Buxton, 8th July 2007
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Report by Paul Heath
For the third and final
time this year the V8s visited Dave Pierce's Buxton
Raceway and yet again the weather was good. I can only
assume Dave has got someone watching out for him
upstairs.
Making his debut in V8 Hotstox was Cleckheaton's James Bower (251) racing the ex Shayne Moorcroft car and a tidy job James has made of the car. Unfortunately the day proved fruitless with the car trailered after heat two. 388 Pete Davenport is no stranger to the formula having reached the dizzy heights of Red roof back in the 80's. Pete has purchased the ex Andy Craven 313 car and promptly tore the diff up in a practice session the day before. A spare diff was fitted although it was a longer gear so Pete elected to start from the back to get reacquainted with racing. An excellent effort by team 373 saw the re-caged Rob Hartley car back in action, fully signwritten just 3 weeks after doing a whole heap of damage to the car at Kings Lynn. A truly superb effort ! Another driver making a terrific effort to get his car repaired and raceable was 286 Dan Bradley who managed to fit a new back axle after bending the old one at Coventry the week before. A lot of people can easily overlook the efforts of the teams to get the cars ready week in week out. Well done lads. Chris Fort was again at the wheel of the Mark Wright car as he endeavours to whip it into a raceworthy shape and 113 Neil Stuchbury decided to make a surprise appearance in brother Kevin's shale car partly to help sort some braking issues. A thought must be spared for 161 Mark Allen who barely turned a wheel in anger with a badly misfiring engine. Heat 1
147 Colin Taylor was first
away from the front of the pack with Jay Kellet 439 and
Paul Stevens 430 battling for second and third whilst
Rob Shackleton 315 pulled clear from the yellows. The
first few laps saw plenty of jostling at the back of the
pack with Chris Fort 1 making his way through quickly
along with Bryan Andrew 355. By half way Taylor was
still out in front with Kellet closing in and Frankie
Wainman 212 now breathing down their necks with Andrew
and Fort just a couple of car lengths behind. Andrew
barged his way though to the lead with Wainman second. A
lap later saw Stutchbury 113 pick up a puncture on the
start finish straight resulting in him hitting the 147
Taylor car, climbing over it. then spinning in
the middle of the bend only to be collected by the
ensuing pack and pushed backwards into the back straight
collecting brother Kevin in the 131 machine which put
paid to his challenge for the lead. Matt Smith was also
caught up but Brayn Andrew managed to squeeze by and
hold on over the last few laps to secure the win.
Heat 2
Taylor was again away first
in what appears to be a quick car if he he can get it to
corner better, he certainly takes some catching. Turn
one saw Rob Shackleton come in a bit fast resulting in
him going straight into the fence hard. On the 4th lap
373 Hartley tangled with Karl Bradley on the back
staight spinning to cause a bit of mayhem. Karl then
carried only to finish up perched on the infield tyres
coming off turn 4 with what turned out to be a broken
drop arm leavin Karl with no steering. Hartley managed
to make a quick recovery and continued on his merry way.
Jay Kellet led from Tom Conwell 240 and 212 Wainman. 575
Darren Cottrill got a good start making good headway as
back up front Kellet lost his lead to Kev Stuchbury just
after half way with Wainman, Cottrill and Andrew pushing
hard behind. Stuchbury went on to take a good victory
with some good battling going on behind providing the
crowd with plenty to watch. Jay Kellet must be getting
sick of waved yellows as every time he gets away well
one pops up to halt his progress.
Final
Colin Taylor led them away
with Kellet, Wainman and Hartley all making good
progress. Bryan Andrew got a flyer from the rear
catching many out around him. Within a few laps Chris
Fort had made amazing progress and was running 4th
passing Hartley. Karl Bradley and Tom Conwell 240 took a
trip to the fence on turns 3 and 4 resulting in Karl
requiring attention. Thankfully Karl managed to make his
own way onto the infield and into the back of the
Ambulance for the St. Johns crew to check him over.
Brother Dan pulled out of the line of cars to check on
Karl who emerged with no bits missing after his
encounter with the Buxton fence.
The restart saw Kellet away
from Taylor and Wainman with Wainman forcing Taylor wide
only for Fort to sneak up the inside of the pair of them
and then pass Kellett for the lead 2 laps later.
Stutchbury, Cottrill and Andrew were all having a good
battle in Stuchbury's wake with Frankie not letting them
get too far away. As the lap boards came out Stutchbury
began visibly reeling Fort in. Both drivers looked like
they were preparing for a last bender with Stuchbury
tailing Fort who looked fairly comfortable under the
pressure. Sure enough, come the last lap Fort tried to
put as much air between himself and Stuchbury whilst
Stuchbury got out wide in readiness for a late lunge.
Fort took the corner deep as Stuchbury left it all on
and made contact which did enough to have Fort sideways
but whilst Stuch slid off the back of the number 1 car
and scuttle around the fence, Fort escaped and made the
short stretch to the flag in sideways fashion - a superb
finish to a good final. Chris has admitted that the Mark
Wright car is slowly starting to handle but warns that
there is more to be squeezed out of it yet !
Stuch made it in 2nd with Cottrill coming home 3rd. Late on in the race 473 Chris Bracher came under serious pressure from Neil Stuchbury going into turns 3 and 4. Stuchbury made contact on the 437 bumper sending Bracher into a spin and up onto the infield banking to end a pretty fruitless day for the Leicestershire young gun. 
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