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The Oval contingent travelled to Ipswich for the annual Speed weekend and once again were basked in glorious sunshine for two excellent days of racing. The main event was the National Hot Rods World Championship, Which saw Carl Boardley power to his fourth straight World title.
Qualifying
Hot laps returned this year, but the groups were still maintained with the added incentive that any driver could secure pole position with the fastest lap. 994 Keith Martin was the first driver setting a lap time of 14.83, he held pole until seventh to run 911 Malcolm Blackman dropped the time down to 14.60. 13th out was 41 Carl Boardley, his first lap of 14.53 was good enough to secure pole but his final lap was quicker at 14.47. The first four on the grid were made up of English: Boardley, Blackman, 115 Chris Haird, 303 Matt Simpson followed by four Irish drivers 940 Gary Woolsey, 962 John Christie, 261 David Casey and 9 Glenn Bell.
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Race:
The grid rolled around the Foxhall tarmac with a packed (sunburnt) crowd looking down onto the main event. As the green dropped Boardley took the lead while Woolsey dropped out on the first lap. M Simpson moved pass Haird for third place. Christie was really struggling in the early part of the race and was easily passed by Bell, Casey and 95 Gavin Murray. Still within the first five laps 467 Winnie Holtmanns had a half spin on turn 4 while at the other end of the track 734 Ralph Sanders was beached on the kerb at turn 2. The yellows were aired, Sanders returned to the back of the pack, 6 John Holtby retired at this point.
Only two more racing laps were run before 427 Jay Austin got out of shape coming off turn 4 and barged into the wall on the home straight, the yellows were out again but Austin scampered to safety. Christie and Haird pulled up on the centre green with mechanical problems.
From the restart back-marking Holtmanns was causing problems for the faster drivers trying to lap him, 61 Andy Holtby was stuck on the outside line, as he tried to manoeuvre to the inside the following 72 Willie Hardie was half way inside and that sent the funky black and orange Tigra spinning to the inside and into retirement.
Another two laps of running and more incidents. 14 Phil Spinks was trying the outside but 278 Colin Gomm (who had fallen a long back from trying the outside line) knocked him into the wall exiting turn 4. Spinks bounced off the wall but the commotion caused the other in close proximity to take avoiding actions. That resulted in 31 Dick Hillard and 78 Lauren Van De Velde hitting the wall and 761 Brendan O’Connell getting pushed onto the speedway. With 15 laps complete and green ready to drop the running order was Boardley, M Simpson (having just moved up), Blackman, Bell, D Casey, Murray, Holtmanns (lap down), Hardie, Martin, 85 Stu Carter and 3 Jeff Simpson.
Van De Velde was next to retire after clouting the wall and bending a wheel. Boardley got into a good lead, not looking stretched and comfortably ahead of the field. Murray was pressuring D Casey for many laps and as soon as gap appeared he went for it, this was exiting turn 4 and it Murray barged his way through spinning Casey to the centre and moved up to fifth, Casey retired. Holtmanns had another half spin and got himself to safety but quickly after Sanders stopped against the wall over the start/finish line. The yellows were aired again, 960 Mark Heatrick was disqualified for the removal of Sanders.
Boardley shot off again from the green while back in 9th Carter was slow to react to the green and had J Simpson on his outside and passing him the following lap. With the leaders not bunched but still pretty close to each other backmarkers were having an effect on the leaders, 66 John Van De Bosch had a spin causing Bell to hesitate slightly in turn 4 allowing Murray up another place to third. A lap down 174 Jason Kew and 996 Stewart Doak were fighting hard, Boardley swept past but the others couldn’t get by so easily. Doak got himself off line and ended up going into the wall exiting turn 2, his car slide along the back straight before retiring on turn 3. Kew still had the battle for second place behind him. Kew stayed out wide but M Simpson just didn’t have the pace to move beyond. Blackman decided the outside line was the quickest place to be and got into Kew’s tow. Murray had just reeled this pair in and put himself inside Blackman. With these four racing hard something had to give and it was Blackman spun across the start/finish line into the tyres on the speedway. Murray was now up to third but collected a black cross, Blackman got himself back into the race but retired before the end.
Making a late charge was J Simpson and 970 Shane Murphy passed Martin for 5th and 6th place as the former World Champion struggled with brakes. The race was heading into the final stages, Boardley was clear but M Simpson, Murray and Bell were locked together and being caught by J Simpson and Murphy. Murphy made an ambitious move inside J Simpson, spinning him out in a similar incident to Blackman’s demise. With 4 to go Murray got himself inside and M Simpson and edged ahead, while Bell passing on the final lap. Although this was an interesting battle ahead Boardley had gone on to win his fourth World title and probably could have gone quicker if pushed. After a stewards decision both Murray (2nd over line) and Muphy (4th over line) were disqualified for contact during the race.
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