Northampton International Raceway - Friday 6th April 2012

Report by Steve Linfield

Autospeed’s traditional Good Friday meeting at Northampton once again produced the goods in terms of car numbers, with the pit area being pretty much full for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, Saloon Stock Cars and National Hot Rods.  After 2011 being a very warm day, with Easter being later in April then, this year we were faced with a bitterly cold day, but at least it remained dry and some very hard and fast racing from all three formulae ensued.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The BriSCA F2 Stock Cars entry of 65 cars set the record as the highest so far, anywhere for 2012 which was pleasing, especially as numbers had led to cause for concern in some quarters in the Midlands region in the early weeks of the season.  It included drivers from all four corners of the United Kingdom stretching from Cornwall to Scotland and just about all points in between.   For some, it was a busy day as they headed off to Skegness to race in the evening meeting there.   The first heat saw an early yellow flag with 560 Luke Wrench in trouble and 7 Gordon Moodie had already made it up to fifth place by then, having stormed through the pack.  He soon took the lead after the re-start and whilst there was another yellow flag when white graded drivers 749 Ben Aimson and 876 Mark Stevens came to grief by the pit gate, Moodie had it all in hand to take the victory and with it record the days fastest F2 lap too of 14.222 seconds.    Despite a large field of cars, heat two went all the way without the need for a caution flag and the rapid white graded drivers got away, with 544 James Rogers leading from flag to flag ahead of 719 Colin Smith and for Rogers it was his first victory at Northampton, having previously only tasted victory on one of his regular ‘away’ days to Taunton.    The consolation saw 39 cars on the grid and needed a complete re-start after 844 Darren Phillips’ bad week continued with a crash with 723 Snowy Crouch and then two further yellow flags, the first when 716 James Muckian tangled with 383 Jack Brown and almost cleared the plating and the second when 310 Gregg Smith had a fire under the bonnet.  8 Pete Hobbs had been the leader all through this, and without the yellow flags would have likely been the winner, but he lost out to 183 Mark Guinchard after the last resumption and he went on to win.  The Tommy Pitcher Memorial Trophy saw two non-starters.    Rogers lead the early stages until he gave way to 571 Darren Clarke who looked very rapid from the yellow grad.  A yellow flag on lap seven after several came together in a heap on turn four brought the pack close together, and put a lot of the star graded drivers much more into play, but Clarke held on nicely after the re-start.  445 Nigel Green was the one closing in all the while though and he moved ahead with Clarke deciding that discretion was the better part of valour with five laps to go.  Nigel’s namesake 115 Michael Green did chase him hard though and moved through into second, but 445 was clear enough on starting the last lap.  However, he almost needlessly got himself caught up in a spat going on between 768 Tom Adcroft and 779 Cameron Pugh on the very last corner, and was lucky not to tangle with both but held on for what was his fourth Final win in a row.   115 Green was second and Moodie made third to round out an RCE chassis top three in a race sponsored by RCE.    The Grand National saw 37 cars and the bad Good Friday for 749 Aimson continued when he hit the plating on turns three and four and rolled to bring out the yellow flags.   310 Smith and 544 Rogers disputed the lead after the re-start until 700 Adam Rubery moved ahead and he went on to hold off 154 Steve Green Jnr all the way to the chequered flag.    544 Rogers’ good day earned him the day’s best white grade award and with it a new Yokohama A021R tyre courtesy of Cyril Wilcox and Sons.

Saloon Stock Cars

The Saloon Stock Car entry looked like going through the roof in the weeks and days leading up to Good Friday, but cometh the day there were a few late cancellations and the record of 41 was matched, but never the less a stunning entry which appeared and just like the F2’s, all four corners of the UK were represented with 153 Ryan Wright being the furthest travelled all the way from Northern Ireland, as part of an Easter tour as well as nine from Scotland and all of the current Champions from the formula were present too.  The first heat saw a great battle for the front running spots between 120 Shane Brown, 401 Steve Webster, 698 Danny Colliver and 65 Ian Willis, with the bumpers flying in and places swapping and changing.  After plenty of side by side, it was Brown who got the break and went on to take the victory.  The second heat saw so much going on, and hard hits going in and that it was almost impossible to see it all.  But, what was apparent was that the star men were actually holding each other up in their frustration with each other and some rapid blue graded drivers who could, should, would and probably will be graded red getting away and even further down the road 6 Simon Welton was away and gone, as he picked up from where he left off at Arena Essex and went on to take a comfortable win.  800 Scott Greenslade, on his first tarmac appearance in a Saloon Stock Car was the early leader in heat three until he was caught and spun by Welton and although 916 Ross Thomas did keep him in his sights, the East Anglian once again held on for the victory.  The Final featured a huge grid of 40 cars which was an impressive sight and once again the big names faced a lot of work to get to the front.  Greenslade again set the early pace until he went missing in action and Welton once again took up the running and sailed off into the distance.  Behind though, once again there was so much going on with places swapping and changing, cars being spun and for 2 Paul Tuppen he was sent on a wild ‘wall of death’ around the plating behind being battered into submission well over half a lap later.   In the end, it was to be faultless hat-trick for Welton whilst 65 Willis made second and 698 Colliver was third.

National Hot Rods

The National Hot Rods reached round 12 of their World Championship qualifying series and there was a 32 car entry with all current top 20 in attendance, which is the cut off point for the World Final at Ipswich in July present.   The National Hot Rods are pretty much what could be termed as a travelling circus, but much like the Stock Cars, there were drivers present from all four corners of England, 72 Willie Hardie from Scotland and both 74 James and 874 Steven O’Shea from the Republic of Ireland.  The first two heats were both runaway wins with 67 David Brooks the first and 92 Jack Blood the second whilst it was fiercely competitive behind them, but notably largely clean too.   The third heat saw a great late charge from 60 Mark Paffey to catch and pass initial leaders 780 Mike Loosemore and 116 Steve Burrows to take a good victory.  The 35 lap Final saw Burrows make a very good start to leap ahead of both 10 Sam Holland and 67 Brooks at the green flag and from that point on he never looked back as he lead every lap, and after coming into the meeting ‘on the bubble’ in 20^th place in the chart, this was a much need victory and points haul.   27 Mikey Godfrey likewise was 24^th at the start of the day and he battled through to second to get some good points.  The one who overtook the most was probably Paffey and he made it through to third with another late burst, and it may have been at least one higher had he not been badly baulked by back marking traffic at one stage of the race.