2008 World Series England round 16
Sanders and Boardley wrap it up
Birmingham Wheels, Saturday June 14th

Graham Brown reports:  Four different winners from four races was the story of the last qualifying round of 2007/8, with Ralph Sanders taking the concluding final of the current World Series as Carl Boardley assured himself of overall victory in the points championship.

It was not quite the night of high drama that the last qualifier sometimes is. On this occasion, it was going to take something mighty weird to happen to alter the final eighteen men who would be going to Ipswich. But there was still plenty to play for in terms of who would be in what group. Plus, it was still mathematically possible for the destination of the points championship to change, quite apart from anything else.

Not having Malcolm Blackman and Stuart Carter around, meant that their previously ongoing battle to be in group one was negated of course. But there was still the matter of who exactly was going to benefit from the pair having an enforced ‘holiday.

I did say that it wasn’t a night of high drama but Colin Smith might disagree. After suffering some recent brake problems with his car Colin had fitted a complete new system and headed down to Arena for some Saturday morning testing to bed everything in before heading off to Brum. At least, that was the plan. Shortly before they were due to finish their session, the motor in the cc spat a rod through the block, throwing the team into turmoil. After a time spent seeking a replacement engine, it was beginning to look as though the their fight to remain in group two was going to end somewhat ignominiously with a no-show. Until, that is, Deane Wood stepped forward with a loan of his Colt which, although not exactly ready-to-race, could be pressed into service with a bit of work to at least get Colin out there.

Having a slightly more relaxing test session, was Carl Boardley, who’d spent the afternoon at the Wheels getting some laps on his new car, the Duratec lump having been restored to full health after the Mallory malady. It was still to be the regular car that saw service for the meeting however.

With much of world qualifying already sorted – and two regulars missing – the field was slightly down on recent meetings, and this was probably reflected in the relative lack of incident.

Two more went missing at the start of heat one, when Willie Hardie and Alan White were sidelined with Raceceiver issues. Tam Rutherford got away fast but after a first bend bump with Ken Marriott, it was John Holtby who came off the turn in front to take it up. Rutherford still managed to stay with him for a few laps until John eventually pulled clear. It was as well for Holtby that he’d made some ground on the rest, as the fast moving Chris Haird was through to second by the end, and definitely looking for every point. Chris was, of course, vying with John’s brother Andy to be the one who crashed the group one party by evening’s end.

Heat two turned out to be a flag-to-flag effort for the victor, and a well taken first win for the youthful Luke Armiger. Luke outpaced his fellow front-of-grid starters and gradually worked his way out to a lead of more than a quarter of a lap. Like Holtby earlier, it was an advantage he ended up needing.  Haird and Steve Thompson were both absolutely flying through the field this time, with Steve piling the pressure on once they were through to second and third. He was finally rewarded with the position three laps from home, and was closing in fast on the leader, but too late to ultimately threaten Armiger’s maiden chequered flag.

I caught Haird and Andy Holtby in conversation just before Andy went out for the third heat. Chris having finished his heats, I wondered what exactly he might have been saying to Andy to put him off his stroke. “Nothing much”, he cheerfully replied, “I just told him I‘ve slipped a load of sand into his petrol tank!”

Both the Team Wilcox cars failed to take the green in this one, with Alan Evans another to lose a battle with a Raceceiver, and Russell Wilcox gear graunching in what sounded like a suspiciously clutch-less manner before being pushed off the grid.

Spins (Dave Brooks and Dick Hillard), flying doors (Colin Smith) and black crosses (Smiffy and Andy Holtby) added some spice to the opening laps of heat three, with Rutherford settling into the lead for a long time. It lasted until a challenge from Ken Marriott saw the leader go spinning himself. This left Marriott to carry on and take his own welcome maiden victory, making him the third different winner of the evening.

It was the places battle that really caught the attention here, with Gavin Murray, Holtby, Phil Spinks, Matt Simpson and Simon Bentley all locked in an engrossing dice during the middle of the race.

Rutherford stepped up to the plate again come final time, pressed hard for many laps by Russell Wilcox. Russ was eventually forced out with an oil leak, to be replaced on the Scot’s tail by Marriott. Wilcox’s car had been trailing smoke for a while, a fact which prompted steward Paul Gerrard to suggest over the radio that he might like to consider pulling off. Well, you have to say it’s a lot more polite than just a black flag!

Although Russell’s retirement was a trifle frustrating for him, seeing as the car looked to be going quite well at the time, it was not going to affect anything much about world qualifying. But Haird’s sudden and unexpected spin going through the far turn looked as though it might.

Rutherford and Marriott continued racing for the lead for the major part of the race, but when Sanders – playing his now characteristic patient waiting game – moved past Evans and into third, the writing was definitely on the wall. Ralph slipped by Marriott too, going into turn three, before taking on Rutherford in a confident move that got him both the lead and the win by a wide margin come flag fall.

Rutherford and Marriott still did well to hang onto second and third, with Thompson managing to stay ahead of Boardley in their virtually race-long dice through the pack to wind up fourth and fifth.

So, at the end of it all, who were the movers ‘n’ shakers?

Well, Matt Simpson never really got anywhere near threatening Boardley’s points lead, Matt not having the best of nights, so the championship was – as expected – Carl’s.

In the end, up from group two to group one – at Carter’s expense – went Andy Holtby. It had been very close between him and Haird all night, and but for Chris’ retirement from the final, it might have been a different story. As this is the guy who was bested only by Boardley in both the World and European races last year, it would have been interesting, to say the least, to see what he could have achieved from a group one start. Actually, I don’t reckon he’s out of it by any means in group two …

Inevitably, Carter and Blackman both find themselves relegated to group two, where they’ll be joined by the hard trying Colin Gomm. Yes, down to group three goes Smiffy, despite a plucky try after his Saturday of woe. He gave it his best shot in the clearly below par Colt, but got just what he didn’t need – a night when Colin Gomm was going well!

Meanwhile, it was up into group three for Andy Burgess, after a fair night for him at his favourite track. However, in this closely fought area of the points chart, it was perhaps no surprise that we ended up with a ‘tie across groups’, five cars having earned the right to be in group three after Spinks and Bentley tied on points. This has happened before and what it means in world final terms is, the fastest of the two in lap times gets to stay in group three and compare his times with them. The slower one merely goes automatically to the head of group four.

The final footnote to all this, is that Sanders’ final win helped push him all the way up to the first reserve slot, with the still less-than-totally-fit Mike Thurley also having lost out to John Holtby by night’s end. Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 6,115,8,629,734,14,41,170,59,27,67,491. NOF
Heat two: 519,170,115,734,217,278,72,303,277,41,61,629,31,27,103,25.
Heat three: 2,277,278,303,61,59,14,95,31,8,67,491. NOF
Final: 734,8,2,170,41,6,217,72,303,277,14,59,61,25,95,27,103.


2008 World Series England round 15
Murray’s wet and dry hat trick
Ipswich, Monday May 26th

Graham Brown reports: On an afternoon at Ipswich when the initial pouring rain gradually died away, it was Graham Murray who emerged as the absolute master of the ever-changing conditions, recording an extremely well taken two-heat-and-final treble.

Undoubtedly heading up the points of interest on the entry front was Willie Hardie, the young Scot making his NHR short track debut, and anybody who was at Mallory was definitely going to keeping a keen eye on this one! He wasn’t the only new Scot on the Heath either, with Tam Rutherford also making the long journey south with his 206 to give the Nationals a go.

Making an even longer trek, Winnie Holtmanns was back for one of his fairly frequent (considering he doesn’t live in the UK) British outings.

Hughie Weaver had all the Hednesford damage to his Tigra suitably repaired, as had the man who ran into him, Mike Thurley. However, although Mike’s car might be back to full health, Mike isn’t. He tried a few laps of practice before declaring his broken ribs to be insufficiently healed to allow him to race. Fair play to him for trying it, though.

Speaking of practice, I was too busy to watch, so never saw Steve Thompson crash severely sometime during the session, and still don’t know why he did - stuck throttle perhaps?  I do know that the team wanted to thank everybody who helped get them back on track for the afternoon. There were too many to mention individually, according to Nessa, but with some very sporting efforts from drivers closely involved in points battles with 170 apparently, so well done to all of you – you know who you are!

Like practice, heat one was run in torrential rain. John Sibbald’s car refused to play ball before the off, probably with wet electrics, giving rise to more sporting behaviour when lent his R/C unit to Waine Souter, whose own packed up on his way to the grid.

And it was Souter who led initially before Gavin Murray took it up on the pit bend at the end of lap one, never to be headed again. He was kept honest by Jay Austin for quite a time though, until the local man went spinning while trying to lap a couple of back markers in order to stay with the leader. Murray drew his lead out to over a quarter of a lap after that. Malcolm Blackman and Carl Boardley came through extremely well for second and third, but still never got within striking distance of Murray.

Gavin was clearly up for a repeat performance in heat two, by which time the rain had slackened off to just a slight drizzle. Swiftly putting early leader Richard Smith behind him, Murray marched off into the distance. There was plenty of interest going on behind him though, with Austin and Hardie disputing second in an entertaining manner. Even further back, David Brooks was fighting an ill-handling car, with what looked like a slowly deflating left rear tyre. This gave rise to one exciting moment, when Stu Carter (already a black cross recipient) and Matt Simpson went three wide with Brooks down the back straight.

Then Colin Gomm and Rutherford got together on the pit bend, the incident leaving the Scot stranded there and bringing out the yellows. But even this hiatus failed to unsettle Murray. Austin looked like he would hang onto second in this one until overtaken by Willie Hardie and Matt Simpson nearing the finish. Hardie did particularly well considering his car was definitely sick towards the end, back-firing and sounding generally unhappy, probably another wet electrics victim.

Early skirmishing on the greasy track saw Hardie - his problems apparently solved - snatch an impressive heat three lead. He held it until Brooks, clearly fighting his own car as much as the others, got swamped by those queuing up behind, then had an off and tried to rejoin across the high pit bend kerbing. With the 67 Tigra beached helplessly, the yellows came out again.

After that, Hardie’s car developed the misfire again, which allowed Colin Smith and Simpson through, Matt ultimately going by down the inside of the pit bend to take a clear win. Hardie probably wasn’t suffering too much from the lack of horsepower in these track conditions, and was still able to put up quite a resistance in the dying laps when challenged by Thompson and Boardley. Steve ultimately made it past, his car trailing a streamer of flapping black race tape from the earlier repairs.

The final turned out to be an excellent race on a rapidly drying track. In fact, the speed with which it dried probably caught a lot of people out on tyre choice, the temperature rising quite suddenly, allied to a mild breeze getting up.

It kicked off with Hughie Weaver leading before trading places back and forth with Austin. Weaver didn’t lose touch even once Jay had the lead more permanently. Even when a Murray-in-a-hurry had also relegated Weaver, he still refused to fall back, and now, the racing line was totally dry.

Hardie had got up into second and then the lead, when Austin ran wide on the far turn. However, Willie was still getting the occasional back-fire and, to add to his problems, the car was starting to smoke, suggesting it was putting oil on its own tyres. All of that allowed Murray to get up and have a go, the two swapping places a couple of times before Hardie looked to have re-established himself in front for the duration with four laps to run.

But Murray certainly hadn’t given up by any means. He was just getting in position to mount another attack when Hardie simply spun it all away at the far turn, leaving Gavin to win number three, some way ahead of Colin Gomm, who’d put in a superb drive to claw his way up the field. Phil Spinks took some consolation from an otherwise fairly lack-lustre day, by gaining a well won third spot.

Malcolm Blackman had collected a black cross and a two place penalty during the race for contact with Carter. This was followed by a post race ‘off the ball’ incident, where Carter came up behind Blackman and ran into the 911 car. This and subsequent verbal exchanges look likely to lead to further action being taken against both drivers.  Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 95,911,41,53,491,31,278,277,59,427,271,155,61,(467),38,27,25,844
Heat two: 95,72,303,427,31,85,911,61,115,14,155,67,6,27,38,278,(467).
Heat three: 303,491,85,170,72,41,277,115,59,271,(467),53,14,8,210,519
Final: 95,278,14,210,303,41,911(-2),427,61,85,115,170,59,38,491,72,67,8,519,25,155,27


2008 World Series England round 14
So - Who's the Daddy NOW!?
Mallory Park, Sunday May 11th

Graham Brown reports:  In a storybook ending that no one would have believed as a film script, Jeff Simpson made his return to National Hot Rod racing at Mallory Park behind the wheel of son Matt’s new car, the pair dicing for the lead in a totally absorbing final before finishing first and second. But no doubt the question 'Who's the daddy'  was being asked in the Simpson bus all the way home, as it was Matt who headed Slim over the line at the end of it all.

A day that started very early for most people (and on Friday for some!) dawned very hot and very sunny – or pretty much perfect Mallory weather in other words. The mildly controversial addition of attendance points only, definitely acted as an attraction, as the entry was well up on what is considered ‘the norm’ for this meeting. 23 cars was the eventual tally and, although a couple were obviously only there for their ten points, the rest put on a great days racing. In fact, a day which culminated in a final that is unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry by anybody privileged to witness it.

On the runners and riders front, there was certainly plenty of interest. Some continental participation is always welcome, and Laurens vd Velde and John vd Bosch were out for their respective first and second UK meetings of the year, Laurens having been away since Rockingham last year.

Another long distance traveller was the only NI entry, Tommy Maxwell, although there were certainly lots of other Ulster racers about the place in a purely spectating capacity.

Then there was a complete newcomer in the shape of Scots Stock rodder and current Stock Rod Best In Britain, Willie Hardy. A newcomer to Nationals maybe, but not a newcomer to Mallory, as he’d raced there before. No mucking about for young Willie, who is the new owner of the beautiful orange ex-Clive Richardson Tigra, shown at the NEC Autosports Show back in the winter, but never actually raced by the Ulsterman.

Shane Brereton was back in the fold with his familiar VW and declaring his intention of doing some more racing at further selected events this year.

Carl Boardley had followed up on his thoughts of giving his previously un-raced (and unsold) new car a run out. Not only that, but he was also trying out a Ford Duratec motor in it.

But of course, the biggest news about the entry list, was the return of Jeff Simpson to competition driving. Matt has two Tigras these days, with the new and un-raced version carrying the number 308 for Jeff, who was never really happy about having his racing career curtailed by factors outside his control and so probably didn’t take that much persuading to get behind the wheel again. If he had been a little race-rusty, it would have been forgivable, after eight years out of the harness. But with all his previous experience of Mallory in Eurocar formulas, as well as Hot Rods, it was going to be more than just merely interesting to see how he fared in the unfamiliar new car, and whether it would be father or son who came away with the best results…

Maxwell was the first to show at the green flag for heat one, although he was swiftly overtaken by Lee Pepper before they’d even left Gerards. By the time they were onto the back straight, Jeff Simpson had blown by the pair of them, towing Malcolm Blackman along in his draft.

Blackman took the lead at the Lake curve, although still with Simpson and Maxwell hot on his heels. Boardley was through to fourth by this point but wasn’t going any further as a trail of white and blue smoke heralded the sudden demise of the Duratec going into Gerards for the second time. Carl sensibly got the car on the grass before it could deposit too much oil on the track, the motor exhibiting a couple of holes in the block upon its return to the pits.

Back to the plot. It took a while, but Blackman eventually managed to get on top of his challengers and began to inch away from Simpson, Maxwell and, astonishingly, Hardie. The young Scot was right on the pace and giving the others plenty to think about as he took Maxwell’s place on Slim’s tail and went by after Jeff had a bit of a moment exiting the Lake curve, his car becoming increasingly difficult to drive as the race went on.

Simpson wasn’t the only one finding his car tough to handle either, Alan White spinning out of the Lake curve and into the barriers on the pits side of the home straight.

It was Malcolm’s race all the way thereafter, but Hardie’s second spot was no mean achievement in this company and must bode well for his future performances on the short ovals.

Stu Carter got the jump at the start of heat two but only for a matter of yards, as Chris Haird took it up at Gerards. That was about the last anybody saw of him, Chris underlining his fastest lap of heat one by turning it into a yawning gap between himself and the rest in this one.

The battle for second was quite another matter, with Shane Brereton and Blackman going at it hammer and tongs for several laps after they’d worked their way past vd Velde and Matt Simpson, who lost out to the other two as they crossed the start/finish with two to go.

Matt wasn’t to be shaken off quite that easily though, and was still right with them starting the last lap. Blackman went by Brereton coming to that last lap board, only to have Brereton re-pass on Gerards, Simpson also taking Blackman back again going down the back straight. That was how they finished, with White in the wars again, this time getting together with John Holtby as they raced to the flag on the final lap.

The final was just one fantastic race from start to finish. I suppose all the elements were there, if I’d bothered to think about it. We had Haird, having run the fastest laps every time he’d been on track. We had Blackman, Brereton and Matt Simpson, all looking very racey. We had Jeff Simpson, getting the car sorted and going better with each outing, and we had the obviously speedy ‘wild card’ unknown quantity of Hardie in the mix too. Easy enough to see, with hindsight, that this could be very special.

It was.

Proceedings kicked off with an immediate eight car war going on for the lead, which Blackman had initially. He was passed by Matt S first time round Gerards, but grabbed it back on the exit taking Brereton through with him. The order on lap two was Blackman, Brereton, Haird, Matt S, Hardie, Slim, Maxwell and Andy Holtby, but with the latter pair already starting to fall off the leaders’ pace a bit.

End of lap and Haird zipped past Brereton at Lake to assault Blackman’s lead. Blackman responded to this by going faster still, the two haring off Gerards side by side, only to have Brereton force his way alongside, the trio rocketing down the track three wide and back to Lake. Brereton upped his credentials in the ‘I’m barmier than you lot’ stakes by out braking the lot of them to lead for the first time, but it was far from over yet!

The lead bunch was down to six now (Brereton, Blackman, Haird, Matt S, Hardie and Slim) with Blackman and Haird feinting, chopping and changing lines trying to get an edge. Haird had obviously decided that his lap times proved he had more speed and decided to set about proving it by passing on the outside at Lake. Experienced Mallory watchers will know this is a move which rarely comes off, but it got him the lead for all of half a lap, which counted as a long time in this race!

Brereton went by again at Gerards, Haird came back at him to re-pass on the exit, before the pair touched, giving Chris an extremely hairy moment as he ran most of the back straight on the grass at what must have been something over 125 mph! To his credit, he never appeared to lift for a moment, but it slowed him down for a few seconds, which was all it took to put you out of contention for this one. And then there were five…

Now it was Brereton from Blackman, Jeff S, Hardie and Matt S. Hardie also did a bit of grass tracking, also refused to lift, and stayed right with them. But he did it again, more seriously this time, with two to go and so, coming down for the climax, there were only four in it.

Matt Simpson (now fourth) said later, “Coming out of Gerards for the last time, I could see all hope of winning it was gone. I just wanted a trophy of some sort, and thought maybe I’d be able to get by dad on the last corner to snatch third…”

The last lap came down to Brereton leading Blackman and Simpson Snr from Simpson Jnr. They stayed in the same order racing down the back straight, only for Blackman to run into Brereton going into the last bend, just as Slim was obviously lining himself up for a desperate last gasp outside attempt at a pass of both. As Brereton and Blackman slid wide, Slim managed to swap lines and cut back to the inside – but not soon enough. All this had presented Matt with an inside line he couldn’t refuse to just snatch the narrowest of wins from his dad.

I certainly didn’t see either of the Simpson cars touch Blackman going into that last bend, and I don’t think the contact was deliberate either. Probably, Brereton simply slowed very slightly earlier than usual in an effort to protect his lead, and caught Blackman out, as it’s doubtful Malcolm would have clobbered his mate that hard at any stage of the game.

Actually, whichever one of the four had won, it would still have been a truly memorable race, and certainly the best I’ve seen in anything, anywhere, for rather a long time. It was also probably the only great hot rod race in the history of the sport, not to have taken place on a short oval!

So, the next time anyone tells me you only get that kind of racing at Mallory in Stock Rods and Lights, I fear I shall just have to tell them where to get off.

Results
Heat one: 911,72,308,369,491,303,61,115,78,155,85,278,637,66,277,6, 219,170,103.
Heat two: 115,348,303,911,61,85,308,72,78,278,66,369,155,637,277,6,491.
Final: 303,308,348,911,61,72,369,78,85,115,103,637,6.

Actually, there was no shortage of close racing all day on the Mallory Mile, and there were plenty of people claiming that, overall, the Legends had been the stars of the show. It was doubly sad therefore, that such a great day of motorsport should have been overshadowed by Des Chandler’s accident in the last race of the day.

I had gone back up to the Press Box to finalise my Motorsport News report, so I was sitting at the desks facing the home straight. I knew the Legends were on the track, but wasn’t actually watching them, so it was pure chance that I must have stopped to think for a moment, and happened to be looking out of the side windows down the straight at what is (for Legends) the exit from Gerards.

What I saw was one of the biggest crashes I’ve ever seen in motor racing (and I’ve seen one or two), in which Des’ car went into a whole series of rolls, including one which saw it slam, upside down, onto the Armco barriers. It was, I suspect, this impact which did the real damage.

Some of you may know that former BriSCA F1 pilot Des, was the man who enabled the early testing of the Raceceiver devices in National Hot Rods. Some may also have spoken to him in the forum as desse213. He offered all sorts of valuable advice and brought R/C’s to a meeting at Northampton for our drivers to try out. Although circumstances conspired to prevent him getting the contract to actually supply them to the formula, I’ve never forgotten that he bothered to do that at his own expense.

After being airlifted from the track to a hospital in Coventry, he has had CT scans and is still being kept under sedation, nearly a week after the accident.

I’m sure I’m not alone in sending heartfelt best wishes to Des and his family at this time.  Graham Brown.

Webmaster’s note:  latest updates on Des can be found on the Oval Legends Website, and messages of support can be posted in the Oval Legends Forum.  Members of the nationalhotrod.com Forum have access under their usual forum sign-in.


2008 World Series England round 13
Ralph’s repeat
Hednesford, Monday May 5th

Graham Brown reports:  He may not have managed to win all three this time, but it was still a second final in a row at Hednesford for Ralph Sanders on Bank Holiday Monday, the west countryman continuing to make good use of his ex-Luscombe Tigra.

Points of interest among the entry included the aforementioned Luscombe car having its second outing in Ralph’s capable hands, with rumours now that Graham might soon be back himself, only at the wheel of Ralph’s cc! Might that be a case of ‘sell in haste, repent at leisure’ perhaps?

Although David Brooks’ car looked to be the same one as usual – apart from having red door numbers – in fact, his previous Tigra had suffered too much damage in it’s meeting with the ramp last time out. So this was a completely new chassis, with quite a bit of the rest of it having been replaced too.

Veteran Scot Ronnie McKenzie was back for another blast in NHR’s, and there was a complete newcomer in the shape of former Classic Hot Rod (and other things) racer Iain Grayson, at the wheel of a smartly turned out long ago ex-Boardley 206.

A mention ought to go to Dick Hillard too, the world’s only South African East Anglian having literally hit the ground that morning from his latest SA excursion, and hurried to Hednesford straight from the airport.

A steady drizzly rain persisted almost right up until start time, but had thankfully given it up by then, the weather turning hot, sticky and “jungle-fied” as the afternoon went on.

A very scrappy start to heat one saw spins and minor shunts galore, brought on by the half damp, half dry track. It wasn’t long before one of these incidents brought out the yellows and then reds, when a right old to-do erupted on the West bend exit, Brooks, Mike Thurley and a number of others getting involved.

Even after the complete restart, everybody from stars to novices seemed to still be equally at sea, although Peter Blood made a fair fist of leading once he’d overtaken Alan Evans. Eventually, Blood was passed by Brooks, whose new mount seemed none the worse for the earlier contretemps.

Glossing over spins by Jay Austin, Thurley, Matt Simpson and Colin Smith, and other separate incidents involving Hughie Weaver, Keith Woods, Waine Souter, Phil Spinks and Gavin Murray, Brooks then pressed on to win. This was despite having to fend off a mid-race challenge from Simon Smith, and having his lead closed down greatly towards the end by the fast finishing Steve Thompson and Carl Boardley.

A dry track didn’t prevent a complete restart for the second heat, when Hughie Weaver failed to go and got hit hard by Mike Thurley.

This was an incident that’s provoked plenty of comment since the meeting, blaming everybody from the starter to the marshals to the steward, to Thurley himself! Firstly, the starter was the same one it always is, and yes, for some odd reason, he did start this race without his usual questioning look up at race control. But, as a couple of people in the box commented, even if he had done that, they would have seen no reason not to give him the go-ahead.

It has been said that Hughie was trying to indicate that he couldn’t go, but if he was, I certainly didn’t see it, and I had a clear view of his group of cars from up on the gantry. I suppose a marshal stood right there by the grid might have seen this, but there wasn’t one.

As for Thurley, well, there simply wasn’t anything he could have done. He told me that ever since the shunt, he’s been trying to think if there was anything he could have done to have avoided it. Put simply, no there wasn’t. The race had only been ‘on’ a few seconds, with no chance for any Raceceiver warning, just long enough in fact, for Mike to have accelerated to an already dangerous speed. By the time he came upon the stationary 210 car, he was three wide and the meat in the sandwich, with no chance to turn left or right, only just to hit the brakes and hope.

Mike was diagnosed with a concussion by the race track medics, and since, with a couple of busted ribs. There’s no doubt it could have been worse. But what I take most from this incident, is just another piece of evidence to present the next time the argument about clutch versus rolling starts comes up. I’ve never been a fan of standing starts, and this sort of thing is why.

When restart time came around, John Holtby tried hard to repeat the first attempt by leaving the grid extremely slowly, and Brooks wasn’t going to make it two in a row when he spun coming across the start/finish.

Evans held the early lead before losing out to rapid Scots newcomer David Newall, who extended his lead virtually at will the rest of the way. Behind him, Blood was going well again and got up to second, leaving Evans to try and stay ahead of a big bad dicing bunch that contained no less than 12 cars!

Stuart Carter once again demonstrated his liking for traffic by cutting through this lot to eventually relieve Blood of second shortly before the finish.

Race three was easily the best of the heats. Waine Souter grabbed and held the lead from the off and stayed that way for a long time until challenged by John Sibbald. Unfortunately, the pair tangled during this, Souter spinning out. That let Gavin Murray take it up but with immediate pressure from Simon Smith, Simon Bentley and Steve Thompson, and it was Bentley who swept by going down the back straight.

Thompson was never far behind though, and as they raced up to the back marking Mikey Godfrey on the final lap, the leader had to decide: go by down the outside of the obviously slower car or tuck in tight and just follow Godfrey through the finish. Simon chose the latter course, and it was just as well for him that Thompson hadn’t anticipated the move. By the time he did, it was too late to complete a pass of both cars around the outside and Simon had it won – a good call.

Behind them, Blackman and Boardley raced past the flag in a virtual dead heat for third, Malcolm just getting the nod by eleven thousandths of a second, leaving Carl to ponder the siting of his car’s transponder!

The final kicked off with Souter out front, but hassled by Simon Smith before too long. It has to be said that the entire field made a magnificent sight, streaming off the West bend in the brilliant sunshine – hot rod racing like it oughta be. Don’t worry, a reality check wasn’t that many laps away…

Firstly, the battle for the lead came to head when they collided on the back straight, nearly clobbering the winner’s ramp. This let Brooks through to the front, shortly before Newall spun exiting the West bend, sparking off a multi-car shunt and a very necessary stoppage. Blackman, Andy Steward and Hillard all ended up in a heap by the wall. Angie’s shouted Raceceiver warning of what was occurring and where, followed by at least three repetitions of the words “Red flag” failed to prevent Smiths, Simon and Richard, from ploughing into the three stricken cars at full chat. This, as might be imagined, caused one hell of a mess although fortunately, no injuries. It also eliminated all participants on the spot, except for Hillard, who didn’t get far after the restart when his axle fell to bits. Welcome home Dick!

Following a lengthy clear up session, Brooks still held sway for the restart, but with Sanders suddenly looking menacing now, Ralph having been basically biding his time in the heats and concentrating on staying out of trouble. With all the cars that had been in front of him now gone, it was time for him to start piling on the pressure, including one very determined and long look up Brooks’ outside. His attack was finally rewarded with the lead when a duck to the inside exiting the East bend with just under four laps to go, wrong footed Brooks. What was it Bill Batten used to have painted on his aerofoil on his F2 – something about ‘Old age and experience will overcome youthful exuberance’? Something like that. Well, you get the drift.

As for the rest, it was Colin Smith who got home third, only to be docked a couple of places for contact, handing the other trophy to Andy Holtby. Meanwhile, Thompson was forced to give up a load of places and points when he got a flat with one lap to go and had to limp home at greatly reduced speed. Graham Brown

Results. Photos by Martin Kingston in the Gallery
Heat one: 67,170,41,10,59,601,278,303,734,92,14,38,491,191,217,427.
Heat two: 601,85,278,92,217,629,31,911,155,61(-2),115, 25(-4),303,277,67,187.
Heat three: 59,170,911,41,31,95,734,155,61,14,491,277,844,519,10(-2),27.
Final: 734,67,61,303,491(-2),41,14,115,59,155,217,278,95,601, 170(-2),844,53,277


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




2007 World Series (England) round 17 Birmingham, 09/06/07

Stimson’s fourth and final final

Graham Brown reports: Neil Stimson finished off the 2006/7 National Hot Rod World Series with a flourish, by taking his fourth final in a row at a very warm and sunny Wheels Raceway.

With the annual points race reaching its conclusion of course, victory here went to Malcolm Blackman, the destination of the English title just about remaining in doubt until the final. Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, it was Andy Burgess who eventually clinched the last remaining qualifying spot up for grabs.

Perhaps the most notable point about the entry here was that Colin White wasn’t one. Several weeks of speculation about whether or not the three times world champion was fussed about doing this year’s race thus came to an end. This came as no real surprise under the circumstances, as Colin has been without the ready loan of a car for a little while now and had, in any case, decided a long while ago that he would be racing in Germany on this particular weekend.

Clearly then, that left Andy Burgess and Richard Spavins with a clear field of fire when it came to nabbing that last place in the top twenty. Burgess actually only needed to turn up and race at Brum to bump White from the world grid, but he had only a scant lead over Spavins, who could still have taken the spoils if he had a good night.

Elsewhere, there were a few things still to play for. James Jamieson was just about able to entertain hopes of overhauling Steve Thompson for a group one start, likewise Stuart Carter with Simon Bentley for group two, and the returning Mike Thurley with Neil Stimson, or more likely, Colin Gomm (who’d cancelled his booking) for group four.

Unable to do much about improving his grid position at Ipswich, but there nevertheless and giving it his all (as in, clipping the wall in practice) was Phil Spinks in his new Tigra. This was looking very smart, and indeed a trifle menacing, in its virtually all black livery.

Pole position winners were once again going to be the order of the day in the opening heats. Matt Simpson led from flag to flag in the first of these, although he was never allowed any respite, with Carl Boardley snapping at his heels throughout. The reigning world champion did have a couple of serious attempts at getting past without being able to make anything stick.

Boardley’s second still looked like it might stand him in good stead in his battle for the points championship with Malcolm Blackman, but with Blackman getting home fourth, Carl really hadn’t gained as much as he would no doubt have liked.

Andy Steward was the recipient of pole for heat two, and like Simpson, duly led every single lap. His opposition seemed most likely to come from Stimson, despite the fact he got involved in a brief first bend clinch with Burgess, which no doubt had his supporters holding their breath. But they both recovered and got going OK with virtually no time lost. Neil did pick up a black cross after the incident, and then got on with putting up a spirited chase.

Along the way, Peter Blood and Ralph Sanders collided and had a bit of an ‘off’ near the start/finish.

In the closing stages it was clear Stimson’s pursuit of Steward was a lost cause as not only was ‘Doughnut’ now pulling away but Simon Bentley and Blackman were closing fast. This trio came together with four laps to run, Blackman going straight for the outside pass on Bentley. He’d all but got it done as they tore into turn one with three to go, but tried to cut in a little sharply. This led to what might have been a minor exchange of paint, although a lot of people swore the two never touched. Whatever: Blackman all but spun out, appeared to gather it up brilliantly, but then left the corner with his wing hanging awry and behind Bentley once again. Needless to say Stimson’s second spot was now left safe by all this.

Heat three was not won from pole but by third row starter, Stuart Carter. Stuart was still in the lead before the completion of one lap though, and once through to the front, pulled away fast.

At the tail end of that opening lap, Sanders was having an exciting ride as first Bentley and David Brooks shot past one either side, and then Boardley and Simpson did the same!

Spavins obviously knew what he had to do, and was busy holding down second place for a while until he was caught and passed by James Jamieson. Graham Luscombe took a spin on the pit bend, ending up in a T-bone situation with Brooks

Once Carter had extended his lead to over a quarter of a lap, no amount of effort by Jamieson managed to make much of a dent in it. Spavins was a similar distance behind Jamieson but still third and keeping his hopes of a WF place alive, just four points behind Burgess going into the final.

And speaking of the final, it was going to take something like a non-finish by Blackman with Boardley still scoring well to tip the balance at top of the points race.

In the end, it was one of those races which promised much but didn’t actually deliver a great deal. Or to put it another way, nothing much changed about the world qualifying prospects of any of the participants.

Stimson started on the front row outside and wasted no time about grabbing first place and running off with it. No one was seen placing any bets against his fourth final win in a row.

Second was in doubt all the way though. Thurley held sway there initially, with Spinks, Russ Wilcox and Steward following on. Further back, Brooks was running seventh until he got ‘freight trained’ by the mob behind him, dropping the white Tigra about seven places in the course of a single lap. Prior to this, Blackman had been behind Boardley, but never far behind, and slipped by down the inside of the far turn. It looked like they were only ever going to be scrapping for the minor places, but that was no good to Boardley in any case, and if Blackman finished in front of him anyway…

The dice for second now featured Thurley, Spinks and Steward. Spinks dived up the outside and away, as Thurley and Steward clashed exiting turn four, Mike spinning across the infield as a result. That also let Carter and Wilcox past Steward, but he was soon in recovery mode, re-passing Wilcox to go after the leaders once more.

Carter had managed to get on terms with Spinks, causing a bit of a double take as the two black Tigras hurtled round in close company. Close company that was, until Spinks’ car spat the speedo drive plug out of the gearbox, throwing all the transmission oil over his exhaust. He exited sharpish in a cloud of smoke, leaving Carter to face up to Steward’s challenge instead, Andy finally claiming the position down the inside into turn three just shy of the last lap board.

No one got within a quarter of a lap of Stimson for the duration, and in the crucial points arguments, the main players finished on track where they would be in the final reckoning, Blackman ahead of Boardley by one place, Burgess ahead of Spavins by one place.

Blackman’s supporters can rightly celebrate that their man finished on top, Boardley fans will doubtless point out that Carl missed a meeting, and surely would have gained more than the 13 points he needed if he’d been there. In truth, there’s never really been all that much between them over the whole year. For sure, Carl had the edge last year. Blackman’s revamped car looked to have put him back on top early this season, and lately, they’ve looked pretty even-steven.

And so, that was it for another world series. After a bit of a ‘time out’ for Mallory this coming weekend, all roads will lead to Ipswich, T-500, Press Day and on from there. Graham Brown.
Results
Heat One: 303,41,305,911,67,170,61,271,291,198,2,3,95,55,742,427,92
Heat Two: 198,271,59,911,85,277,61,291,14,219,2,95,49,115,734,92,35
Heat Three: 85,305,3,170,14,41,219,59,303,49,55,277,67,427,115,35
Final: 271,198,85,219,59,305,170,303,911,41,67,277,3,742,55,49,427,92,35


2007 World Series (England) round 16 Ipswich, 28/05/07

Stimson’s wet hat trick

Graham Brown reports: On an afternoon when the Ipswich rain only varied between drizzle and torrential, Neil Stimson once again looked quick all day and went on to win his third final in a row.

Unfortunately, this was one of those rare days when the weather forecasters got it completely right, and had been doing so for several days in advance. Well, you could rely on that, what with the predictions being fairly dire and it being a Bank Holiday and all, couldn’t you?

The entry proved remarkably resilient under the circumstances, with almost no cancellations and zero no-shows. Colin Smith did cancel, on the grounds that he had no wets and wasn’t planning on buying any just to do basically the one meeting. Mind you, had he decided to go and buy some, he might not have got very far with that plan in any case, as Phil Spinks discovered!

That entry included a couple of interlopers in the shape of Irish racers Tom Casey and Barry English, who decided to give their scheduled Tipperary meeting the day before a miss, in favour of some test mileage at Foxhall. Not that it probably did them any good, unless of course the WF itself turns out to be wet, and seeing that the last truly wet race was very nearly 20 years ago, we are probably due another…

These two welcome visitors aside, the most interesting entry here was undoubtedly James ‘Jay’ Austin, whose ex-Hadfield car was looking mighty well prepared in its smart new colours, even if I’m not all that sure about the bright green interior. Still, I don’t have to live with it, and maybe Jay finds it calming!

With the rain persisting down and everybody (presumably) on wets, it was Russell Wilcox who set off in a very brief heat one lead, losing out to Andy Burgess – who we’ve noted before likes it damp - as soon as they left turn one.

But Neil Stimson had made an even better start than Burgess, and went rocketing past not only Carl Boardley, but the leader too. Boardley doggedly went after him though and finally assumed the lead going down the back straight to clinch the win.

Colin Gomm was looking his typically speedy wet weather self throughout the early stages, but his charge definitely faded the longer the race went on, and certainly after he’d given the far turn wall a hefty biff.

By the finish, the lead pair were just about half a lap clear, with Andy Holtby ‘best of the rest’ in third spot.

Heat two was no less wet, Ken Marriott having the briefest of leads this time before losing out to Steve Thompson. Another wet weather fiend, Matt Simpson, was swiftly up into second and hounded the leader every step of the way without ever really looking as though he was going to find a way past. He certainly got very close at one point when Neil Muddle took a back straight spin nearing the finish. The leader was forced to get out of the throttle for a few seconds and the 303 Corrado homed in fast then.

A quarter of a lap and more behind these three (Marriott, incidentally, another who was looking very much at home in these conditions), Dick Hillard took an unscheduled trip into the home straight wall. Boardley was making lots of moves in the right direction as usual, having started with the last group and gradually working his way up to relieve Holtby of fourth around mid-distance. But undoubtedly the biggest impression in this one was made by Jay Austin. As befits a provisional licence holder, he’d started stone last and, whilst he’d gone a lap down to the leader by the finish, he’d done his fair share of overtaking along the way and got home a highly creditable seventh.

The third outing was Phil Spinks’ turn to have the lead for just a few seconds, Chris Haird the one to relieve him of it. As Spinks fell back to duel with James Jamieson over third spot, it was Malcolm Blackman who came up on Haird’s shoulder, finally taking advantage of a little back straight wobble by the leader to go ahead. He stayed that way as well, despite Stimson giving chase throughout the closing stages once he too had overtaken Haird.

Once again, in the early going, it was Gomm who appeared to be loving it on the widest of wide outside lines and got up into the top six as a result. However, he wasn’t the only one who looked happy out there, because someone else was making every bit as good a job of it – Austin! What he lacked in caution he was obviously making up for in grip, and cheekily darted past Simon Bentley going down the back straight to prove it. Eighth was his reward this time, with the seven ahead of him reading like a veritable who’s who of hot rodding.

I did go and ask if he was sure he hadn’t done this before, but he didn’t really get my little joke, and simply remarked that he had done two litres. Well, I already knew that, but Nationals aren’t 2.0’s, and these were hardly ideal conditions to be making your debut either.

With the rain heavier than ever and track curfew time approaching, the final distance was cut to just 20 laps. In fact, heat three had been shortened by a few as well. In this respect – running out of time - matters weren’t helped by a stoppage early on, after a collision between English and Ralph Sanders.

Ralph had spun coming off turn four and very neatly snicked the car into reverse and zoomed down the home straight backwards. He went straight as an arrow, right in the midst of a group of cars and without touching anything. He then backed the car against the wall just beyond the pit gate, obviously awaiting either a chance to get back into the race or a yellow flag. Now, I know for sure the message came over the Raceivers twice about 734 being there. Indeed, there was time for a personal warning to Tony Goodsir, who appeared to be going straight towards Sanders at one point. So quite why Barry English drove slap into him is anyone’s guess. Barry had complained earlier in the meeting that he couldn’t hear things over his radio (“Just like at home!”), and when I looked at it, he had the volume down to just one bar. The only driver I know who can hear the things properly at that level in a moving race car, is Mike Thurley. For most people, three quarters volume is more like it, which is what I set Barry’s to, at which point he positively jumped when I gave him a radio check. So, maybe he then found it too loud and turned it down again later….

After a brief hiatus to drag the two badly damaged Peugeots off, the restart saw Stimson soon stamping his authority on the lead, and the rest of the racing was obviously going to be all about the places.

Simpson managed to out-fumble Thompson as they went around Wilcox to eventually go second, the remainder of the race a reversal of their earlier encounter, with Thompson this time unable to really get on terms. Quite whether that was because he couldn’t just get up to him, or because Steve couldn’t see through the diabolical spray whenever he neared Matt’s car, I’m not sure.

And speaking of not being sure, I’d love to give you some controversial comment about Brooks/Gomm and Boardley/Steward, but I’m afraid your correspondent was having one of those races when he was always looking in the wrong direction at the right time, or vice versa. I saw Brooks spinning with his door hanging open, but had no idea how that had happened until later, when Gomm got disqualified. Likewise, I saw ‘Doughnut’ spun and stopped on the far turn, but had no clue how he’d got there either, until much later. Sorry guys. It’s just as well I wasn’t stewarding.

Austin also spoiled his possible ‘three races, three places’ record, when he too spent some time parked on turns three-four, but we would still have to call his day’s work highly impressive nevertheless.

Most significantly perhaps, this was yet another meeting when Colin White showed up, but without a car. With Richard Spavins having a less than great day, and Andy Burgess continuing to pick up useful points here and there, Andy is now poised to bump the three time world champion from the top twenty. In fact, all it will take is for Burgess to show up and race at Brum, and White not to. And Spavins could still pull things out of the fire too, of course. Now: is Colin bothered about all this, or not, I wonder. Graham Brown

Results as seen trackside by Garry Staines
Heat 1: 41 271 61 170 911 277 305 219 278 85
Heat 2: 170 303 41 2 61 198 427 277 67 14
Heat 3: 911 271 115 305 14 198 278 427 59 219
Final: 271 303 170 911 41 305. Result not complete/confirmed.


2007 World Series (England) round 15 Hednesford, 07/05/07

Mixed weather, racing to match

Graham Brown reports: A day of sunshine and showers at The Hills was at least an improvement on the blizzard meeting there earlier in the season. And if the weather was somewhat mixed, the racing was of a similar calibre, with some runaway wins but also some exceptional dicing for the places, most notably in the final, which went the way of Neil Stimson.

Most notable point of interest regarding the entry was the return to National Hot Rod racing of Graham Luscombe, at the wheel of Ralph Sanders’ spare 206. By Graham’s reckoning, it is 20 years since he last raced a hot rod and 15 since he last raced anything! The ‘anything’ at that time, was a BriSCA F2, the class in which his brother Dave was world champion in 1987.

But, let us not overlook Mike Oliver, the popular Welshman choosing to have a welcome (if short lived, due to mechanical woes) outing at Hednesford instead of his ‘home track’ Tipperary. Nor indeed Chris Haird, who brought out his new 206cc, which as far as I can tell, looks exactly the same as the old one!

There had also been half a chance that Colin White was going to appear in the newer of James Jamieson’s two Tigras, but the arrangement never reached fruition.

Although there was undoubtedly rain in the air prior to start time, it hadn’t come to anything very much. That is not to say that the track itself was dry because it wasn’t. An oil spill on the West bend exit, and the mess left behind by the clear-up, meant things were going to very slippery round there.

Simon Bentley made the most of a front row grid position to grab an immediate lead, with Andy Holtby making something of a demon start to hurtle from the third row and into second by bend one. Richard Smith soon showed how tricky the turn four exit was by losing it coming out of there and cannoning into the unfortunate John Holtby. Meanwhile, Tony Goodsir took a scary ride over the winner’s ramp before plunging off the other side and getting stuck there.

Holtby hounded Bentley throughout, but despite opportunities presented by clumps of traffic near the finish which enabled Holtby to get very close indeed, he couldn’t manage to unseat the leader. Andrew Burgess and David Brooks settled into third and fourth, with Brooks overhauling Burgess some time after mid-distance. But both men lost a lot of time lapping back markers and were just about half a lap behind by the end.

A shower created a wet but drying track for heat two. This apparently presented no problems for Carl Boardley, who had, much to his disgust, drawn a front row start yet again. The world champion was forced to take his punishment and promptly ran off to hide. No one saw him again unless it was in their mirrors, the real battle in this one being for second.

With Malcolm Blackman only two rows back from Carl on the grid, he was expected to give chase to Boardley. But not only could he not keep up with the leader’s pace, Malcolm found himself under pressure from wet track expert Colin Gomm, driving a superb race round the wide outside. Colin might well have a reputation as a good jockey when the going is damp, but this was still an outstanding drive. He even overcame the problem of having what looked like a dead-cert pass foiled by an awkwardly placed lapped car. On any other day, a drive like that would probably have garnered a win, but that’s racing.

Blackman still didn’t get any peace, as Stimson took Gomm’s place on his shoulder, and made repeated efforts to get past an increasingly defensive 911 car. Neil never gave up trying, despite smacking the wall four times by his account and finally whacking it hard enough to bend the steering, Stimson limping over the line to gain a mere eighth when he’d been looking good for at least fourth.

Heat three provided the first real chance for Chris Haird’s brand new car to show its mettle, because this was going to be another race which proved to be a flag to flag job for a front row starter. Andy Steward and Matt Simpson stayed close enough to keep the leader honest, but the real focal point here was the places battle that raged between Steve Thompson, Stimson, Boardley, Blackman and Jamieson. It was Thompson who came out of it best to take fourth spot.

After a run of relatively easy, if not actually predictable, wins from the front ranks, there seemed to be no real reason why Stimson shouldn’t keep up that trend in the final – which he did. Nevertheless, it was still probably the best of the year so far.

With 28 cars on track it was always going to be busy, and so it proved. Ken Marriott took the early lead, but lost out to Stimson with only half a lap gone. Neil was chased for a long time by Gomm, who apparently hadn’t noticed it was no longer wet, the gap see-sawing back and forth as first one and then the other benefited from the traffic. Stimson finally gained enough ground to be comfortable however, and attention switched elsewhere.

There was certainly no shortage of traffic, which was making matters very lively in the tooth-and-nail fights going on for all the places. Nowhere was it livelier than the dice which comprised Bentley, Boardley, Jamieson, Blackman and Thompson. They may only have been arguing over sixth spot and back, but it took a lot of hard work for Jamieson to finally come out top of this lot. He seized his chance when Boardley went for an outside pass of Bentley, JJ sticking his nose in between them and then boxing Boardley in to make good his escape, the blue Tigra spitting spectacular exhaust flames as it set off after Stuart Carter in fifth.

Meanwhile.....Boardley, Blackman and Thompson were still faced with trying to overtake Bentley, which, they couldn’t. But it was still a lot of fun watching them try. At one point Boardley and Blackman came down the home straight running side by side, certainly not turning into one another or anything like that, but so close together their tyre sidewalls were touching and sending up little plumes of blue smoke. Now, that’s pretty close!

OK: they may not have been racing for the lead, but to this old timer, this really did feel like proper hot rodding from a bygone age.

In the end, we wound up with the same first two as at Skegness, in the shape of Stimson and Gomm, but Andy Steward took the third spot this time. Brooks had another solid run for fourth, while fifth didn’t really seem like much reward for JJ after such a hard race. Oh, and if you’re wondering what happened to Thompson near the finish to rob him of a position, the diff let go. Graham Brown

Results
Heat one: 59,61,67,198,277,31,303,39,85,734,2,92,95,6,742
Heat two: 41,278,911,85,61,305,219,271,115,55,49,3,734,59,170
Heat three: 115,198,303,170,271,41,911,305,278,67,2,3,277,39,31
Final: 271,278,198,67,305,85,59,41,911,303,61,2,734,3,277
PHOTOS by John Perry & Martin Kingston

2007 World Series (England) round 14 Skegness, 22/04/07

Stimson’s sunny Skeggy

Graham Brown reports: The annual seaside outing for the National Hot Rods at Skegness provided a different winner in every race, but it was Neil Stimson who made the most of a pole start to take the final.

The weather was kind to us once again for the trip to Orby and, although the entry wasn't colossal, there were certainly enough cars on the track. Actually, too many at times, or so it seemed. Let's face it, there aren't that many meetings where trouble kicks off in practice! But it did here, with Stimson and James Jamieson exchanging paintwork and harsh words long before any racing started in anger. It wasn't a particularly auspicious start to the afternoon....

Just one 'parish notice' (with apologies to Jim Gregory) regarding the entry, with John Holtby - Andy's brother - making his debut in a smartly turned out 206cc. This prompted some discussion about when was the last time two brothers raced at the same time. We think here in England it was probably Colin and Keith White, but we're also still open to suggestions, and naturally thoughts turned to the Grimers, Dances, Freestones, Hattons...well, fill in your own memory.

Heat one kicked off with Ken Marriott leading briefly until Matt Simpson went by at the end of the opening lap. Matt soon pulled out a small advantage, but with Malcolm Blackman and Carl Boardley charging hard through the pack, there seemed little doubt Matt was going to come under real pressure before the finish. Blackman was clearly out-running Boardley too and, once he was past Marriott and through to second, had a free hand to chase down the leader.

The pair were together with five to go, Blackman trying every which way to get past, but it was still the Corrado that held sway at flag fall. Boardley was never close enough to have any say about the outcome, and in fact Carl came under pressure himself towards the finish, as Stimson showed his obvious pace by sniffing at the world champ's back bumper.

It was a similar story at the start of the second race, with Richard Spavins out front for just about a lap before Chris Haird took over. It was Steve Thompson who soon got into second and gave pursuit this time. Further back, Blackman was trying desperately to get through to the leaders again, making full use of Skeggy's exceptionally wide outside line in order to do so. But one particularly wide sweep into the pit bend, in an attempt to overhaul Jamieson, saw Malcolm lose a load of ground and let Andy Holtby and Simon Bentley past into the bargain.

This part of the pack was subject to a good deal of dicing, with Holtby going by JJ and then tucking in behind Mike Thurley as they both relegated Spavins. Blackman managed to re-pass Bentley, taking Simpson through with him, but out front, the first three of Haird, Thompson and Stimson were pretty safe throughout, Haird extending his lead to around a quarter of a lap by the finish.

Stuart Carter out dragged pole man Gavin Murray to head heat three, with Andy Steward swiftly into second this time. Murray was giving a good account of himself, but soon found he was being overwhelmed by his more experienced competition.

‘Doughnut’ kept up the chase every step of the way until his diff let go three laps from home, leaving Carter well clear and handing second to Andy Holtby. By that point Boardley was up to third, having managed to put the hard trying David Brooks behind him a little over two laps from the end.

The heats had in fact passed by fairly uneventfully, but the final was to be a different story.

Stimson made good an immediate getaway from pole, initially pursued by Marriott and Russell Wilcox. Wilcox went by Marriott going into the pit bend, taking Colin Gomm through in his wake. It was at this point that all hell broke loose on the home straight, where a coming together between Mike Thurley and Carter sent Carter’s car hard into the wall, the wreck bouncing back out to collect James Jamieson and Andy Holtby.

Holtby tried to press on, but with a broken wing and smoke pouring from the car, he too was forced to pull up, leaving three badly battered Tigras scattered around the circuit by the time the yellows came out. In fact, even after all this, the yellow wasn't actually for any of the cars involved in this rumpus, but for Neil Muddle, who'd spun to a stop in a dodgy place up by turns three/four. Carter was clearly keen to have a frank and honest exchange of views with Thurley where they were both parked on the infield, but marshals intervened to prevent any such discussion.

The resumption (conducted from a standing start for some odd reason) saw Gomm get the jump on Wilcox to snatch second. Stimson continued leading, while further back, Brooks found himself stuck on the outside and freightrained by Bentley, Boardley and Simpson. An attempt to cut back down to the inside sparked a collision with Thompson, which saw Brooks spin and Thompson delayed. Soon after that, Marriott too found himself facing the wrong way after a difference of opinion with Haird about who's piece of track was who's.

Stimson went on to complete his flag-to-flag victory, with Gomm and Wilcox completing a welcome and unusual top three. Unsurprisingly, the steward (Roy Eaton) was not impressed with some of the driving in this. Brooks took a two place penalty for cutting in on Thompson, and Thurley got loaded up and put on notice that further penalties were likely to follow for his part in the Carter/Holtby/Jamieson incident.

It was an unfortunate end to the day, which had generally been good, as Skegness usually is. Indeed, there were still a number of drivers of the opinion that we should go there more often. I certainly wouldn't mind, if only somebody could stick a rope on the place and tow it about sixty miles nearer London! Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 303,911,41,271,2,55,67,198,305,85,115,278,(291),3,6
Heat two: 115,170,271,61,(291),305,911,303,59,219,31,734,95,3,35
Heat three: 85,61,41,67,59,278,219,170,95,31,277,2,6,35
Final: 271,278,219,115,41,59,303,911,734,170,3,277,67(-2),6,35


2007 World Series (England) round 12 Northampton, 06/04/07
and 2007 World Series (England) round 13 Ipswich, 09/04/07

Same craic, different track

Graham Brown reports: The enforced shift of scene of Autospeed's annual Good Friday meeting from Ringwood to NIR did nothing to spoil its usual success. And for nobody was it more of a success than Phil Spinks, who's flying visit from Dubai paid dividends with a superb heat and final double.

A couple of bits of news on the entry front. Warren Farazmand at last made his National Hot Rod debut with an immaculately turned out Peugeot 205 and, whilst this may be an 'old' car in NHR terms, its presentation was a real credit to the sport.

Peter Blood's winter time revamp of his Corrado had it still yellow but now looking rather different and fetching with the addition of some chequers, while Winnie Holtmanns was back again for his by now annual Easter UK mini-tour. Sadly, car problems meant he didn't get to do all that much racing at either event this time around.

Things did not start well either, for triple world winner Colin White, who'd arrived late after transporter problems along the way, and then went spinning on bend one, lap one, heat one!

It was Simon Bentley who set the pace at the front and went quickly clear. But with Carl Boardley cutting through from mid-grid to catch Andy Steward and David Brooks, the trio were soon closing down the leader. Several side-by-side laps with Steward eventually saw Boardley through to second, the world champion taking over the lead two laps from home.

Heat two looked like providing a stiff test of nerve for Matt Simpson, who grabbed the lead on the first lap, but had to contend with Malcolm Blackman breathing down his neck every step of the way, and Boardley too in the closing stages. This would have been very interesting indeed if it had gone another five laps, but that still might not have upset Simpson's controlled victory.

The third outing was Spinks' first opportunity to really shine, his second row grid position quickly turning into the lead and a win, despite a car that appeared to have oodles of oversteer. There were a couple mechanical maladies on the loose here, with David Brooks forced to become a non-starter with a busted half shaft, and Chris Haird crawling away at flagfall into immediate retirement with a blown gearbox.

A row further back on the grid didn't look as though it was going to delay Spinks for long in the final, and so it turned out, with Ralph Sanders finally forced to turn over the front runner's spot at about mid-distance.

With plenty of oil finding its way onto the track in the closing stages, there were a number of incidents, one of which accounted for Boardley, who clipped the fence and spun when a damaged tyre suddenly deflated.

With a number of other spinners too, there were certainly chances for the leader and the loose looking Citroen to throw it all away. But Phil is far too experienced to fall for any of that these days and went on to take an accomplished victory over the hard trying Brooks and Mike Thurley. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 41,59,198,67,31,271,85,911,115,55,734,278,291,718,92,637
Heat two: 303,911,41,170,305,271,31,278,61,2,14,718,92,3,277,219,35
Heat three: 14,61,170,85,291,305,277,198,303,3,2,59,55(-2),637,629,35
Final: 14,67,291,734,61,911,31,718,3,303,305,219,271,55,170

Get Carter!

Graham Brown reports: It was a case of ‘Get Carter’ at the bank holiday Monday Ipswich, but the rest couldn’t, as Stuart Carter took the win in a hotly contested final. On an historical footnote, this was of course, the first official Deane Wood promoted meeting at Foxhall.

On the entry front for this one, we had two complete 'newbies', both at the wheel of beautifully turned out 206cc's. One was former Outlaw racer Richard Smith, who'd been forced to forsake his normal 28 number for a new one of 38. He spent the afternoon finding out about the differences between Avons and Hoosiers, but was soon looking quite at home round Foxhall.

Joining him was ex-Lightning Rod star Gavin Murray, son of long time racer Graham Murray. The 'Sole Bay Car Spares' logo is emblazoned down the side of the car in prismatic red writing which was quite blinding when caught by the sun. As the car itself is dark blue, it also made it look very similar to Reuben Taylor's at a quick glance, so it's probably just as well the transponders are keeping up with lap scoring and not just human eyes...

Farazmand and Holtmanns were in action again, Colin Smith was making one of his all-too-infrequent outings, with Terry Hunn also rejoining the fray. Someone who wasn't, for the first heat at least, was Simon Bentley, who'd broken a stub axle in practice.

Carl Boardley out dragged Chris Haird in heat one to set off in the lead, which looked to be the end of that, with the world champion going in front that early in the race. A three wide moment involving James Jamieson, Haird and a back marker gained Jamieson second at the expense of a black cross, the Scot spending the rest of the race inching up on the leader without ever managing to get in touch. He also got dropped two places in the result, a penalty which stood despite a later protest.

Heat two provided an easy flag to flag victory for Matt Simpson, who blasted away from the outside front row and proceeded to have a very lonely race the rest of the way. This race seemed to be punctuated by sick cars, with 'Doughnut' having to retire, Richard Spavins and Colin White following soon after.

The third race was a while getting going, after Colin Gomm had a problem (gearbox?) and spun during the warm ups, and White got a puncture. Even with that repaired, the 718 car was soon sounding rather less than healthy again when the race got going.

Then we were interrupted by a caution, thrown when Chris Haird went spinning along the back straight and banana-ed his axle on the wall.

Prior to this, Simon Bentley had been doing the leading after hasty repairs. However, Neil Stimson just had his nose in front when the yellows came, and went on to take a clear victory after the resumption.

The final was run at a frenetic pace throughout. Following something of a ragged start, Spavins took the lead and stayed out front until his diff blew up. That put White into the lead until he was passed by Andy Steward, only for Steward to retire as well when a drive shaft failed. They weren't the only ones experiencing car troubles either, with James Jamieson attempting to press on with a broken panhard rod, until the left rear tyre rubbed through its sidewall, sending him spinning.

White assumed the lead again after Steward's demise until a clash with the hard pressing Phil Spinks allowed Carter to zip past both of them to claim his first victory of the year.

Nearing the finish, a home straight collision saw Neil Muddle, Andy Holtby and Boardley all end up in an undignified heap on the pit bend. This meant the second final non-finish in a row for Carl, who was left punching the steering wheel in frustration. Opinions in the box (where Dave Longhurst was assisting with stewarding) seemed fairly divided about whose fault all of this was, but it was Holtby who ended up carrying the can with a disqualification. Graham Brown
Results
Heat one: 41,198,115,305(-2),14,491,85,39,291,219,55,95,637
Heat two: 303,67,61,85,31,41,911,170,3,734,491,277,637,38,271,49
Heat three: 271,911,59,291,170,14,55,734,305,31,39,219,277,278
Final: 85,303,14,911,271,718,291,59,170,278,31,491,277,55,95


2007 World Series (England) round 11 Hednesford, 18/03/07

Blackman in a winter wonderland

Graham Brown reports: After his ‘warm up’ at Birmingham a week previously, Malcolm Blackman came up with the goods for a heat and final double at Hednesford in a meeting blessed by blizzard conditions for much of the afternoon.

There were just a couple of points of interest among the entry for this one, both concerning unusual visitors. One was well known Scot John Sibbald, giving his shiny new provisional licence an airing for the first time. The other was Joey Butler who I believe was doing the meeting in the nature of a test for a newly fitted Ford Duratec motor.

I say ‘I believe’, because by the point where I had the time to have perhaps gone and checked, the weather had deteriorated to the exact level the forecasters had predicted it might. Well….they’re always crying ‘wolf’ when it comes to snow in Britain, so we’d really just dismissed out of hand the idea of any serious precipitation of that sort. That was, until we got to the track, and the first gentle wisps were already drifting around in the bitter north wind. Not nice at all, and it wasn’t long before both the snow and the wind got into a much higher gear…..

Actually, I don’t know why I was even slightly surprised – I’ve seen weather like that at Hednesford in May before now, never mind March. But, it didn’t last all that long that day!

One of the shorter lived blizzards greeted the field just as they were lining up for heat one, necessitating last minute tyre changes all round. Naturally by the time they were all done with that, the snow had virtually stopped again, hey-ho.

Reuben Taylor got away first to lead but they were only a few yards into lap two before wet weather specialist Matt Simpson went by. That was the last the rest saw of him, unless it was in the distance or when being lapped.

Taylor hung onto second for a while before ultimately losing out to Steve Thompson and Carl Boardley. The latter pair had previously been embroiled in a big fight over third thru eighth with Simon Bentley, Stuart Carter, Andy Holtby and Russell Wilcox. This dice provided much of the interest in this one, especially as the first three were well spread apart in a stalemate condition throughout the closing stages.

If Taylor was away fast in the first race, it was nothing compared to the pace set by Chris Haird in the second, the Duratec/Fiesta roaring off into a big lead over Dick Hillard and Thompson. Thompson swapped places with Hillard but Haird looked to be home and dry, until he came upon Taylor, Richard Spavins and Joey Butler having a moment on the East bend exit.

Haird wasted quite a bit of time and tyre smoke sorting it all out, by which time Thompson was through and away. Chris nonetheless spent the rest of the race staging a magnificent recovery and was only narrowly beaten by Thompson at the line.

Another downfall of heavy snow left the track soaking for heat three. In fact, most of this fell during the previous race, where the poor old Stock Rods got the brunt of it, and at about midway through that, with the sky so dark and a virtual white-out sweeping across Cannock Chase, I began to think abandoning the meeting was soon going to be the only option. Even putting the track lights on would probably only have made things worse, as they would have reflected off the snow flakes. But eventually, the weather god relented at least a bit. There still seemed to be rather a lot of white graded cars coming out for heat three however…

Actually, several people did ask me if I’d ever seen hot rods raced in a snow storm before, and I can actually only ever remember seeing it once previously. I knew was at Ipswich, around about 1978 and went and checked the archive for about the right period. It was actually the second programme I picked up, and there it was; the ‘World of Sport’ (so must have been televised) Winternationals on December 30^th 1978. My notes in the programme actually state, “Freezing cold, wet track for Winternational, final raced in a blizzard with settled snow on the track”. For the record, Mick Collard won that snowy final, but it was the drive of Micky Hall for fifth that sticks in my mind. He’d picked up a wooden block, about a foot in length, from somewhere (Christ only knows where) and got it jammed in his left front wheel arch so that whatever angle he had the steering turned at, the block stayed in position. It was cutting down the amount of opposite lock he had available – mighty inconvenient for racing on a snow covered track as you can imagine – making his fifth spot highly creditable.

When I told Neil Stimson (one of those who asked, had I ever seen, etc.) that I thought it was in 1978, he smiled and said, “That’s the year I was born.” Yeah, right, thanks for that!

Anyway, back to the plot and heat three. It was Malcolm Blackman’s turn to make a quick getaway this time, and he gradually left James Jamieson behind for the rest of the race.

The places fight was a lot closer, particularly in the dying seconds, when the dice between Andy Holtby, Andrew Burgess and Boardley came to the boil.

Holtby headed for the wide outside coming off the final turn and just managed to pip the other two to snatch fourth, while Burgess went spinning across the line in a desperate (and successful) attempt to stay ahead of the world champion. Even if he did crash heavily into the infield embankment in the aftermath, and fail to prevent Holtby getting through, it was still sterling and determined driving from Andrew, who has always looked something of a natural, particularly in the wet. Although Boardley went and apologised to Burgess for the incident afterwards, the video appeared to show nothing more than just a racing incident between two totally committed racers going for the line.

By final time the weather had shifted again to blinding sunshine, reflecting massively off the wet track – charming, and especially good fun trying to look towards the West bend from Race Control.

The race started out with Ken Marriott swiftly relieving Richard Spavins of the lead and then pulling away for a time. It was the battle to decide who was going to go after him where the interest lay. Colin White, Thompson, Blackman and Jamieson were all arguing the toss, with Boardley and Simpson not far behind.

Eventually though, it was Blackman who stamped his authority on the race, scything through to second before reeling the leader in. Boardley did his level best to stay with the red Peugeot in the early stages, but was clearly fighting a losing battle in that respect.

By the finish, Blackman was well ahead – to the tune of a quarter of a lap - and a clear winner at flag fall. Thompson, Jamieson and Boardley had all made their way past Marriott too by the finish, but Ken had nevertheless driven a race to be proud of. Graham Brown

Heat One: 303,170,41,61,718,271,59,85,305,278,277,49,219,629,55,151,35
Heat Two: 170,115,718,31,911,59,67,303,55,291,2,734,49,151,35,3
Heat Three: 911,305,198,61,277,41,271,2,85,31,115,3,67,219,734,629,151
Final: 911,170,305,41,2,303,718,85,61,115,198,59,271,3,67,55,291,629


2007 World Series (England) round 10 Birmingham, 10/03/07

Brooks and Brum

Graham Brown reports: David Brooks got the National Hot Rod World Series back underway in fine style when he steered his Vauxhall Tigra to a well taken maiden final victory at Birmingham.

Not a massive entry for this, indeed it was one which might almost have been called disappointing, given the number of new licences issued over the winter and that everybody should have been raring to go after a few months off.

Still, the track certainly never looked empty and I know from bitter personal experience, that one tends to think “Oh we’ve got plenty of time yet”, when completing a winter rebuild, only to find the start of the season arriving like a big surprise! According to some of the phone calls we received last week, this phenomenon didn’t die out in the 1970’s….

So: what of those who aren’t members of the Never Ready Racing Team? On the car front, probably the item of most interest to form book students had to be Malcolm Blackman’s 206cc. It is just the 206 revamped, but with Malcolm’s usual thoroughness, it looked like a completely new car, and fooled many into thinking that it was.

"We just fancied some new kit”, Malcolm explained.

“The chassis is nigh on the same, there's not much different really, although it is a few inches lower. The thing is, the 206 was built in 2003 and we've had a lot of rule changes since then, plus Carl (Boardley) had raised the level a bit. We have got a Tigra, but we thought we'd have a rebuild this winter rather than finishing the Tigra off.

"It feels really good, much better. We have done the engine as well though. We never had time to do much to it last year, when we were just chasing the rounds - now we've had time to sit back and do things properly."

Exactly what he meant by properly was to become evident as the evening went on.

Another car to have morphed into a cc was Mike Thurley’s, although his was barely complete in time to make the meeting, and somebody really needs to tell him that red sign writing on pale blue cars just doesn’t work.

The black paint now applied to Stuart Carter’s Tigra however is, in my opinion at least, a big improvement over the gold. The gold somehow suited it when Ian Thompson was the owner, and don’t ask me why it didn’t suit it for Carter, because I can’t tell you – it just didn’t, OK!

The other main item of interest was the fact that Chris Haird was in the team’s (now fully legal) Ford Duratec powered Fiesta. Although the car has, up to now, been something of a ‘mule’ – a test bed with no regular driver – the move was a planned one for Chris, who always intended using the Ford once his own cc was sold on and before his next new car was built.

Away from the cars and drivers, the biggest change for the whole formula was that this was to be the first meeting conducted with RACEceivers, the one-way radio transmitters which enable the steward (or other officials) to talk to the drivers during racing.

The system, which has proved its worth so conclusively both in the USA and in Legends here, made no huge difference to the racing on this particular evening. But for those of us lucky enough to be able to listen in on the transmissions, the potential was obvious. While some people were convinced that at least one potential shunt was avoided by the radio warnings the drivers received, I’m content to say that maybe that was coincidence. But one of these days I’m sure, it won’t be, and in the meantime, it makes sorting out grid line ups and ensuring observance of the blue flag that much easier.

The draw for heat one had placed Carl Boardley on pole, so it was he who eased off the line and into an immediate lead to get 2007's proceedings underway.

It certainly looked like a fairly predictable win was on the cards here, but Carl soon found himself being tracked by Brooks, who was looking pretty sharp right from the off. David's challenge faded a little in the closing stages when he came under pressure himself, from Andy Steward, but Brooks had done enough by then to prove he was well on the pace.

Boardley was never going to do anything but win once he’d left Brooks behind, but there was still some racing going on elsewhere. Matt Simpson looked decidedly out of sorts and seemed capable of losing places whenever challenged. Later on in the pits, Mick Sworder wandered over and Matt asked him how he was doing. “Won the first heat”, replies Mick. “How about you?”

Matt looks at the ground and thinks seriously for a second or two, “Total crap” his eventual response.

“Oh. Well done!”, says Sworder, with a false levity that even had Matt laughing on a night when he really didn’t have all that much to laugh about, yet somehow still managed to cling onto his fourth spot in the points.

Aside from Matt not doing awfully well, probably the other focal point of this race was Colin White, who I unforgivably forgot to mention earlier on in the bit about the entry. The three times world winner was giving Malcolm Clein’s reworked cc another Birmingham outing, but didn’t look to be enjoying it much more than the last time that happened. Certainly, he was being forced to drive in an uncharacteristically defensive fashion, and it was only by dint of that, that he managed to take a ninth placing.

One of those who’d gone by during the course of the race was Blackman, whose outside pass had made nonsense of any amount of defensive driving. Clearly, he was enjoying his reworked car.

But if heat one hadn’t been totally riveting, the second race was similarly uneventful as far as any dicing for the lead went, with Steve Thompson the beneficiary of pole and a relatively easy win this time.

The real interest in this race was the battle for fourth thru seventh, where Neil Stimson and Chris Haird were busy scrapping with Phil Spinks and Russell Wilcox. Despite all of them trying very hard indeed, the quartet finished still in that order after an entertaining battle.

Thompson was pursued initially by James Jamieson (in the older of his two Tigras) and Carter, but a coming together between the pair left JJ out of it, Carter also losing a lot of ground following the incident.

The third encounter was a far more interesting race. This time it was Simon Bentley doing the leading, having started on the outside front row, but soon having to face up to Blackman. Their fight eventually went Blackman's way after he executed a masterful outside pass a few laps from home. It took another superior outside pass – by Boardley this time – to wrest fifth away from White, while Haird too was looking quite at home around the outside as he also managed to relegate Bentley to claim second.

Richard Spavins had pole for the final and, perhaps surprisingly, managed to out-drag fellow front row starter White to lead.

White's car looked somewhat tail happy and he quickly lost second to Brooks who was clearly on a charge, as he overhauled Spavins as well, going down the back straight.

When Spavins and White collided a lap or so later, the leader was left on his own, well clear of a chasing Andy Steward. Steward was gradually reeling him in, but it never looked like it would be fast enough to alter the final outcome.

Further back, the interest centred on a lowly places duel between Boardley, Blackman and Thompson which raged until Carl slowed into retirement with a flat.

Early in the race, Brooks had picked up a black cross after a first lap incident had seen Ralph Sanders go spinning. It was Ralph’s spun car – pretty much hidden from view on the entry to turn three by Birmingham’s infield embankments – which saw the pack streaming past on a wide line which may (or may not) have been occasioned by the radio warning they’d received about the danger.

It certainly gave rise to the steward’s enquiry afterwards before the trophy presentation, with video being viewed to determine any part Brooks may have played in the incident. He was ultimately judged to have no case to answer. Graham Brown

Heat one: 41,67,198,911,2,14,85,170,718,303,271,59,291,734,49.
Heat two: 170,85,31,271,115,14,219,67,278,61,2,55,3,291,35
Heat three: 911,115,59,303,41,718,198,305,31,61,219,734,49,39,35
Final: 67,198,85,14,115,219,911,170,31,303,61,305,271,278,55,291,49,35


2007 World Series (England) round 9 Birmingham, 11/11/06

Haird adds another

Graham Brown reports: Chris Haird added to his season's tally of final victories at Birmingham's Wheels Raceway as the National Hot Rods brought down the curtain on this year's World Series races.

For a track the Nationals don't visit all that often, we've certainly had a range of weather types at Birmingham this year, all the way from bitter cold to an evening warm enough to still be wearing shorts at 10pm, to just, well, wet.

This particular evening looked like being very much a repeat of the previous Wheels outing a fortnight earlier, but in the end, turned out to be a good deal drier - for the most part - with just the odd spit of rain occasionally right up until final time.

The meeting certainly did have something of an 'end of term' feel about it. The entry wasn't short on numbers, but with little of news to excite NHR twitchers. However, Mike Oliver was back for another guest outing, Wilson Hamilton was having one of his less than truly frequent runs out as well. Terry Hunn and Neil Muddle were also back in the fold, while young Mr Haird's Peugeot was 'fresh' from its exploits both in the hands of Neville Stanley, and James May at the MPH '06 shows at the NEC and Earls Court.

May is sometimes known by his Top Gear colleagues as 'Captain Slow', and the cc still bore the giant word 'SLOW' on its doors instead of the more usual #115. I did suggest that maybe the team should perhaps have painted over or removed this particular 'sponsor' from the car before they came to Brum, but as things transpired, it turned out they were only joking after all...

The draw for heat one placed Carl Boardley on pole and duly provided the world champion with an easy victory. I have to say that this was easily the dullest race I've seen all year but, by contrast, as Carl was involved in the best race I've seen all year in the final at the previous Birmingham, I suppose you have to take the rough with the smooth.

The entertainment in this was mainly provided by Malcolm Blackman, who worked hard to come through from mid-grid to third.

The second heat was far more interesting. Outside front row starter Simon Bentley took the lead, but faced stiff opposition from David Brooks and Colin White. White lost out to 'team mate' James Jamieson before James spurred Brooks on to put more pressure on the leader. Brooks was rewarded with the lead exiting turn two and proceeded to keep Jamieson at bay until the Scot managed to out-fumble him around the back marking Muddle four laps from home. Later, Jamieson and Brooks were both equally aware that anticipation of where exactly Muddle was going to be when they came upon him, had been the difference between winning and not. Jamieson had the experience to get it just right, but I doubt it's a mistake Brooks will make much in the future!

Ralph Sanders was first to show in heat three, challenged from the outset by Andy Steward, whose combination of two slicks and two wet tyres - prompted by a sprinkle of rain - was clearly working well. As that particular mix of tyres isn't usually a great idea, Andy was surprised by the car's performance, later speculating, "Maybe it's something to do with all the tyre softener the F2's are dumping on the track!"

As good as the car was working, 'Doughnut' was still unable to complete the pass of Sanders (now back in his cc) quickly however, a massive eight car scrap for the lead building up as a result. But Steward was eventually able to make it by going down the back stretch and cleared off into the distance, pursued by Dick Hillard once he too had overhauled Sanders.

After that, Russell Wilcox and Boardley became the men to watch as they advanced up the places. Although very much the underdog, Wilcox claimed a highly satisfactory third spot and, what's more, was still ahead of Boardley at the finish.

The final turned into something of a messy affair. Things started badly, when a more serious rain shower slicked the track at just the wrong moment and played its part in an early incident when Stuart Carter, Brooks, Colin Gomm and Mike Thurley all came together on the home straight. This left Colin Gomm and Mike Thurley up the infield embankment and brought out the yellows.

Following a lengthy pause and the rain stopping, they set off again, although without Gomm, Thurley and Carter, the latter having first got disqualified for getting out of his car under yellows, and then loaded up for arguing with officials about it.

When the race finally resumed, White was leading Wilcox, although Haird soon found a way past Russell and into second. Chris had the leader under the cosh for a while too, but eventually White called on all his experience to draw clear and it wasn't too long before he looked to have the race all but won.

That was, until he tangled with the back marking Hillard and spun - twice - leaving Haird and Wilcox disputing the lead instead of second. Although Hillard was initially disqualified for this incident, after the steward had studied the video, this penalty was rescinded, as he appeared to have done nothing wrong beyond trying to unlap himself.

Wilcox was looking something of a revelation here (as indeed, he has been for the past few meetings) and was in with a real shout at winning too - until the last lap.

It may have been that White was trying to obstruct Hillard as they left the pit bend, both men now a couple of laps down, but however it came about, their presence right in front of the leaders and with Muddle's VW in the mix as well, a real scramble ensued going down the back straight. This allowed the fast closing Matt Simpson steal second away from Wilcox almost in sight of the flag, although Haird kept his head and the lead throughout the difficult last few seconds.

As for Russell Wilcox, I did enquire whether he still thought now was a good time to sell his venerable Fiesta, just when he seems to have it going so well. His reply? "Oh yes. Because now I'd like to see what I could do if I was in Boardley or Jamieson's car!"

Fair point, well made. Graham Brown.

Results as seen trackside and not confirmed, by Marlene Clarke
Heat 1: 41 170 911 278 85 31 305 55 67 291
Heat 2: 305 67 59 303 911 115 61 718 55 170
Heat 3: 198 31 219 41 115 303 85 278 734 291
Final: 115 303 219 61 67 911 305 41 170 55
Driver 85 ‘loaded-up’.


2007 World Series (England) round 8 Birmingham, 21/10/06

Boardley's Wheels thriller

Graham Brown reports: Carl Boardley brightened up a damp and chilly night at Birmingham Wheels by taking a superb final win after a sterling round-the-outside drive to pass the battling Corrados of Colin White and Matt Simpson.

There were relatively few points of interest regarding the entry at this one for students of National Hot Rod racing's constantly evolving roster of runners and riders. Actually, the entry wasn't all that much to write home about generally, definitely not helped by having the highly attractive fixture of the Superstox World Final and BriSCA F1 British going on at Ipswich. Indeed, Andy Steward actually cancelled Birmingham in order to spectate at Foxhall. We know there were plenty of others tempted to do likewise, and the number of regular officials and staff missing from Birmingham told its own story. Who plans these fixtures anyway?

Anyway, Matt Simpson was back out for this one, even if conducting a rather lower key operation than usual, having arrived with car behind an ageing Transit van, and no bus in sight. None of this appeared to harm his results however...

Dick Hillard had his 206 all ship-shape and Bristol fashion after its Tipperary misfortunes, while Phil Spinks was also back in the hunt after his excursion to Germany. Wilson Hamilton was a last minute arrival (I can't even say 'entry', as he never booked in) and Colin White was back on the world qualifying trail after giving Northampton a miss in favour of SCSA at Rockingham. Reuben Taylor was another who'd made it back out, no doubt after using up plentiful supplies of midnight oil fixing up the mess he took home from Hednesford. But perhaps the most notable 'unusual' entry, was Mike Oliver. Being officially a Republic of Ireland racer, he was forced to go off the back of the grid all night, but clearly just fancied a run out after his impressive showings at the European.

Although it was no longer actually raining by the start of the first heat, the track was still wet and grip was clearly going to be at a premium all night. Indeed, The Wheels is one of those tracks which never really dries while there's even the remotest chance of it staying wet, if you see what I mean!

This was quickly illustrated by Chris Haird and Taylor getting together exiting the far turn, Haird spinning and getting collected by Malcolm Blackman to cause a stoppage. Prior to this kerfuffle, Boardley had gone around the outside like a bullet to snatch the lead but was naturally faced with having to do it all over again following the complete restart.

Carl might well be a fan of the catch phrase "Do I look bothered (etc.)", and wasted no time repeating the exercise, front row men Spinks and Richard Spavins seemingly having no answer to the 41 car's pace and grip. He was using the extra wide outside line favoured by many in these conditions, with Spavins taking up second by the same method.

It might just have been the quickest route round the oval in the first couple of laps, but Andy Holtby soon got busy proving that it actually wasn't. With the others leaving yards of inside line open for him, Andy cheerfully accepted all their places as he swiftly moved up the order. Boardley's use of the wide outside for rather too long allowed Andy to close right up once through to second, but the world champion still never really allowed him to get within striking distance.

Indeed, Andy found himself under threat in the closing stages once James Jamieson had his favoured line sorted out, JJ having left behind an entertaining scrap between Malcolm Blackman and Haird.

They'd spread out a bit by the finish, with Boardley still well clear of Holtby and Jamieson, and the Scot half a lap up on Blackman and Haird.

Heat two was subject to a false start (no green came out when everyone was expecting it), and then to a restart after David Brooks went spinning exiting turn four.

Simon Bentley took an initial lead when they got going properly, while Brooks went spinning again, although it looked as though he might have had a little assistance that time. Bentley was soon to be put on the back foot, as first Simpson and then Holtby and Boardley went by.

Some way back from these, Haird, Andrew Burgess and Stuart Carter tried a run down the back stretch three wide, but three into two really doesn't usually go at Birmingham, and it was Burgess who went spinning at the far turn when they emerged from this clinch.

With Simpson and Holtby engaged in fighting for the lead, Boardley was rapidly closing on them too. When the lead pair encountered a trio of backmarkers, it was all the chance Boardley needed to join in. One of the lapped cars was Burgess, busy trying to recover from his earlier problem. As Boardley went for an outside pass on Holtby, it looked as though there just wasn't anywhere for him to go, with Burgess' car blocking the way - but Carl got through anyway! This three wide situation didn't end in tears, but it didn't get Boardley second either, as Holtby fought back with a vengeance.

With four to go, Boardley finally made it past to set about Simpson. Matt has already proved he positively loves the slippery stuff, and doesn't mind racing Carl in those conditions either (remember Ipswich?), so he was able to calmly hang on at the front till the chequers, with Boardley and Holtby welded to his bumper in a very close finish indeed. I somehow doubted we were ever going to see a better race than that on this particular evening - but I was wrong.

The rain came pouring down just at the start of heat three, although fortunately, very few drivers appeared to have been lulled into thinking slicks (certainly not four anyway) were a good idea yet. Given the speed demonstrated since its debut, Jamieson's Tigra always looked the likely winner of this one from the outside front row.

On top of that, the soaking track appeared to suit James just fine, the Scot leading from flag to flag and lapping everybody up to third. While James was enjoying being completely dominant, the real feature of this one was the race-long fight for second between White and Simpson. Colin had been running second all the way, having started from pole but been seriously outpaced by Jamieson. He wasn't being outrun by anyone else though, and it took a while for Simpson to catch up, having started on row three.

Once he did catch up though, it was almost like being back in year 2000 all over again; 718 White versus 303 Simpson, with the 718 Corrado generally just that little bit in front. Matt has had a good grounding in not giving up therefore, and he didn't, trying several failed passes around backmarkers when the pair came up on them. It wasn't until the very last lap that Simpson finally saw the opportunity he'd been working for, boxing Colin in behind a lapped car and sprinting down the outside, leaving the triple world champion no way out of the trap.

With Jamieson three quarters of a circuit clear of all this, these first three were the only cars on the lead lap by the finish, and even then, Simpson and White were another half lap up fourth man Colin Gomm.

Several eagle eyed observers had spotted Steve Thompson sending Ken Marriott spinning a few laps prior to the finish, Steve copping a black cross and subsequent disqualification for the incident.

The oval had just about achieved an upgrade back to 'greasy' for the final, although this did not prevent further early problems.

All sorts of shenanigans kicked off on the back straight before they'd even really got going, with Bentley spinning on the pit bend, seemingly sparking off a chain of events that saw Mike Thurley and Tony Goodsir rotate as well. With most of the rest of the pack going every which way, red flags were the only way to go. As the cars lined up for the restart, Boardley had a front end which looked distinctly cronked (the rear wasn't a great deal better) and it was fortunate for him that the rad is set well back in the car.

With the race under way more permanently, White went immediately clear from pole, tracked by Ken Marriott, Richard Spavins and Russell Wilcox. But all eyes were once again on Boardley and Simpson, who were carving through the traffic in fine style.

Boardley was threading his way past everything he came across, almost as though he was carrying a magic charm, and had managed to pass Simpson early on. But Matt was soon busy fighting back, and somehow managed to out fumble Carl when they encountered traffic.

Leaving Boardley to find a way past Marriott - who was definitely going much better than of late, despite his earlier problem - Simpson went off after White, assisted by the fact that the leader had been struggling with the traffic too. Very soon, only four back markers separated him from Simpson and with the back markers remaining largely underfoot, it became White versus Simpson again, but for the lead this time. With Boardley now charging back up to them as he won back his lost ground, things were definitely shaping up for a grandstand finish.

As the lead dice continued to rage, it was clear Carl was going to catch them too, and with five to go it suddenly became a three way lead fight. Boardley went straight for the outside pass, taking Simpson down the back straight. Two laps later and White got the same treatment, the world champion going on to record a victory which simply had class written all over it. Graham Brown.

Heat 1: 41 61 305 911 115 14 2 219 278 85
Heat 2: 303 41 61 59 219 115 14 291 170 85
Heat 3: 305 303 718 278 277 911 31 2 92 3
Final: 41 718 303 170 305 219 14 61 115 911
Results as seen trackside and not confirmed, by Lisa Dedman


2007 World Series (England) round 7 Northampton, 08/10/06

No mistake for Steward this time

Graham Brown reports: After losing the final win at Ipswich to a retrospective penalty, Andy Steward shrugged all that off to put together another heat and final double, this time at Northampton and with not a penalty in sight - or even on the horizon!

Probably the biggest point of interest about the entry for this one, was the lack of it. Well, not initially, but that was ultimately the way things turned out. With Phil Spinks away working abroad (now, I've told you about that before Phil - grid position 13 again then next year...), he was never coming to start with. Marc Rolls was forced to cancel on doctor's orders, as he still has chest problems following on from his Hedno shunt. Richard Spavins had been planning on having his newbie out, but it wasn't ready.

Mind you, they did at least cancel. Billy Bonnar, Hughie Weaver and Terry Hunn just didn't show up (well, Terry did, but minus car), and with Carl Boardley having a baby (yes, yes, you know what I mean) and having to cancel too, things weren't looking so good. Andrew Burgess being unfortunate enough to comprehensively blow another motor to bits in practice didn't help either. Needless to say, all of this left more holes than a colander in the grids and, it has to be said, drivers who no-show without telling anybody first don't help the organisation of a meeting one bit.

That said, last minute or even very late bookings can cause similar problems, although these are naturally rather more welcome! Wilson Hamilton was one such, and Neil Muddle - back with his trusty Corrado for a further shot at Nationals after a lengthy break - was another.

Still: all of this did give everybody more room to manoeuvre, and it was probably no coincidence that incidents and damage were at a total minimum.

This was also the day, that discussions with Des Chandler led to his offering to bring some Race Ceivers along for a test session. Des was the man responsible for the introduction of these handy little devices into UK racing via the Legends, the formula he races in himself these days.

I remember Des from his time as a BriSCA F1 driver, but had never actually met or spoken to him prior to our recent discussions about the possibility of using these radio links in Nationals. I have to say that he couldn't have been more helpful, trekking down from Leicester at his own expense, and obtaining a couple of extra units from other Legends drivers, in order that we could test them for ourselves. You might recall (if you have a very long memory), that Des was the guy who built an F1 stocker in his back garden and then found, when the time came to go racing, that it wouldn't fit down his alleyway! He got a local crane hire company to lift it over his house, creating so much publicity that the company ended up sponsoring him!

Sorry, wandered off on one there.

Anyway, four drivers were picked at random to give the system a try, both during practice and racing, with Matt Simpson, Mike Thurley, Colin Gomm and Dick Hillard the recipients. Stuart Carter took over Matt's radio after Matt left the meeting early. Steward Paul Gerrard was the man on the transmitting end of the deal - as he always is for the Legends - and was careful to ensure that nothing he told any of them could constitute an advantage of any sort. I know this to be true, as I was listening to him as well, via a scanner Des had thoughtfully provided.

OK: enough background already. James Jamieson stepped off the line to lead the first heat away and on recent form, looked the likely winner from the drop of the green. But the Tigra was clearly not going like it usually does, James struggling with a new tyre which had badly deformed, making the car handle very unpredictably.

Simon Bentley was the man who moved up to take advantage of that situation by assuming the lead, while Jamieson's wayward handling got him into bother with David Brooks. Brooks had got by, only to have JJ run into him and re-pass. Although this episode had gone un-noticed by the box, James approached officials himself to apologise for clouting Brooks and displaying the weirdly shaped tyre to account for it, Hoosier themselves having already agreed that something very odd had happened to the now thru'penny-bit shaped tyre. The steward eventually just reversed their finishing positions, with no further penalty attached.

Elsewhere, Simpson and Chris Haird had a bit of a contretemps, which saw Matt go spinning and Chris trying to continue with a cracked half shaft, which finally gave out altogether, leaving the cc with a detached left rear wheel and significant other damage. It was to be the start of a pretty awful afternoon for both of them.

Colin Gomm got the best start to heat two from the front row outside, but pole man Mike Thurley wrested back the advantage going through turn one and wasn't to be headed again. Malcolm Blackman worked his way up third and then second once he'd overhauled Gomm, but despite chasing Thurley the rest of the way, he was never able to make any impression on the leader. Muddle's reappearance on the scene came to something of an ignominious end, as he got black flagged for running with a door hanging off.

Meanwhile Simpson was obviously struggling with a car which simply wasn't having it in the handling dept. This eventually led to him sliding about in front of somebody once too often, Bentley sending him spinning along the back straight. After this, and with things clearly far from right under the 303 Corrado, Matt called it a day and headed for home.

Heat three saw Andy Holtby make the early break, although he was soon pursued by Steward. The pair conducted an entertaining dice for a while until 'Doughnut' found a way down the inside going into turn one. Holtby stayed with him for a bit, but Steward had made the win quite safe by flag fall. An even closer scrap for third between Steve Thompson and Blackman, saw the former world champion just snatch the place in a virtual dead heat, Blackman looking much more like his old self, as indeed he did all afternoon.

It was one of the lightest grids of the season for the final, just 19 cars coming under starter's orders, but as we said earlier, at least it gave everyone a bit of elbow room.

Brooks, having easily his best day since joining the Nationals (maybe the go faster stripes which have appeared on the previously all-white car had something to do with it!) made a clean getaway from pole to lead all the early laps, initially chased by Ralph Sanders and Russell Wilcox. But Steward was clearly moving in the right direction again in this one, as was Blackman, albeit somewhat further back.

Steward was through to second spot before too long, catching and passing Brooks with a clean-as-you-like outside swoop. To his credit, Brooks stayed very much in touch the rest of the way and even once the hard working Blackman was up to third, he never looked like catching the second man.

Bentley had a spin along the way and lost lots of ground and places, while Holtby struggled for much of the race with a sick motor that sounded like maybe it wasn't getting all the fuel it would have liked. On the other hand, Ralph Sanders and Russell Wilcox rounded off fairly good days for themselves by getting home fourth and fifth respectively.

On a final historical note, Stuart Carter - having taken over the Simpson Race Ceiver for the final - became the first Nationals driver ever to be directly informed by the steward that he'd been black crossed, during his dice with Colin Gomm. Stuart was somewhat put out by this, not because he got a penalty (the cross was not acted upon) but because he was using one of the less clear, non-standard headphone sets, and therefore hadn't actually heard it! Oh well - best laid plans, and all that.

And now, all roads lead to Tipperary! Graham Brown.

Heat 1: 59 305 67 61 291 219 31 55 904 103
Heat 2: 291 911 278 734 170 198 59 85 92
Heat 3: 198 61 911 170 67 219 305 2 55 278
Final: 198 67 911 734 219 291 31 305 170 85
Results as seen trackside and not confirmed. With thanks to John Perry


2007 World Series (England) round 6 Ipswich, 23/09/06

Steward back on track

Graham Brown reports: Andy Steward went some small way to expunging the bitter memories of this year's world final, and made significant progress toward being on the grid for 2007, by returning to Foxhall and leaving with a heat and final double under his belt.

Just a few relatively small points of interest regarding the entry for this one. Ralph Sanders was back in his 206, the cc presumably still hospitalised after its Hednesford battering. Colin White had discovered a worn out and incorrectly mounted fuel pump - to say nothing of fuel tank - on 'his' Corrado, which hopefully would see that run a little more reliably. Oh, and just while we're on the subject of sorting out recurring mechanical problems, Carl Boardley had a completely new gearbox in the Tigra!

Steward Chris Studd had clearly heard all about the shenanigans at the previous meeting, and held a drivers meeting prior to the start of racing. It did seem to have some effect on the driving standards, although he might well still have ended the evening writing 'could do better' on his steward's report form....

It was Andy Steward who adopted an easy and immediate lead in the first heat of the night too, albeit the race didn't get very far before a red flag following a far turn fracas. Alan White, David Brooks and Mike Thurley were all involved, with video evidence later leading to White's disqualification for causing it all by cutting down on Brooks.

The stoppage made no difference to Andy, who led again at the restart. But the memorable feature of the race was a tense (certainly for the watchers!) world final replay over the closing stages when Carl Boardley had passed Steve Thompson and Chris Haird and caught up with Steward. On this occasion, Andy left stacks of room up the outside, Carl tried repeatedly to get any further than just partly alongside, and through it all Steward stayed in front till the flag. Hmmm.

Along the way, White had got blue flagged, blue and white flagged and eventually, black crossed and dropped a couple of places for ignoring it. Couldn't have seen that happening a few years ago. Mind you, Colin was going to be in some good company by the end of the night.

Front row starters Sanders and Stu Carter got into a first bend, first lap clinch at the start of heat two, allowing Billy Bonnar to grab the early lead by nipping past both of them. Billy didn't have long to enjoy being out front, as he was overtaken by Phil Spinks fairly soon. A brief caution for a spun and stranded Sanders had no effect on Spinks' lead, but a comprehensively blown engine did!

It was one of the "best" sounding blow ups I've heard in a long time. One moment zinging down the home straight building a bigger lead with every lap, next moment "Fatoom!" and silence. It was like a dragster that ends up coasting the rest of the quarter mile, Phil having the presence of mind to pull straight to the infield, streaming smoke and steam from the crippled Clio. Somehow he made the grass without apparently laying a drop of oil - probably the sudden explosion had put the oil pump out of action pretty swiftly too.

Anyway, that left Bonnar and Malcolm Blackman duelling for the lead until Blackman got through with Stuart Carter in tow. Carter was clearly enjoying his new ride and had the former world champion severely under the cosh, though without making it past.

Bonnar never made it to the finish, after a clash with Neil Stimson left him in the wall. Both drivers were interviewed by the steward, with further video evidence yet to be viewed of this incident.

Heat three turned out to be a flag to flag job for Colin Gomm, although he didn't quite have it all his own way with Neil Stimson and Andy Holtby hassling him in the dying laps. Really though, the man to watch in this one was Boardley, who was on a mission right from the drop of the green, as he raced around Simon Bentley and proceeded to pick off everything he came across, including Jamieson's Tigra, which wasn't exactly hanging about in any case. Fifth was as far as Boardley got, but he certainly hadn't been dull to watch.

A crash in the warm up laps is fairly unusual even for National Hot Rods, but they managed it for the final, four cars (Brooks, Andy Burgess, Bonnar and Tony Goodsir) coming together on the pit bend which left Burgess a non-starter. I think maybe the last time a similar thing happened was at Newton Abbot and involved Dick Hillard, although I believe he was on the way to line up rather than doing pace laps. My memory may not be that reliable in this instance, so if anybody else has other suggestions, answers on a postcard please. And before anybody says it, yes, I do remember Martin Freestone putting a car upside down on his way to the grid once! But that was a very long time ago....

The first half of the race was all about Gomm and Stimson battling over the lead, with Stimson trying repeated outside passes without ever being able to make one stick. This dice allowed Steward and Hillard to catch up, with Steward emerging from the ensuing scramble with the lead.

After that, he swiftly pulled out a half lap lead, leaving Gomm defending second spot vigorously against a whole mob of others, who eventually made their way past with Holtby, Carter and Boardley in the vanguard. Blackman got home fifth, but was another to suffer the indignity of a blue and white flagging along the way. Graham Brown.

Heat 1: 198 41 115 170 305 303 14 291 734 718
Heat 2: 911 85 59 31 303 61 198 271 170 278
Heat 3: 278 271 61 491 41 67 31 115 305 59
Final: 198 61 85 41 911 31 271 291 303 305
Results as seen trackside and not confirmed, by Garry Staines


2007 World Series (England) round 5 Hednesford 17/09
Thurley tops in Hednesford fitness test

Graham Brown reports: Mike Thurley took the spoils at Hednesford Hills from a final where survival was as important as outright speed, the race requiring three restarts and eliminating around half the starters in the process. As this was Mike's second final in a row at the Hills, I think we have to say that he is becoming a bit of an expert at both going quickly and staying out of trouble.

Points of interest amongst the entry? Well, for a start, it should have included Barry Lee, but he ended up being a no show for whatever reason. However, we did have a couple of new (well, nearly new in one case) Tigra's to examine. James Jamieson's beautifully turned out car absolutely looked the part - and went like it too. James' opinion during testing, was that it wasn't actually any better than the Corrado - until he took the VW out to try a back to back run.

"It felt heavy and awkward to drive all of a sudden! The Tigra seems so light and goes where you want it. And, the brakes suddenly don't seem to work in the Corrado either!"

The other Tigra on display was Stuart Carter's ex-Ian Thompson goldie car, not yet sporting the superbly executed and somewhat sinister looking black and red paint job of the team's 206. But as Stuart pointed out, having only had it a couple of days, they were lucky to have got his name, number and a few other bits added to it.

Just one other thing before we get to the racing proper, for those with an interest in the technical side of racing. Carl Boardley blew up another gearbox in practice, the car rapidly stopping out on the circuit. The team were busy pushing it back through the pits when I walked past and raised an eyebrow at them. "Number five!" called Richard Boardley ruefully, without pausing from shoving the Tigra along. I make that number five in not much more than a fortnight actually, the team producing an impressive collection of semi-bald 2nd gears when I went along for a nose later. Very depressing. Even more depressing, there doesn't even appear to be any obvious good technical reason for the failures - ask Richard!

OK, all of you who don't care how a car works can stop glazing over now.

A first heat, first bend fracas involving Steve Thompson, Hughie Weaver and Peter Blood left Blood stranded atop the East bend and caused a complete restart.

When they did get underway, it was Ralph Sanders who did the leading initially until Simon Bentley, Thompson, Mike Thurley and Carl Boardley all got by. Bentley pulled out a small advantage on the others and held it to the finish.

Terry Hunn had an eventful race, picking up a black cross at one point, and later having to pull up with bodywork stuffed up on his tyres. Sanders eventually spun to a stop in a bad spot right on the East bend exit, although fortunately, far enough to the inside that the others were able to avoid him without a stoppage.

Matt Simpson got away smartly at the start of the second heat, which was more than could be said for Andy Burgess, who failed to move at the green and was lucky not to get shunted by somebody.

Smartly away or not, Simpson was soon under real pressure from Neil Stimson, who slipped into the lead and drew clear. Matt remained safe in second, with most of the action centering on the dice for third between Andy Holtby, Malcolm Blackman and Boardley. They eventually finished still in that order, while Stimson was lucky to hold on to the win with smoke pouring from his car, caused by a fouled tyre.

Along the way, David Brooks and Richard Spavins got together leaving the East bend, the Focus ending up parked in an undignified nose up position against the winners ramp. This incident later led to Brooks' disqualification.

Meanwhile, Colin White suffered yet another bout of his hard-to-pinpoint engine sickness with the Corrado.

A fine drizzle was coming down by the start of heat three, fortunately just not enough to make the track really slippery.

It was sufficiently slippery to suit Colin Gomm though, who led for a while until James Jamieson worked his way to the front. But before Jamie got through to the lead, there'd been an interesting dice between himself and Colin White, perhaps giving James a real chance to compare the Corrado's pace with that of his new steed under race conditions. Colin was using the wide outside "ideal in the wet" line, while James stuck to the inside. It wasn't really wet enough for that high side driving to succeed for long and, after swapping places repeatedly, it was the Tigra and Jamieson which won out. And in any case, Colin's car was sounding all fluffy and warbly again before too long.

Jamieson went on to give his new Tigra a debut victory, unhindered by a brief caution thrown for Stuart Carter, whose ex-Ian Thompson Tigra had quit on the East bend exit. Gomm held onto second, well clear of a scrap for third involving Dick Hillard, Chris Haird and Andy Steward. Dick never allowed either of the other two by, but they had a rare old time racing him and each other, finally resolved with Steward in fourth and Chris docked a couple of places for punting Steward out wide at one point. To his credit, Andy was soon up the 'box to say that he'd gone wide by simply making a mess of his braking, and that Chris had nothing to do with it, thus getting the penalty rescinded.

The final very soon looked like a try out for Formula Restart. Firstly, Reuben Taylor slammed into the wall very hard indeed and trashed his chassis - and that was before Rob Hadfield collected him at full chat. Later viewing of video evidence laid the blame for Taylor's demise at Sanders' door, getting him a retrospective disqualification.

The next attempt ended after Richard Spavins and Carter got together with each other and the wall exiting the West bend. Third time wasn't lucky either, with Sanders spinning to a halt in mid-track and getting clobbered by Blackman and others.

When they did finally get going properly, Colin White looked set fair to win, leading away from the front of the grid, as he had every other time. But the VW was eventually to succumb to another bout of its recurring motor troubles. Nevertheless, he didn't go down without a fight....

Steward was another who went out with a sick sounding motor soon after that final restart, with Blackman sidelined as well not long afterwards. He'd survived crashing into Sanders, more or less, but some debris had chopped through his oil pump drive belt, which suddenly lost him all the pressure - and very nearly the motor too - a lap later. Funny, I'd only been saying earlier in the day how vulnerable those oil pump drives look, all exposed as they usually are.

So, even with the occasional bouts of fluffing up, White continued to hang onto the lead, despite repeated challenges from Thurley and Thompson, with Boardley rushing to join in too once he'd overhauled Bentley around the outside.

Thurley and Thompson continued to squabble over who should be second - or even first - until finally White's car went down onto what sounded like maybe two of the available cylinders. Even Colin couldn't do much with that, and the others hared past, Thurley having been in second at the time and thus taking over the lead.

Thompson had other things to worry about in any case, with Boardley now itching to get by. And with Steve having to pay attention to that, Thurley was able to make good his escape to record a fairly well deserved win. Graham Brown.

H1: 59 170 291 41 210 198 61 303 305 3
H2: 271 303 61 911 41 115 85 141 59 904
H3: 305 278 31 198 115 170 67 219 291 844
Final: 291 170 41 59 303 115 305 718 67
Results as seen trackside and not confirmed, by Marlene Clarke

2007 World Series (England) round 4 Hednesford 28/08

Thurley’s thriller at Hednesford

Graham Brown reports: Mike Thurley fended off a stiff challenge from Carl Boardley to take the honours at Hednesford on Bank Holiday Monday after the pair fought out a classic battle over the closing laps of the final.

There were a few ‘parish notices’, (with apologies to Jim Gregory) concerning the entry for this one, perhaps the most notable being the return to the formula of former world champion John Steward, JS taking a turn behind the wheel of the experimental Team Haird Fiesta. Of course, he was also back at the scene of all those National championship triumphs of a few years ago. John spent most of the day grumbling about the cars unpredictable brakes and a tendency to push that he couldn’t get rid of – or in other words, seemed perfectly happy to be back in the thick of things!

David Brooks arrived with a new and very white Ludlow Tigra, although it has to be said, the car did not remain in that virginal condition for long! Also toting new (to him) machinery, was Marc Rolls, now the proud owner of the ex-Mick Robertson Colt. And best of all, for fans of the popular Scots trier, Billy Bonnar was back out again, 'scotching' recent rumours of retirement.

Carl Boardley, on the other hand, arrived fresh from his match race encounter with Frankie Wainman Jnr. at Wimbledon the night before. I had always figured that Carl was going to be up against it here, as it just has to be a lot easier to jump out of an F1 stock car and into a National, than the other way around. And, although neither driver fitted their ‘new’ cars at all well, Carl definitely had more of a problem in that respect than Frankie.

It hadn’t occurred to me before, but there is a considerable difference in height between the two, and especially when it comes to length of leg! I watched Carl get into FWJ’s car to try it for size, and it did look at first, as though he wouldn’t be able to drive it at all. His legs were bowed severely outwards, and he had to physically lift his accelerator foot up and place it on the brake at the end of each straight. On top of that, his helmet was permanently touching the roof. Frankie, on the other hand, had a heck of a stretch to reach the pedals in the # 41.

What’s more, this was the first meeting at Wimbledon for some time, and when the pair went on track for the first time, only one race had been run, and you could clearly see the dust rising as they rounded the corners.

The second time they went out was many races later, and by that stage, there was a lot of rubber on the track. Frankie drove a very strange line (as you might expect) in the National, on a trajectory which seemed to be taking him towards the fence in a rather dangerous manner – but this was the style which enabled him to out-run Carl’s time in his own car! I guess FWJ was seeking out what he perceived to be the stickier parts of the track.

Yeah well, I’ve made all Carl’s excuses for him! But he was completely unfazed by Frankie’s performance, and laughingly commented, “I’m not surprised he went faster than me with the track as it is now – what you should be surprised at, is how fast I went in his car!”

Nevertheless, we all know Frankie is a real driver’s driver and you’ve got to give him credit for driving the Tigra that quickly – with less than ideal cockpit conditions for him too, remember. So, if you ever fancy a change of scenery Frank….

Right: back to the plot.

Dick Hillard had been struggling with a nasty misfire in practice, which unfortunately persisted into heat one, so he didn’t last very long in that.

It was Reuben Taylor who set the early pace until he was overhauled by James Jamieson, while an incident involving Brooks, Matt Simpson and Alan White on the East bend exit led to a big shake up in the places behind. This brought Colin White up to second and he was closing on the leader for a time, until he came under loads of pressure from Malcolm Blackman. After that, Jamieson got away again for a clear win.

Chris Haird gained permission to give the experimental Duratec powered Fiesta a run off the back of heat two, a race he was not slated to take part in. This was actually the first time he'd been able to try the car in any sort of anger on a short oval.

Steve Thompson made a quick getaway at the start, zipping past Dick Hillard (whose car sounded more like its usual self now) and into the lead. But Carl Boardley had made an even more demon start and rocketed past Thompson at the end of lap two. As Thompson is no slouch at Hednesford himself, this said something about Boardley’s pace, the world champion going on to win by a comfortable margin.

Nearing the finish, Peter Blood took a spin on the East bend and got stuck on the inside line, giving all those coming up on the obstruction, a few problems to negotiate. Perhaps the most significant place changes as a result of this, was when Hillard, who'd previously been holding down a reasonably secure third spot, went wide and lost out to the chasing trio of Simon Bentley, Phil Spinks and Simpson.

A shower had left the track in a semi damp state for the third heat, but this certainly didn’t bother Chris Haird (back in his usual car now), who went off like a shot from the outside front row and pulled clear of the rest very fast indeed. He lost it all when a caution was thrown for a West bend crash involving Rolls and Richard Spavins, but second man Neil Stimson was still unable to hang onto the leader for long at the restart either.

The 30 car final always looked like being a lively affair, and so it proved, with more fun and games guaranteed by occasional rain showers during the race.

Spavins' Focus had looked well and truly out of it when it was dragged off after that heat three shunt. The left front wheel was almost under the bulkhead, so he and his crew did very well to get it out for the final, sporting only the bare minimum of tape too! Not only that, but he got off into a useful lead, chased initially by Curly Baines and later, Andy Steward.

They were all interrupted in their pursuit of the win however, by a multi car crash that brought out the yellows. There'd already been a more minor coming together between Brooks, White and Colin Gomm, but this second wreck was of a whole different order. Somehow, Ralph Sanders had got into the wall coming off turn four, and ended up in mid-track. No amount of waved yellows were about to halt the cavalry charge behind him and they all piled in, with Rob Hadfield, Stimson, Baines, Bonnar, Hughie Weaver, Hillard and Taylor all involved to some extent or other.

Spavins was still holding point for the restart with Steward looking very good in second after the restart as the rain started to come down again.

Andy took the lead and appeared to have it all sewn up until his sudden retirement with a seized motor. That left Spavins back in charge but now under the cosh from Thurley and Boardley, both of whom got by going through the West bend to start their long dice to the finish.

Carl tried everything to get up the outside without ever quite succeeding in getting in front, the race coming to a messy finish when Spavins’ long suffering car spewed oil on the track. This caused all sorts of incident all round the track and an early red flag, with the results taken from the last completed lap, a fortunate situation for several drivers who would have been out of the results otherwise. Graham Brown

Heat 1: 305 718 911 198 14 41 170 115 85 92
Heat 2: 41 170 59 14 303 31 278 271 911 61
Heat 3: 115 271 61 844 85 67 734 718 59 305
Final: 291 41 115 61 170 718 303 2 67 55
Results as seen trackside and not confirmed, by Marlene Clarke


2007 World Series (England) round 3 Ipswich 12/08

Boardley tops at damp Ipswich

Graham Brown reports: Carl Boardley took the honours at Ipswich from a rain-swept final and after a race long battle with Matt Simpson. Simpson managed to get in front at one point, but the world champion was back ahead by flag fall.

Not too much news on the entry front regarding new cars and/or drivers, although the rumoured appearance by Joey Butler in the Team Haird Fiesta didn't happen. Even so, there were certainly enough cars on hand for the three heats, and particularly given the weather conditions.

Fairly heavy rain had been about in the area earlier in the day, and a persistent drizzle was making life unpleasant long before start time. It had more or less given up by then, but it was a still wet oval which greeted the heat one runners, with the only real track surface choices all night ranging between 'greasy' and 'seriously wet'. Given the time of year, it was also windy and as a result, b****y cold...

Steve Thompson got the luck of the draw in the first heat and never looked like being remotely troubled on his way to victory. He was initially pursued by a mob headed by Mike Thurley, Stu Carter and Malcolm Blackman, with Blackman taking over second spot after a big shake up in the places. He was eventually forced to turn over the position to Boardley, who made up loads of places around the outside line, but even Carl struggled to get anywhere near the leader. Blackman went down a further place when Simpson gave further warning of his wet weather prowess nearing the finish.

Colin White went out of this one with a very sick sounding motor, he and his crew struggling to find the answer the rest of the night. It sounded like a fuel supply problem is the best I could say about it.

Simpson wasted little time going to the front in heat two, bypassing a spinning Dave Brooks in the far turn to take it up. It was another Corrado runner - Scot James Jamieson - who gave chase throughout without ever getting near enough to trouble Simpson.

Man to watch on the outside - for the most part - in this one, was Chris Haird who always looked willing to give it a try, and just managed to pip Phil Spinks for third at the line.

The circuit had managed an upgrade to 'slippery' for the third heat, which seemed likely to hand a win to pole sitter and wet weather man, Andy Steward. But fellow front row starter Colin White was ready to make a fight of it and pressed hard throughout the early laps, eventually creating an opening down the inside into turn one with a truly classy move. "Did you like my dirt track driving?", he quipped afterwards.

Colin pulled clear for a time too, but the triple world winner was obviously in trouble thereafter, his motor getting progressively sicker as the race went on. He was eventually forced onto the infield, with Steward going on to take the win.

White's crew had the petrol tank out of the car after this episode, a situation which was not going to be sorted by final time, making him a non-starter. Proper rain, as opposed to occasional drizzle, had arrived by then too.

Richard Spavins set off in the lead, soon to be hounded by Boardley and Mike Thurley, with Simpson rushing to join in too. Matt slipped past Thurley coming off turn four and swiftly set about closing the gap to Boardley - now leading.

It wasn't long before the lead pair had left the rest far behind - they even managed to lap Blackman shortly before mid-distance. Simpson continued to close in until Boardley got caught up behind a back marker. That was all the encouragement 'Slippery' needed to sneak past the pair of them going into turn three. But Boardley came right back at him, with two further lapped cars getting under Simpson's feet and enabling the leader to get away again.

There were some lurid spins and slides going on amongst the rest, with Spavins giving a brief rallycross demonstration as he shot across the infield and rejoined at the home straight having missed out half a lap. Given that his route of getting there took rather longer than the conventional method, nobody was quibbling about corner cutting! Simon Bentley also had a high speed excursion across the grass which didn't exactly appear to be his fault, while Blackman struggled on for a bit before calling it a day.

Simpson was carving big chunks out of Boardley's lead once more in the closing stages, but was still too far back to mount any real challenge on the final tour. By then, they were well over half a lap clear of third man Andy Holtby, who had a further quarter of a lap buffer between himself and Chris Haird. Graham Brown

Results as seen by Garry Staines to be confirmed.
Heat 1: 170 41 303 911 61 305 2 3 219
Heat 2: 303 305 115 41 278 31 271 49 3 277
Heat 3: 198 911 115 278 59 61 14 271 85 41
Final: 41 303 61 115 291 170 198 2 305.


2007 World Series (England) round 2 Ringwood, 22/07

Simpson gets it together at Matchams

Graham Brown reports: Matt Simpson overcame a recent bout of handling difficulties with the team's Corrado to land the final honours at Ringwood after a tussle for the lead with Hughie Weaver.

But before we even get around to talking about any racing, mention must be made of the massive freak thunderstorm which flooded the track not long after midday and came close to causing the cancellation of the meeting altogether.

The massive downpour flooded the Matchams Park track to a depth of several feet - the inner Armco barriers had all but disappeared - leaving the racing scheduled for a few hours later seriously in doubt.

However, Spedeworth South boss Deane Wood and a willing band of helpers pitched in to clear up the mess.

"When I first looked at it, I thought we were going to have to cancel", Deane confided.

"But I knew we had pumps and just hoped they'd do the job - which they did. What we hadn't reckoned on, was all the soil, sand and stones the floodwater had brought down from the terraces!"

However, following a great deal of spadework - literally - the track looked almost as if nothing had ever happened by start time. It cannot be emphasised how much effort Deane and co. put into getting that job done and, as several people who were still there at the time remarked, how often do you see a promoter and his wife picking up litter in the pit area after an event? No doubt, others do, but this was 'hands on' promoting with a vengeance, actually seen in action. It is also worth remarking, that it should not in fact be necessary for anybody to be picking up litter after a meeting, in the pits or anywhere else....

Entry-wise, a few less than usual which, allied to Deane's liking of having a track with plenty of cars on it, meant two heats rather than the more usual three.

Colin White was back for another outing, this time at the wheel of James Jamieson's spare Corrado, while Rob Hadfield had abandoned thoughts of trying to get the broken engine in his regular car fixed and switched to the new (to him) ex-Keith Lynam car. Incidentally, due to some differences in plumbing, the motor from this car could not be fitted into Rob's usual mount.

Whatever problems had been experienced earlier in the day, the now bone dry track proved to be in great shape, judging by the excellent racing in the first National heat. Indeed, Roy Eaton (stewarding) was heard to comment that maybe the track should be subjected to this treatment every week!

The race still required a complete restart however, when Ken Marriott and Ricky Hunn got together with each other and the wall at the first time of asking. With both cars eliminated, things got underway more permanently; it turned out to be the best race of the night.

Andy Holtby was first away at the green but was still out dragged by Dick Hillard into turn one. The draw had placed an interesting group of drivers close to the front of the grid and they were soon locked in combat. With Holtby getting stuck on the outside, Simpson dived underneath, followed by Malcolm Blackman and Colin White with Carl Boardley rushing to join in too.

Blackman got past Simpson through the pit bend as most eyes swivelled to see what the apparently rocket powered Boardley was up to. Blasting round the outside, he zoomed past both the blue Jamieson Corrados before nipping inside Curly Baines along the home straight. A dart under Holtby along the back stretch netted Carl fourth spot just as Blackman's attempts to wrest the lead away from Hillard allowed Simpson to re-pass down the inside.

Next Boardley tried an outside pass on Blackman which didn't come off. Meanwhile Simpson dived under Hillard to snatch the lead, only to lose out on the next bend, Dick hanging on to the win by the skin of his teeth from Blackman, Simpson, the battling Holtby and Boardley in a fine definition of a blanket finish.

Heat two kicked off with a first bend shunt involving David Brooks and Marc Rolls, and didn't get much further before red flags after a controversial clash between Hunn and Boardley that left both cars wrecked. It appears Carl had got under Ricky coming off turn two, whereupon Boardley found himself heading for the infield Armco. He braked out of this situation and tried to drive around the outside instead into turn three, whereupon the yellow Corsa went straight on and T-boned the Tigra hard into the wall.

Ricky's attempt to get at Carl through his window and subsequent kicking of the smashed Vauxhall suggested, at the very least, that the original incident may not have been entirely accidental. The steward promptly decided Rick's services would not be required any further on this particular evening, not that either of the cars involved were fit for further competition.

Thereafter, another great race ensued, with race long leader Steve Thompson having to fend off repeated challenges from 'Mr Outside', Phil Spinks.

Behind these two, Russell Wilcox ran third ahead of Ralph Sanders and the dicing Simon Bentley and Chris Haird. Haird drove around the outside leaving the pit bend and set off after Sanders. But before too long, Bentley had re-passed and Haird was clearly in trouble, swiftly departing to the infield. He was joined there by White not long afterwards, who'd got a flat in the left front.

Spinks continued to pile pressure on the leader, especially as they approached some traffic nearing the finish, when Phil was all over Thompson. But even a desperate last lap attempt to get by up the outside ended in failure. Bentley was past Wilcox by the finish to claim third, with Russell managing to stay clear of Sanders till the end.

Restarts seemed to be the order of the day, as the final suffered another one when Andy Burgess blew his motor not long after the start and several cars crashed on the oil, including Wilcox, Spinks and Holtby.

The fight for the lead came down to Hughie Weaver and Simpson, once Matt had taken Reuben Taylor, who seemed to be going rather better in this one than of late. He went on to prove it too, despite having lost third spot to Richard Spavins, by putting up a spirited defence against a flying Blackman. These three eventually came together in a far turn clinch that saw Blackman emerge ahead and now third.

With Blackman playing catch up all the way, Simpson had finally got by Weaver coming off the pit bend. But once Blackman also passed Hughie to claim second nearing the finish, and with Matt having wasted some time in a coming together with the now limping Spavins on the back straight, the leader certainly didn't need to hang around any more. In the end, Malcolm's late charge was just too late to do anything about Simpson, despite his closing fast once the lap boards were out.

Weaver had to settle for a still well taken third in the end, ahead of Thompson, Jamieson and Haird. Graham Brown

Results as seen by Marlene Clarke to be confirmed. Keith Duke’s PHOTOS
Heat 1: 31 911 303 61 41 111 305 115 85 59
Heat 2: 170 14 59 219 734 85 2 305 911 31
Final: 303 911 210 170 305 115 49 31 59 2


2007 World Series (England) round 1 Ipswich, Saturday July 15th

Bentley strikes first blow in new world series

Graham Brown reports: Simon Bentley struck the first blow as the National Hot Rods got back on the world series trail at Ipswich, the Mitsubishi driver taking a controversial victory in the final.

The entry was pretty much what you'd expect for such a swift return to qualifying - good but not oversubscribed either, with several drivers still feeling the need for some extra time out, notably Neil Stimson. Steve Burgess had unresolved gearbox problems, probably a legacy of his Skegness crash, while Colin Gomm was on holiday.

On the plus side however, James Jamieson Jnr. was back and fully intending to do the whole series this time round as well. He'd clearly lost none of his sparkle and was quickly back in the groove, having been testing the previous day at Northampton, in the company of Colin White and Matt Simpson. Marc Rolls was another returnee, and there were also a number of drivers looking for licence application forms, which bodes well for the future.

Mark you, they'll be hoping for better luck than that which befell Andy Burgess, who broke a cam belt and never got out for a race. And right in the same boat was a despondent Billy Bonnar, Billy having naturally hauled all the way from Scotland for the benefit of a non-start, and in his case it was a brand new motor which had gone west.

Speaking of brand new motors, perhaps the most interesting of the cars on the grid, was the Team Haird Fiesta. This was the car originally seen at the NEC show bearing the number 4 (as in, '4 sale'), and seen again sat alongside the team's bus at speedweekend liveried up for Barry Lee to drive. That time it was kept to the role of exhibition vehicle again, by clutch slave cylinder problems. Such teething troubles are not that remarkable, the car being something of an experimental prototype, fitted with a Rouse/Mountune Ford Duratec engine for evaluation purposes. On this particular evening, the drive had been offered to, and accepted by, Spedeworth EA boss and NHRPA chairman Roy Eaton, Roy taking the chance for his second National ride courtesy of the Haird team. He went out in every race in order to get as much track time as possible, naturally starting off the back of the grids with no entitlement to points.

The mechanical gremlins hadn't finished with the driving strength yet this day either, with Steve Thompson suddenly pulling out of his spot in the line up for heat one, suffering with clutch trouble. He was reduced to having to make rolling starts from the back every time he raced, making the half decent points he scored all the more creditable.

The evening started well for Bentley too, as he stepped off pole position in heat one to lead every lap. Mike Thurley gave chase all the way from grid two and was very close indeed by flag fall, but had left it too late to mount any sort of real challenge.

Behind these, Dave Brooks was going much better than on his previous outings, inheriting third when Richard Spavins was forced out with bodywork fouling the back tyres. Brooks looked set to hold onto third for a while until he came under pressure from Andy Holtby. The pair collided going down the back stretch, Brooks spinning and Andy going on to claim third spot just ahead of Jamieson, who looked as though he'd never been away. Roy Eaton's eleventh spot from stone last was also noteworthy, the Duratec sounding remarkably similar to any old GM 16-valver, but producing a very healthy turn of speed in a straight line.

Heat two produced a similar sort of race, as far the lead went, but Phil Spinks did have to spend most of a lap overtaking Rob Hadfield in order to clear off at the front. Much of the interest in this was further back, where Carl Boardley and Andy Steward spent several laps running side by side without incident. There was a good mix up going for the places all round, with Malcolm Blackman and Chris Haird also involved. Haird was going well and finally overhauled Hadfield for second three laps from home.

Once again, Brooks had been looking pretty quick in this one, quick enough to get into trouble with the steward for punting Curly Baines off and into the wall at any rate. David seemed a little down after the meeting about his ability to get into hot water and, let it be said, the incident certainly didn't do Curly's TT any good. Still, a forthcoming new car from the Brooks stable might just be what he needs to change all that.

The third heat needed a restart after an early clash between Matt Simpson and Stuart Carter halted proceedings. It looked like Simpson had got up on Carter's sill entering turn three, after which of course, Matt would have been a passenger. Carter spun and got clobbered by Hughie Weaver and Holtby, which made it all the more remarkable that changing a flat tyre got him back in the running; Simpson, with bent steering, wasn't so fortunate.

With the race underway for keeps, Ralph Sanders took the early lead only to lose out to Ricky Hunn. Thereafter, Hunn won more or less as he liked, despite a spirited game of catch up being played by Jamieson and the apparently unaffected Carter, once they too had by-passed Sanders.

Sanders managed to stay out front a lot longer in the final, and for many laps looked to be on the way to one of his occasional competent if unspectacular wins. It took him a while to establish any kind of advantage however, with the first ten cars locked up in a high speed train for a time.

Matters broke up a bit after Thurley departed the fray. With Sanders beginning to inch away from the others, Bentley - fourth at that point - found a way past third man Andy Holtby entering turn three. He managed a similar move on Rob Hadfield to annex second, and then rapidly closed the gap to the leader.

The speed with which Bentley caught up, suggested that Sanders wouldn't have very much for him by way of a defence, and that an easy outside pass was in the offing. But the pair diced for the lead for a few laps until Sanders was sent spinning on the pit bend. Bentley took an immediate black cross for the incident, but miraculously managed to escape penalty and be awarded the win he carried on to gain on the road. Graham Brown

Results - as seen live trackside, and not confirmed, by Garry Staines:
Heat 1: 59 291 61 305 85 219 92 170 141 210
Heat 2: 14 115 141 41 911 198 31 639 291 170
Heat 3: 639 305 85 911 734 31 41 61 115 14
Final: 59 61 85 31 303 639 14 115 198 911
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