Won 3 Won

A long trip up the A1 for team 281 for round 1 of the Northern and Midland Championship. The weather looked ok as we made our way through the very picturesque Barnard Castle. Amazingly not a drop of rain fell all day.

15 cars made the trip although 313 Andy Craven broke his prop shaft in practice and spent the best part of the day trying to find a replacement or ringing around to get a spare but to no avail and the unlucky Silsden man had to give in and took no part in the meeting as did Nigel Parker who's new car continues to attract great attention in the pits. A head gasket forced Nigel to park the car up.

Heat 1

11 cars made the grid as Chris Fort and Frankie Wainman couldn't get unloaded in time. A couple of notable entrants including Marc Radforth out in the borrowed Richard Arrowsmith car and newcomer 286 Dan Bradley in the ex Neil Fry car which was purchased on Thursday night ! Even more amazing was the fact that Dan has seen stock cars once. More on him later. 112 Jamie Marson led them away and established a healthy lead whilst Kev Stuchbury pulled clear of the rest of the Reds / Superstars and left them to fight amongst themselves. They duly obliged with 210 Matt Smith, 149 Marc Radforth and 161 Mark Allen tangling on the pits turn which put them all a lap down. Meanwhile the afore mentioned Stuchbury had caught and passed everyone bar the leading Marson. 356 Mark Wright fenced Bradley who backed out and carried on regardless although he suffered a couple of spins for his troubles before the end of the race.  281 Lee Summers had had a quiet race and was running third. Radforth's car was sounding sick and it was no surprise when he pulled off. Up front Stuchbury had passed Marson and duly recorded the victory with 112 a good 2nd. Summers came home 3rd but was scored as 5th. Allen and Smith being given 3rd and 4th with 331 Dave Hobbs placing 6th. Dan Bradley and Leighann Wright scoring their first ever Hotstox points in 8th and 10th respectively.

Heat 2

Again, 11 cars gridded with Radforth loaded up with his cooling fan now living in the radiator and Summers having curbed the motor had an unhealthy oil leak which meant the end of his day and the end of his partnership with his car as it was sold to Neil Fry. Lee's bottom lip quivered and remained about an inch from the floor for the rest of the weekend ! Chris Fort was at the wheel of Frankenstockcar whilst 212 Frankie debuted his recent acquisition - the ex Colin Taylor machine. Again Stuchbury made short work of it and took the win. Elsewhere the amazing Dan Bradley was certainly enjoying himself and managed to launch himself off the curb and got some serious air time with all four wheels off the deck ! He still managed to bring it home in 7th ! Marson recorded a good 3rd with Allen taking 2nd to Stuchbury.

Final

8 cars made the final with Wainman seizing his diff, Mark Wright out for the day with brake problems and Leighann Wright failing to make the gate with no cars left to give her a push. No disrespect to Kev Stuchbury - he was flying and took an easy win. The real race was for 2nd and 3rd and refreshingly it was between two white tops Jamie Marson and 373 Rob Hartley. Marson's car was suffering with a loose rear end and Hartley had  steadily reeled him in and passed him into turns 3 and 4. Marson tucked in behind and tried to dislodge Hartley at the first opportunity but didn't get enough on him. Hartley showed amazing maturity to stay ahead of Marson who was in close proximity. Marson lined himself up for a last bender but just couldn't get the power down coming out of turn 2 and lost ground. Hartley secured 2nd with Marson in 3rd. Chris Fort came off worst in a fight with the fence along the back straight which ended his day having banged his knee up.

 

GN

8 again for the National with Marson making no mistake in getting ahead and staying ahead of sparring partner Hartley all the way to the flag. Final winner Stuchbury returned to 4th to earn double points and end the day with 63 points in his net and half a hand on the Northern and Midland title. He was not going to contest the 2nd round at Sheffield so he would have to wait and see if he could manage to win it on a single day's racing.

During the weeks leading up to this meeting it looked like we were going to get a healthy turnout. Unfortunately the Hotstox's most northerly outpost failed to attract enough cars to really impress. Once again it was those making the longest journeys that made the show whilst more local drivers stayed away. Even the temptation of a next day show down the road at Sheffield wasn't enough to entice those that feel Barford on its own is too far. The real shame of it is that one feels that if we had 20 cars, it would provide one heck of a meeting and therefore perhaps making a lasting impression on those that were watching which included 20 plus ministox. You have to wonder if the youngsters would have felt the Hotstox did enough to catch their eye ?.
 

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