The Autospeed on Tour weekend landed at Skegness Raceway to sunny but breezy East Coast conditions.  In a change to previous runnings of the weekend, the BriSCA Micro F2s were not in attendance and the newly-adopted Autospeed formula of Old Skool Superstox were given a weekend of racing which is within the catchment area of many of the active drivers.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

A total of 49 drivers raced on the first day of the weekend in a full-format meeting where the top ten in the heats and consolation were heading for a planned 30-car Final.  The opening heat had 26 cars on track and saw the white grade mostly making decent starts to the race.  111 Charlie Payton, in particular, was making good headway and establishing a bit of a margin of comfort in the lead.  546 Charlie Folan was an unforced spinner in the early laps with the fortunes of the rest of the yellows seeing 88 Luke Grimer emerge as a frontrunner to chase the leading Payton whilst 931 Rebecca Smith was forced off line by the rest of the pack and lost time.  Her fortunes got significantly worse as she turned sharp right entering turn one and hit the plating very hard although it was unclear if she took a hit entering the corner or if it was perhaps a dive at 155 Archie Grindey that went wrong.  Yellows out for Smith at the half-way point of the race.  The restart was easy pickings for 992 Harley Burns who came from third in the single file to take up the lead within the first 20 seconds of the resumption of racing.  Grimer sadly lost out on a qualifying place by spinning in the last bend.  Heat two featured the remaining 23 cars and saw a clean but competitive battle for the lead in the early stages between 543 Conner Blake and 454 Ryan Gardiner although 960 Aidy Whitehead arrived to split the two of them, after which Blake dropped back quickly in the order.  Whitehead progressed to the lead by lap six and never looked back.  Pick of the incidents in the closing five laps was 890 Paul Rice borrowing some kerb into turn one to rattle 220 Freddie Hunter-Johnson into the plating although both were a few places outside the qualifying positions at the time of the exchange of fire.  Freddie repaid the hit a lap later whilst 228 Jack Bowman didn’t quite get close enough to make a last-bend challenge on Whitehead who took the chequered.  The consolation gridded 27 cars and saw 267 Robbie Batten hold a brief lead until Rebecca Smith who had started towards the back of the yellow grade stormed through to take up the running on the third lap.  As this change happened, just behind them there was an exchange of bumpers into turn one from 376 Daz Seneschall on 770 Austin Farrell which slowed the 376 car enough to cause 359 Gary Wrench to spin in avoidance just behind them.  405 Josh Hamstead clattered Wrench hard and Grimer bounced off the two cars and the inside marker tyres but somehow kept his car pointing forwards.  Smith found herself in heavy backmarking traffic over the last three laps of the race but 727 Luke Syrett-Barsby never looked like he would close enough to make a challenge for victory.  Following a late review and change to the consolation result, 11 qualifiers were taken forward and so 31 cars contested the meeting Final.  Bowman found the fence early on and 482 Dale Seneschall took out Hunter-Johnson leaving the latter against the turn two plating facing the traffic.  All was well for a lap or so until 926 Josh Wilson was fired in on turn one and bounced round the wall to hit Freddie on the front bumper.  No stoppage was required.  The early leader was 111 Payton once again and he remained at the front until lap eight when 931 Smith made an unchallenged pass on the inside line.  Soon afterwards, 50 Ethan Gemmell clambered all over the bonnet of Rice in turn two but both survived the encounter.  The closing laps were all about 101 Kelvyn Marshall reeling in Smith and he used the bumper to move the leader wide in turn one a lap from the end.  The podium therefore had Marshall on the top step ahead of Smith and 355 Aidan Grindey.  A bumper field of 40 cars contested the Grand National and saw 238 Lewis Smith, Dale Seneschall and 483 Andrew Seneschall all crash out in turn four at the drop of the green.  27 Kieren Bradford and Daz Seneschall clattered into Dale and became entangled with the yellows coming out to separate their cars although Bowman also piled into the back of Bradford before calm was established.  As racing resumed, it was Payton once again making the pace at the front although he mysteriously slowed a few laps into the race and disappeared out of the top ten.  Grimer took up the running on lap six, shortly before 8 Jimi Marshall launched 926 Josh Wilson into the turn three plating and another change came before half way as Syrett-Barsby moved ahead of Grimer in time for the half-way marker in the race.  The second half of the race was calmer and only punctuated by a white top squabble in the minor placings where Gardiner ran in 231 Bradley Clayton on turn one.  Syrett-Barsby carried on taking the chequered to close a fast and fair day of F2 action.

ORCi Ministox

The Ministox competed in a series of four Heats on Saturday with each driver allocated the chance to race in three of them.  The 29 cars in attendance were accumulating points towards the grid for the UK Championship on the Sunday.  Heat one had 20 cars on track and saw a very early crash claim 22 Casey Lee with 27 Leo Rabone also involved.  The yellows came out to assist Lee and with barely any racing completed, a complete re-run was staged.  At the second attempt, 316 Lucas Forrester led a few laps before the first of the yellows, 550 Callum Herzig moved to the front of the field.  The blue grade made slow but continuous forward progress such that 480 Ollie Sime got to the front of the pack 5 laps from the end, but a last lap sort-out saw 557 Corey Mathers come though to take the victory.  There were 19 cars on track for Heat two which came very close to being a flag to flag victory for 990 Billy Rice.  However, the last lap proved to be another three-way battle with 505 Louie Herzig managing to get back ahead of 114 Charlie Lomas and pass Rice as well to take the flag.  There were 21 cars in Heat three which was by far the most chaotic of the evening.  Rice earned himself a dominant leading position in the opening laps with Lomas and Sime progressing quickly to lie in second and third places by lap four.  Lomas continued to pull clear in second place whilst one of the more entertaining battles further down the field saw 522 Jacob Mikulla clatter 511 Lexi Crosbie.  The race came apart on lap seven when 41 Lana Middler dived to the inside of 607 Bonnie Weston in turn three.  Weston span and trapped Middler behind her with the two cars drifting to the outside line where pretty much the entire red grade piled into them for a near track blockage.  The yellows came out to assist 136 Shaun Boyle who had taken the worst of the pounding in the heap of cars.  On the restart, Rice lost his nerve a bit and pulled wide leaving Sime to come to the front of the pack, but he only remained in charge for a single lap before 475 Mason Sealy came through cleanly.  Action a couple of laps from the end saw 257 Kieran Hibberd spin Callum Herzig on the back straight.  Sealy took the win whilst a last corner lunge saw Mikulla try again and plant 618 Stuart Shevill Jnr Jnr into Crosbie, but the order of the three cars remained unchanged to the finishing line.  There were 23 cars on track for the last Heat making it the busiest race of the meeting, helped in part by 796 Cody Wilson making his first appearance on track.  Forrester was the leading white top for the opening moments of the race and was helped briefly by Rice spinning out 151 Ryan Hookway leaving him in the turn two fence with 770 Delilah Farrell also finding the wall a few metres before Hookway.  All was going fine until Cody Wilson drifted wide in the corner and skimmed the Farrell car which turned him to crash into Hookway.  117 Max Starr span whilst trying to avoid the unfolding incident and the yellow flags were then required as Farrell wanted assistance.  The restart saw Rice once again pull wide to avoid too much attention from the pack whilst Sime span out Forrester in turn two leaving the latter to be collected by 874 Ben McLellan.  More spins saw Louie Herzig remove 575 Caden Clark in turn four forcing 476 Jack Wadling to hit the infield tyres in avoidance.  By lap six, the leading Callum Herzig had Sime in close contention and once Sime passed him, the gap behind the new leader opened up quickly.  The second half of the race was all about Mathers reeling in Sime.  McLellan lost out on a top five finish when his car died three laps from home and Mathers got his chance two laps from the finish when Sime got caught behind the backmarking Cody Wilson.  The hit from Mathers on Sime sent Wilson into the turn four plating but didn’t give Mathers a gap to move to the front and so Sime continued to take the win.

ORCi Stock Rods

The Stock Rods ran the exact same format as the Ministox and whilst there were 30 cars in the pits, 606 Kielan Ogilvie suffered terminal engine damage in practice and was unable to start a race in the main meeting.  21 cars started the opening heat and saw a slightly smoky start for 514 Sherrie Downey who pulled wide to let the traffic through whilst 671 Ross Graham was a complete retiree from the race within the first lap.  944 Callum Hosie led briefly before 216 Cameron Doak rocketed through from row three of the draw to move up the inside and take up the lead.  From this point forwards, this was an example of a drawn grid that didn’t produce much of a race.  Doak continued to victory with the top four places not changing from lap 2 to the chequered flag and only 914 Callum Faulconbridge made up a couple of positions to finish in fifth.  Heat two had 22 starters and saw Graham lead the way from the front row although there was more going on behind in this race with Doak and 351 Rhys Langdown making good forward progress from the bottom end of the grid and Hosie likewise although he seemed to get stuck after making up a few places.  Just after halfway, 220 Richard Short was taken around on the exit of turn four.  Short went into the corner a bit hot and ran wide, then cutting back to the inside on the exit of the corner as his momentum dropped but getting in the way of 204 Georgie Polley who didn’t lift off for the slower car…  The race was decided three laps from the end when Graham locked up into Turn Three and drifted very wide, tagging the unfortunate Short in the process, allowing 165 Jamie Dawson through for victory.  Down to 19 cars in Heat three, where the early laps saw a low-speed clash between 77 Tom Larcombe and 111 Olly Bryant as the latter tried to reach the infield after suffering a puncture in a rubbing incident mid-pack.  There were yellows as early as lap two after four-wide down the back straight was proved not to work and 285 Martin Walker, 320 Matt Hatch and 913 Ben Faulconbridge all tangled and ended up in the back straight wall.  On the restart, 83 Mike Bethune disappeared into an unassailable lead as second-placed 275 Jeremy Hatch sacrificed some pace to keep it tidy and defend from Doak behind him.  In the queue that formed behind, 911 Harrison Bryant and Callum Faulconbridge were a bit aggressive with each-other and both were penalised for excessive contact in the result.  Faulconbridge tried the outside line in the closing laps to break the deadlock and did pass Doak, but then two laps from home he locked wheel arches in turn four with 275 Hatch dragging both of them off line resulting in the 914 car glancing the wall.  Bethune won by a large margin.  The last heat fielded 20 cars and saw front-row starter 287 Mark Hatch retire early with a bad misfire, whilst pole-sitter Larcombe led for the first lap or so before succumbing to the early pace of Callum Faulconbridge from row two.  Larcombe also had Langdown and Bethune pass him soon after before settling well into fourth place.  Further back, Matt Hatch went around on the back straight in a clash with 51 Aiden Vincent which initially resulted in a penalty for Vincent until further review concluded later that the incident was more a result of general lane discipline issues in the pack.  In the second half of the race, Larcombe was caught by 617 Christina Sillifant and once she found a gap to move ahead of the 77 car, Larcombe became boxed out on the outside line and fell several places.  Faulconbridge took a comfortable victory.

Old Skool Superstox

A dozen Old Skool Superstox gathered for their weekend of racing with plenty of the cars being recognisable as replicas of well-known drivers from the 70s and 80s.  There were a few guest drivers in the formula which made the graded starts difficult to judge for the formula organisers.  Heat one became quite strung out because of this although there was no denying that the victory for 254 Simon Fixter was certainly a deserved outcome.  532 Matthew Simmons was the hard luck story of the race as he spun out into the tyres on the last lap on the back straight and was unable to rejoin.  One or two mechanical gremlins meant that Heat two was reduced to 10 drivers and a revision of the grid resulted in the first pack of cars being reduced from 6 to 3 cars which made for a better-handicapped race overall.  417 Richard Hamphire came from the second pack to lead the way by lap three, but the real interest was in tracking the progress of 380 Jon Evans and 546 Matthew Gray from the back of the field.  Evans made it all the way into the lead on lap eight whilst Gray was right on the tail of third and fourth in the last lap but just ran out of time to make a challenge.  Evans won from Hampshire and 255 Lee Southon.  Back up to 11 cars for the Final where 721 David Colman from the front pack showed much better pace than in the heats to lead the opening laps until he got caught up with the first of the backmarkers on track and 80 Jamie Evans took up the running.  Colman then ran wide clipping the fence dropping much further down the running order.  Southon and Fixter were running together and climbed to second and third until Gray reeled them in and took the long outside line to move up to second place, three laps from the end.  Hampshire threw away fifth place with a late spin onto the kerb off turn four and rejoined amongst the leaders but without affecting the result.  Jamie Evans won ahead of Gray and Southon.