| |
| Added: 08 Apr 2012 |
Category: 2012 Oval Racing |
| 2012 - #8 - Ballymena Raceway - 7/4/12 |
The second night of racing at Ballymena this Easter and another decent nights racing with the Stock Rods racing for their Irish Open title.
I must admit that it was very late on in the day before I actually decided I was going to this meeting, the F2’ numbers have been known to be poor at Ballymena in recent times, a number of Saloons had booked in to race on the mainland, the Open Hot Rods aren’t quite there yet with their numbers and the weather wasn’t looking terribly promising of anything but rain. Not for the first time I was going out past Ballyclare with conditions worsening and trying to decide if it was the right thing to continue out the road or to turn and go home. On Friday night the Stock Rods had been excellent and the weather had cleared up, so that kept me going.
Having left if late to head to the racing, I got in the gate just as the F2’s started to line up. There was a decent turnout of 13 F2’s, and the opening heat went to Denver Grattan. Derek Hill spun as the cars came onto the start and finish straight for heat two and caused chaos before coming to a halt on the start and finish line with damage. Conor Hughes took the heat 2 win. The final seen early drama as the reds came together in the first bend with Jeff Minish blocking the track and Ryan McCrory stuck nose first in the wall bringing a complete restart. Derek Hill led quite a bit of the race with Andy Stewart coming through to take the lead before Hughes took the lead in the closing laps and made it a heat and final double for the evening.
The Stock Rods were down a little in numbers from the previous night, but Matthew Moore and Victor McAfee had joined 21 of the cars from Friday night to give a 23 car grid for the opening qualifying heat for the Irish Open. Pole man for the Yokohama Tyres championship, Stephen McCready continued his fine form to take the opening heat win, but it was Derek McMillan’s drive from near the back of the field which had caught the eye, passing a lot of top drivers as he came through. The Second heat went the way of Jonny Cardwell who held off the close attention of McMillan in another good race. McMillan’s performances in the heats had booked him pole position for the Irish Open and he was joined on the front row by another ex Junior driver in the form of Marc Morell, as the cars came onto the start and finish straight Morell got out of shape and himself and McMillan ended up on the grass by which stage Jonny Cardwell had got into the lead and Raymond Harper was once again in the right place at the right time to get into second before passing Cardwell to take the lead. Harper held a comfortable lead for most of the remainder of the race until McCready got up into second in the closing laps and looked to be closing in on the leader but ran out of laps. Chris Lattka came home third.
With the Stock Rod World final taking place at Ballymena later this season they are looking like being one of the classes to go and watch this season.
The Gp 2 Lightning rods were down on numbers from Friday night with seventeen cars starting the opening heat, which seen a second win of the weekend for Curtis Greer. Aaron McMillan took the second heat which was stopped on the last lap, and the final victory went to Adrian Hillis.
The Saloon turnout wasn’t as bad as I had feared it might be, with 6 cars in action. Andrew Stewart took both the heats, while Anthony McIvor took the win in the final.
Bill McCurdy took the opening heat in the Open Hot Rods, according to the programme Will Scott took the second, but I’m fairly sure that should be one of the Nevins and I was off up the road before the final.
Approx Car Turnout: 64 cars (F2s 13, Stock Rods 23, Saloons 6, Gp 2s 17, Open Hot Rods 5)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
| More Photos on Flickr |
|
|
|
  |
|
|
|
