WOOD ENJOYS BEING BESIDE THE SEASIDE AT EASTER TIME
Bringing to an end Carl Waller-Barrett’s incredible run of final wins at Skegness, Billy Wood got the best of a long duel with Rob McDonald to take the victory and with it the Stu Carter Memorial Trophy. Karl Baker and Perry Cooke made off with the heats with Cooke also leading the final before mechanical issues intervened.
Sole white grader Barry Limer stepped off the line to assume a brief lead in the opener before Karl Baker went rushing past at the Seaside bend. Baker’s Ginetta swiftly built a comfortable gap over the rest and only ever looked like being troubled by the traffic he was in the rest of the way.
But his potential chasers were busy with each other anyway, Limer working hard to fend off impressive ‘newbie’Darren Cardy until both were challenged by John Sibbald with five to go. The Scot went outside to pass Cardy but found Limer a great deal more awkward, Sibbald gritting his teeth to make it by anyway in sight of the flag.
Limer made a much better start in heat two to put a lot of daylight between himself and second man Ashley Shaw. Further back an out-of-grade (due to a recent run of misfortune) Cooke was on the march, making three wide with Cardy and Mark Shelper to go fifth.
Sibbald and Ivan Grayson were Cooke’s next victims shortly before Limer’s sudden departure with a blown up axle. That handed Shaw the advantage just as the yellows flew for a spun
Kym Weaver on the Seaside turn. Cooke pounced on Shaw the moment they saw a hint of a green flag with Sibbald chasing Cooke through to go second, while behind them McDonald had definitely woken up. In P7 at the restart he carved through the rest, underlining his pace by passing Chris Haird like a bullet along the back straight. Only running out of laps kept him in fourth at the flag.
There was no clear winner suggested by the final grid, with pole man Sibbald looking pretty evenly matched with Baker’s similar Ginetta alongside, while a betting man would have had their eye on Wood, on grid seven despite a relatively quiet night.
In a frantic start, second-row starter Cooke forge a path down the inside of both front row men, the trio blasting down the back straight three-wide before Sibbald and Baker were forced to admit defeat and let not only Cooke go, but also Haird and Wood.
Cooke was off and running until the Tigra suddenly slowed with a broken driveshaft, the wheel then coming completely off as he tried to limp into retirement, launching him into an uncomfortable airborne moment.
With Wood having just passed Haird, the resulting yellow put the 2018 World champion ahead, a further caution when Cardy spun left McDonald second as he had made it past Haird just before the flags came out.
That left the rest of the race as a straightforward shoot-out between Wood and McDonald with the Scot trying every trick in the book to unseat the leader. But Wood has seen it all before and was still securely in front at flag fall, McDonald suffering a two-place contact penalty in any case.
Results
Organiser: Skegness Raceway When: March
Where: Skegness Raceway Starters: 26 Heat one: 1 Karl Baker (Ginetta G40R); 2 John Sibbald (Ginetta G40R); 3 Barry Limer (Vauxhall Tigra); 4 Darren Cardy (Vauxhall Tigra); 5 Ashley Shaw (Vauxhall Tigra); 6 Ivan Grayson (Ford Fiesta); 7 Perry Cooke (Vauxhall Tigra); 8 Billy Wood (Vauxhall Tigra). Heat two: 1 Cooke; 2 Sibbald; 3 Shaw; 4 Rob McDonald (Ginetta G40R); 5 Chris Haird (Vauxhall Tigra); 6 Nick Roots (Vauxhall Tigra); 7 Baker; 8 Wood. Final: 1 Wood; 2 Baker; 3 Haird; 4 McDonald; 5 Roots; 6 Ryan Morgan (Vauxhall Tigra); 7 Shaw; 8 Hayden Ballard (Ginetta G40R); 9 Terry Hunn (Ford Fiesta); 10 Danny Smith (Ginetta G40R). Points: 1 McDonald 397; 2 Aaron Dew 335; 3 Wood 335; 4 Ballard 329; 5 Paul Wright 313; 6 Hunn 308.