Photos: Major Gilbert

Report: Mark Paulson

BriSCA Formula One World Final weekend began with the now-traditional Friday night affair for overseas drivers, who put on a fantastic display of no-holds-barred racing. Also in action were the equally lively two-litre Saloon Stock Cars, where #26 Tommy Barnes became only the second two-time winner of the Bumper Trophy.

BriSCA Formula One

A record entry of 69 overseas drivers were in action on the World Final weekend curtain raiser, enough for a full-format meeting with three heats.

The opener began with a bang when NZ46 Ethan Levien took a tumble on the entry to the home straight. The restarted race was won by teen sensation H229 Tsjalle Greidanus, fresh from competing in the Formula Two World Final less than a week earlier. He closed down and passed long-time leader H642 Roel Coenen with four laps to go. Coenen lost a big lead of around 1/3 of a lap when a caution period was called earlier, but opened out a margin again when chasers H592 Auke Osinga and H173 Jelle Hiemstra hooked up. But he was chased down by the stars in the closing stages, with H618 Wybe de Vries and H410 Jelle Tesselaar also demoting him to fourth. 

On-the-road winner H141 Richard Falkena didn’t present his car to be weighed after heat two, so H61 Koen Maris was promoted to victory. Falkena hit H477 Martin Oudhuis wide to take the lead, and was followed through by Maris and H155 Pieter Langeveld. Dutch champion Langeveld moved Maris aside for second with a lap to go, but Maris got him back on the final bend for what turned out to be the win.

A pile-up among many of the stars in heat three put them on the back foot but H69 Cor Meyer came through to win, surviving a brush with a backmarker on the final lap to head home H447 Patrick Tersteeg, who was racing his splendid Stuart Smith Jr-built machine. Long-time leader H388 Jelle Bijlsma followed them home. 

A packed consolation brought predictable chaos, with pile-up after pile-up. Levien was again in the wars, going hard into the fence backwards at around the same time as H65 Hans Baegen was rolling at the other end of the track, bringing out red flags. There were three further caution periods as the action kept coming, but it was H345 Boy Tesselaar who won after nudging wide white-top H248 Mike Ronitz. NZ94 William Humphries impressed on his way to second; he cut inside Tesselaar for the lead with five laps to go before Tesselaar hit back. H6 Pascal Spight completed the top three.

The 35-car final was another very entertaining affair, punctuated by four sets of yellow flags and one complete stoppage. That was required when Bijlsma was tipped onto his side before half-distance. By that stage, Tersteeg had taken up the running after the lively H215 Albert Sikkema was slowed by a damaged axle/wheel. De Vries moved into second before taking the lead when Tersteeg was half spun by the lapped H195 Harmen Zwerver. Zwerver continued to get stuck in, and when he attacked de Vries, it brought Tersteeg back into contention. But he was shoved wide by the ruthless Koen Maris and then retired with four laps to go, his weekend over. De Vries went on to win from Maris and Langeveld, with all three marking themselves out as ones to watch in following day’s big race. 

The night ended with a lively grand national, which sadly didn’t feature de Vries. Falkena made up for his earlier disappointment with victory ahead of H453 Jacob de Vries and H152 Gert-Jan Klok.

Saloon Stock Cars

Thirty-five of the Heavy Metal Brigade were in action for the well-funded Bumper Trophy, including four Dutch visitors. The main event was all-in following a white-and-yellow grade opener won by veteran #420 Ivan Street after #341 Austen Freestone ran wide.

All but one made it out for the Bumper Trophy race in which there was no holding back. A number of drivers who might  have fancied their chances had their hopes dashed with early spins, including #600 Barry Russell, form man #161 Billy Smith and #56 George Boult Jr. White top #192 Robert Heanes managed to hold on to the lead until around half-distance when #26 Tommy Barnes moved in front. He was followed through by his younger brother Timmy (#131) and #350 Tommy Parrin. The trio would remain in that order, Tommy winning by several lengths, ahead of the pair’s brother-in-law, world champion #116 Diggy Smith, after he had been almost inseparable from #306 Daniel Parker for much of the race. 

Two allcomers races followed, the first featuring a rollover for #316 Danny McCluskey. Avoiding the early pile-ups allowed Boult, Timmy Barnes and #120 Luke Dorling to break through to the head of the field early on. Barnes then took up the running before Dorling dived inside to take the lead. He built up a little margin, but that didn’t stop Barnes going for a huge last-bend-lunge that never looked like making contact. Full marks for trying though, and Barnes managed to extract himself from the wall for second ahead of Boult and another terrific scrap between Diggy Smith and Parker.

It was #214 Tom Yould’s turn to roll in allcomers 2, bringing out an early red-and-chequered finish which gave a delighted #270 Matt Fuller a maiden points-paying win at the track. He had relieved Heanes of the early lead, and was well clear of Billy Smith, who himself had a big margin back to #570 Simon Venni, at the time of the stoppage.