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As we arrived at the new venue, you could see why the organisers had changed. The new massive track looked awesome, with 8 full length rolls of Primafelt side by side plus one extra roll at the end laid width ways for good measure, this made one impressive race area 32m x 16m.
Richard Weatherley did not let us down with another imaginative track layout, which was fast and flowing, allowing some very high speed action. The rostrum with its high location gave all racers a great view point for the track. The pitting area was luxurious, particularly by indoor standards, with a shop in the middle, food shop to one side and even a monitor for the hard core racers to see what was going on in the heats and finals. |
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In qualifying we saw the big guns of modified battling out round this arena, and in round one they did not let the spectators down. Glen Doman seemed to have the measure of his heat by pulling out 29 laps in 301.46. With his car looking as stable and as fast as it did he had put the gauntlet down. By round two it seem Glen had settled in with another 29 laps and improving his FTD, the rest of the pack in his heat could not match him, in the low heats they did not see anyone threatening The pole man. Round 3 sore Glen improve yet again his FTD to 30 laps in 310.13, this time stood for the fourth round, with Adam Rogers trying all day to catch Glen he had to settle for second on the grid so the top ten run down went like this
1 Glen Doman 30 310.13 FTD
2 Adam Rogers 29 302.73
3 Olly Jefferies 29 305.84
4 Adam Hampton 29 307.45
5 Chris Delves 29 309.70
6 Andy Childs 28 301.00
7 Richmond Rogers 28 303.59
8 Lee Woodhams 28 305.38
9 Neil Diver 28 308.08
10 Neil Gavin 27 301.65
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| Stock qualifying |
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With stock being at its closest so far in this Championship, we were all certain of a very interesting day. With the style of the track we could see it was going to be down to who could drive on the edge for 5 mins, this was going to sort the men from the boys!
Stuart Rand, the Championship leader in stock, showed them the way with 26 laps in 304.89 but Olly Jefferies was not going to let him have it all his own way with a well deserved 2nd 26 laps in 304.89, just a 0.57 sec gap. This had set a base for a very close meeting in stock, by round two Olly raced his socks off and took the FTD off of Stuart Rand and with Gavin Clinch driving 26 laps they were the three drivers out in the lead.
By round three, we had four racers in the 26 lap club, Steven Henry who drove a good race, Gavin Clinch, Colin Witt (a new member to the 26 club) and Olly.
Round four was on us like a shot there was a hush by all who watched this race, to see if someone would pull something from the bag and upset the top four. After the 5 mins was up Olly came out victorious with 27 laps in 311.40 a new FTD. This made the top ten :-
1 Olly Jefferies 27 311.40 FTD
2 Gavin Clinch 26 303.98
3 Stuart Rand 26 304.32
4 Steve Henry 26 304.83
5 Colin Witt 26 305.86
6 Mark Broomfield 26 309.79
7 Dave Rand 26 309.80
8 Neil Castle 26 311.38
9 Wayne Palmer 25 300.74
10 David Wastall 25 300.77 |
| Micro |
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This being only the second outing for this small but impressive class, all the drivers were now set up and ready to go. The track had a cut though to make a smaller circuit with the cars handling well on kit tyres and 180 motor.
Adam Hampton took FTD followed by Ian Diboll of SPEC Racing. In round two Adam was proving his number one position in the C hampionship and increased his lead to 24 laps 301.03 and FTD. Round three did not see a lot of change, by round four Ian Diboll raced a corker by pushing the FTD to 25 Laps in 304.70, so the full run down for these little gems is:
1 Ian Dibboll 25 304.70
2 Adam Hampton 24 301.03
3 Graham Clarke 24 310.39
4 Max Weatherley 23 309.01
5 Richard Weatherley 22 306.61
6 Tom Greenwood 22 308.14
7 Paul Canhann 21 305.14
8 Wayne Palmer 20 309.86
9 Keith Rice 18 323.59 |
| Stock A Final |
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All the a finals were to be run consecutively and all eyes were out to watch. Olly, being the pole man, had a lot to live up to with the next 4 drivers well capable of beating him when the pressure was on. But Olly soaked up the pressure, with a flawless performance for the win, and Colin Witt who pushed hard, had to make do with 2nd.
1st Olly Jefferies
2nd Colin Witt
3rd Steve Henry
4th Gavin Clinch
5th Mark BroomfieldMicro
6th Stuart Rand
7th David Wastall
8th Neil Castle
9th Wayne Palmer
10th Dave Rand |
| Micro |
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Micro came next in this trio of a finals, after an officials enquiry in the rules, the gloves were off, so out came these mini giants.
Ian Diboll looked favourite, but as the starting âśwallbalâť sounded, the pack streamed passed him and it did not look good for Ian, who perhaps had a motor problem. Adam Hampton was off to a flying start but had he peaked to soon ? About a 1/4 in to the race Adam retired.
Still the racing was very intense. Ian Diboll had recovered well and fought his way back through to take the win followed by Graham Clarke.
1st Ian Dibboll
2nd Graham Clarke
3rd Wayne Palmer
4th Max Weatherley
5th Paul Canhann
6th Tom Greenwood
7th Keith Rice
8th Richard Weatherley
9th Adam Hampton |
| Modified Finals |
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E Final Richard Andrews 24laps 301.18
D Final Duncan Letham 26laps 306.79
C Final Mark Payne 26laps 301.49
B Final Dave Ringsell 27laps 301.45
The stage was set time for the A final modified. Glen Doman took the lead from Olly Jeffries and Adam Rodgers. The 2nd and 3rd place drivers kept reeling Glen in but under pressure, but Glen kept them at bay and was in charge. Each time they tried to move in on him, the incredible pace would force a mistake. For the whole 5 mins Glen kept 1st with Olly and Adam trading 2nd and 3rd between them. In the end only the computer could decide the fight, with Olly beating Adam by 0.01 of a second, thatâ™s close! Congratulations to Glen, and thank you to Olly and Adam for a nail biting finish, very much enjoyed by the spectators.
1st 1 84 Glen Doman 29 303.46
2nd 3 22 Olly Jefferies 29 307.99
3rd 2 38 Adam Rogers 29 308.00
4th 4 33 Adam Hampton 29 310.97
5th 8 129 Lee Woodhams 28 310.47
6th 9 126 Neil Diver 27 300.82
7th 6 35 Andy Childs 27 301.16
8th 5 85 Chris Delves 27 307.19
9th 10 5 Neil Gavin 27 307.47
10th 7 7 Richmond
For report and details from individual rounds click here. |
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