WOOD KEEPS UP THE NHR MOMENTUM
Billy Wood’s day at Hednesford went much like his last outing at Ipswich with merely so-so heat results putting him just far enough forward on the final grid to make his presently peerless pace count.
Unlike at Ipswich however, he was never seriously put to the test here, taking the lead long before half distance and then winning as he liked.
A lively opening heat kicked off with Lewis Shelley leading Peter Elliott and Karl Baker while the rest squabbled about who would challenge them. Andy Lane got the best of that and swiftly worked his way through to second. Lane closed the gap to the leader but Shelley was able to keep him at arm’s length for a long time. It was just beginning to look like a Shelley win when several spun cars caused some bunching of the backmarkers just as the leaders reached them. Lane seized his chance, slashing his deficit to zero, and then diving under Shelley into the West Bend six laps from home.
A restart after Barry Limer spun into the wall at the first attempt had Shelley straight into the lead again in heat two. A three-way dice for second was eventually resolved in favour of Lance Bowen with Sam Gray running third for a time. But the real threat to the leader was coming from further back where Shane Bland was slicing through the traffic at will. He was fourth by middistance and, although Bowen was finally closing on the leader with five laps to go, Bland was rushing up on both of them by then.
Bland made a big sweep round the outside with three to go to snatch the lead while Bowen forced a three-wide moment with a backmarker at the other end. That got him past Shelley and home in second but also in trouble with the steward who handed down a two-place penalty for contact and overtaking off the track.
Polesitter Lane was first to break in the final, hurtling into Turn 1 millimetres ahead of Hayden Ballard, Rob McDonald and Shelley, but it all kicked off along the back straight with Bland, Aaron
Dew and McDonald coming together in a big way to bring out the yellows.
The crash also eliminated Carl Waller-Barrett with damage to the famous DRStweaked rear wing.
It was Lane from Shelley and Wood for the resumption, Wood immediately cutting under Shelley to go second. It took another couple of tours for Wood to zap Lane under braking into the West Bend and that was pretty much that, the leader romping away to win by around half a lap.
A close places fight near the end resulted in Perry Cooke crossing the line second only to collect a contact penalty, handing the position to Chris Haird instead.
Results
Organiser: Incarace When: March 20
Where: Hednesford Hills Raceway
Starters: 30
Heat one: 1 Andy Lane (Ginetta G40R); 2 Lewis Shelley (Vauxhall Tigra); 3 Shaun Taylor (Ford Fiesta); 4 Hayden Ballard (Vauxhall Tigra); 5 Rob McDonald (Vauxhall Tigra); 6 Carl Waller-Barrett (Vauxhall Tigra); 7 Mikey Godfrey (Mazda RX-8); 8 Perry Cooke (Vauxhall Tigra).
Heat two: 1 Shane Bland (Ford Fiesta); 2 Sam Gray (Peugeot 206cc); 3 Lane; 4 Lance Bowen (Vauxhall Tigra); 5 Ballard; 6 Aaron Dew (Ginetta G40R); 7 Billy Wood (Vauxhall Tigra); 8 Dick Hillard (Vauxhall Tigra). Final: 1 Wood; 2 Chris Haird (Vauxhall Tigra); 3 Lane; 4 Cooke; 5 Jack Blood (Vauxhall Tigra); 6 Gavin Murray (Vauxhall Tigra); 7 Shelley; 8 Gray; 9 Bowen; 10 Godfrey. Points: Wood 321; 2 Waller-Barrett 290; 3 Cooke 265; 4 Haird 259; 5 Gordon Alexander 250; 6 Dew 240.