Report by Mark Paulson

Pictures by Damien Widdows

Local rookie 344 Ross Fisher capped a terrific debut season by being crowned World Champion in the 1300cc Saloon Stock Cars at the Norfolk Arena, King’s Lynn on Saturday night, 17 August. Having earned pole position with a superb qualifying campaign in this, his debut season, Fisher made full use of it to roar to victory in an accomplished performance. With King’s Lynn staging the formula’s biggest race for the first time in its history, the other local drivers found things much tougher. The visiting Spedeworth drivers put on an excellent display, with 371 Mark Bloss and 713 Ian Beaumont completing the podium in the big race. Supporting the stox was the annual outing for Pre-1970 Bangers where some superb classics ended their days in style and the drivers reminded us of what Banger racing used to be like. Rover P5-mounted 67 Mark Whittaker claimed the final in the Unlimited Class while young Scotsman 229 Sean Riddell repeated his 2012 success in the 2-Litre category, driving an Austin Maxi.

1300 Saloon Stox

With a record field of almost 50 cars present, two final places on the grid for the 1300 World were up for grabs in the last chance race which kicked off proceedings. For much of the race it looked like they would both be going to lower grade drivers. 818 Lewis O’Keefe immediately jumped into the lead but his race came to a halt shortly after 49 Sarah Taylor moved ahead. She then had an excellent battle with yellow top 377 Dean Whitwell as they passed and re-passed each other. Veteran 276 Stephen Walden began to close on the pair but was half-spun by the lapped 312 Jamie Jackson. The latter ripped his wheel off in the incident and was left stranded on the track, necessitating a caution period. With just three laps to go, that allowed the star drivers to get on terms with the front runners, setting up a shoot-out to the flag. Behind Walden, former World Champion 64 Mark Whybra was fourth in the queue and immediately jumped to third as the green flags waved. He passed Taylor with two laps to go but Whitwell was long gone out front. So Whitwell and Wybra were the last chance qualifiers, with 46 Paul Aylward first to miss out. Walden finished fourth and 161 Billy Smith, on his return from a six-month suspension, fifth.

With the three main promotions running their own qualifying systems, the World Final’s grid was based on the three points charts, with drivers drawing their places within each group of three. Thus top Trackstar qualifier 344 Ross Fisher sat on pole, with Scotland’s 529 Jason Secker alongside. Spedeworth silver top 713 Ian Beaumont and second Scot 67 Craig Haxton made up row two, while 121 Luke Morphey (Spedeworth) and Trackstar’s 473 Dean Moat were behind them. With reigning champion 79 Barry Radcliffe not present, Whybra was the only former winner on the grid and he would start plumb last. The full 35-car grid lined up as follows: 

	Inside	Row		Outside
	344 Ross Fisher	1		529 Jason Secker
	713 Ian Beaumont	2		67 Craig Haxton
	121 Luke Morphey	3		473 Dean Moat
	880 David Bowman	4		686 Pete Beldom
	653 Gemma Rainer	5		447 Richard Hampshire
	53 Paul Anscombe	6		371 Mark Bloss
	415 Jamie Blackman	7		63 David Auld
	350 Rob Jackson	8		838 Ady Wales
	673 John Moat	9		171 Adam O’Dell
	07 Ady Moden	10		450 Luke Jackson
	23 Lee Pearce	11		67 Dan Rosenthal
	177 Chris Masters	12		690 Jason Askew
	88 Jason Scopes	13		573 Shane Moat
	71 Steve O’Dell	14		409 Carlos Pears
	316 Danny McCluskey	15		781 Scott Sparrow
	323 Sam Rigby	16		93 Kevin Morrison
	51 Scott Naismith	17		377 Dean Whitwell
	64 Mark Whybra	18

After two rolling laps the green flags flew and it was Beaumont who made the best start, pushing Fisher wide to take the lead. Further back, father-and-son duo 350 Rob Jackson and 450 Luke Jackson contrived to clash with each other, virtually ending both their chances on the first lap. Fisher quickly hit back past Beaumont, with the impressive Haxton – a regular long-distance traveller to Lynn this year – and Dean Moat also following him through. 371 Mark Bloss, from 12^th on the grid, also passed Beaumont to take third, as Moat started to drop back. The lack of pace from one of the top home drivers was disappointing and presumably symptomatic of car problems. Further forward, Luke Jackson had rejoined the track ahead of second-placed Haxton and, whether it was intentional or not, baulked him a little, allowing Fisher to stretch his lead. Bloss and Beaumont also got a run on the Scot to move into second and third. Haxton fought back, however, re-passing the 713 car briefly before dropping back again.

The leaders were constantly fighting their way through backmarking traffic and this allowed the gaps between the first half dozen to generally widen. Disaster almost struck Bloss as 880 David “Boomin” Bowman spun his super-smart Corsa whilst getting lapped. But the Woodbridge man recovered extremely quickly and had built sufficient advantage over Beaumont to resume second. But barring yellow flags, his chances of victory appeared all but gone.

Fisher duly reeled off the remaining laps, showing excellent composure amongst the backmarkers. They did delay him a little but he had plenty in hand, and when being hassled by the lap-down 71 Steve O’Dell, he sensibly let him through. 23 Lee Pearce then took up O’Dell’s role but Fisher stayed calm to take the flag and become the youngest ever World Champion at just 16-and-a-half – he only left school in the summer! Bloss held on to second, with Beaumont third and 171 Adam O’Dell, from 18^th on the grid, coming through for fourth. Whybra had made even more impressive progress, showing prodigious pace to rise to fifth, having started at the very back, until damage inflicted by 121 Luke Morphey caused him to retire. So Morphey took fifth, ahead of 53 Paul Anscombe and Steve O’Dell, the last runner on the lead lap. Pearce was eighth as Spedeworth drivers filled places 2-8. Top Scot at the flag was Bowman in ninth while 177 Chris Masters did well to make the top 10 and was surprisingly the second Trackstar runner home. If it weren’t for Fisher, it wouldn’t have been a good day at all for the home drivers, the excellent, super-smooth track conditions perhaps levelling the playing field a bit. Fisher upheld home honour however and was a thoroughly deserving world champion. He barely put a foot wrong in the race – his biggest difficulty was trying to remove the cork from his champagne bottle in the victory celebrations!

Three all comers racers completed the day’s action for the 1300s. 07 Ady Moden put in superb performances to win the first two, his first wins in over a decade – he must have wished he had hit form one race earlier! In the first, the leading Sarah Taylor was half spun by the backmarking pack, allowing Moden through, while Steve O’Dell and Chris Masters continued their good form to finish second and third, Taylor dropping to fourth at the flag.

686 Pete Beldom was treated to a hard trip backwards into the fence by Billy Smith in the second all comers which, like the first, was action packed and featured over 30 cars, despite the leading world finalists being in post-race scrutineering. 211 Matt Abott passed Jamie Jackson for the lead but the latter then spun him straight into the fence, allowing Moden ahead. He would hold onto the lead, despite a caution period for a loose wheel. Moden and 409 Carlos Pears pulled away on the resumption, while Whybra again showed excellent pace as he burst into third. He started to catch the leading pair but ran out of laps.

Abbott had his revenge on Jamie Jackson in the last all comers when he spun him out of the lead. That allowed 644 Nathan Godfrey to take up the running until yellows came out for a heavy home-straight collision involving 529 Jason Secker and 573 Dean Moat. With just two laps to go, Godfrey held on from Steve O’Dell and Whybra.

Pre-1970 Unlimited Bangers

The Unlimited Pre-1970 class attracted 18 runners, mainly Rover P5s and Jaguars. 22 Dave Vincent turned out a clean Westy, while 17 Kyle Overy had a very smart Datsun 280C.

In heat one, 390 David Gibson (used Rolls Royce) put 514 Charlie Taylor in lightly as most of the action was the more traditional-style bumping and spinning, plus lots of sideways action in difficult-to-handle, big, heavy old rear-wheel drive machines – just as it should be! 391 Ben Gibson (Triumph) looked very fast and stylish ad he romped to the flag but was docked two places for jumping the start. That gave 67 Mark Whittaker (P5) the win from Vincent.

Whittaker and Vincent again came out on top in heat two. Early leader 370 Mark French (Jaguar) spun, pushing off Ben Gibson at the same time and allowing the latter’s brother David through. After a red flag for 89 Joe Barrett’s (Rover P4) shed wheel, David Gibson and Whittaker had a good battle for the lead. The latter eventually broke clear as Vincent also passed Gibbo, who had to contend with a loose water hose spraying hot water uncontrollably over the last few laps, forcing him out. 912 Kieran Greenway came home third in his Rolls Royce.

Down to just 13 cars for the final, 611 Joe Geeves (Jag) spun across the track and was blasted by French. Barrett also did Geeves as reds came out to remove debris from the raceway. 174 Dave “Whipper” Osbourne held a big lead in his Mk2 Jag but Whittaker passed him to complete an impressive hat trick, days after his 40^th birthday. He celebrated by spinning Barrett on the slow-down lap, as Vincent and Osbourne completed the top three.

Pre-1970 2-Litre Bangers

There was a decent, if slightly down from previous years, showing of 29 cars in the ‘Unders’ class. Austin A60s and Maxis, Triumphs, Rover P4s and P6s and Humbers made up the majority of cars. The matching P4s of Team Starky trio 88 Lyndon Stark, 888 Lloyd Stark and 601 Chris Medler looked impressive while 72 Billy Bond’s stunning Morris Marina was the smartest effort. Material merchant 303 Brian Cope turned out a Ford Consul, 516 Carl Gould retuned his 1930s Wolseley that had previously seen action at Ipswich but late arrival 791 Nicky Young’s amazing Volvo P1800 was surely the top motor.

Bond led heat one from the start but with three laps to go he clipped a parked car and broke his steering, ending his race on the spot. The flag fell on 22 Dave Vincent (A60) – the only driver racing in both classes – but he turned out to be a lap down, leaving 212 Richard Maryon with the win from 356 Luke Radley and 216 Dan Booth.

Booth went on to take heat two as the Unders’ racing, like the Unlimiteds, saw plenty of action without any monster hits. Young put his Volvo around before being done by Radley who was blitzed by 851 Adam Storr’s tiny Renault as he crossed the line. Riddell finished second with Vincent third.

An untidy start to the final preceded 27 Will Longford (P4) being turned into the fence and done head-on by 597 Andy Ashman, leaving the former with a well-crippled motor. The latter was put into the fence and done several times while the Starks got it together with Bond. 557 Paul Bowen led until a lap to go when he spun his very raw Triumph, letting teenager Riddell through to repeat his superb win of last November. Maryon was second, Vincent third and Bowen recovered for fourth.