HAIRD TAKES OVER FOR HIS FIRST FINAL WIN
It may have taken a late retirement from Rob McDonald to achieve it but Chris Haird claimed his first final win with his Vauxhall Tigra ‘A’ to round off the English World Series for another year, McDonald and Jack Blood taking the other heats.
Alistair Lowe led the opener away with Mark Shelper in pursuit. They were duelling for the lead when Andy Lane went spinning on the East Bend causing all sorts of mayhem in his wake as cars spun or crashed trying to avoid the stricken Ginetta.
After the resulting yellow flag it was still Lowe from Shelper but the hiatus had brought many others into contention. Gavin Murray advanced swiftly to second and bore down on the leader only to have his car go very sick. With Murray fading attention switched to McDonald. The World champ had come off the restart 10th but was always on the march thereafter, finally taking the lead three laps from home for a resounding win.
Shelper and Lowe reversed their running order for the second encounter, chased hard by Hayden Ballard once he’d overhauled Lane. Going beyond half distance Jack Blood and Billy Wood emerged as fast movers. Both were making strides in the right direction with matters coming to a climax as they passed the three-lap board. By that point Ballard was second but with Blood all over him as both closed on the leader. With all three heading into heavy traffic there was nothing between them starting the last lap. Blood squirmed past Ballard and then dived under Shelper at the final turn to snatch victory from the apparent dead heat by just 0.045s.
The final at the last round is gridded in points order to add spice to whatever scores need settling: if a driver is vying for the points win (already decided in favour of Carl Waller-Barrett this year) or simply trying to make the World championship field he will be starting right alongside his immediate rivals.
That line up pitted WallerBarrett against Billy Wood for the blast into the first turn, but Wood’s outside berth allowed Haird, McDonald and Jason Kew to forge past on the inside. Wood quickly re-passed Kew but had already lost touch with the WallerBarrett-McDonald-Haird lead battle. That came to a head when McDonald and Waller-Barrett touched exiting the East Bend, sending the leader spinning. That gave McDonald the lead and, as he started to edge away from Haird, it looked to be all over.
But suddenly the Scot’s car was out, its motor seizing, leaving Haird to an unopposed win despite Wood coming up fast in second at the death.
The always tense battle around the cut-off point was finally won by Dick Hillard, a scant four points ahead of the tied Shaun Taylor and Lance Bowen who will now have to rely on the ‘last chance’ qualifiers at Ipswich. Results
Organiser: Incarace When: June 4
Where: Hednesford Hills Raceway
Starters: 31
Heat one: 1 Rob McDonald (Vauxhall Tigra); 2 Mark Shelper (Peugeot 206cc); 3 Alistair Lowe (Vauxhall Tigra); 4 Chris Haird (Vauxhall Tigra); 5 Jason Kew (Ginetta G40R); 6 Terry Hunn (Ford Fiesta); 7 Billy Wood (Vauxhall Tigra); 8 Jack Blood (Vauxhall Tigra). Heat two: 1 Blood; 2 Shelper; 3 Hayden Ballard (Vauxhall Tigra); 4 Wood; 5 Andy Lane (Ginetta G40R); 6 Lowe; 7 McDonald; 8 Dick Hillard (Vauxhall Tigra). Final: 1 Haird; 2 Wood; 3 Kew; 4 Aaron Dew (Ginetta G40R); 5 Perry Cooke (Vauxhall Tigra); 6 Gordon Alexander (Vauxhall Tigra); 7 Paul Wright (Vauxhall Tigra); 8 Blood; 9 Gavin Murray (Vauxhall Tigra); 10 John Sibbald (Vauxhall Tigra). Final standings: 1 Waller-Barrett 515; 2 Wood 470; 3 Haird 412; 4 Alexander 399; 5 Kew 395; 6 Cooke 394.