Smith keeps the momentum flowing with victory
Organiser: Startrax When: April 22 Where: Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield Starters: 32
Stuart Smith Jr is in a rich vein of form right now. His win on Sunday at Sheffield was his second consecutive victory on shale and his third win in four meetings on the loose surface. It was Smith’s first win at Sheffield since he took victory in the final there in May 2007.
Ricky Wilson led from the drop of the green flag with Luke Dennis close behind. The duo opened up a half-a-straight lead before Ben Hurdman clouted the fence on the home straight. His car was stranded on the racing line and that brought out the yellow flags.
On the restart, Wilson and Dennis tangled and that allowed Mark Gilbank, Smith Jr and Dan Johnson through to take up the top three positions.
The race was halted again at the halfway point when Mark Woodhull rolled his machine. The shaken driver said: “I got squeezed into the fence: I had nowhere to go. I am OK though and the car isn’t too badly damaged.”
At the restart, Smith Jr closed in on Gilbank and then punted the leader wide on Turn 1. Smith assumed control and Johnson snuck by into second. Although Johnson gained some distance on the leader he wasn’t able to get close enough to dislodge him and the positions remained the same until the chequered flag.
“I probably didn’t have the quickest car and I knew I had to take my opportunity to move Gilbank when it came, or he would have got away,” said Smith.
Second place man Johnson said afterwards: “I think we were all about equal. At the mid-point of the race we were all staying the same distance from each other. Towards the end of the race I tried to drive into the corners a bit harder to see if that would help. It did a little bit but I was not able to get close enough.”