2004 IC Rubber Series Round 7 Ashby  

Saturday

For the penultimate round the IC 200mm Rubber saw 90 drivers booked into the meeting. As you can see from the above picture we arrived to a wet track although it did look like it might dry around dinner time. This did not stop the hardy few who still went out to try a wet set up. Unfortunately it rained more and left a wet track. This down pour was enough to persuade  a lot of the drivers to pack up and call it a day. I even had to pull out a transit stuck on the field. Luckily, enough towropes were found to allow my van to stay on the hard surface and get some grip. By around 5pm it had started to dry and as I left at around 6:15pm there was a frantic rush of drivers wanting to hit the track to get in some practice.

Ashby now have a dedicated pit lane               

Sunday

As I travelled down to the track the weather was looking better than Saturdays, though on arrival the track was still slightly damp, but not wet, which was a good sign. The Ashby crew were out in force and booking in was soon completed and drivers were called for a drivers briefing. With Graham our race director and Malcolm both saying their bits racing got underway at around 9:15pm. Unfortunately the round by round results that came from the Ashby programme for some reason have put drivers in different heats so I have no idea of who did what or when!

All the rounds were completed in the dry.  Steven Lander took FTD in round one with 19 305 Andy Wallis took FTD  in round four with 19 304. The top ten qualifiers are below, unlucky 11th place went to me, Mark Christopher. Nigel Pearce who drives a Thunder Tiger for Amerang placed his car 4th in the "B" Final and definitely had one of the happiest faces walking around the pit area.

Top Qualifiers

The new face of Jubilee arena, look out for a

full team hitting the tracks next season

Finals

G Final

F Final

E Final

D Final

C Final

B Final

A Final

With a large crowd gathered to watch the top final, from the start Steve Lander took a strong lead and simply drove away, with a stunning pace.

 At around 7 minutes unfortunately his NTC3 suffered a driveshaft failure resulting in a retirement. This was a cruel blow to Steve who was coming up to lap Darren Johnson and Andy Wallis who were thinking about the championship and fighting for second and third.

Then Andy Wallis's clutch started slipping which left Darren to cruise home and take the win. Due to some transponder difficulties David Hall was awarded second place and Keith Robertson held it all together to take third though I think his pit man Kev was putting it down to his new fuel gun. Darren now leads the series but it will go down to the last round at Tibshelf between him and Andy, so good luck to the both of you!

Come on lad's where's your goggles!!       

Clubman's

Michael Ball leads the Clubman's series but its still possible for the top 6 to take the title, proving the formula has worked well and the feed back from the drivers have also been positive! good luck to all those involved.

A Final Tech Chart