Waller-barrett’shothat-trick

Organiser: Incarace When: May 7 Where: Hednesford Hills Raceway Starters: 23

Carl Waller-barrett dominated the Bank Holiday outing at Hednesford, winning all three races in fine style. The blistering trackside temperatures clearly suited CW-B, who was the class of the field all afternoon.

The opening heat kicked off with Lewis Shelley and Guy Smith making the most of their handicap advantage, Shelley leading and swiftly opening out a sizeable gap to Smith. For his part, Smith also put plenty of daylight between himself and any pursuers but it was already looking as though it might be something of a long day for the guys starting near the rear of the grid.

For Waller-barrett, it appeared just the ticket though. The former double European champ looked quick and had already advanced from 11th place on the opening lap when his cause was helped further by Paul Frost, Shaun Taylor and Jack Blood ending up in the wall. That left CW-B fifth but soon picking off those ahead, including Smith (now third) and then Alistair Lowe at half distance.

Leader Shelley was still a way clear but with half the race still to run, his win was far from secure. The gap closed until Waller-barrett nipped past going down the back straight for the final time.

Shelley got a similar start to heat two, blitzing away into the lead with Smith again running second, although this time the pair were separated by the lapped car of Blood, who had spun on lap one.

With Guy Smith falling back faster this time, it was Taylor who emerged as Shelley’s nearest challenger, taking the lead when Shelley left a gap down his inside into the West Bend.

Half distance was when CW-B hit his stride, descending on Shelley to relieve him of second spot and then evaporating Taylor’s lead. Waller-barrett stuck his nose in front with three laps to go, Taylor drew ahead once more but then left an inviting space down his inside on the penultimate lap to give Waller-barrett his second victory.

Waller-barrett and Shelley shared the front row for the final and from that position nobody was betting against another CW-B win. Sure enough, he went straight into a lead at the green, leaving Shelley to deal with the rest if he could. But his defence of second proved to be short-lived, smoke pouring from the back of his car signalling that some contact had pushed rear bodywork onto the tyres. There was a fair bit of place swapping as the rest swarmed around the stricken Shelley’s car, with Jason Kew coming out of it very handily, moving up from fifth to second.

The rest of the race was all about Kew trying in vain to chase down the leader, with Waller-barrett not even hesitating for a second going around lapped cars to give his pursuer a little hope.

Half a lap behind them, Aaron Dew had a lonely race in third, tracked by Danny Smith, Gavin Murray, new European champion Shane Bland, points leader Billy Wood, and a somewhat out-of-sorts Chris Haird, those eight running to the finish.