Meeting report - Mark Paulson
This meeting is on MyLaps.
BriSCA Formula One World Final weekend began with the traditional Friday night meeting for overseas drivers only. As always, they put on a fine show with New Zealander Jack Miers winning the meeting final.
It was also an important meeting for the Saloon Stock Cars, the second round of their National Series. Having missed the opening round, world champion Ryan Santry made up lost ground by scorching to a heat-and-final double.
BriSCA F1 Stock Cars
An impressive turnout of 58 F1 stock cars comprised 51 Dutch drivers and seven New Zealanders in hired cars, including 13 of the following day’s 14 World Finalists.
They were split into three heats. The first was won in commanding fashion by H710 Roy Peetoom, setting himself out as one to watch in the World Final. H152 Gert-Jan Klok was second and H14 Rick Wobbes third. H44 Gosse Hoekstra worked his way into the lead of Heat 2 before half-distance, and went on to win from fellow blue-top H311 Remco Dijkstra and World Final wildcard H229 Tsjalle Greidanus. Despite a caution period, yellow-top H215 Albert Sikkema pulled away from his pursuers to win Heat 3, as H661 Jeffrey Pikkert held off silver-top H141 Richard Falkena in an entertaining battle for second.
With only the top eight qualifying from each heat, there were just enough non-qualifers to run two consolations. H453 Jacob de Vries came through to win the first after leader H477 Tijm Oudhuis was spun at a restart and second-placed H6 Pascal Spigt tangled with H625 Wilco Terpstra. NZ5 Josh Prentice’s second position was the best result so for a Kiwi, but NZ88 Jack Miers went one better in the second consolation, repeating his victory from a couple of weeks earlier. Miers traded blows with H210 Peter Susan who eventually finished second.
Over 30 cars made for an action-packed final featuring five caution periods which took three quarters of an hour to complete. The most spectacular incident came when Jeffrey Pikkert was fired up the side of NZ808 Scott Tennant’s car, using his wing as a launch ramp, before eventually coming back down to earth and landing on his side. Starting from the yellow grade, Miers hit the front early on and was withstanding everything thrown at him, including Greidanus pushing him wide to unlap himself. Susan’s later attack for the lead only sent himself into a spin, which crucially held up Falkena and gave Miers some brief respite. A marauding Peetoom closed in and was all over Miers in the closing stages, but the Kiwi held on for a landmark victory. Peetoom was second ahead of H410 Jelle Tesselaar, Rick Wobbes and H75 Jan Bauke van Kalfsbeek.
The heavy night of action was rounded off with a victory for van Kalfsbeek in the grand national, with Peetoom having to settle for second again ahead of Jacob de Vries.
Saloon Stock Cars
A 30-car field of Saloons included all seven remaining contenders for this year’s National Series as well as two Dutch drivers. New British champion #120 Luke Dorling paraded his silverware ahead of the opening heat but endured a torrid night thereafter, the track points leader suffering spins in every race.
With the seven silver roof chasers starting each race in reversed points order, local favourite #389 Ryan Santry gridded ahead of his rivals after missing the opening round at Taunton three weeks earlier. He took full advantage to win the opening heat in a spectacular finish. Santry passed 370 Rowan Venni to take the lead after a late caution when Dorling was left facing the traffic on the home straight. But Venni wasn’t done; he launched a big last-bend lunge that sent Santry heavily into the wall. The world champion kept his foot in and managed to come out of the corner still in front, while Venni also lost out to National Series leader #618 Stuart Shevill Jr in a scramble to the flag.
Heat 2 featured a spectacular crash for returning one-time world champion #306 Daniel Parker who ended up on his roof with #291 Charley Tomblin’s car perched on top to form some auto-sculpture. Amazingly, Santry and #570 Simon Venni tried to replicate the incident later on. The race boiled down to a thrilling lead battle between #238 Alfie Aldous, Shevill, #156 Darren Goudy and #341 Austen Freestone before Aldous eventually broke free to win. #131 Timmy Barnes joined the rest in a battle for second and came out on top, ahead of Shevill and Freestone.
Timmy Barnes built a big lead in the final, only to have it wiped out by yellow flags when #561 Aaron Totham shed a wheel. Amid plenty of hard and fast racing, Barnes eventually lost out to Santry, with Rowan Venni completing the top three.