Wimbledon Stadium13th February 2011
Safari Engineering Challenge Round 1
Wimbledon on 13th Feb became a night of champions and newcomers, with the champions producing one of the best finals you will ever see in Superstox racing.
30 Cars were in the pits, including newcomer 419 Chris Capon and former V8 Stockcar star 521 Alan Gray in an ex-Colin Aylward/Steve Collison HCD. Paul Anscombe was also out in his recently acquired Dave Polley car. Also back out was 2001 World Champion Mark Eaton in the ex-Shaun Brooker world winning Higman.
Heat 1
30 cars , Wet/Slippery
Matt Sole led them away from the whites, but was struggling to keep newcomer Capon behind him and in the end had to give the lead up, Capon was driving very well indeed and started to break clear from the chasing pack. Ben Munford and Liam Lambert were moving through quickly from the reds with Shaun Brooker hunting them down from superstars. Brooker passed Lambert and Munford to take up the chase on the flying white top, but Capon was too far clear, driving superbly in his first superstox outing to take the win. Brooker was second followed by Munford and Lambert who survived a last bend assault from a very fast finishing World Champion Colin Aylward.
Heat 2
28 cars, Wet
The rain had fallen a little more for the second heat, but the star men were not going to let that stop them, with a train of them going in the pits bend, Steven Jackson found himself on the end of that train and had nowhere to go but into the fence, and out of the race. Up front Capon was going well again, with Paul Langridge looking good too, but man on the move was Lambert, showing that starting from the reds is not going to stop him, also running well was 95 and 96 world champion Glen Salmon. The race was stopped for the stricken 707 car and on the restart Aylward and Cooper looked to get away, only for Salmon to give them a massive shove into the pits bend, with Cooper clipping the fence and Salmon getting away. This was enough to give Glen the win from Aylward, Brooker, Lambert and a well recovered Cooper .
28 cars, Wet
Capon led them away again as Salmon found the fence on the exit of the pit bend, ending his chances. Lambert and Cooper were flying through the field, with Cooper looking very quick indeed, Aylward was also looking very good and almost unnoticed was Mark Eaton moving through. Lambert retired to the infield with a broken throttle cable, whilst Ross Eaton settled a score with Dave Miles Jnr, resulting in Dave's departure. A few laps later with trouble elsewhere on the track the race was stopped. A little confusion with people overtaking on the yellows saw the decision to remove the back markers from the restart, which was unfortunate for Cooper, but a real treat for the crowd! The restart order was Cooper, Aylward, Mark Eaton, Dave Smith, Billy Smith and Brooker.
Ten laps were left when they took the restart, and what a ten laps it was! Aylward gave Cooper a big heave into the bend which allowed Eaton, Brooker and Billy Smith to join in too. In fact on a couple of occasions they were almost 4 wide coming out of the turns! Smith got tangled and was out of the pack, leaving 2 HCDs (Aylward and Cooper) and 2 Higmans (Eaton and Brooker) to fight it out. Brooker led for the length of a straight, until Aylward found his back bumper, then Cooper gave the World Champ an even bigger hit into the next turn, only for Aylward to repay the compliment. Eaton was looking smooth and found himself up front with Aylward, with Cooper and Brooker right in there with them until a spinning back marker made them drop away a little.
So that left 2, and what a 2!, World Champ Aylward and his old adversary Eaton!, neither one was able to hold the lead for more than one corner, and as they entered the last lap (with the crowd now beside themselves) it was Eaton who had the lead. Eatons drive out of the last but one bend looked almost good enough for him to take his come-back final, but the gold roof on Aylwards car is there for a reason and a massive dive into the last bend saw him connect with the 18 car, then a big struggle to find some grip, which Chopper found first and a drive across the line to take a very popular win, Eaton was unlucky not to make it out of the bend and had to settle with a DNF, Cooper took second with Brooker Third.
Aylward and Eaton, plus Cooper and Brooker put on an incredible show, real hard hitting (but not wrecking) and all proved why they have held that gold roof at one point in their careers. 55 year old Eaton (yes i said 55!) was unlucky to have not salvaged something out of it, however i imagine he wore a big smile on the way home. Aylward once again proved why he is the current World Champion, never giving in, and always going for the win. And to keep everybody warm on the way home was a hand shake between Chopper and Eaton, with other well respected drivers showing their respect for what truly was a race of legends.
Who would dare to say superstox are not on the up, roll on Coventry!
Pictures:
Final Winner World Champion Colin Aylward
2001 World Champion 18 Mark Eaton
Heat 1 Winner 419 Chris Capon
Heat 2 Winner 7 Glen Salmon
53 Paul Anscombe in the Polley car