendered the oval in no condition for anything other than wets, and the cars were sent off, the decision being taken to run the following race for Stock Saloons instead. Unfortunately, they too were caught on the hop, tyre-wise, so no time was gained. Ho hum. At least the NHR’s weren’t subjected to what would otherwise have been very dicey conditions, and it could have been worse. By the time this shower reached Bovingdon to the south, it had turned into a vicious and heavy fall of sleet.

When heat two, take two, finally arrived on track, it was Richard Smith who set off first with Marriott in tow. However, Dick Hillard was looking all the better for his SA ‘holiday’ and dived into the lead going into the far bend, soon to be followed through by Pepper.

With a dry line developing, Matt Simpson pulled out (blown gearbox) and Pepper got up with Hillard. This would have been an interesting enough dice without David Brooks getting up to join in as well, let alone Malcolm Blackman rushing to get involved too. It was all starting to look a bit dramatic as the two lap board came out, but Hillard kept his head, stayed tight to the kerb in the bends, and still ran out the winner.

The track was pretty much dry for heat three, where early leader White spun it all away at the pit bend, giving Richard Smith another turn at the front. Richard was under the cosh from Ralph Sanders and Gavin Murray however, Hillard and Luscombe quickly joining them. Smith and Murray had a bit of a nerfing match that got Murray black crossed but also got him the lead.

He didn’t have long to enjoy it before Luscombe went to the front as they passed half distance, the former F2 ace drawing rapidly clear and staying that way until flag fall. Hillard was still looking ready to race anyone though, and successfully parried a last minute attempt by Boardley to wrest second away.

Alan Evans was first to show in the final, lost out almost immediately to Smith, before both men were relegated by Pepper. Smith then had a spin on the pit bend, Blackman retired with gearbox problems and as the race settled down, it was Hillard again looking sharp in second with Luscombe chasing the front runners.

Steve Thompson, who’d had an earlier problem and rejoined with the leaders, caused some confusion in race control as to whether he was up with the lead battle or not. It turned out he was just trying to unlap himself however, so the real story of the race was whether Pepper could negotiate the huge traffic jam in which he found himself as the race went beyond mid-distance.

As another of the regular front runners, Simpson this time, fell by the wayside, Evans had his motor let go entering turn one, fortunately without laying too much of the slippery stuff.

With ten laps to run, it seemed to be all over. Pepper had finally broken clear of the traffic and looked home free with all the hard work done. The laps counted down until quite suddenly, three laps from the end, Lee slowed on the pit bend and pulled the car up, the back axle having chosen that moment to part company with the rest of the car.

With Luscombe having got past Hillard somewhere a couple of laps earlier, it was he who was left to snaffle the win, some way clear of Hillard, with Simon Bentley fourth ahead of Phil Spinks, who’d actually had a great drive almost unnoticed to get home still ahead of Boardley.  Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 155,41,25,286,742,59,95,303,217,491,601,734,14,92,519
Heat two: 31,155,911,67,85,61,278,637,38,2,427,6,59,277,601
Heat three: 742,31,41,67,911,14,95,85,170,61,277*,734,6,844,286,38  **amended 31/03
Final: 742,31,59,14,41,95,637,67,85,170,491,277,61,601,427
An incorrect result was given at Northampton WQ9, on 21st March. 277 Andrew Burgess was given 22nd place in heat 3, but was, in fact, 11th. The change of result has affected drivers 277, 6, 734, 844, 286 & 38.
Points amended accordingly.


2008 World Series England round 8.
Blackman back in business
Birmingham Wheels Saturday March 10th

Graham Brown reports:  It was back to work time for the English based Nationals at Birmingham on March 8th, the racing turning out to be much better than the showery, cold weather and resulting track conditions suggested it ought to be. Four races and four different winners  kept things interesting, with Malcolm Blackman eventually running out the final victor to begin clawing back the points ground he lost during his 'holiday'.

Several new runners and riders also added to the interest factor. The totally newbie department was clearly headed up by former 2.0 Hot Rod world champion Lee Pepper, who had done a part ex. deal with Mick Pagden in order to swap their two cars.

Pepper was joined by three other provisional licence holders, including the excessively youthful looking Luke Armiger in his immaculate 206cc. As one might guess from the surname, young Luke is part of the famous Armiger clan, a family with a long tradition in hot rod racing.

From a family with an even longer rodding tradition, comes Alan Evans, the ex-Lightning rodder bringing out a smart self-build 206. Alan is part of 'The Telford Evans', many of whom raced at Hednesford back in the mid-1960's. Alan's car looks the spit of stable mate Russell Wilcox's, and will no doubt cause some i.d. problems somewhere along the way.

Mark you, they aren't the only ones, a wintertime change of sponsor and colours having rendered John and Andy Holtby's cars almost impossible to tell apart when on track, and this despite the fact that they are different makes and models!

Finally on the newcomers list, is Mikey Godfrey, the new # 27 bringing the nowadays fairly unusual sight of a Citroen Saxo back to the National scene.

Graham Luscombe had his beautifully prepared new Tigra out for the first time, but made the mistake of showing up with used but unmarked tyres, which got him an extra handicap for a large part of the evening. There was another new Tigra in the pits too, that of Steve Thompson which is, apparently, a completely SHP-built car.

Chris Haird had his new Emming VW engine in the cc for the first time, while Gavin Murray had treated his cc to a new paintjob over the winter.

With the track already damp and extremely greasy, a rolling start was ordered for the opening heat. That wasn't going to prevent early trouble however, with Peter Blood's VW snapping sideways going down the back straight for the first time. Several cars collided in the aftermath of this incident, Ralph Sanders spinning to a stop against the barriers and Andy Holtby rotating as the pack exited the far turn.

Somehow, none of this managed to bring out the yellows, and it was Warren Farazmand who grabbed the lead over Andy Burgess (looking as at home at Brum as ever), Billy Bonnar and Blood. But the fast mover here was definitely Matt Simpson, who was really enjoying the conditions on the set of knackered wets he'd decided on.

As Blackman took an uncharacteristic pit bend spin, Farazmand tried to settle into the lead, but was soon under pressure Burgess as Simpson dived past Bonnar to go after the lead pair. Burgess and Simpson had both just managed to relegate Farazmand when Godfrey's car picked that moment to shear a stub axle, sending a  wheel bounding along the home straight (well, part of it - some of the way it was carried on the car's own bonnet!) and setting the yellows flying.

By the time the restart was organised, the drizzle had turned into the real thing, which seemed to suit Simpson just fine, as he soon swept past Burgess and swiftly pulled out a very safe lead. Others weren't enjoying the rain quite as much, Haird being another who found himself facing the wrong way.  Burgess however, likes Birmingham and the wet just about equally it seems, and he found no trouble staying in second ahead of Andy Holtby and Blackman, who both staged quite remarkable recoveries from their earlier problems. It has to be said, that Lee Pepper's seventh spot here was truly noteworthy, even if we do know he's pretty handy in the wet. It was his first ever NHR race, starting from the back of course, and on a track with which he cannot be awfully familiar - not bad at all.

Wilcox took a brief turn at point in heat two and fought hard to hold onto it too, when Sanders mounted a challenge. After they passed and re-passed several times, it was the west countryman who got the advantage as spray and visibility started to become real problems for those further back.

After his spin in heat one, Haird was busy making amends here and had just taken David Brooks when Brooks, Murray and Colin Gomm got together in one of several three wide moments of the evening. This one didn't work out too well, with Gomm all but spinning along the back straight, an incident which attracted Stuart Carter a black cross. Despite that, Stu still managed to burst free of this clinch to take up fourth and then third at Wilcox's expense.

By this time, Haird had worked his way into the lead, Sanders dropping back into the clutches of Carter and the highly impressive Thompson, who piled the pressure on Carter until he was finally rewarded with second as they exited the pit bend. That was as far as he was going, as the leader was a safe quarter of a lap ahead with less than five to go.

Behind these, there was a heck of a places scrap going on between Wilcox, Simpson, Gomm, Simon Bentley and Carl Boardley. Carl, incidentally, was using his usual car which has been completely rebuilt to look just like the un-raced new one that was at the NEC.

That places fight broke up after Bentley smacked the wall on the back straight, doing the Colt no good at all. Haird went on to win comfortably over Thompson, with Simpson and Gomm placed next after Carter lost two places for his black cross.

Heat three saw Blood all alone on the front row of the grid, and Peter wasted no time turning that to his advantage as he led Wilcox, Brooks and Farazmand into the first few laps. Burgess was again looking good as he passed several cars down the outside only to go spinning on the far turn, the steward throwing another black cross at Carter for this.

Carter was still involved in the scramble for positions though, with Boardley, Blackman, Farazmand and Thompson. Stu was making a determined effort to stay ahead of the world champion as they hared past first Brooks and then Wilcox, before Boardley finally managed to put the black Tigra behind him and set off after the leader.

Blood had done everything right up to that point and must have been offering up a silent prayer for the lap boards to appear, particularly once he could see the #41 in his mirrors. At last the five lap board came out, but it looked like being too late to save the win and, sure enough, Boardley went by down the outside into the far turn with just over two to go.

That looked like game over, but it wasn't. Thompson was really steaming along now, the unfortunate Blood spinning out just as Steve went by, now in hot pursuit of Boardley. He caught him too, as they passed the last lap board, and was definitely looking the quicker of the two as he tried a stab up the outside followed by a dart to the inside. It's not very often you see Carl having to drive defensively in order to stay ahead but he certainly needed to here.

Carter got home third but lost another brace of places to the steward, elevating Blackman and Andy Holtby.

The final didn't get very far before the latest shower of rain caused more problems, Bonnar and Burgess both spinning on the pit bend exit, John Sibbald and others getting caught up in melee.

It was Sanders who led once the green was back out with Blood in close attendance and probably looking more confident than he's ever looked since joining the Nationals. He had several good 'looks' down the inside before finally going for it as the pair entered the pit bend. Sadly, they touched, Ralph went spinning, Peter was seriously delayed and Jay Austin took it up instead.

After Simpson, Haird, Boardley and Thompson had all taken their turn in the spotlight during the heats, the final was going to be Blackman's moment to shine. It seemed to be no time at all before he was challenging Andy Holtby for second and not much longer before he went by via the outside trip.

Austin obviously wasn't thinking of making Blackman's impending pass easy, but he was likely still surprised by Malcolm's brilliantly timed change of direction in mid-corner as they rounded the pit bend, a manoeuvre which deservedly gave him the lead.

It was a lead he wasn't going to give up either. Holtby and Haird also managed to forced Austin back a couple more places nearing the finish, with Jay still doing well to keep the fast moving Thompson at bay come flag fall.  Graham Brown.

Results
Heat one:  303,277,61,911,637,278,155,25,115,844,742,92. NOF.
Heat two:  115,170,303,278,85(-2),41,219,67,14,734,95,629,844,25,519
Heat three:  41,170,911,61,85(-2),67,277,742,427,219,95,637,519,6,629,217
Final: 911,115,61,427,170,59,41,742,85,278,92,303,6,14,155


2008 World Series (England) round 7
Weight 'training' pays off for Brooks
Birmingham Wheels, Saturday November 10th

Graham Brown reports:  Despite failing cross-weight checks earlier in the meeting - and losing two good heat results as a consequence - David Brooks put all the extra practice to good use by taking the final at Birmingham Wheels.

This was a meeting a bit like the curate's egg - good in parts. There was a real 'end of term' feeling about, and whereas this sometimes generates a more laid back approach from all concerned, it didn't seem to have that effect on this occasion. If anything, it seemed more like, 'we can afford a few penalty points, they'll disappear over the winter'. They won't you know…

What there wasn't, was any shortage of cars, the entry being just about as many as you'd want round The Wheels oval, certainly for the final at any rate. There were no surprises contained amongst the runners and riders either, unless you count Wilson Hamilton, who turned up unannounced to make a nonetheless welcome addition to the field.

As part of Deane Wood's avowed intention to try and fulfil the long held wish (on most people's part) for 'travelling' officials (steward and scrutineers), he'd persuaded Dave Longhurst to help out on the car inspection front. He was ably assisted by Carol and Deane himself, and it was good to see DW taking the time and trouble to make the trip, especially given that he'd got the Banger World to see to the following day.

Andy Holtby obviously wasn't going to repeat his Wimbledon hat trick, as he went out right at the start of heat one. Instead, this turned out to be an easy win for Wheels specialist Andy Burgess, who finished a quarter of a lap ahead of Brooks.

With Burgess having been ruing his breakdown en route to Wimbledon, and thus having missed what he rightly saw as a serious points scoring opportunity on a wet night, his enthusiastic romp into a big lead at what must be his favourite track came as no real surprise.

Keith Woods would very likely have been chasing him all the way but for the fact that his car was misfiring like a pig, and he did well to stay as far up the order for as long as he did.

As we said earlier, Brooks was the man who managed to fend off Colin Gomm and Simon Bentley to get home second, but ultimately it was not going to count for anything.

Heat two kicked off with Graham Luscombe spinning after a collision with Neil Stimson, and saw Brooks leading this time after he'd overtaken Carlos Perez. They'd not gone all that far before the yellows were out, given an airing by Ralph Sanders spinning on the pit bend and getting clipped by Matt Simpson.

Soon after the restart, Gomm went by Perez (who was far from happy with the handling of his car and eventually got railroaded down the order) and closed in on the leader. Brooks then had to keep Colin at bay in the closing stages, Dave staying in front, only losing the win when his car got on the scales.

The scales had been set up on the infield and were showing the 67 car as carrying too much inside weight. Nobody was awfully convinced about their accuracy however, so rather than hitting him with the usual penalty, a compromise was sought that allowed him to be disqualified from the heats, but still run the final providing he altered the car to pass muster.

Ralph Sanders enjoyed a sizable third heat lead for most of the way, but had to fend off a serious challenge from Burgess over the last five laps. Andy first had to make his way up to and past John Holtby and then reduce Ralph's hefty lead before he could have a try for another win.

Burgess never did manage to make one of his outside passing attempts stick, but remained clear of the fast finishing Matt Simpson and Carl Boardley. These two had worked their way through from the back in fine style, with seemingly little to separate them on a performance level on this night, at any rate.

Carl was so uninspired by his car's pace, that he went back to the pits and commanded a look-see at his motor, only to discover his valve timing had jumped a couple of teeth. Reflecting on when and how this might have happened, he was convinced that it probably went back to the Sunday at Tipperary….

The final required a restart after Stuart Carter, Graham Luscombe and Colin Smith ended up in a heap by the fence at the first time of asking. And this was after Sanders had rotated during the warm ups!

Brooks, Perez and Burgess then conducted a three way battle for the lead, with Perez out front until the F1 driver lost out to Brooks. Carlos - whose car seemed a lot better sorted now - survived the pressure from Burgess for a little longer but, once Andy was through to second, the fight for the win was really on.

It was heat three all over again, only with Brooks blocking Burgess' way to the front this time, the extra weight Dave was carrying clearly not bothering him much. It was still an intriguing dice, with Brooks' state-of-the-art Tigra having to fend off repeated outside swoops from Andy's far more elderly Clio.

In the end, Burgess couldn't quite find the grip he needed, the pair finishing almost as one, a quarter of a lap up on Perez.  Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 277,(67),278,59,271,170,14,41,115,427,491,95,3,5,187,35.
Heat two: (67),278,85,629,61,197,198,170,3,427,303,286,271,5,6,742,734
Heat three: 734,277,303,41,59,286,198,14,629,85,6,115,25,904,95
Final: 67,277,5,734,629,278,59,303,41,198,14,170,6,25,3,85
Subject to a steward’s/NHRPA inquiry.  Points to follow when complete.


2008 World Series (England) round 6
Another hat trick for Holtby
Wimbledon, Sunday October 28th

Graham Brown reports:  Andy Holtby definitely put his run of poor results well and truly behind him at Wimbledon, the Tigra driver revelling in the wet conditions to drop a two heat and final treble neatly in his pocket before night's end. Despite the meetings where Andy has done little in the points scoring department, this was his second hat trick of the latter part of the season, and has deservedly launched him all the way into the top four in the points.

It's funny; I tend to think of a visit to Ireland as almost 'recreational racing', and the world series stuff as being rather more serious. But this time, I found the European championships to be a somewhat fraught affair. Wimbledon, by comparison, seemed just a shade more relaxed. Maybe it was the rain, maybe it was the slightly reduced number of cars, maybe it was any number of things. Relaxed or not, there was nothing wrong with the quality of the racing, with the final one of the absolute best of the year.

The rain, which had been coming on as a kind of creeping drizzle from about lunch time onwards, was heavy enough to have soaked the ground (and anybody out in it for any length of time) and the track long before start time. It got steadily heavier as the night wore on, culminating in a hefty downpour before stopping altogether some time before the final.

All of which made wets the order of the day right from the off, and it was Neil Stimson who splashed away into the lead of heat one, leaving the rest of the pack to figure out a way through a curtain of spray.

Neil gradually extended his lead to a quarter of a lap over second man Jay Austin, Jay looking quite at home on the Plough Lane track. He was eventually to lose out to Colin Smith but, despite having plenty of Wimbledon experience, Colin was never able peg back Stimson's considerable lead before the finish.

Perhaps the most interesting dice in this one featured the totally contrasting styles of Keith Woods and Phil Spinks. The pair duelled over fifth place, a short way behind Matt Simpson, with Woody sliding the car round in his effective wet track style, while Phil's more controlled manner of attack looked for a way past. He made it by in the end, with Keith falling back somewhat towards the end, as first Carl Boardley and then the impressive looking Graham Luscombe also overtook him.

Heat two looked like it was going down in much the same way, with Stimson quickly into the lead, a lead he extended just as far as in heat one only sooner.

Holtby had other ideas however, chasing Luscombe past Dick Hillard before nipping past Luscombe down the back straight to set off after the leader. Stimson's yawning quarter of a lap plus advantage was soon whittled away, Holtby snatching the lead down the inside of the three/four turn with just over a lap to go.

Stimson wasn't out in the third heat, but Holtby still had plenty of work to get through those starting ahead of him. Woods led this one initially before Smith took over, but it wasn't long before Holtby was right there in his spray, taking up the lead long before the finish this time.

Behind these, there was - almost unbelievably in the conditions - occasional three wide racing going on, Steve Thompson, Chris Haird and Colin Gomm showing how to do it as they traversed the back straight at one point. It was Thompson who came out of it best to finally claim third spot.

The final needed an early stoppage after Neil Muddle and Dave Brooks both went off along the home straight, Gavin Murray having a bit of a crash at the same spot. With the track blocked and the 95 car in a dangerous spot, red flags signalled a complete restart.

This saw Woods leading again at the start before losing out to Stimson. That left Keith involved in a serious dice with Luscombe, Warren Farazmand, Smith and Holtby.

Luscombe and Holtby progressed to second and third, but with the track starting to dry out just a little, Carl Boardley began to look like he was going to play a big part in this. Running down in ninth spot for a long time, he eventually began moving in the right direction.

Perhaps the most important scalp for Carl to claim, was Matt Simpson, a known wet track expert. Once Boardley was past him, he really could start to think about maybe winning this thing.

By the time Holtby had worked his way up and past Stimson (Neil's car having snapped sideways exiting the pit bend to give Holtby the opening) to lead, the world champion had picked his way through to fourth. Luscombe went the way of the others, and with five to go, the win was definitely on.

Boardley went outside Stimson and by as they crossed the start/finish with the starter now signalling five to go. Holtby placed the backmarking Billy Bonnar between them, but this probably wasn't going to be enough halt Boardley's advance. Andy later admitted that Carl had probably only got so close because of "my own paranoia, I kept watching him coming in my mirrors".

The gap was certainly narrowing fast but Carl needed another lap he didn't have, especially when the red and chequered came out together after Smith's car "got loose…and I didn't pay enough attention", and Colin plastered the 491 all over the home straight fence. I heard, rather than saw this shunt, the bang of the impact turning my head just in time to see an aerofoil flying in one direction and a wheel in another as the blue and yellow 206 went spinning down the fence.

Although most of the field completed the distance at much diminished speed (due to the fact they could see Colin's car and various debris scattered all over the home straight, quite apart from what was coming over the Raceceivers), it would be fair to say it had no bearing on the result. But, although Boardley may have ultimately run out of time, he and Holtby had still provided one of the better races of the '07 season. Graham Brown.

Results
Heat one: 271,491,427,303,14,41,742,25,85,95,197,67,3,637,629
Heat two: 61,271,170,115,742,303,85,278,629,67,197,844
Heat three: 61,491,170,41,14,278,115,637,25,95,3,844,35
Final: 61,41,271,742,303,115,14,25,85,170,629,67,95,3,844,35


2008 World Series (England) round 5
Hat trick for Holtby
Ipswich, Saturday September 22

Graham Brown reports:  Andy Holtby managed to turn around his recent run of poor results at Foxhall, the Tigra driver putting together an immaculate trio of victories that only saw him seriously challenged by Andy Steward on a couple of occasions.

Plenty of cars for this (32) but few talking points; with everybody driving what you'd expect, although Matt Paynter had replaced Carlos Perez in the 106/5 car. It was good to see Billy Bonnar back in WQR action as one of three Scots on duty, and going pretty well into the bargain. He also lasted rather longer into the meeting than John Sibbald, who unfortunately had his cam belt jump a few teeth early in heat one. The team took quite a bit of the motor to pieces in a commendable effort to get back in the action, but once they discovered the mill had no compression, bent valves and an early bath became the diagnosis. "A long way to come for two laps!", as John cheerfully remarked later.

As practice wasn't going to be an option, it was a somewhat dusty track that greeted the first heat runners. Pole sitter Paynter was very slow away, allowing Holtby to quickly assume a lead he wasn’t to lose.

Bonnar kept a tight hold on second all the way ahead of a hard trying Andy Burgess, who was being tracked by John Holtby and Mick Pagden, the latter missing a door fairly early on in proceedings. Some way behind these placemen, there was a big battle going on between eight cars with Graham Luscombe at its head. Graham didn't manage to stay there until the end, by which point he'd been replaced by Phil Spinks, who was really going for it in the closing stages.

With Holtby not in the second heat it looked for a while as though Bonnar was going to go one place better. Andy Steward had other ideas however, catching and passing the erstwhile leader in turn one, "Doughnut" going on to win by a quarter of a lap. Bonnar's second second was still well taken though.

Burgess again had a good run for another third, while this time, there was a ten car train scrapping over the more minor positions. There was a fair bit of contact going on in this one too, not really helped by the still less than grippy outside line.

A scary start to heat three, after Ronnie McKenzie stalled on the grid, saw Holtby back in the winning business following the restart. He batted off early interference from Richard Spavins, who clattered off the wall at one point during his chase of the leader.

Holtby went on to record his second win, but only after he’d survived a last minute assault on his lead from Steward. Andy, who was very close indeed at the flag, had actually got alongside with one to go. This was another race where contact played far too much of a prominent part, and this time Stuart Carter and Steve Thompson both paid the price in two place penalties - there could easily have been more.

The final was to reach a similar conclusion for Holtby and Steward, but first ‘Doughnut’ had to fight his way into second from a fierce places battle involving himself, Bonnar and Spavins. Bonnar managed to stay at the head of this until he went spinning on the pit bend and shed a wheel, bringing out the red flags. Although Steward and Spavins both came under suspicion for having caused Billy's demise (and got black crossed as a result), it was later proved the incident hadn't been caused by either of them.

The restart naturally closed the field right up in single file and, although Holtby got away fast, once Steward was past Spavins and into his stride he was inching up on the leader with every lap. They were dicing for the win with three to go, Steward making a determined effort up the outside on the final tour. It wasn’t quite enough to deny Holtby his hat trick though, the pair finishing well clear of third man Spavins.  Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 61,844,277,197,6,14,303,911,41,491,278,291,742,115,31
Heat two: 198,844,277,3,742,85,491,59,67,271,911,41,170,95,427
Heat three: 61,198,3,95,271,85(-2),59,303,197,14,291,170(-2),67,115,106
Final: 61,198,3,197,291,6,95,59,911,85,271,14,491,67,303


2008 World Series (England) round 4
Thompson gets it right at Lydden
Lydden Hill, Saturday September 8, 1pm

Graham Brown reports:  Following his reversal of fortunes at Northampton Steve Thompson made up for it with a convincing final win on the Lydden Circuit oval, the Nationals taking part in their first major event at the venue in over 20 years.

Thompson’s win helped make up for his loss of points from the previous Sunday’s event. The decision followed complaints from several drivers that Thompson had passed numerous cars under a yellow flag en route to his Northampton final victory. The NHRPA, having studied both video and transponder evidence which showed that Steve had illegally passed eight cars during the caution, altered the results accordingly.

Despite one or two regulars missing from the Lydden entry, with the “all in” format, there were still quite enough cars available to fill the wide open spaces of the big oval. Gearing was of course a major factor in setting up for the track, with some frenzied diff changing going on in the paddock after the two practice sessions.

One of those who got lots of practice in how to change a diff, was Carlos Perez, who was making his NHR debut in the car he’s to be sharing with his BriSCA mech, Matt Paynter. Ronnie McKenzie had made the long journey South (and that is a fair step from Glenrothes virtually to Dover), and was again a welcome addition to the entry, which numbered 22 in the end.

After solving all sorts of earlier car problems, including a misfire and a wheel rubbing on a brake caliper, Keith Woods got away fast in heat one, storming through from the second row to grab an immediate lead. It was a lead he was soon extending too, defying all his earlier woes as he got further and further away from the rest.

Andrew Burgess and Mike Thurley dueled over second but it wasn’t long before Thompson started to make his mark, passing car after car to appear in third. A dive past Thurley as they crossed the start/finish with three laps to go put Steve into second, but too far back to catch the flying Woods before the end.

Along the way, Jay Austin had had an ‘off’ at turn three, McKenzie spinning at the same place. If there was a prize for ‘save of the day’ it would definitely have gone to Matt Simpson who, after a minor touch with Gavin Murray going into the ultra high speed downhill entry to turn three, somehow not only didn’t go off, but successfully made it through the whole of that bottom bend without spinning!

Not quite so successful was Richard Spavins, who’d had at least one wheel on the grass every time he came back onto the home straight, and finally ended up trying his hand at Rallycross down by turn one, although on entirely the wrong part of the circuit for that particular discipline! It was to be the start of quite an interesting day all round for Richard, who seemed to have developed a bit of an affinity for the green stuff by the end of it….

It took Woods a little longer to hit the front in heat two, Keith taking over from early leader Andy Burgess. Spavins went way off course right at the start of this one, delaying Colin Gomm in the process, and finally ending up parked roughly in the middle of the infield, a long way from anything much but very safe indeed.

As Burgess fell back, it was Thurley who moved up to second and managed to stay that way despite pressure in the closing stages from Thompson, Matt Simpson and Warren Farazmand. Thompson very nearly made it past Thurley a lap from home, but Mike fought back hard to stay at the head of this very close places battle, with virtually nothing between second thru fifth at the flag.

Steve Burgess and Chris Haird were both non-starters for the final, both with cylinder head problems, while Dave Brookes departed the grid before ever seeing the green flag.

An intense six car lead battle ensued right from the off with Burgess in front initially before losing out to McKenzie. Andy took him back again at the bottom bend, while further back, Thompson managed to get ahead of Thurley early on this time.

But it wasn’t long until Woods got through to the front once more.

There was still three wide racing going on behind him where Gavin Murray was defending second against Farazmand, Thompson and a host of others. Thompson eventually got the best of this to set off after Woods, the extra race distance this time giving him every chance of preventing the leader completing his hat trick.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Blackman had a spin going into turn three after he and Stu Carter had a coming together, Thurley departing the fray at the same time and place.

Whether it was something to do with Thompson’s assault on his position or not, Woods had his tailgate open in the last few laps. He still managed to stay in front until they got into turn three not far from the finish, when Thompson darted through down the inside.

With two to go, Carl Boardley pulled off an extremely slick move to go by Farazmand and Murray at the same time around the outside of turns three and four.

Woods managed to stick with Thompson even after losing the lead and was still comfortably second at the flag, despite his motor blowing as he came over the stripe. As Spavins had another ‘off’ at the bottom bend, Simpson came home third some way behind the leaders but still well clear of Boardley.

This was without doubt, a highly successful return to one of National Hot Rod racing’s ‘forgotten’ race tracks, and a meeting which brought forth all manner of praise from various quarters, ranging from the BARC’s marshals, to fans, to ex-drivers.  Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 25,170,41,303,637,95,491,911,85,277,67,278,115,5,197,427,187
Heat two: 25,291,170,303,637,491,61,41,85,911,95,67,277,278,187,427,197
Final: 170,25,303,41,637,95,61,278,427,277,187,197,911,85,491,5,35


2008 World Series (England) round 3
Thompson's twosome
Northampton, Sunday September 2, 1pm

Graham Brown reports:  Steve Thompson took a heat and final double at NIR to put some useful points on the world series chart at a highly competitive meeting which, thankfully, still saw rather less damage than at Hednesford the previous Monday.

Not too much to say about the entry for this one. No more new boys and no new cars either among the 29-strong line-up, although Ronnie McKenzie and Matt Paynter were both taking up grid positions this time. Oh, and yours truly got lumbered with the tyre marking at this one, so that kept me well and truly out of mischief right up to start-time.

Heat one underlined just how competitive the afternoon was going to be, with some four-wide racing going on in the opening laps. McKenzie took and held an impressive lead for much of the race, even surviving two caution periods. The first of these was thrown for Andy Steward, who'd had a spin on turn one and got stuck in a very dodgy spot. They didn't get very far at the restart either, Rob Hadfield taking a whack up the rear that stuffed his bodywork over his tyres and sent him into a very smoky spin which ended more or less where 'Doughnut' had been to begin with!

When they got going more permanently, McKenzie naturally had the pack hot on his heels and he was eventually overwhelmed by those coming through from the back. Thompson was the first to find a way past going into turn one, with Malcolm Blackman, points leader Chris Haird and Colin Gomm leading the way. Blackman was closing on the leader fast by flag fall, but ran out of time to ever worry Thompson at all.

McKenzie was well up for a repeat effort in heat two but once again had to work through a caution. This one came about when Richard Spavins and Jay Austin both got very sideways in turn two. Mick Pagden, following, tried to lift but got fired on into them anyway, finishing off their spins for them. The others all got away but with 'Dodgy' in an even 'dodgier' place than Steward had been a race earlier, and stuck on the kerb, a yellow was inevitable in the end.

McKenzie resumed his lead with the green back out before losing out to Mike Thurley. But Mike's lead was soon under threat from the fast closing Dave Brooks, their confrontation ending when Thurley got spun by Brooks exiting turn four. Thurley got T-boned by Ken Marriott, setting the yellows waving again while Marriott was helped from his car by the medics. Brooks got disqualified during the stoppage (not much consolation for Thurley, mind you) leaving Matt Simpson the beneficiary and the new leader.

Matt had Carl Boardley and Steward right on him for the restart but Simpson was soon easing away from them as the other pair fought over second in determined fashion. They clashed on turn one, Steward turning the contact to advantage to get past. But a couple of laps later, Boardley slipped by again, which was how they finished. A short way back came Stu Carter, who'd survived an earlier altercation with Colin Smith, who'd thumped the barriers as a result.

The third heat was Brooks' chance to make amends, as he won this one from Thurley, after having passed early leader John Sibbald. This trio dominated ninety eight percent of the race, although it could probably have ended sooner for Sibbald's liking, as Gomm, Austin, Simpson - again tailed by Boardley - all made their way through nearing the finish.  Speaking of finishing, Blackman was extremely lucky to claim eight place from this, as his diff let go very comprehensively as he took the flag, the car limping to a halt out by the barriers with a very bald pinion!

A giant oil spillage in the previous race left the track very dusty and messy for the final, giving rise to a sensible six warm up laps to dust off a bit.

The two Scots, Sibbald and McKenzie, scrapped over the lead at the start, and were still out front when the yellows came out for a turn one crash involving Dick Hillard, Thurley and Simon Bentley, caused by Bentley losing a half shaft and his brakes at the same time. Thompson was lucky not to get too involved in all this himself, as he was forced to go between the spinning cars and the wall before pressing on. Not surprisingly, the 59 car also lost all it's diff oil at the same time, cueing more plaster dust.

It was still Scotland to the fore long after the resumption of hostilities, as Sibbald and McKenzie continued to hold sway for lap after lap. However, with the laps winding down, Thompson was closing in fast. McKenzie was the first to fall to the advancing fast movers, with Thompson taking over the lead from Sibbald around the inside of the far turn with less than five laps to run.

Sibbald still fought an impressive rearguard action though, with Boardley the only other driver to get past him before the finish, Carl having gone for a fairly rare new tyre just before the race. Rare, in the sense that he doesn't normally slosh one on just before finals, unless I've missed it in the past. He certainly made plenty of his ground on the outside as usual.

Sibbald's third spot was still no bad result, coming as it did ahead of such notables as Gomm and Simpson. Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 170,911,115,278,59,85,187,277,2,3,31,271,491,92,734
Heat two: 303,41,198,85,271,197,742,61,187,291,427,35,3
Heat three: 67,291,278,427,303,41,629,911,170,59,115,31,61,277,734
Final: 170,41,629,278,303,67,911,187,734,115,3,271,85,2,742


2008 World Series (England) round 2
Haird’s manic Monday
Hednesford, Monday August 27, 1pm

Graham Brown reports:  Chris Haird drove a superb race to take the final at the bank holiday Monday Hednesford world series round, overcoming several stoppages and stiff opposition as he fought his way through a packed field.

Just a few “parish notices” regarding the entry, a robust 34 cars by the way, with Mick Pagden out for his first meeting where he could start ‘in grid’, and clearly ready to make the most of it. Buxton racer (and mechanic to BriSCA F1 driver Carlos Perez, who plans to share the car) Matt Paynter had finally managed to join the throng, the pair having at last solved the lack of an engine problem which has been keeping the Peugeot in it’s garage up to now.

Keeping Matt company at the back of the grid, for some of the time at least, was Scot Ronnie McKenzie. Ronnie has in fact raced Hot Rods (and long before anyone thought of calling them National), on and off, for a very long time. He claims never to have become attached to a number, and I can certainly remember him having a fair few in the past, 11, 158 and 102 springing to mind. More recently, he’s raced as 87, and now the number 187 adorns his interesting choice of car, the ex-Steve Hunt Honda Accord.

John Holtby made a demon start to the opening heat and very quickly pulled out a useful gap over the rest, an advantage which turned out to be enough to get him his first ever win. Richard Spavins headed home a tight gaggle of cars for second, including Mick Pagden and the fast finishing Carl Boardley.

As expected, Pagden was making himself right at home, while Boardley was busy proving that it is possible to get through from the back, Carl coming into the last lap only fifth but clearly hoping for second! Haird was also looking good, as indeed were relative newcomers Jay Austin and Warren Farazmand.

Following on after Bangers in the programme is never a great situation, and there were considerable patches of dusted oil and other mess on the track for heat two. Colin Gomm also got a flat during warm ups, and one might well speculate about how that came about too. John Sibbald got away well to lead, staying out front until near the end, when he was caught by a titanic places struggle involving Pagden, Boardley, Chris Haird and Malcolm Blackman. Pagden snatched the lead from this and managed to keep it too, in a seriously close finish. Boardley and Haird were again major players in the dying seconds of this one, with Carl just pipping Chris for second in a near dead heat.

There was one incident along the way worthy of mention, when Andy Holtby had a spin on the West bend exit, Simon Bentley, Graham Luscombe, Peter Blood and Andy Steward all getting caught up in the aftermath. Eventually, all cleared the spot without recourse to a caution.

Andy Holtby may not have been having a great day, but his brother was clearly loving it, and wasted no time relieving Sibbald of the heat three lead. Keith Woods fell by the wayside when his motor made expensive sounding noises coming down the home straight and coasted to a halt.

Then Matt Simpson crunched hard into the barriers on the exit from the West bend. With the stricken Tigra jammed against the Armco for a time, this brought out the yellows, with Matt finally able to limp the car away to the infield. Neil Stimson got disqualified during the stoppage for his part in this incident.

Neither the stoppage nor the restart managed to bother the leader, and as in the first race, once Holtby was in front he was going to stay there, although Luscombe was definitely closing in by flag fall.

It seemed as though half the mechanics in the pits were working on Simpson’s car at some stage in an effort to get him out for the final, which they managed, only for Matt to pull off again when he discovered a nasty vibration. This was later traced to a bent prop shaft.

Even without the newly married Matt, there were still plenty of cars out for the final, which was going to be bedevilled by stoppages and yellow flags in the early going.

Sibbald and John Holtby shared the lead through several restarts until Holtby made first place his own more permanently.

The first problem came when Spavins rotated in the East bend and got collected by Steward, who by this stage was getting thoroughly fed up with being involved in other people’s accidents. Phil Spinks and Colin Smith got embroiled in all this somehow as well.

They’d hardly got going when the red flags came out to signal an unsatisfactory restart and, even then, the yellows were soon waving again, after Farazmand and Reuben Taylor had crashed into each other or the back straight barriers. During this stoppage, Boardley departed to the infield having found some oil and bent his axle by smacking the wall.

It was still Sibbald out front for the final successful attempt to get and keep the race running, although Holtby was keeping him under the cosh and eventually got past. By the time he did though, he was being pressed hard by Pagden, and with all the leaders closing up as they encountered back markers, it was Haird – with Stu Carter in tow – who was leapfrogging the placemen at every opportunity.

Haird finally dived down the outside of the back straight to go in front just as Carter went by Holtby on the inside, a fraught moment which nevertheless rewarded the pair with first and second. Holtby immediately dropped away from the leaders after this, leaving Haird and Carter to a well taken 1-2 ahead of Pagden. Blackman ended up inheriting fourth spot after Gomm (and Austin, although he had rather less to lose) were both penalised for a jumped start. Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 6,3,197,41,115,427,637,85,2,271,59,31,14,303,291
Heat two: 197,41,115,911,637,629,49,3,277,85,491,170,95,59,61
Heat three: 6,742,278,67,911,198,491,427,49,629,14,291,95,2,734
Final: 115,85,197,911,629,278(-2),2,95,277,170,14,67,59,742,271


2008 World Series (England) round 1
Hillard takes Foxhall thriller
Ipswich, Saturday August 11, 6.45pm

Graham Brown reports:  Dick Hillard took advantage of a late race caution to take a close fought final win at Ipswich, the National Hot Rod veteran using all his skill and experience to cope with both an oil slicked track and a last minute challenge from Colin Smith and Phil Spinks.

With a return to 'fastest at the back' grids for the new season, there was great anticipation on both sides of the fence as to how things would turn out. There had also been a good deal of discussion, certainly among the driving strength, about the perception at any rate, that there might be a lot more cars on track and what amounted to “all in” racing this term. As expected, certainly by the writer anyway, this came to nothing for the first round at least, and probably won’t so long as the entries remain at around 30 cars or more.

So: it was business as usual at Foxhall then, for the Nationals first visit back there since world final day. Well, almost. Of course, the start of a new world series always brings about some personnel changes, drivers who’ve decided to give it a rest for a bit, retire permanently, or who’ve been awaiting the start of a new round of qualifying before getting involved.

In the ‘giving it a rest’ bracket sadly, was James Jamieson, a not entirely unexpected development. But in the welcome back stakes came Rob Hadfield, Keith Woods, Colin Smith and Steve Burgess – I think that’s what they call a nett gain on election nights. And in the welcome along for the first time department, came the long awaited (by me at least) debut of 2.0 stalwart, Mick Pagden, his 206 looking plain-but-pretty in it’s dark blue colours as opposed to the stark white bodywork it was exhibiting at Wimbledon last winter.

The rest of the cast were pretty much what you’d expect, driving pretty much what you’d expect. There were a couple of other little footnotes to the evening, both concerning Deane Wood. DW loves hot rods, no doubt about that, but remains a stock car driver at heart. And frankly, if he never has another idea in his life, after inventing that new 2.0 Stock Car formula, he will still have made a lasting contribution to the sport. Deane thinks promoting a class like that also involves having to drive in it, and had unfortunately reaped one of the “benefits” of that outlook at Arlington the previous Wednesday night. A major impact with the barriers had led to him having to spend a night and a day in hospital while the medics trussed him up like a turkey to try and sort out a serious back injury.

“By hook or by crook I shall still be at Ipswich Saturday”, he told me after escaping from hospital, and was entirely to his word, although I’m not sure this was what the quacks had in mind when they ordered six days bed rest! 

This was dedication above and beyond the call of duty, as indeed was taking charge of tyre scrutineering in an effort to get things severely back on track in that department. To that end, he’d had Dick Hillard acquire a tyre brand in a serious attempt to mark tyres in such a way that there can never again be any doubt about what constitutes “used”. Dick had conducted experiments with some old tyres to see what kind of damage branding them might do, but this appeared to be negligible and the new weapon saw plenty of use, causing the scrutineering bay to smell like Santa Pod on a summer day. Well, it did until the device had it’s overheat protection kick in, putting it out of action for a bit. Nevertheless, a step (and not an especially cheap one either) in the right direction, and a clear indicator that DW means business when it comes to Nationals.

So: with the grids sorted using the reverse of everybody’s last three averages, heat one blasted away into the bright sunshine to get 2008 world qualifying under way.

Wiz Farazmand took the early lead before losing out to Gavin Murray with two laps done, Gavin in turn being overtaken by Hadfield. Rob, who'd departed the formula disillusioned after a series of crashes a few months ago, went on to welcome himself back with a win in this one.

Elsewhere, there was a pit bend incident with consequences involving Ralph Sanders, Mike Thurley, Matt Simpson and Stuart Carter. Initially, Carter got disqualified for causing this by pushing Sanders into the others, resulting in Thurley spinning into retirement. Further careful study of the video revealed that the coming together was not originally Stuart’s fault, although he still got dropped four places in the final analysis for not backing out of the throttle when he might have done, thus making matters worse.

Chris Haird had another good Ipswich drive to overhaul Murray before the finish, while Carl Boardley began a less than great evening (by his standards) when he tangled with Ken Marriott , losing a good deal of ground and places as a result.

Pagden got in 12th, which was certainly no disgrace, having started last of course, but was out of the rest of the meeting after “I ran over the Rock of Gibraltar in the pits, and holed the petrol tank”.

Not satisfied with winning the opener, Hadfield repeated the performance in heat two, after again passing Farazmand not far into the race. The start of this one saw David Brooks have an ‘off’ across the shale, the Tigra sliding across the speedway track in an out of control manner before careening into several other cars as it regained the tarmac.

The fight for the places mainly involved Farazmand, Jay Austin – who moved up to second before too long – Hillard and Spinks. Keith Woods took a spin leaving turn four, for which Steve Thompson attracted a black cross which was not acted upon, after Keith told the steward it was his own fault for having a car which was way too loose! Refreshingly honest, if nothing else.

Hadfield was well clear by the finish, with Austin, Hillard and Spinks disputing second spot all the way to the end.

With Hadfield not out for heat three, somebody else got a shot at seeing the chequered flag first. Graham Luscombe – looking far more confident than at any time since his comeback - took charge from the off until he got caught by Austin and Hillard. They both went by and then scrapped over the lead the rest of the way, Jay staying in front to record his first win in Nationals.

Behind these, Brooks had some more drama with a spin after he’d collided with Neil Muddle and then been collected by those following. He wasn’t the only one in bother either, as Murray and Haird got together in what was nothing more than a pure racing incident, although the upshot was Murray sliding into Simon Bentley, causing him to rotate. The fast finishing Haird went on to only just fail in his attempt to catch the leaders by flag fall.

The 28 car final needed a restart after Haird blew his transmission up on the grid. When they got going properly, Luscombe underlined his new found form by getting in front and staying there for a large part of the race.

He steadily left Murray, Austin and the rest further behind and was just beginning to look the winner when the yellow flags came out after Boardley and Terry Hunn tangled between turns three and four. Terry was out on the spot with all sorts of damage and though Carl got going again, it wasn’t to be for very long.

Prior to the stoppage, Spinks and Simpson had clearly been the fastest men on the track, and definitely looked a real danger to all those that had been holding sway at the front before the yellows.

Even so, Luscombe made a great restart to hold his position when the green was shown once more, but a sudden spate of spins (one was Hadfield, out of sixth) and other calamities (Marriott crashed between turns one and two) gave notice that there was oil on the track. This might well have come from the recently stopped car of Steve Burgess, which was parked on the exit from two, and caused a big shake up in the places. Luscombe dropped back to fourth as Hillard took it up, hounded now by Colin Smith, Spinks and Simpson.

Spinks did his level best to get round the outside and snatch the win and in all probability simply ran out of laps, although he did manage to pip Smith for second at the line as the first four came home in a real blanket finish.

Hillard was not expecting any kind of reward for his efforts with the tyre (tire?!) brand, but got one anyway from the best meeting he’s had in some time, while Spinks and Simpson both put in superb drives to overtake stacks of cars and come from well back on the grid. In other words, just the kind of racing we were hoping for with our “new” grid system. Colin Smith hadn’t done too badly in terms of opening an account on another try for a world final either and surely Luscombe must have gone home feeling a bit better about his racing too, even if he did only make it home seventh in the end.

There’ll be a bit of a strange look to the points chart for a bit – but that’s no bad thing and, for sure, things will even out over the next few meetings as the regular front runners get to grips with climbing back to where they usually reckon to be. Graham Brown.

Results
Heat one:  141,115,198,95,491,303,85(-4),14,41,637,271,197,25,278,286
Heat two:  141,427,31,14,59,491,41,170,303,911,286,637,61,67,742
Heat three:  427,31,115,742,911,170,95,198,85,277,271,278,59,291,67
Final: 31,14,491,303,95,59,742,911,291,170,278,85,67,637,49

Latest points


Archived reports from previous seasons HERE