Report: Mark Paulson

We were perhaps overdue a wet meeting at King’s Lynn and it came on Saturday (24 October) on a big night of BriSCA racing when the 140 cars in action still served up a treat for the crowd. The BriSCA Formula One Shoot Out reached its penultimate round and it couldn’t be a tighter at the top, but it was a man not in the running, King’s Lynn specialist Mick Sworder who took the main honours. His son Charlie then made it a night to remember for the family with victory in the Ministox Final. The BriSCA Formula Two final was claimed by Billy Webster, but the two title races for the F2s were earlier in the night – the Grand National Championship proved a popular success for Sam Wagner, while honours in the White & Yellow Grade Series Final went to Steve Wycherley.

BriSCA Formula One Stock Cars

The superb 50-car entry included nine Shoot Out drivers who were therefore split between the two heats in a full-format meeting after the opening race for White & Yellow graded drivers only. That raised an excellent 24 cars itself including shale debutant 555 Frankie Wainman Jr Jr who had a glimpse of the tricky conditions in his pre-meeting five laps under the watchful eye of the steward. He did in fact suffer a spin on the last of those five laps, so slippery was the track.

Wainman led them away, taking great care in the conditions, but 415 Russell Cooper moved ahead when Wainman ran wide, before the teenager suffered a couple of spins. 337 Dave Willis caught up with Cooper but then ran into trouble when he got caught up in a pile-up on the scoreboard bend and picked up a puncture. He held onto second though, behind Cooper and ahead of 215 Geoff Nickolls.

In heat one, 32 Chris Farnell, who had just lost the lead to 175 Karl Hawkins, spun and was collected by 143 Adam Bamford, leading to yellow flags. Hawkins then led until he and the pursuing 2 Paul Harrison and 515 Frankie Wainman Jr tangled with the delayed 421 Jack Aldridge on bend four. Wainman used that to take the lead and held off Harrison to the flag, with 16 Mat Newson completing the top three. Further back, 150 Mick Sworder had had a nightmare, spinning three times en route to a place in the consolation.

390 Stuart Smith Jr and 318 Rob Speak joined the list of illustrious casualties when they went into the fence together in heat two. Shoot Out leader 217 Lee Fairhurst also picked up damage and while he struggled on gamely for a while, eventually had to admit defeat. Out front, 444 PJ Lemons led the race before 313 Karl Roberts moved ahead, only to get caught out in a scoreboard bend pile-up. Lemons and 445 Nigel Green took up the running before tangling themselves on bend four, allowing 4 Dan Johnson through to take the win from Green and 152 Neil Scothern.

451 Martin Spiers, 127 Austin Moore and 338 Chris Brocksopp enjoyed spells in front in the consolation, which featured five Shoot Out drivers, before yellow flags came out around halfway, just as Speak had leant Smith into a parked car. The lined up third and fourth in the queue, behind Brocksopp and 462 Scott Davids who quickly moved into the lead on the resumption. Fairhurst and 212 Danny Wainman joined in Speak’s and Smith’s scrap, which saw Smith go into the fence with Fairhurst, and Speak put Wainman into the wall. All that left Brocksopp in the clear after Davids had dropped out, and while Speak reeled him in in the closing laps, he could only manage a nudge on the 338 machine as they exited bend four for the final time, Brocksopp holding on to win from Speak and Sworder. Danny Wainman, Smith and Fairhurst did all survive to qualify for the final, while young FWJJ just missed out in 11^th.

With the rain having finally just about stopped, some track grading was carried out prior to the final. It made the outside line less of a quagmire, but brought some of the wetter material back onto the inside, as time constraints meant track supremo Buster Chapman was limited in what he could do. Inexplicably, once all the cars were on track and ready to go, Johnson, Speak and Smith all returned to the pits to change tyres, having assessed the conditions. The gate was held for them, with the resulting delay putting the F2 (and possibly F1) grand nationals at risk if there were any further delays in the rest of the programme, giving them a significant advantage over the rest of the field.

When the race got underway, a pile-up amongst most of the Blue grade delayed many and let the lower graders get away, joined by Nigel Green, who had avoided the trouble. Copper enjoyed a brief spell in front before Sworder came through on the inside, while among the other ‘Shooters’ Junior Wainman retired and Smith suffered a spin. Sworder led from Green and Fairhurst who was then dumped into the sludge on the outside by Speak, losing a lot of time in the process. Speak had caught Green by the final bend. The Leicester man tried to fend off the inevitable challenge by running in deep and using one of the Hunters as a brake, but it went all wrong and he got stuck in the deep wet shale as several cars came past. So it was a comfortable win for Sworder, who celebrated with ‘donuts’, from Speak, Newson and Johnson.

The 27-car grand national featured two yellow flag caution periods, the first for a couple of cars on the home straight. The second came about when Smith tried to remove Speak on the scoreboard bend but went in very hard with him, seemingly taking most of the force himself. His engine continued to roar at full revs for a few seconds, signalling all was not well, but thankfully a groggy Stuart was soon able to exit the car under his own steam. Out front Lemons led until passed by Green who then reeled off the laps in impressive style to take the win. Sadly, it was removed when he failed to attend post-race scrutineering. That let Fairhurst inherit the win and salvage something from what had been a difficult meeting, with Johnson second, Danny Wainman third and Newson fourth.

All that left the Shoot Out points incredibly close going into Sheffield’s final round, with Fairhurst holding’s the slenderest of margins of just one point over Speak, with Johnson just one point further back. Danny Wainman, Stuart Smith and even right back to Newson in eight are still in contention ahead of the double-points finale.

BriSCA Formula Two Stock Cars

The 54-car turnout was split three-ways for the heats, two of which doubled-up as title races, giving a lucky few who had qualified for both two heats. The first was the track’s White & Yellow Grade Series Final, fielding 16 cars, the top eight of which would qualifying for the meeting final. 283 Gary Allen led away as 331 James Di-Giulio spun on the wet track, taking 630 Justin Parker with him, as 728 Carl Pilkington and H337 Dennis Tesselaar spun in sympathy. 26 Gary Ford took up the running and while Allen fought back, he only took himself wide, allowing several more through. Ford went wide around he spun Pilkington which let 662 Steve Wycherley into the lead before there were yellow flags to assist 449 Mark Dorrill who had spun on the home straight. That proved lucky for Ford who spun just after they came out, so he resumed second in the queue, behind Wycherley and ahead of the veteran 495 John Cayzer. While there was still three-quarters of the race to go at this stage, Wycherley didn’t look back, the former star grader calmly driving to the win from Ford and 177 Glenn Scott.

Heat two, from which the top eight would qualify, raised 17 cars that were ineligible for the two championship races. 524 Michael Wallbank led the early stages but 615 Josh Coleman was carving through the field from his red grade start. He was in the top three within just a few laps and hit the front on lap five, taking a comfortable win from 568 Shaun Login, whose car sounded very sick in the closing stages, and 744 Tom Smart.

Heat three doubled up as the Grand National Championship, which gridded as follows:

Top marks to the two front row men for their efforts – 100 George MacMillan Jr was letting his silver roof rival Chris Burgoyne have a much easier meeting at Cowdenbeath, while World Champion 101 Kelvyn Marshall was making his second appearance at the track since striking gold, this time at the wheel of the Wim Peeters car.

The rain had almost stopped as the race begun (it was a false dawn) but the track remained very wet and 225 Tony Blackburn spun on the first bend, causing carnage. That allowed MacMillan, Marshall, 823 Sam Wagner, 905 Rob Mitchell and 676 Neil Hooper to break free from the rest, although Westcountryman Hooper then also spun. The top four were having a good scrap with several place changes but it was shale expert Wagner who led from Mitchell and MacMillan when yellow flags came out to rescue 55 Courtney Finnikin who was stuck facing the traffic on the racing line of bend two. There were lapped cars between the front two and also after MacMillan, with local veteran 103 Carl Issitt in fourth, defending champion 606 Andrew Palmer in fifth and the delayed Marshall sixth. On the restart, Palmer was dumped into the outside sludge and dropped almost to the back as he recovered, while Issitt moved into third. He set about catching Mitchell and, when he did, pushed the 905 car into the deep, wet shale where it suffered a similar fate to Palmer. Issitt was looking the quickest car on the track and closed the gap to the leading Wagner, and was just in position to line up a move when the chequered flag fell. Wagner, so often the nearly man, was delighted with his win, celebrating with donuts. “About time I won something!” he told the crowd.

The consolation was led away by Allen until there were yellow flags for a third bend crash. On the restart, 289 James Waterfall, 871 Mark Simpson, 225 Tony Blackburn and the late-arriving 298 Jake Walker quickly moved ahead. Simpson moved in front, but Waterfall fought back before Blackburn took up the running. A yellow flag for Parker brought a shoot-out to the chequered flag in which Walker attempted a last-bend lunge on the leading Blackburn, only to delay both and allow Mitchell in for the win from 226 Billy Webster and the recovered Walker.

The 32-car final begun with Mitchell following in new champion Wagner, with several more then getting caught up. Simpson spun and was collected by Marshall which also took MacMillan wide. Out front, Ford led until he got caught up with the backmarking 995 Michael Lund, while yellow flags were required when Tesselaar and Marshall tangled on the home straight. From there, Webster controlled the final three laps, winning from Blackburn and Smart.

MacMillan was finally rewarded for his efforts with a fine drive to win the grand national (or technically, allcomers) from Blackburn and 556 James Joyce. That wasn’t quite enough for Blackburn to prevent Wagner taking the track championship title though, to end a successful day for the Middlesbrough man.

Ministox

The 36-car entry were split into two-thirds for their heats, the first of which was their White & Yellow Grade Series Final. That was dominated by 598 Lewis Taylor who won from 320 Bradley Bamford and 392 Lewis Evans. 

Thereafter, the big guns came to the fore, with 1 Courtney Witts seeking her third straight hat trick at the track. She wasn’t far from pulling it off either, but the run had to end at some point. Witts caught and passed 60 Matt Venables on the first bend of the final lap of heat two, almost unintentionally, as backmarking traffic left her little choice. That allowed Venables to attack her on the final bend, putting both cars in the deep, wet shale and allowing 183 Charlie Guninchard to sneak past for the win, from Witts, 152 Charlie Sworder and Venables.

Witts came out on top in heat three when she carved through the field very quickly, winning from Guinchard and Sworder. Witts and Sworder then hit the front in the final quickly again, but this time Sworder prevailed, with Witts and Venables completing the top three.