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| Race Report by Oli Meggit |
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The final round of the Essex Winter Series championship took place this weekend. With the series now firmly established as the most popular indoor touring car series in the UK, the championship finale was the last opportunity for drivers to prove their skills on carpet circuits, before turning their focus to the outdoor summer season.
The Schumacher Pro Stock title had been decided in favour of Team XRAY's Zak Finlay at the previous round, with Tony Broad also cementing second overall. The battle was therefore for the final podium place, primarily between Ashley Wiffen, Richard King and Reece Hodges. Zak showed he wasnâ™t letting up, despite having the title in his pocket and took the opening round TQ with his XRAY. Jon Seals was second, ahead of Reece Hodges to make it an XRAY 1-2-3, and Jimmy Maddison took fourth. Jimmy had decided that, with the Stock title already wrapped up, he would enter the Pro Stock class for the final round and clearly showed he had the speed to run with the top drivers in the faster class too. The second qualifier saw Zak again fastest, with Schumacherâ™s Darren Lee second, Reece third and Jimmy again fourth. Round three was Zak from Jon and Reece, whilst Zak made it a clean sweep by taking round four as well, ahead of Jon, Jimmy and James Baker's XRAY.
The A Final was all about Zak, as he took off into the lead and built up a gap lap after lap. Behind, the battle for second was between Jon, Reece and Jimmy, with Darren Lee quickly moving up from ninth on the grid to be within striking distance too. Those four drivers put on an excellent example of high-speed driving for the entire race distance, giving each other just enough space and entertaining the crowd with their close racing. As the time began to run out, suddenly Zak began to slow, seemingly his motor beginning to expire. This gave a last-lap shoot-out, with four cars running practically side-by-side down the main straight on the final lap and Jimmy Maddison being the driver to have his car in the right position to snatch the win on the final lap. Reece lost out at the line by just two tenths, with Zak dropping to third and Jon ending in fourth. This meant Reece took third place in the overall championship, on the tie-break from Richard King.
Schumacher Pro Stock A-final result
1. Jimmy Maddison
2. Reece Hodges â“ XRAY T4
3. Zak Finlay â“ XRAY T4
4. Jon Seals â“ XRAY T4
5. James Baker â“ XRAY T4
6. Ben Putt
7. Daniel Veness â“ XRAY T4
8. Mark Buonaiuto â“ XRAY T4
9. Darren Lee
10. Richard King
This meant, Team XRAY's Zak Finlay took the overall Championship ProStock Title with Reece Hodges running XRAY finishing in 3rd.
In the modified class there were 4 out of 10 Cars XRAY in the A-main, with James Hart doing enough to secure fourth overall in the Championship.
In the stock 17.5 class the XRAY of Colin Gardiner took 3rd place in the series overall.
With this race marking the last of the winter indoor events in the UK, all drivers will look forward to the outdoor summer season where the XRAY drivers hope to continue with more great results.
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