Kings Lynn - Sunday 10th September 2017

The day after the night before at the Adrian Flux Arena, saw the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars on duty following their World Championship and Saloon Stock Cars racing after their ORCi Championship.  There was a very Autumnal feeling in west Norfolk, but mercifully any rain in the air did hold off and as is sometimes the case with a ‘day after’ meeting, the action on track actually surpassed that of the previous day.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The number of BriSCA F2 Stock Cars booked to race on the Sunday was never going to be a precise science and indeed drivers and teams were still arriving at the Stadium just ten minutes before start time which made planning the meeting format difficult.  There was also the matter of rescheduling the O’er The Border Trophy that had to be postponed from the previous evening.  Ideally it could have been an additional race as the first race on the second day, but, who would have been in it?  Would it have featured the drivers who may have raced had it run on Saturday?  Plus when discussions were going on to decide such a thing, 50% of the drivers who ultimately raced had not arrived or had not signed in to do so.  More questions than answers and so whilst not ideal, the decision was made to run it as the first heat and we were open and honest that the split was manipulated as far as possible to include drivers from Saturday evening’s Final and naturally included winner 7 Gordon Moodie – who then came out in heat two anyway.  It was a regrettable but unavoidable situation.  As it was, it was a very good race well worthy of such a fine and long standing trophy and after two yellow flags, the first for H335 Rick de Graff in trouble and then a rollover for 527 James Riggall which set up a two lap dash re-start it was 995 Michael Lund that took the victory ahead of 377 Daz Shaw and 578 Mark Gibbs.  The second heat saw a larger grid, mainly down to the aforementioned late(r) arrivals and it was H929 Colin Schutter who took his first UK victory.  441 Micky Branston did just as he did the previous evening and took a consolation race win.  The Final was for the Duncan and Margaret Farrington Memorial Trophy and saw an early yellow flag after a spectacular crash with H29 Cor Schutter on top of the plating and the car of Moodie.  431 Andy Gibbs was the leader at the time of the yellow flag but retired at the re-start which put 55 Courtney Finnikin in the lead.  Courtney had to survive another yellow flag and a near miss when a backmarker spun across her path but she held on for a career first UK Final win, just keeping 377 Daz Shaw at bay whilst 225 Tony Blackburn made third.  Blackburn was in the wars for the second time over the weekend in the Grand National, for the Mick Whittle Motorsport Trophy which necessitated a yellow flag and it was 298 Jake Walker that came through to take the win and with it the magnificent trophy.

Saloon Stock Cars

The Saloon Stock Car entry was much the same as in the F2’s in that many had called it a weekend after Saturday, but even so, the majority were back again for more and with double prize money on offer they really did have it all to play for.  The first heat was for the White & Yellow graded drivers present and appeared all too easy for 161 Billy Smith whilst heat two saw the action ramped up as 499 David Aldous rolled 349 Michael Allard to bring out the yellow flags and then there was another for a small fire under the bonnet of 671 Ross Graham’s car.  The re-start didn’t go green which led to confusion and in it 220 Casey Engelstone was rolled.  The next time it did go green, but 399 Cole Atkins lost his lead and it was 641 Willie Skoyles who took the victory.  The third heat was a race where words simply wouldn’t do it justice with action literally all the way up to and indeed including the run down lap.  It was all behind Billy Smith though who took another win.  The Final was led off by 448 Martin Kibble until he was caught and passed by Smith.  A yellow flag with 951 Robert Mawhinney stranded did give the chance to close the gaps on Smith and although 570 Simon Venni did run him a little closer for a while Smith again disappeared off into the distance and made it a hat-trick of wins with Venni second and 730 Deane Mayes third.  Could Smith make it a rare 50 point day in the Allcomers?  The answer was yes.  In a race he described as a “walk in the park” he made it four wins from four on the day.