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| Added: 02 Jun 2013 |
Category: 2013 Oval Racing |
| 2013 - #20 - Ballymena Raceway - 31/5/13 |
The big showdown at the showgrounds for the National Hot Rods and to be honest up until 2 o’clock on the day I hadn’t as much as checked what else was on the fixture, it didn’t really matter as the Nationals alone would make it worth the trip.
Somehow it’d been nearly a month since I was at Ballymena, just down to a mix of weekends with no racing and the clashing Saloon fixture when I was at Tullyroan for the Nationals.
As expected the Nationals stole the show, after the opening heat Adam Maxwell had nearly crept past Keith Martin into the qualifying positions, only to get caught up in an incident between Thomas Dilly and Terry Maxwell in heat two which send Adam to the back of the pack, so close, yet so far for the second season. Incidentally Mervyn McReynolds took both heat wins. Glenn Bell had a non finish in heat one which allowed Mark Heatrick to close the gap in the points for the Northern Ireland points title, but Bell had the better finish in heat 2. I think as it stood going into the final Heatrick could still have won the points and Maxwell could still have qualified but it was dependant on non finishes for others. A frantic and very entertaining final seen some great drives from John Christie who took the win, Glenn Bell who took 4th and the points title and Adam Maxwell who pulled out near the end. The National hot rods have provided some great action in recent weeks and with car numbers soaring they are undoubtedly as good as I’ve seen them
at a local level, fingers crossed it continues into the next qualifying series.
In support of the Nationals the Group 2’s had what I think is the best turnout I’ve seen of them this season with (I think) twenty four cars out in the opening heat and they’d some good racing throughout the evening. Darrell Hanna took the opening heat win with Nigel Doherty taking heat two ahead of a final win for Jason Clyde.
In the Juniors there was an opening heat win for Niall McFerran, Adrian McConnell took heat two ahead of Dean McCrory winning the final.
The Saloon Stockcars were also in action, sadly, as is the case at Ballymena, when the Saloons are at their best the wall is a bit vulnerable, and the meeting final was stopped with only a few laps run after Ryan Wright launched a huge hit on Keiran McIvor which resulted in a chunk being knocked out of the wall and the final was abandoned. Earlier in the night Jason Smyth had won both heats but the car was judged to have had an illegal camber and at the time I was leaving Ballymena he had been excluded from the result, but I’d heard the car may be scrutineered in the scrutineering bay, so at the time of writing, I’ve no idea how that turned out.
Approx Car Turn Out - 63 cars (National Hot Rods - 16, Saloon Stock Cars - 9, Gp 2 Lightning Rods 24, Junior Rods - 14)
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