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| Added: 11 Jul 2013 |
Category: 2013 Oval Racing |
| 2013 - #29 & #30 – Ipswich Spedeweekend 2013 |
Back in 2010 I made my first trip to the Ipswich Spedeweekend, coming from an F2 background it had taken up most of my summer travelling arrangement up to near that point. Back in 2010 NIF2 had pretty much ceased to exist and was little more than an out of date holding page, but it was my trip to the Spedeweekend and indeed my front row seats on the infield to photo and watch it that inspired my revival of the site and making it into the blog it is now, and the facebook presence followed. We went with great hope in 2010 with 3 World Championships to be decided, The Nationals, The Lightning Rods and the 2 Litres, and it sort of passed without our cars really troubling the podium too much. I should have gone back in 2011 but then something came up close to the time and I changed my mind. In 2012 I sat with my phone in hand reloading the live updates on the Spedeworth site before flicking back to the National Hot Rod facebook page, then twitter, then back to the Spedeworth site to start the cycle again as the race unfolded in digital on front of me and Glenn Bell took the gold, and at that time decided I wasn’t missing it in 2013!
So the plan was to get away for a few days and take in local sites and to have a nice relaxing weekend on the slow side of the fence. The concept was bang on, the execution was a little flawed, from the qualifying Bell set a fast lap and I sat on tender hooks as fast man after fast man went after him and couldn’t unseat him from pole position, but NI cars took the first blood of the weekend and it was a trend set to continue as the weekend went on.
We didn’t look to have favourable draws in the 2 Litres, but Shane Murray and Adam Hylands battled through and got decent finishes, as did Gary Wilson. Murray put the car on pole for the world and we sat through a complete restart and an early caution period in the big race before counting down the laps in the World final as Shane made off into the distance, just hoping a back marker or mechanical gremlin didn’t change our fortunes, it probably wasn’t until Hylands was into second that there was a bit of a safety net and I could sit back and enjoy the closing laps and a Northern Ireland 1-2.
The Stock Rod heats had been favourable for Lee Johnston who took a heat second and came through well in the second heat to secure himself a front row start for the British Championship on the Sunday, with Derek McMillan on row two and Gary Bulter and Carl Sloan not too far back. Jonto’s luck ran out with a controversial decision to put him to the back of the grid on a restart for the offence of ignoring a red flag, Sloan suffered the same punishment, it’s something I’ve never seen in all the years I’ve been watching racing and it was inconsistent with similar incidents in the Ninja Karts and Superstox on the same day, I accept I don’t know all the rules, but inconsistency bugs the hell out of me. Derek McMillan looked a good shout for the championship from there on, but was pushed wide by Stuart Smyth which all played into the hands of Tullyroan driver Gary Butler who had been second across the line but was awarded the win after Smyth was docked.
In the Lightning Rods the opening heat went the way of Richard Stewart and David Hearst was runner up in heat two. Hearst was our top placed finisher in the European championship, coming home in 6th.
We had Superstox representation at the Spedeweeked for the first time since the mid 90’s I’d imagine, with the Grattan Brothers, Neil Davison and Kyle Beattie. Having never raced at Ipswich or infact raced Superstox in such a big field, they adapted themselves very well and the results soon followed, Gary Grattan took second in the meeting final with Denver Grattan fourth, quite a remarkable achievement I thought, although some of those around me did give me funny looks when I was shouting “lift him” on the last restart in the Supers with Gary Grattan sitting second to Chris Roots.
In the Nationals Adam Maxwell made the support races his own, taking 3 wins in total and putting himself on the back row of the grid for the World final itself. In the big race for the Nationals Chris Haird got the better of Glenn Bell early on, who looked to be struggling with grip, Christie had got himself up into second by around the ¾ distance mark and he looked to be the man who had the car under him at that stage, a few backmarkers collided on front of the leader Haird which took Haird out of the race, Jason Kew sneaked up the inside of the incident and up the inside of Christie to take the lead before Christie once again drove around the outside in the closing laps to take a very popular win, at least it was where I was sitting anyway. Kew was second, Glenn Bell third and Danny Fiske fourth. Bell rounded out the weekend with a win in the Best in Britain.
The Ninja Karts were another addition for NI cars this year and Matthew Nicholl took second in their second race of the weekend with Niall Cregan a few places back. I must say the English Ninja Karts have much more variety and shape and size from our own, which was quite refreshing.
In the classes that we didn’t have cars in, I found myself drawn to watching out for the stars of the recent Banger boys series, so focused on Phil ‘Flip’ Hampton in the 2L Saloons and the Dreamers in the Bangers. Cecil incidentally can’t half move out of a burning car.
I almost forgot the 1300’s, Interspeed promotions had 3 cars out in them, which is remarkable considering they only got 1 to Ballymena earlier in the season, and that 1 wasn’t amongst the 3. Richard Taylor faired the best of them and looked to get up into the top 6 of their final then got spun out.
So, there you go, my second Ipswich, we came, we saw, we conquered, we get to see gold roofs at home for the next year which is excellent news for the local fans. It may only be my second Spededweekend, but what a Spedeweekend it was!
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