END OF AN ERA AS CIRCUIT CELEBRATES FINAL MEETING
Rockingham messed up when the Super Send-off was announced.
The final ever circuit races to be held at the venue ahead of its closure shouldn’t have been advertised with Indycars and ASCAR publicity shots.
That built-up false hope of celebrating series that had long since abandoned the £70 million oval. Fortunately, in their place, was a very pleasant national meeting.
The circuit’s boss Peter Hardman was clearly out to make hay, winning both
Sports & GT bouts, plus the One Hour Race in his Radical SR3. Although the inaugural meeting at Rockingham was held behind closed doors to sort any teething problems, Hardman finished second in the first public race – piloting a Ferrari 246S Dino in the 2001 Coys Historic Festival.
He might have been penalised out of the Citroen C1 24-hour win at the circuit earlier this year, but Hardman’s hat-trick was far more straightforward this time around. Oil at Chapman did send him skating off in the second Sports & GT race, but a subsequent red flag and reset grid meant the polesitter was thrown a second chance.
The brace of white Ginetta G55s driven by GT4 Supercup regulars Lee Frost and Lucky Khera provided the stiffest competition – Khera’s second place in race two proof enough. He should have equalled that result in the opener, but the pressure from British GT and Formula Palmer Audi champion Jon Barnes was too much and he spun onto the banking, allowing the Caterham 420R through to finish runner-up.
It seemed as though no driver wanted to win the last ever single-seater race at Rockingham, as F1000 runners Dave Wheal and Robert Bailey tried their best to throw away victory over the sparse eight-car field.
Wheal’s clean getaway from pole in race two left him unchallenged into Turn 1, as Bailey dropped from fifth to sixth. But late braking into Deene and then a strong run to Yentworth promoted Bailey back up to second thanks, in part, to Ewen Sergison’s maiden outing in his ex-emanuele Pirro Osella FAF FF2000 car ending with a misfire.
At the end of the opening lap, Bailey had only a 0.2s deficit to Wheal and promptly passed for the lead through Chapman two tours later. But an overzealous right-foot meant he spun on the exit of Tarzan hairpin to gift Wheal a lifeline. That was until he dropped his car onto the grass at Pif Paf.
A string of fastest laps meant Bailey sat pretty in first before he was hit with double vision – thinking the black flag for car #3 was actually for him, #33. He dived into the pits, realised his error and then battled a sticking throttle to try to make amends. But Wheal held on by 2.8 seconds to take a fortuitous win.
To add insult to Bailey’s day, in race one he had been the clear leader before “really f***ing up” and spinning his car in the gravel at Brook. That left Wheal to double up, as did Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk5 driver Andy Baylie in the Saloons encounters.