Coventry Stadium26th February 2011
Midland Championship
Liam Lambert drove like an experienced shale racer to take the Superstox Midland Championship in style, removing Colin Aylward along the way.
Around 30 cars turned up at Coventry on 26th of Feb, with various 'add ons' to help with keeping the shale away, which included a door mat, vent covers and what looked like poor old Trudy Aylwards bbq grill on the front of Choppers car (no ribs for them that night!). The track was very wet from the earlier rain and was going to make it difficult especially with no practice.Making their first apperances of the year was Mark Smith, Jordan Aylward, Peter Gray and Nick Smith.
Heat 1 got underway on the wet track, and with a bit of caution the drivers started to get a feel for the shale. Young James Meadows seemed to get a feel for it quicker than most as he shot off and started to build himself a usefull lead. Further back a few were falling by the wayside but those looking good and on the move were Steven Jackson, Alex Meadows and Billy Smith, whilst Chopper and Mark Eaton also began to look a bit more 'racey'. A yellow flag saw J Meadows lead go to nothing and allowed the fast looking Dicky Raymond to take it up with 3 to go, leaving James to battle with Jackson for second. Dicky took a fine win, followed by J Meadows, Jackson and A Meadows.
The track was slightly better for the second heat which saw Dave Smith the man building up a big lead this time, with the experienced Steve Hamilton chasing. Mark Smith and Chopper clashed, holding them both up. Jackson was on the move again as was Jason Cooper in the ex Neil Bee/Alan Wortley car which must be over 25 years old! Dave Smith got held up with some traffic which saw him loose his lead as Paul Langridge came onto the scene. Some neat driving from Langridge netted him the win, from Hamilton, Cooper and Jackson.
The track was looking much dryer by the final and it showed in the speed of the supers as James Meadows once again led them away. Chopper, Lambert, Jackson and M. Eaton were now begining to fly, and it didnt seem too long before Chopper took it up, with Lambert now in hot pursuit. As they kept knocking the laps down, Lambert was looking equally as quick as Chopper , and when the World Champ made a slight mistake it gave Lambert his chance to land a big blow , enough to send Chopper almost into the fence and give Lambert a safe lead. Chopper just managed to get out of the corner in front of Jackson, who had M.Eaton not too far behind.
Lambert took the flag and with it the only second ever running of the Midland Championship, the first one being back in 1991. In fact the first Midland Championship was run during a time when there was a certain Gary Lambert making a name for himself. Gary was quick in his black car, a bit flash at times in his white overalls!, but not afraid of using the bumper to good effect and a real crowd pleaser, now who does that remind you of ?............
Liam said afterwards " I really enjoyed that, i knew i had to wait til towards the end to get passed Chopper or he would be back on me, was really good to get some better racing in".
The Superstox did themselves proud on their first visit to Coventry, they may be not set up with brakes, tyres etc for the shale, but they certainly gave it a good go, and although the heats were maybe not the most exciting, the final showed the Coventry crowd just what Superstox racing is about.
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