2008 Halifax round 2 race report

Round two of this year’s series championship was at the Halifax circuit in West Yorkshire. After the Siberian conditions at Brooklands in round one, it was nice on Saturday to feel the sun on your back and have a dry track to run on. Practice seemed to be a bit of a low key affair with many drivers capable of lapping in or around the 15/16 second a lap pace. Most knew that if they could keep that up for five minutes on Sunday they were in with a chance.

Following torrential overnight rain all Saturdays work seemed to have been for naught, and wet and damp tyres were the definite order of the day early on. Rain for the first three rounds turned qualifying into a bit of a lottery, and when the rain did eventually stop we had a situation where you had to decide whether to go out on damp or dry tyres. In all honesty there was not much in it between the two, and it was down to how your car reacted to a change of tyres, if you felt that dry tyres were better or risk part destroying damp’s. We therefore had a situation in these conditions where you could go from zero to hero or sadly the exact opposite.

As it turned out Mark Green finished on pole with 16 laps in 313, whilst behind him Tim Wood, Andrew North, and the rest of heat five drivers booked places in the A main. From the others heats Andy Mollett and Chris Edwards managed zero to hero runs to get them into the A. By the time it came to the finals the rain had started again making the choice of tyres yet again critical.

Merv Marshall in his second comeback year won the D final with 43 laps whilst behind him Roger Duran (44) and Alex Bagnall (39) finished on the podium. Chris Daft’s 53 laps were good enough for a comfortable win in the C final; whilst behind him Shaun Reeve (47) and Shaun Gumbs (46) filled the remaining places.

Jason Frost led the B final from start to finish coming home on 56 laps. Behind him on 53 laps was John Carr who was just four seconds up on third place Scott Nettleton. Mark Green led the open away on a wet track closely followed by Tim Wood and Andrew North. Up front Mark and Tim pulled away from the following pack as the rain eased and the track began to dry. Mark along with several other drivers tried a tyre chance but a sticking rear tyres on his car cost him any chance of a win. At the end of the thirty minute final we had Tim Wood first on 90 laps, Mark second with 88 laps, with Pete Hastings third just six seconds behind Mark.

Thanks to the Halifax cub ,lets hope for a dry meeting at round three at Cotswold.