HOT RODS BACK TO S HALE SURFACE
Short oval runners return to a loose track at northampton after a lengthy gap
National Hot Rods have competed on shale for the first time in several years at Northampton International Raceway on Sunday, with a positive reaction from the drivers.
The Brafield circuit has been laid with shale over the summer by operators Incarace, and eight entries took part in the event on Sunday. The last time it is thought NHRS contested an all-shale meeting was at Boston in early 1990s. Many drivers feel that the move to a shale track was a step back as the modern cars are more highly tuned and less able to run on a loose surface.
Double race winner Dick Hillard had been a big advocate of the meeting on the alternate surface and he had tested at Mildenhall prior to the NIR event.
He said: “As far as I was concerned, the track was exactly what I expected it to be.
“It was dry, we were fortunate with the weather today and in the previous week, and the track couldn’t have been better. There’s no problem with the cars racing on this surface, and today there’s been a lot of respect between the drivers and fair play to everybody who put in the effort to be here.
“Pretty much everything under the car has been changed to get it where I wanted it to be: brakes, springs, shocks, even the engine – we’ve done a lot of work on it.”
Heat two winner Chris Lehec took the exact opposite approach. He said: “We’ve made almost no changes to the car at all, just a few things – temporarily panelled it all in a bit under the bonnet.
“What we’re doing is just what we’d do at a normal meeting.
“Even coming from a background in grass track racing, I wouldn’t say I knew what to expect, but there was a lot more grip out there than I was expecting. And it was good fun – you come in with a smile on your face.”