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04/04/2005

Stock Car Report- Round 1

The long wait is finally over and a new season is upon us, today sees the start of a new series for the stockcar’s with round one of the 2005 National Championship, this year’s championship is to be contested over seven rounds (subject to change)

with the best five rounds to count, we also have a new venue for the stockcars this year and we welcome the club at Hereford into our national series, the winter has been a very busy one for the stockcars at both club level and also at national level with both the European Championship and Dutch Open meetings having been run at the Lobith and Fryslan 1 clubs over in Holland.

We have a total of 53 racers for today’s meeting which is 5 more than we had at last years national, and an amazing 12 more than we had at the Hathern national meeting in 2003, if this trend continues we could have one of the best contested series in a long time.

At the start of the meeting some of the changes to our rules took a bit of adjusting to, as all cars now have to be scrutineered before they are allowed onto the track for practice, and then you had to have your car re-scrutineered before your first race, most of the cars passed without too much trouble, although we did have a discrepancy with the rules that was soon corrected and everything seemed to go smoothly with scrutineering after, and everyone soon got used to the new regime of the cars being checked before they race.

The racers were split into nine different heats which gave us a total of 36 heats of qualifying races over the four rounds, with the drivers best three scores to count towards their qualifying total for the consolation or final place.

Round 1.

The first heat win of the days racing went to Clive Buckler with 85 laps from Darren Grace who also finished with 85 laps some 4.31 seconds behind Clive, then we had Jason Reed in third place with 75. Heat two was taken by Hathern club member Phil Chadbourne with a winning 86 laps some ten laps clear of Matthew Bennett in second place. Heat three saw a very good race, at the finish it was Hathern super star racer Ian Johnson take the win with 86 from both Alex Wood and Jon Cutts on 85 laps at the finish, Jon was just 2.17 second behind Alex at the finish, and in fourth place with another 80+ lap score we had Ian Rolph with 81. Heat four saw Andrew Cox take a win with 82 laps from fellow Urmston club member Alan Crossland on 80. Heat five was another close race between two racers, this time we had Hathern racer Jonathan Goodacre squeeze home in front of Mark Steel by 2.05 seconds after the had both finished the race with 80 laps. Heat six was won by Stewart Smith with 86 from Dave Gwilliam on 84. Heat seven saw the highest lap score of the round so far by Urmston racer Anthony Wyper with 89 laps from Richard Harding and Mike Tomkinson both finishing with 80 laps and separated by just 0.48 at the finish. Heat eight saw the best score increase by one lap, it was now up to 90 laps by Ben Harding, he was chased by Peter Ayriss with 87 and Gareth Jones on 85. Heat nine was taken by Karl Spencer with 87 from Mark Cooper with 84 and Alan Bellis on 79 laps at the finish of the race.

Round 2.

Ian Johnson shows how it should be done with a winning 91 laps along with the new FTQ in heat one of round two, in second place to Ian we had Alex Wood with 86, then we had both Ian Rolph and Jason Reed on 81 followed by Michael Fryett with 81 and young Nicholas Cooper just fell short of the 80 lap mark with 79. Heat two was an easy win for Matthew Bennett with 87 from Jim Burkett in second place with 79. Heat three saw Rugby club promoter Jon Cutts take his first win of the day with 83 laps from Darren Grace with 80 in second, also on 80 at the finish of the race was Phil Chadbourne who was 2.85 seconds behind Darren. Heat four was a very fast race with a lot of high scores, taking the win by just 0.61 was Hathern racer Jonathan Goodacre with 87 from Clive Buckler, in third place we had Roy Calver with 85 followed by Mark Steel with 85. Heat five was a low scoring race with Andrew Cox taking the honours with 80 laps.

Heat six was taken by Ben Harding with 86, then we had a real surprise in second place but it shows just what can be achieved by the lower grade racers, for we had Yellow grade racer Lauren Cattell take a very deserved second spot with 77 along with the scalp of Urmston Red grade racer Joe Brown who finished just behind Lauren on 77. Heat seven winner was Ryan Cattell with 88 laps from Tom Forrest in second place with 82. Heat eight was another close race and another that produced some high lap scores, at the finish of the race we had both Anthony Wyper and Karl Spencer finish with 88 laps with Anthony in front by 0.90 of a second then we had Dave Gwilliam in third place with 87 followed by Alan Bellis with 83 and Chris Flynn with 82. Heat nine saw a real tussle between Mark Cooper and Gareth Jones, the result going Mark’s way by 1.68 seconds after both racers had finished with 82 laps they were chased by Richard Harding in third place with 80. 

Round 3.

Jon Cutts showed the rest of heat one how it should be done with 85 laps in first place, he was followed by Jonathan Goodacre with 82 and Jason Reed on 77 laps at the finish of the race. Heat two saw Ian Johnson equal his FTQ score with another 91 lap score he was chased by Ian Rolph with 84 and fellow March club member Mark Steele who was just one lap behind Ian on 83. Heat three was another of the fast heats, at the finish Matthew Bennett recorded an 87 from Clive Buckler with 86 in second place, then we had Roy Calver breaking the 80 lap mark with just that score (80) and just missing out on the magic 80 mark were Angela Yarwood with 79 and young Nicholas Cooper with 78. Heat four was a more sedate affair with Stewart Smith the only one to record an 80+ score, at the finish of the race he had clocked up 85 laps from Tom Forrest in second place with 77. Heat five was won with 86 laps by Hathern racer Alex Wood from Michael Fryett with 81 and Darren Grace in third place on 79 laps. Heat six was won by another Hathern racer, and it was win number two for Phil Chadbourne with 86 laps from the 81 laps of Alan Bellis, and in third place we had a good result for Debbie Jackson with 75 along with eight national points. Heat seven was another race that saw some high lap scores, in first place we had Karl Spencer with 89 from Anthony Wyper on 87 and Gareth Jones just one lap behind with 86. Heat eight featured some close racing between Mark Cooper and Ryan Cattell, at the end of the race Ryan took the win from Mark with 84 to Mark’s 83. In heat nine Ben Harding recorded a winning lap score of 89 laps from Dave Gwilliam in second place with 83 followed by Rugby club racer Pete Clarke on 81.

Round 4.

This was the heat to be in after Roy Calver had dropped out of the race leaving just four cars, at the finish Stewart Smith won the race with 90 laps from Phil Chadbourne on 88, coming home in third place we had Jason Reed with 84 followed by Mark Steel with 83. Heat two – see later as this heat was re-run. Heat three had only Andrew Cox record a score over the 80 mark with his winning score of 81 next nearest was Alan Crossland in second place with 75. Heat four had Ian Johnson in a class above the rest with his score of 88, he was followed by Alan Bellis with 75 laps. Heat 5 was won by Ben Harding with 82 with Darren Grace in second place 77. Heat six was won with 81 laps by Ryan Cattell from Matthew Bennett with 79 followed by an out of sorts Karl Spencer with 75. Heat seven was interesting to say the least, as the grip had totally disappeared by now due to the heating going off and the front door was left open causing the temperature to plummet, and as you can see in the lap scores just how much affect this had as the heat was won with 76 laps by Dave Gwilliam from the 75 by Thomas Forrest and Chris Partridge with 71. Heat eight was taken with 79 laps by Mark Cooper from Gareth Jones with 73 and Alan Harding with 72. Heat nine was won with 77 laps by Chris Flynn he was chased by Anthony Wyper in second place with 76 then we had Richard Harding with 73 laps in third place.

Heat two was re-run a little later due to a technical problem, and by this time the room temperature was beginning to climb back up, also some racers refused to go in the re-run as an objection to the technical problem, so the race featured four racers instead of the planned six, at the end of the re-run Clive Buckler finished with 87 laps in first place followed by Alex Wood with 85 and Michael Fryett with 83 and in fourth place we had Jonathan Goodacre with 77.

The Consolation Race.

We eventually arrived at the time of reckoning for a lot of the racers, for many the day’s racing will be over as we will be down to the fifteen racers that will contest the consolation and final, and I am sure that there will be one or two surprises amongst them, so hear are the eight racers that will contest the consolation race in order of qualification along with their best three scores,

1. Alex Wood                            257

2. Dave Gwilliam                       254

3. Ryan Cattell                          253

4. Matthew Bennett                   253

5. Gareth Jones                         253

6. Jon Cutts                               253

7. Mark Steel                            251

8. Jonathan Goodacre                249

For the second year running we are down to a seven car consolation race as Jon Cutts declines to take his place as a protest at events that had taken place earlier on, and after a very tight and clean consolation race it was a relieved Ryan Cattell that went forward to the final as the consolation winner with 86 laps, he was chased to the finish line by Gareth Jones with 65 and Alex Wood with 84 followed by Dave Gwilliam with 83 laps in fourth place, then it was Jonathan Goodacre with 81 and Mark Steel with 80 and in seventh place we had Matthew Bennett with 78 and Jon Cutts was awarded eighth place.

The Hathern Final.

Heading the list of qualifiers was Ian Johnson with a qualifying total of 270, along with the FTQ lap score of 91 laps which he achieved in round’s two and three, the reigning national points champion Ben Harding was qualifier number two with 265 followed by Anthony Wyper with 264, fourth place on the grid went to Karl Spencer with the same total as Anthony (264) then it was Stewart Smith with 261 in the fifth position on the grid followed by Phil Chadbourne with his total of 260 which put him in sixth place on the grid (outside row three) and the last qualifier by right was Clive Buckler with 260, and joining him on the back row of the grid was Ryan Cattell as the consolation winner.

One thing this race threw up was a hat full of surprises, but we had a first ever national final win for Phil Chadbourne with 89 laps from Ben Harding who was just behind Phil with 88 laps at the finish, third place was taken by Karl Spencer with 87 laps on a split time from Clive Buckler who also finished with 87 laps, fifth place went to a racer that could not get going during the final he started the race as the favourite but finished in fifth place with 85, then we had Stuart Smith in sixth place with 83, Ryan Cattell did well to keep going after he had shredded his spur gear to finish the final with 76 laps, and the unlucky Anthony Wyper had retired from the final after he had lost his inside front wheel stub axle after completing 39 laps of the final.

Grade awards went to,

Best White – John Freeman

Beat Yellow – Chris Flynn

Beat Blue – Jason Reed

Best junior on the day went to Alex Wood along with an award as the top Hathern racer not to make the final.

And the concourse trophy was presented to Jon Cutts.

Results from the Ian Kietly memorial meeting held at the Rugby club on the 18/2/05

There were two finals in this meeting with trophies for both finals, there was a junior final and a senior final, hear are the competitors for both finals,

                    Junior Final                                                                          Senior Final

Thomas Forrest              Samantha Eaglen               Ben Harding                       Jon Cutts

Aron Eaglen                   Stuart Clarke                     Matthew Bennett                Dave Gwilliam          

Jamie Collins                 Sam Collins                         Clive Buckler                       Karl Spencer

Nicholas Cooper            Thomas Collins                   Mark Cooper                        Rob Teuke

In the junior final we had young Stuart Clark take the win with 64 laps from Samantha Eaglen with 62 and Jamie Collins in third place with 60, Aron Eaglen finished with 47 laps in fourth followed by Nicholas Cooper with 43, then we had Sam Collins with 33 laps in sixth place followed by Thomas Collins 8 laps and Tom Forrest with 6 laps in eight place.

The senior final saw Karl Spencer retain the shield which goes to the Final winner which he achieved with 86 laps on a split from Ben Harding who also finished with 86 laps, third place went to Clive Buckler with 84 followed by Dave Gwilliam with 83 laps in fourth place, finishing with 82 laps was Mark Cooper in fifth place from Jon Cutts with 80 laps, also finishing with 80 laps in seventh place was Matthew Bennett, which leaves us with the 76 laps by Rob Teuke in eighth place.

Report prepared by Mark Cooper.

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