Northampton International Raceway - Good Friday 29th March 2013

Words by Steve Linfield

Autospeed’s traditional Good Friday meeting at Northampton’s recently rebranded Pr1mo International Raceway once again produced the goods in terms of car numbers, with the pit area busy for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, Saloon Stock Cars and National Hot Rods.  It was amazing to think that this was our seventh running of the annual fixture here, and during that time we have faced all weathers from the very warm to this year being the very cold.  It was bitter, with snow drifts around the area from over a week earlier.  However, it was never the less dry and some fast racing and action ensued.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The BriSCA F2 Stock Cars entry was 53 cars, with unfortunately a few no shows from those that had booked but never the less this was still far and away the best tarmac entry of 2013 to date and included drivers from all four corners of the country and just about all points in-between and even more significantly a strong representation of lower graders with several on their track debut.  Prior to racing most of those eligible and present for the Young Guns and Teen Sensations championships gathered for the traditional photo call, for the launch of the 2013 campaign that will culminate at in the feature races at Smeatharpe on August 5.  Somehow there ended up being an uneven heat split, which resulted in the first heat being far lighter on cars than the second.   However, it was actually the first of them that saw an incident that brought out the yellow flags when Autospeed southwest regulars 290 Jay Tomkins and 954 Jamie Beere tangled to a stop on the back straight.  The re-start saw 8 Pete Hobbs get into the lead and he pulled nicely clear en route to the flag, which was fairly apt given his car carries sponsorship from the Pr1mo energy drink that now gives the venue its name.   The second heat saw 184 Aaron Vaight lead until he was passed by 101 Kelvyn Whalley and despite a spirited charge from World Champion 1 Micky Brennan, he held on for the victory.  7 Gordon Moodie had retired on the opening lap of his heat, thus had to go through the consolation and his day looked like getting worse when he tangled up and fell way down the order at one point, but was able to fight his way back through and eventually it was reigning track champion 115 Michael Green who went on to take the win.  There were two non-starters for the annual Tommy Pitcher Memorial trophy Final, sponsored by RCE, but this still left a large 34 car grid to do battle.   Newcomer 846 Ashley England headed them off and very quickly opened out a big lead.  However this was whittled to nothing when 102 Willie Draeger’s engine blew with such a force it resulted in a fire, which needless to say brought out the yellow flags.  England’s lead looked precarious at the resumption, but once again he led them off and pulled further a further clear, looking as if he had been racing BriSCA F2 for years and this was his debut meeting!  It was Vaight who gave chase for much of the way, but he was later passed by 115 Green who in turn had Moodie bearing down on him.  But none of them could do anything about England who took the surprise win of the season so far.  Moodie executed a last bend move on Green to take second.   The Grand National saw an early yellow flag when 529 Paul Barker was sent hurtling into the plating on turns one and two.  The re-start did not go much further when two totally separate crashes  happened at the same time.  Firstly 270 Mark Gibbs and 560 Luke Wrench tangled on the back straight and Gibbs was collected by England, and 783 James Rygor rolled on the home straight.  76 Chris Rowe was the long-time leader when they did get going but was passed by Whalley who went on to hold off Brennan once again for his second win of the afternoon. England’s superb debut 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 hitting and passing the record 41 car mark for the meeting in the days leading up, but much like the F2’s there were several no-shows from those that had booked to appear and it ended up at 40 cars.  Still excellent of course and featured drivers from all over the United Kingdom, but that joint record of 2007 and 2012 still stands…  The entry included a welcome and almost surprise return for former World Champion 116 ‘Diggy’ Smith and also the first appearance of the season for English and European Champion 120 Shane Brown in a  brand new car.   He very nearly steered it to a win in its very first race too, as only 460 Cliff Friend finished ahead of him.  The second heat saw Scot 611 Adam Low and 20 Craig Rose hold sway at the front until Low forged ahead.  But behind, World Champion 1 Eddie Darby was storming through and he was in a position to pounce on the last bend.  However, to his credit the white graded leader held on to win by the most slender of margins – 00.013 of a second to be precise!   After two white graded winners it was a return to the star graders to come through in the third heat when 402 Shaun Webster beat home Darby to the flag.   With 30 cars on track for the Final and the three quick white graded drivers of Friend, Rose and Low were always going to take some catching, especially with such a large contingent of blue and red graded drivers.   Low and Rose both took turns in leading, until Rose was spun away and then Friend hit the front and never looked back.  Darby started to close in once he got up to second, but never near enough to be able to attempt a lunge for victory.  Thus it was Friend’s first Final win, Darby was second and having taken a hat-trick of wins from the yellow grade at the meeting last year, 6 Simon Welton continued his liking for the track by taking third place.
Unfortunately, Friend then failed post-race scrutineering, on a carburettor infringement, which saw him excluded from the day's results.  Thus, Brown did indeed inherit the win in the opening heat, and Darby was confirmed as the Good Friday final winner.

National Hot Rods

The National Hot Rods reached round 12 of their World Championship qualifying round series and only one of the current top 20 in the standings was not present, and with proceedings now well into their second half heading towards Ipswich in July, there was everything to go for.   The recently returned 42 Shane Bland hit the front in heat one, but was reeled in by 444 Sammy Shuddall over the closing laps who then mounted a real challenge and the pair charged to the line side by side with Bland just holding on.   The second heat looked like it was going to be much more straight forward as Shuddall got into the lead and pulled clear.  However, when 27 Mikey Godfrey spun across the track on the back straight a yellow flag was required.  This bunched the pack up and at the re-start Sammy found himself under real pressure from just about all, but most notably 31 Dick Hillard and the veteran driver just failed to beat Shuddall as they ran to the line.   The third heat saw 155 Lee Pepper lead pretty much all the way to the flag to record what was a rare win for himself.   This all set the scene for the Final.  The top three on the day thus far in Scot 117 Rob McDonald, Bland and Shuddall were introduced one by one as they took their places in the line-up.   It was 152 Shaun Taylor who led the field away along with Pepper and these two proved to be hard for the others to get by.  Shuddall was the first to do so, and then in a real mix up of places some laps later 39 Terry Hunn did the same but by then Shuddall was a long way clear.   Both Pepper and Taylor fought hard to hold on to their places behind.  However, it was not all over, as the ultimate result was to be decided in race control.  It was declared that Shuddall had used contact to make his move earlier in the race and he was therefore docked two places.  Thus Hunn inherited the win with Pepper promoted to second, completing his best day for some time and Shuddall was third, having taken his punishment commendably.