HARRIS SECURES SECOND SPOT FOR THE WORLD FINAL
Tom Harris dominated the World Final Semi at Skegness. The defending champion led every lap to book himself a front row starting sport at Ipswich in September.
The only thing that went wrong for Harris was that he lost the coin toss to decide who starts on the inside in the World Final race. That was won by Paul Hines, who won the first Semi Final at Bradford a few weeks ago.
Harris survived a first-bend attack from Lee Fairhurst and stretched his lead to win by almost half a lap. Behind him, though, there was a tremendous scrap for second place. Bobby Griffin moved into second spot on the opening lap, but Frankie Wainman Jr nudged his way into the runner-up position a few laps later. The duo swapped places several times before Wainman crossed the line in second a few metres ahead.
Alex Wass came from the back of the grid to take seventh place to qualify for his first World Final while John
Lund claimed the last qualifying spot. It was Lund’s 41st Semi Final race and he has now made it into the World Final an incredible 33 times.
Winner Harris explained: “I got shoved from behind before the green flag dropped, but that did me a favour as, rather than set off slow, it gave me a good start. They came in with a big hit on the first bend, but I managed to get away.
“After that I didn’t want to go mad and break anything. My crew did a great job to get me out there: I blew an engine in practice and they worked hard to fit a replacement.”
Griffin was delighted with third. “I got close to Wainman at the end of the race, but someone was dropping oil,” he said. “I wasn’t sure it was Wainman, but I could see some smoke coming from his car. Every time I got on the inside of him, I just couldn’t get enough grip to get past him.”
Results
Organiser: Skegness Raceway, BriSCA F1 Where: Skegness When: August 13 Starters: 48.
1 Tom Harris; 2 Frankie Wainman Jr; 3 Bobby Griffin; 4 Michael Scriven; 5 Danny Wainman; 6 Tyrone Evans;
7 Alex Wass; 8 Catherine Harris;
9 Shaun Webster; 10 John Lund.