News and Features: British Championship 2011

Date - 18th & 19th June
Venue - Thunder Valley Raceway - Lochgelly

The impressive track of Lochgelly made its major championship debut on the 18th of June, and lived up to its Thunder Valley name, with some top quality action packed racing. The British championship was up for grabs on the Saturday and was to be run as the first race, with the grid positions being decided by the customary drawn out of the hat method. This was followed by 2 more heats and an all comers final.
Sunday saw the Scottish Open Championship, held as the last race with 2 qualifying heats to determine the grid positions.
Thunder Valley, was a pretty good name for it on Saturday, as although there wasn't any actual thunder, it was the only thing missing from the rain! Never the less there was a championship at stake and the drivers were all keen practising as much as possible before the event. Mark Smith continued once again with his championship luck as his throttle stuck open and sent him hard into the control box end armco, causing a stop in practise and a lot of pain for Mark. Marks car was hastily repaired by many helping hands, but Mark was unable to race for the rest of the weekend, but at least seems to not have major injuries.
A grand parade started the Superstox off and gave the crowd a chance to see the drivers (which was won by Colin Aylward!)

British Championship 31 cars
Grid
Inside     35 515 483 123 419 161 376 477 172 4    60 124 444 233 23
Outside 53   432 177 517 176 114   369 57     51    7   17    3    69    74   146   482

2 rolling laps built the suspense for the title and the cars got underway. The first turn saw them 3 abreast as Sarah Cooper stuck her nose up the inside of Stuart Gilchrist who had Micheal Robinson on his outside for company. Lots of shoving out of the bend saw Sarah spun round along with Capon and
Coles, as Billy Smith moved up to third behind Gilchrist and Robinson, who, despite the yellow roof on his car, drove a superstar like start. Robinson lead the first lap but Gilchrist and Billy Smith were into their stride and soon went by, and started to clear the field as Colin Aylward, Ryan Eaton and Shaun Brooker moved up through the field quickly. Matt Carberry got spun and Robinson found the armco, ending his race. Back up front Gilchrist had already built a big lead putting a good few back markers between himself and Billy Smith who had Aylward not far behind.
By halfway it already looked Gilchrist's race as he was well clear, and dealing with the not always helpful back markers as well as you could expect from this quality driver. Second was still up for grabs however as Billy Smith was slowly being caught by Aylward, with Brooker now up to fourth ahead of Eaton. A few laps later saw Aylward catch and pass Smith taking him to second whilst Colin Frame got turned around giving the leader a brief worrying moment.
As they reached the final stages Gilchrist was in full control, almost half a lap ahead of Aylward who still had Smith right with him, with Brooker joining the party too. Aylward and Smiths battling saw the unfortunately wrongly place Dave Miles Snr slam the armco, as up front Gilchrist entered the last lap and cruised safely to the flag, taking a great win on home turf which saw the soaked crowd cheer their hero. Aylward took a hard fought second and Brooker took third after planting a last bend hit on Billy Smith who had to settle for forth. Eaton drove well and took Fifth ahead of Jackson and Cooper.
The race gave the Scottish fans a well needed boost, and Gilchrist will most likely continue to impress them, it was great to see him have a chance to show his quality.

Full Result 177 - 51 - 69 - 161 - 17 - 376 - 482 - 60 - 176 - 123

Heat 1
Still wet, heat 1 got underway and it wasn't long before Alex Meadows took the lead with Micheal Robinson following. Gilchrist was in the thick of it , and moving up quickly. Billy Smith gave Alan Rae a big hit which put Alan away and brought out the red flags. A complete re-start saw Meadows lead once again followed this time by Jordan Aylward. Steven Jackson was moving though very quickly along with Eaton and Cooper. Gilchrist got caught up with Billy Smith and was out of contention.  As they entered the last lap, J. Aylward was still leading but Jackson ready for a last bend hit, Aylward went wide and they exited the turn together, with Jordan taking the narrowest of wins, but still a deserved win it was .

Full Result 515 - 376 - 17 - 51 - 482 - 161 - 7 - 60 - 4 - 176

Heat 2
Robinson shot into the lead followed by Alex Meadows. Gilchrist was flying and into third in almost 3 laps, which was far too much for the others as he removed meadows to go second and then take the lead. Jackson and Brooker were looking the best of the rest and moved to second and third, but there was no catching the new British Champion as he sailed away for the win.

Full Result 177 - 376 - 69 - 161 - 482 - 60 - 432 - 4 - 483 - 515

All comers
The all comers race got underway and once again Robinson took the lead but Billy Smith was soon on the scene and took over, only for Gilchrist to take it up. Colin Aylward had problems and was unable to get onto the infield, leaving him stuck on the exit of the pit bend and bringing out the yellows. The re-start order was Gilchrist from Smith, Jackson and Cooper, and as they entered the first turn it was a four way train sending Gilchrist into the armco and giving Jackson the lead followed by the Cooper. Jackson was looking quick and this is how they stayed with Billy Smith and Glen Salmon making up the top four.

Full Result 376 - 482 - 161 - 7 - 233 - 432 - 515 - 69 - 60 - 74

Sunday Racing

The rain was long gone by the start of Sunday's racing, the sun was shining and the whole atmosphere had a much better feel to it. We lost a few drivers, Mark Smith still not able to race, both Miles had gone home due to Snr having a leg that needed looking at after his heavy crash in the British, Glen Salmon was missing due to car problems and Matt Carberry had to leave due to work issues. We did however gain Kenny McKenzie for the Scots. The draw for the first heat took place as the cars entered the track, which was to be reversed for the next heat.

Heat 1
The closed grid rolled around for the start and as they all went to go, Gilchrist's car didn't get away and was hit by Steve Donnovan, whilst others attempting to avoid caused Ryan Eaton to roll over onto the infield, and bringing out the red flags. The restart saw Cooper take the lead with Jackson and Meadows in hot pursuit, followed by a flying Colin Aylward. Jackson bumpered his way past Cooper to take it up as Meadows found a way past too, but Aylward soon past both to take up the chase on Jackson, but Steven was running well and wasn't to be caught and took the win and more importantly the full points towards the Scottish Open grid.

Full Result 376 - 51 - 482 - 60 - 233 - 161 - 369 - 146 - 69 - 4

Heat 2
The race hadn't started long when Liam Lambert found himself in the middle of the straight with no steering wheel, sending cars everywhere but mostly into the pit bend armco. With the track completely blocked the race was stopped. Involved in the crash were cars 4, 53, 176, 419, 482, 177, 483, 432, with only Gilchrist able to restart. On the re-start Marjoram shot into the lead followed by Billy Smith and Brooker, only for another stoppage for Colin Aylward, Paul Langridge and Kenny McKenzie stranded. This time they got away well with Marjoram once again the leader, Brooker and Jackson moved past Smith to go second and third. Gilchrist caught Billy Smith for fourth and landed a huge payback blow to take Billy out, only for Ben Munford to land one on Stuart and then Langridge having a go too. Amongst all this excitement Marjoram drove well to win, from Brooker and Jackson, who was happy with third to give him pole for the Scottish Open.

Full Result - 60 - 69 - 376 - 747 - 477 - 517 - 233 - 515 - 177 - 53

Scottish Open Championship
Grid
Inside      376   69    51 747   477 161   4   57    176
Outside 60     233 515  369   517 177   53 453   483
Around half the cars that started the weekend started the Scottish Open for the last race of the weekend, and a now perfect conditioned track showed the Supers at their true speed. Jackson got away well from the clutch start followed by Brooker and Aylward. Further back the Gilchrist/Smith feud continued as Billy launched Stuart into the armco and out of the race taking Jordan Aylward with him. Up front Jackson was keeping ahead but Brookers car started to look the better as he began to close the gap and pull away from Aylward who was slowly getting caught by a now flying Munford. When the five laps to go boards came out Brooker was right with Jackson and was obviously biding his time to make his move, but with a couple of laps left, his chance came courtesy of Jackson who went a little wide in the turn, allowing Shaun to drive up the inside, and and with a wide exit to make Jackson have to break, was clear enough for no comeback from Jackson. So Brooker took a good win from Jackson who looked good all weekend, followed by Colin Aylward who just survived a last bend attempt from Ben Munford. Colin Frame took a good fifth for his efforts from Martin Coles.

Full Result 69 - 376 - 51 - 233 - 477 - 517 - 176 - 161 - 57 - 747

It was great for the Superstox to show the Scottish fans just what they have been doing in England this year and seems to have gone down very well indeed. For the English drivers it was good to have a weekend away, and was great to see so many make the effort. Gilchrist will be a good champion and has started to talk about making some English dates this year. Lets hope so, and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of his feud with Billy Smith, which all seems to be within the spirit of stockcar racing.
If this weekend was anything to go by, expect Scotland to play a big part in Superstox racing once again.