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The second round of this year’s series championship was held at the Halifax circuit in West Yorkshire over the Easter Bank holiday weekend. With a bumper entry of over seventy drivers the prospect of finding a quiet track for practice on Saturday was remote. Following a slow start due to the track being slightly wet from overnight rain, within the hour the track had dried and cars were beginning to circulate faster and faster. By mid afternoon there were quite a number of cars circulating that looked capable of securing a place in the A final. Of those I looked at in particular Mark Green, Gareth Bell, and Dave Dixon all seemed to have the basic speed and handling that was necessary. A measure of how hectic it was on Saturday was the sight of 16 drivers on the rostrum with others waiting on the stairs. With drivers starting to arrive trackside Sunday morning just after six o’clock we had all the prospects for a great days racing. The weather was thankfully dry if not sunny but would pick up throughout the day.
Following heat order timed practice race director for the weekend Eric White had the first heat of qualifying on the road by mid morning. From some of the times recorded in the early heats it was clear that you would need a quick 19 or better to have any chance of a place in the “A” final. In round quite a few drivers broke into the 19’s but it was Gareth Bell with a 19/301 who was the quickest. With the weather improving by the minute and with no pause we were straight on to round two. Again it was clear that a low 19 lapper was the very minimum that was needed to be in the top 10. Mark Green moved the goal post with a stunning 20/310, although Andy North just missed a 20 by just over a second. With everyone now aiming to wring out every last fraction of a second the third and last round was there last chance. I think quite a few drivers found an improvement but the composition of the “A” didn’t change all that much. Mark Green managed another 20 in 309 as did Gareth Bell 20/314 and Kev Brown 20/315. With qualifying over it was time to move on to the finals. Space in this brief resume of the meeting stops me covering the “B” to “G” finals and winners, but if you want more information log onto the 1/8th IC results section on this site. However the main event of the day is now the A final (sorry still doesn’t have the same ring to me as the open final). Pole sitter Mark Green blasted away hotly pursued by the rest of the field, first casualty was Kev Brown out after only two laps, next to go was Gareth Bell after a clash with another car. From now on we had Mark Green slowly extending his lead the pack. Behind Mark top three positions were changing all the time. Mark led the final for the first 20 minutes but an engine problem put him out with 98 laps on the board. Neil Diver took up the challenge holding the lead until the flag, however Richard Hicklin kept him honest and was only eight seconds behind at the finish. Andy North came home third just over two laps down on the winner. Another weekend of super fast racing with a bumper entry, again showing that 1/8th is definitely on the way back.
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