| UPDATED : 5-9-07 8.30am |
|
Coventry, 29th June 2007
| |
|
Report by Paul Heath
Despite most of the country having had lots of rain all week I’m glad to report that Coventry had no rain on Friday. With 26 cars in the pits we looked set for a good nights racing. The biggest surprise of the evening had to be seeing Andy Henstock (65) in the pits spectating at his first race meeting since his terrible accident at Skeggy. I bet his neck support wasn’t as bright white by the end of the evening once the shale started flying. Andy was presented with the proceeds of collections and raffles from Buxton and Kings Lynn. He was also given a V8 T-Shirt. Amazingly, Andy is hoping to be given the all clear by the Doctors to allow him back racing ! Darren Summers was doing a great job of advertising the very smart new V8 T-shirts. I hope plenty of you bought them to show off around the raceways over the summer (I’m sure it will come soon). It was also good to see Chris Mellor back in the pits after a couple of years away. Also back racing was 147 Colin Taylor who has fully recovered from a broken ankle. 1 Chris Fort was at the wheel of the borrowed Mark Wright car and on a day licence was F2 driver 332 Mike Perkins in the Jamie Marson spare motor. Heat 1 26 cars for heat 1 as Colin Taylor 147 lead them away but by lap 2 Rob Scriven 117 had made his way to the front with 129 Paul Davies chasing the pair of them as they went into lap 3. Further back Marc Radforth 149 came under Jamie Marson 112 as they exited turn 2 and the pair tangled drifting across the track and clattering the fence. Radforth managed to scrape away but Marson was left side on to the traffic and was then collected by 179 Richard Arrowsmith, Marson was then clipped by Reg Smith in the 216 car and the race was suspended to clear the track and attend to Marson who had bitten his tongue. The resart saw 12 Micheal Scriven lead them away with 117 Rob behind with 184 Carl Boswell following with uncle Michael Boswell 328 running 4th. 575 Darren Cottrill was looking menacing in 5th. Michael Boswell made it by nephew Carl only to then be relegated by the youngster as the pair clashed on turns 1 and 2. This allowed Cottrill to also close and pass the duo and set off after the leaders. Michael Scriven still led but came upon 448 Martin Smith who duly got himself well crossed up in front of the leader and took them both onto the centre. 117 Scriven said than you very much and snatched the lead whilst son Michael untangled himself and rejoined. Before half way Kev Stuchbury 131 had to pull up with a lack of brakes and Dan Bradley 286 came to a halt on the centre off the back straight. As Dan was just undoing his belts he was clobbered at full race speed by Radforth who had tangled with 184 Boswell. The impact was enough to end Bradley’s night with a badly bent rear axle and spring assembly. Dan also required medical attention from St. Johns for a hard knock on his arm. 117 Scriven led into the closing stages with 575 Cottrill doing his best to catch the experienced veteran but Scriven outran the Superstar to bag the win proving his form at Kings Lynn 2 weeks ago was no fluke. 210 Matt Smith came home a good third with 328 Boswell 4th and Frankie Wainman taking 5th. Heat 2 25 cars made it out for heat 2 which was amazing considering the damage many cars received in the first heat. The only car not out was Dan Bradley, I think only a miracle would have got that car back out. .Rob Scriven 117 led them away but it wasn’t long before son Michael12 made his intentions clear barging his way past the 117 machine. This time he was determined it wasn’t going to go wrong. At the back Frankie 212 was on the move with Mark Allen 161 looking very strong. The race was brought under caution when 332 Mike Perkins made a move on 210 Matt Smith only for the pair to tangle as Perkins T-Boned Smith and they sat stranded on turns 1 and 2. Scriven led the restart and pulled out a good lead with Smiler 212 running 2nd. Allen bumpered his way past Cottrill and Stuchbury spun 473 Chris Bracher out. Cottrill and 117 Scriven then tangled and careered onto the centre and continued back onto the apex of turns 1 and 2 and on into the fence. Michael Scriven took the win despite Smiler’s best efforts with Allen 3rd, Boswell 184 4th and 355 Bryan Andrew 5th. Final 24 for the Final. 117 Scriven was away well again with Carl Boswell 184 going well. Within a matter of laps they were soon into the back markers which played into the hands of Scriven as his experience helped him pick his way though and by half way he had pulled out a quarter of a lap lead .Boswell half spun exiting turn 4 which allowed 12 Scriven by with Cottrill and Allen also in hot pursuit. It took Cottrill 5 laps or so to catch and muscle past the number 12 car who rattled the fence along the back straight and Allen also passed. Cottrill was winding the 575 car up but just couldn’t make ground on the flying Scriven who took the flag to bag his second win of the night to secure a family hat trick and ensure a return to blue grade. All this in a car that he confesses to not being happy with yet ! Another excellent night’s racing with a great turnout on a superbly prepared track. The only disappointment being the loss of the Grand National due to some incidents in the Banger support program and one of the Rebel racers receiving a heavy fencing which required his roof to be cut off.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||