Report: Mark Paulson
Pics: Colin Casserley
Stock Car racing legend 318 Rob Speak took his second BriSCA Formula One World Championship crown on a night of high drama at the Adrian Flux Arena, King’s Lynn on Saturday, 19 September. Also in action were the Two-Litre Saloon Stock Cars, with local favourite 641 Willie Skoyles Jr claiming the Driver of the Year title.
BriSCA Formula One
On-track action for the big V8 monsters began with time trials for the overseas World Finalists to decide their grid positions. With the track getting appreciatively quicker as it dried, it was definitely an advantage to be among the last cars on track for the first run, while watering seemed to have even more of an effect on the second run which was in reverse order, with only the last three cars on track managing to improve their times. H240 Henk Jan Ronitz wound out fastest in his very racy sounding machine, with H226 Pieter van der Iest quick enough to join him on row three of the World Final grid.
The full times, in draw order were as follows:
No. Driver Run 1 Run 2 Pos
H228 Jan Roelof Wijbenga 18.341s 17.291s 6th
H61 Koen Maris 18.262s 16.836s 3rd
H65 Hans Baegen no time 18.491s 11th
H148 Sjeng Smidt Jr 17.798s 17.811s 9th
H27 Rutger Valk 17.791s 18.216s 8th
NZ118 Bryce Steiner 17.289s 18.486s 5th
NZ19 Kerry Remnant 16.912s 18.192s 4th
NZ92 Kyle Frazer 17.941s 19.505s 10th
H226 Pieter van der Iest 16.761s 18.510s 2nd
H240 Henk Jan Ronitz 16.374s 18.840s 1st
H113 Raymond van den Hadelkamp 17.461s 20.469s 7th
Two support heats began the meeting proper. Each featured 26 cars with the top eight qualifying for the meeting final. In the first, H54 Sierd de Vries led either side of a caution caused by H104 Jan Vrieswijk losing a wheel. H422 Marten Bijlsma then caught and passed de Vries to take the win, just holding off a fast-closing H595 Sander Borst, with H477 Martin Oudhuis completing a Dutch 1-2-3 ahead of World Final reserve 37 Chris Cowley.
Heat two was a little processional, with H604 Stefan van Rossem leading 316 Billy-Tom O’Connor and 207 Ben Hurdman from the early stages and throughout the rest of the race. 220 Will Hunter carved through the field and challenged for third on the final bend but couldn’t make it stick and had to settle for fourth.
After the World Final build-up and driver introductions, there was drama on the rolling laps as pole-sitter 318 Rob Speak couldn’t get his car to start. 515 Frankie Wainman Jr pushed it for an entire lap with no joy, before Speak hopped out and set about fixing the alternator-related issue and the start was aborted. He eventually did so and the grid reformed as follows:
Inside Row Outside
318 Rob Speak 1 390 Stuart Smith Jr
515 Frankie Wainman Jr 2 150 Mick Sworder
H240 Henk Jan Ronitz 3 H226 Pieter van der Iest
4 Dan Johnson 4 16 Mat Newson
445 Nigel Green 5 55 Craig Finnikin
H61 Koen Maris 6 NZ19 Kerry Remnant
212 Danny Wainman 7 217 Lee Fairhurst
2 Paul Harrison 8 259 Paul Hines
NZ118 Bryce Steiner 9 H228 Jan Roelof Wijbenga
512 Michael Steward 10 51 Dylan Williams-Maynard
191 Josh Smith 11 84 Tom Harris
H113 Raymond van den Hadelkamp 12 H27 Rutger Valk
21 Mark Gilbank 13 338 Chris Broksopp
463 James Morris 14 421 Jack Aldridge
321 Ed Neachell 15 53 John Lund
H148 Sjeng Smidt Jr 16 NZ92 Kyle Frazer
H65 Hans Baegen 17 H21 Jeroen Wekema
H29 Durk Greidanus 18 H161 Tom Maris
H161 Tom Maris also stalled at the next attempt but the race eventually got away, with defending champion 55 Craig Finnikin and the winner last time the event was held at King’s Lynn 84 Tom Harris both early casualties. Finnikin was blasted into the infield marker tyres at the end of the home straight by H61 Koen Maris. At the front, Speak led from 4 Dan Johnson, 445 Nigel Green and 390 Stuart Smith Jr.
All hell broke loose on the first bend of lap two with everyone piling in and Green and Smith coming off worst, both being tipped over. Red flags came out and a complete restart called, with 15 minutes repair time allowed. Amazingly, almost everyone managed to complete repairs, including the reprieved Finnikin and Harris, with only Green and New Zealanders NZ19 Kerry Remnant and NZ92 Kyle Frazer missing out. It looked like Smith wouldn’t be able to get his car to start but with the help of a tractor he eventually did, much to the crowd’s delight.
Speak led away the restart from 515 Frankie Wainman Jr, Johnson and 16 Mat Newson but a roll for 2 Paul Harrison on the exit of bend two necessitated more red flags. This time, however, the race order was kept. 150 Mick Sworder and van der Iest were further retirements, and Ronitz was excluded from taking the restart after the damage to his bumper left it insufficient.
Speak initially pulled clear of Wainman before the latter started to close back in, while Newson overhauled Johnson and Finnikin clung onto the lead pack. Then the fun started amongst the leaders with multiple hits going in and resulting positional changes in a very exciting spell of the race. Each of the chasing trio behind Speak had spells in second position but none were able to overhaul the #318. His biggest scare came when he was clipped by the backmarking 463 James Morris but Speak survived that too to maintain the lead. Wainman dumped Newson into a parked car to resume in second before the complexion of the race changed when 51 Dylan Williams-Maynard suffered a stuck throttle and thundered into the parked car of NZ118 Bryce Steiner on the scoreboard bend at unabated speed, launching the New Zealander’s car high into the air. Yellow flags were called and it quickly became apparent that all was not well with Williams-Maynard who had suffered a severely smashed kneecap in the incident. Some 90 minutes or so were spent carefully extracting the stricken driver from his car before the race could resume.
By this stage, just 10 cars were left running with 10 laps to go, with Finnikin and 53 John Lund having also joined the retirement list. Wainman quickly cleared the lapped car between himself and the leader but was unable to do anything about the Manchester man in front, who reeled off the remaining laps to strike gold for the 10th time in his career spanning Formula One and Formula Two Stock Cars. Wainman and Newson completed the podium places, with celebrations understandably a little flat.
RESULT:
1 318 Rob Speak
2 515 Frankie Wainman Jr
3 16 Mat Newson
4 4 Dan Johnson
5 H148 Sjeng Smidt Jr
6 191 Josh Smith
7 338 Chris Broksopp
8 H27 Rutger Valk
9 H65 Hans Baegen
10 H29 Durk Greidanus
After such significant delays, the remaining program had to be cut short, with just a single consolation and the meeting final run for the F1s. The bad luck that had seemed to strike the meeting didn’t end there though, with two further incidents overshadowing proceedings which thankfully did not result in any significant injuries.
H155 Pieter Langeveld won the consolation from 421 Jack Aldridge and 45 Nigel Harrhy, before Newson – for the second time in three years – took the meeting final for the Harry Smith Memorial Cup, heading home Wainman and Finnikin.
Saloon Stock Cars
The biggest race of the day for the Saloons was their Driver of the Year, staged before the overseas’ F1 drivers lap trials. With a system of weighted scoring by grade applied to the season-long qualifying campaign, the grid lined up as follows:
905 Wes Starmer 1 360 Carl Waterfield
499 David Aldous 2 304 Martyn Parker
306 Daniel Parker 3 570 Simon Venni
128 Craig Banwell 4 349 Michael Allard
217 Sid Madgwick 5 (144 Daniel Bullock – DNS)
730 Deane Mayes 6 538 Jake Swann
641 Willie Skoyles Jr 7 912 Andi Newman
26 Tommy Barnes 8 214 Tom Yould
218 Jacob Downey 9 591 Aaron Morris
350 Thomas Parrin 10 220 Casey Englestone
321 Marcus Skeels 11 6 Simon Welton
600 Barry Russell 12 157 Max Stott
177 Chris Masters 13 74 Tam Tweedie
4 Paul Brown 14 158 Shane Davies
84 Carl Boswell 15 131 Timmy Barnes
174 James Reid 16 389 Ryan Santry
998 Wayne Cottrill Jr 17 270 Matt Fuller
428 Lee Sampson 18 312 Neil Payne
525 Wes Starmer led them away, but 499 David Aldous soon slipped inside with 360 Carl Waterfield following into second, only to lose out again. 570 Simon Venni and 641 Willie Skoyles Jr then came through into second and third, and from there the crowd was treated to a magnificent stock car race. The leading trio scrapped hard throughout the race, with places changing hands on almost every bend. It was Skoyles that would eventually triumph, winning from Venni and Aldous after a superb battle which they obviously all enjoyed.
A heat race for the Saloons then took place before the F1 World Final. 270 Matt Fuller and 312 Neil Payne led the early stages before a caution period. After that, 321 Marcus Skeels quickly hit the front and went on to claim his fourth win in two meetings at the track, continue the fine form he has shown in his rookie season. 26 Tommy Barnes and 218 Jacob Downey followed him home.
The rest of the Saloons’ programme was also severely shortened, with just one further race, nominally the final, being run, which was claimed by 349 Michael Allard from Skoyles and 217 Sid Madgwick.
Congratulations go to Rob Speak and Willie Skoyles Jr on their successes, and our best wishes go to Dylan Williams-Maynard on his road to recovery.
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