GRAY TAKES THE FINAL AT THE DEATH AS WALLER-BARRETT COLLECTS ENGLISH POINTS SILVERWARE
After Ivan Grayson lost what seemed a certain final victory almost within sight of the flag, it was Sam Gray who emerged from the frenetic places battle to snatch the win. But it was a relatively lowly finish for Carl Waller-Barrett which clinched his second points championship with one round still to go.
Alistair Lowe led the opener away. He lost out to Barry Limer before they’d turned a lap, then regained the lead rounding Turn four on the second tour. From that point on Lowe marched away, ensuring Limer was never able to threaten his lead.
In the last couple of laps Waller-Barrett’s car, which had been running around outside the top
10, came on with a bang. He stormed round the outside of the place men, eventually bringing it home fourth.
Heat two kicked off with a dice between Brett Collison, Karl Baker and Shaun Taylor. Taylor went to the head of the field but there was still plenty of work to do for the new leader as Grayson, Gray and a host of others – including a pacey looking Rob McDonald – heaped on the pressure the rest of the way. It became a nine-car lead fight in the dying laps but somehow Taylor managed to hang on.
The third encounter was easily the quietest. Limer made no mistakes this time and led from flag-to-flag. Baker, Lowe and Grayson scrapped over second spot in the early laps before Grayson saw the others off to claim the position.
It all kicked off in the final. They’d barely got going when Lance Bowen spun exiting
Turn 2. Chaos ensued with McDonald spinning into retirement while Gavin Murray got launched and traversed most of the back straight perched on the front of Paul Wright’s car. With the race still under the green flag, Bowen rejoined but had clearly broken something as he then ploughed straight on into the wall.
Some swift place swapping carried Limer to the front but with Grayson glued to his tail and pressing hard as they went beyond mid-distance. The two leaders had half a lap on the rest by that point but Grayson’s challenge eventually sent Limer spinning. That still left a black crossed Grayson clear and apparently safe from everyone (with the possible exception of the steward) until he somehow managed to collide with the backmarking Taylor. By the time he’d extricated himself from a timewasting trip across the infield second-man Gray had assumed the lead and looked like keeping it too, with Wright, Gordon Alexander and Chris Haird preoccupied with battling for the places.
Gray got the win with a raft of penalties disqualifying Taylor (along with Wright for an earlier incident) and Grayson relegated even further for his part in Limer’s demise.
It was, though, Waller-Barrett’s sixth place that guaranteed he can’t be caught in the points chase, allowing him to reclaim the championship title he last held back in 2016.
Results
Organiser: Spedeworth When: May 22
Where: Aldershot Raceway Championship: World Series Starters: 28
Heat one: 1 Alistair Lowe (Vauxhall Tigra); 2 Barry Limer (Vauxhall Tigra); 3 Lance Bowen (Vauxhall Tigra); 4 Carl WallerBarrett (Vauxhall Tigra); 5 Shaun Taylor (Ford Fiesta); 6 Sam Gray (Peugeot 206cc); 7 Paul Wright (Vauxhall Tigra); 8 Gavin Murray (Vauxhall Tigra). Heat two: 1 Taylor; 2 Ivan Grayson (Ford Fiesta); 3
Gray; 4 Rob McDonald (Vauxhall Tigra); 5 Chris Haird (Vauxhall Tigra); 6 Chris Aldridge (Vauxhall Tigra); 7 Wright; 8 Mark Shelper. Heat three: 1 Limer; 2 Grayson; 3 Bowen; 4 Murray; 5 Lowe; 6 John Sibbald (Vauxhall Tigra); 7 Gordon Alexander (Vauxhall Tigra); 8 Jason Kew (Ginetta G40R). Final: 1 Gray; 2 Alexander; 3 Haird; 4 Kew; 5 Billy Wood (Vauxhall Tigra); 6 Waller-Barrett; 7 Sibbald; 8 Perry Cooke (Vauxhall Tigra); 9 Aaron Dew (Ginetta G40R); 10 Aldridge. Points:
1 Waller-Barrett 498; 2 Wood 419; 3 Alexander 374; 4 Dew 372; 5 Haird 368; 6 Cooke 367.