Photos: 1 - 12 Dave Bastock, 13 - 24 Colin Casserley, 25 - 36 Jim Harrod, 37 - 48 Ant Jenkins

Report: Mark Paulson

 

 

 

Glorious sunshine greeted the second appearance of 2023 at the Adrian Flux Arena for both the BriSCA Formula One and BriSCA Formula Two stock cars ahead of an absolutely superb night of action. The Big League F1s were in World Championship qualifying round action with #166 Bobby Griffin taking the honours in a thrilling race. The F2s were certainly not out done by their bigger cousins, with #47 Greg McKenzie claiming his second meeting final in nine days in another cracker of a race.

BriSCA F1 Stock Cars

A strong turnout of 46 cars contested a full-format meeting. Among their number were three impressive new cars for #515 Frankie Wainman Jr, #25 Bradley Harrison and a particularly stunning new Tom Harris-built machine for #346 Ashley England.

A non-points scoring race for white and yellow graded drivers kicked off proceedings with an 18-car field of mostly yellow-tops. #548 Daniel Brooke broke free into the lead when #163 Mark Balmer clipped a marker tyre. But #268 Richard Woods had terrific pace in his car as he closed in and took the lead. Brooke spun from second, which left #587 Sam Brigg - last time's final winner and winner of the driver of the day award to boot - as Woods's closest challenger. But Brigg couldn't get near as Woods went on to win comfortably from Brigg and veteran racer #215 Geoff Nickolls.

Twenty-two cars started heat one proper although #168 Micky Brennan - on double duty in both formulas - soon had to pull up in his Newson hire car. #541 Willie Skoyles Jr was another early casualty and his trip into the fence required yellow flags. #338 Chris Brocksopp had just relieved Balmer of the lead but was soon passed on the resumption by #364 Robert Plant, before pulling off with a puncture. Spalding's #326 Mark Sargent was showing a rapid turn of pace and passed Plant before half-distance, then pulled away for a comfortable win. Plant held on to second, just managing to fend off #217 Lee Fairhurst's last-bend challenge. World champion #5 Charlie Sworder was next, ahead of #93 Sam Makim and Wainman. "Did everybody else crash?" laughed Sargent. "I'm not used to this at 52!"

Heat two was dominated by #235 Mick Haworth, making his first appearance of the season. He quickly hit the front and never looked likely to lose the race despite a rough sounding engine. From the back, #55 Craig Finnikin charged through for second ahead of #463 James Morris and England, making good use of his new car. #166 Bobby Griffin and #212 Danny Wainman completed the top six as several cars retired with punctures.

Twenty-one cars contested the 16 qualifying places on offer in the consolation. Ten of them were yellow tops, with several tangling early on, leading to yellow flags to rescue Brocksopp who was facing the traffic. Six cars were already out so the rest only needed to finish to qualify, but only nine managed to do so. #138 Dave Polley, after having trouble in his heat, was on the charge, gaining a few places on the restart and then putting #502 Ricky Wilson in hard for second. He then charged around Balmer for the lead and pulled clear for what looked set to be his first in the formula. But #16 Mat Newson, who suffered a puncture in his heat, had other ideas. The Norfolk driver worked his way into second and then gradually closed on Polley so that he was just within striking distance on the final bend. With Polley already encountering backmarkers, Newson caught Polley on the side nerf rails, Polley spun and the two hooked up. Neither could get going and so not only lost a potential win but their places in the final too. #127 Austin Moore was handed the victory ahead of Brennan and #120 Casey Englestone.

The 29-car final began with Brennan having his second roll of the night (after earlier going over in his F2), with #21 Mark Gilbank riding up and over the car in spectacular fashion. Brennan, ever the showman, emerged to stand on top of the car and salute the crowd. The complete restart lasted three laps before yellow flags were called for debris on track with #45 Nigel Harrhy leading. Harrhy led for a few more laps until Woods found a way past, but with the superstars dropping like flies - #84 Tom Harris and Finnikin suffering punctures, and Sworder and FWJ also forced out - the way was open for a less fancied runner to potentially take a big win. Woods led until five laps to go when Griffin managed to chase him down, with Englestone and Fairhurst following through. Griffin managed to keep out of range of his pursuers and go on to take his first King's Lynn final win. Fairhurst went in with a last-bend lunge to take second from Englestone, who admitted he had been settling for second after losing out in the latter stages last time. The local driver was still delighted with third though, ahead of Woods and Moore. "Luckily I got to the front fairly quickly," said Griffin. "I kept seeing them coming but I managed to get that gap on the last lap."

At 31 cars, the grand national had the biggest F1 field of the night. Amid many early spins, it was Woods who emerged in front, and he had good pace through the traffic to remain in front beyond half distance. But Harris was on a charge and nudged him wide to take the lead. Any thoughts of Harris salvaging a good result from a difficult night were dispelled when he tangled with #172 Micky Randell, with Woods also getting caught up. That gave Finnikin the lead under the resulting caution with five laps to go, and the King's Lynn expert controlled the remainder of the race to win ahead of Fairhurst and Sargent. Harris recovered to sixth while Griffin trailed home 12th from the lap handicap after picking up a puncture.

 

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

More than 50 of the smaller cars were present for a stupendous night's racing, following a similar format to the F1s. The opening race was a white-top whirlwind, with 16 starters. #707 Dan Vaughan led from the off, with #304 Nathan Topliff spinning as he challenged the leader early on. Ministox British champion H248 Wout Hoffmans was making his first appearance in BriSCA F2 in this country and drove a sublime race. He worked his way into second and then chased down Vaughan, using the bumper with three laps to go and going on to take a superb win on his first time using the new HiFly tyres. "I'm really excited to race here," said the eloquent young Dutchman. "Great track, great people to race with." Vaughan held on to second, a long way clear of #810 Levi Nicholson who managed to recover from an earlier spin.

Heat one, with 27 cars, began with a bang as the red grade piled into a big crash on the scoreboard bend which left #968 Micky Brennan on his roof. Only two were unable to make the complete restart and, surprisingly, Brennan wasn't among them although he soon pulled off. After a number of spins in the white-top race, Topliff made good use of his experience of the conditions to lead the majority of the race. With three laps to go, he had a brush with #597 Barry Clow which let #414 Josh Rayner through for the win. Topliff held on to second ahead of local man #43 Marcus Gilbert. Fourth was #393 Danny McCarthy, while national points champion #183 Charlie Guinchard secured fifth by using the bumper on #58 Charlie England, who then lost out similarly on the last bend to #880 Jack Witts.

Nicholson led heat two but #464 Matt Linfield quickly climbed to second and was on hand to take over after Nicholson tangled with a backmarker in the second half of the race and was thrown into the wall, picking up terminal damage. Behind them, #3 Liam Rennie and #69 Ben Chalkley entertained as they exchanged ever bigger hits but ultimately they only cost themselves as the other red-tops trained past. It was #606 Andrew Palmer who made second, recovering from an early moment but unable to catch Linfield, who made light of an oil leak. European champion #7 Gordon Moodie was third ahead of #618 Ben Lockwood, #527 James Riggall and #324 James Thackra.

The consolation had to be stopped when #213 Tom Bennett, who has been in fine form on the Tarmac tracks, suffered a big roll under the scoreboard in the Courtney Witts car. Hoffmans had been leading and pulling clear but made a good restart and continued to hold the lead. Brennan was flying on his way though from the back, taking second from #582 Tomson Streets with six laps to go, then getting inside Hoffmans for the lead when the Dutchman ran wide under pressure. But it wasn't to be for Brennan who got caught up with backmarkers on the final bend. Hoffman swept through for his second win of the night. "I was lucky with Micky tangling with a backmarker on the final corner," he admitted, "but I'll take it, that's racing." Brennan recovered for second ahead of Streets and Vaughan. 

Only 31 of the 36 qualifiers took their places in the final which turned into a fantastic race. Among the early skirmishes, #271 Alex Butcher was left with damage on the back straight, so yellow flags were called just as he managed to get the car moving. #543 Connor Blake led as #188 Aaron Patch moved into second. #324 Jordon Thackra made a great restart, with heavy use of the bumper to take third. Patch and Thackra managed to get inside Blake, with Thackra immediately passing Patch for the lead. Patch then slipped back to fourth as #103 Jack Issitt and #47 Greg McKenzie charged through. Issitt closed into Thackra in backmarking traffic and went in with a big shot for the lead. Thackra was fired heavily into the wall but managed to continue as Issitt spun. That relieved the pressure on Thackra briefly but he then half-spun when caught out by a backmarker with a lap to go, letting #47 Greg McKenzie ahead. Thackra quickly recovered and went in for a huge last-bend lunge, narrowly missing the #47 and taking himself into the wall again. So McKenzie came through for his second final win at the track, with Thackra recovering for second and #129 Charley Tomblin third. Guinchard, #527 James Riggall and Dutch visitor H186 Ricardo Schmidt completed the top six.

Streets led the grand national pretty much from start to finish in an impressive display. Behind him, Nicholson and Hoffman were running second and third until getting shuffled back, Hoffmans losing out when he spun the backmarking Riggall and got delayed. Many of the star men had been delayed in an early home-straight pile-up but #880 Jack Witts and Brennan led the charge through the field. They came through to second and third ahead of Jack Issitt, Patch and Schmidt.

 

BriSCA F1 Stock Cars	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
Whites & Yellows	268	587	215	501	545	372	502	338	415	548	120	469
Heat 1	326	364	217	5	93	515	2	21	25	268
Heat 2	235	55	463	346	166	212	20	289	84	242
Consolation	127	168	120	53	215	163	45	415	469	nof
Final	166	217	120	268	127	463	289	2	20	25	364	326
Grand National	55	217	326	515	346	84	446	25	2	20	212	166
BriSCA F2 Stock Cars	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
White-Top Whirlwind	H248	707	810	582	34	351	543	304	nof
Heat 1	414	304	43	393	183	880	58	H186	715	129	103	47
Heat 2	464	606	7	618	527	324	3	69	929	198	271	925
Consolation	H248	968	582	707	344	543	149	188	117	597	34	810
Final	47	324	129	183	527	H186	188	103	3	69
Grand National	582	880	968	103	188	H186	136	929	618	129