Race Report Round 3 Mid-Regional Series -- Posted by Chairman on Tuesday, June 5 2007
Round 3 came to Frankley with a Mid-West regional record breaker of 52 drivers attending, the weather was nice and sunny and ice-cream vans were out in force...........The day started as usual with booking in followed by a detailed drivers briefing By Race Director Mr Andrew Taylor who announced that new to the team Rob Cockcroft and Paul Harris were Clerks of the course and also new to the Team Paul Gill and New Girl Kerry Kennedy were the Flag Marshals of the day allowing the Club to run a new safety format of releasing the Cars from the pits using the Flag Marshals, Referee for the day was Teresa Morgan and support roles were New Girl Tracey Kennedy and Mad pup Himself Daniel Morgan. After drivers briefing Mr Taylor noticed a number of new drivers and took them through how the meeting runs with regards to driving, heats, and marshalling safety...........The Track Designed by Rob Cockcroft and Paul Harris Proved to be both challenging and flowing and a number of the top drivers studied the track and used the full 5 rounds of qualifying to ensure they had learned the track and its little challenges!!...........The new safety process of flag marshals in both qualifying and finals proved very rewarding and although the drivers and pit crews struggled for the first round they all seemed to get into it very quickly this process also insured all marshals were out before race started and possible injuries through rouge cars on the track were removed, the drivers then had a 2 minute warm up and all started together with no-one converging on the loop...........After 5 full rounds of qualifying Mirage driver Greg Hill Proved to be “the daddy” followed by Nigel Pushon and Sheffield’s own Anthony Roebuck for the 1, 2, 3 on the grid, in Truggies TQ went to Mathew Grafton with Joe Pushon in 2nd and Frankley Driver Jeremy Grant biting at their feet in 3rd on the grid...........The C final was the first final to go to Grids the drivers had a 2 minute warm up, they were then asked to “drivers to the pits” they were then refuelled and the pitman after the flag Marshalls were happy took the cars from the pits to the grids for the start of the finals Flag Marshals Paul Gill and Kerry Kennedy then controlled the final start and they were off. X-Ray Driver Lee Taylor who had Bad luck all Day started from 12th on the grid stormed into 1st place on the first corner and was as expected untouchable through the entire final and after lapping everyone within the first 5 minutes helped other drivers in the final being their pace car and showing true sportsmanship of waiting until he was caught up this proved rewarding to the other drivers and encouraged both Stephen Manley and DDH Hardware Driver Craig Barrow to do the 2nd and 3rd for the bump up places...........B Final saw a thrilling drive by both Darren Savin of Swindon Nitros and Fast Tracks Driver Carl Rainbird who thrashed out the final over a gruelling 20 minutes with Chris Bates Of J12 taking 4th and lee Taylor storming from 12th on the grid to finish in 1st place with Carl in 2nd Darren in 3rd and those being the bump ups to the A final...........The A final saw a consistent start grid and a clean first bend with only 2 cars out of 15 not clearing the grid Poor Anthony “the flying Flynn” having major problems with his radio gear and Our Man Barry having starting problems after 5 minutes in it seemed to be a very close race between Greg, Nigel and Lee and with Nigel and Greg averaging 47.3 laps its was going to be between Greg and Nigel for the first place slot with lee having problem with his engine finishing in 3rd the pressure was off the other 2,after 23 laps there was just 2.78 secs between Nigel and Greg and with Greg running out of fuel in lap 24 the win went to Nigel with a good 25 laps. Simon Fennell, Graham Barrow and Darren Savin had a good battle to give them the 4th 5th and 6th slots 7th 8th 9th and 10th went to Carl Rainbird, Shane Dye, Mark Beattie and Chris Lambert...........The Truggies final After a False start was again a close race and with Naomi Tilsley, Doug Swingler and Jake Edwards Pulling up before the start it was to be an 8 car final after 10 minutes the final was looking close with Mathew, Joe, Jeremy and Keith all fighting for the first 3 places Jeremy Grant was blistering and was starting to settle down in his driving when bad luck struck 3 times he was “took out” by Truggy drivers less experienced and in the end put him in the 4th place spot with a ever experience Keith Taking the converted 3rd place leaving the fight between Mathew and Joe for the winner going again right down to the last 2 laps with Mathew Taking 1st and Joe finishing in a respectable 2nd place...........Race ReportThe Maddog