BTCC Round 10 - Farewell Ashby - 25 / 09 / 07

Well it’s been roughly 4000 miles, 160 gallons of diesel, 18 sets of tyres and many long hours but it’s brought us to the final meeting of the 2007 season at the soon to be no-more Ashby venue.

Arriving a little earlier than normal at around half 10 on Saturday morning we could have been forgiven for thinking we’d gone to the wrong track as we found only a few familiar faces in the carpark and a sole nitro whizzing round the track. Soon enough though the gates were opened and the familiar faces appeared. Not much interesting news this week except that Mike Doody had gone mad and swapped his 27 Turn Stock for a 3.5 turn brushless in an attempt to use up his remaining spares ;-)

The amazing Ashby, a real drivers track (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

First practice then and the car felt laughably bad as it bounced from bump to bump so it was back to the pits for a few changes. All the set-up changes could wait a while longer though as we dashed up to the track to watch Mikes first laps with a mod. Slowly pull away, get it straight, touch the throttle and whoa! Where did that go! It’s fair to say Mike was in for a tough learning curve but it was looking considerably tidier at the end of the day than the start.

A very cute one eyed dog (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

Back to my car and with the changes made it was back out on track to try them and it was slightly better although still missing some steering so we altered a few more things and now it was beginning to feel much better and I could enjoy the awesome Ashby track. A real shame that this was to be the last meeting ever held at Ashby as the local council have won the battle and are bringing in the bulldozers before placing some sort of carpark or housing estate on the land. Boo!

Me and Spanky had some great fun racing each other in practice, until Spanky got himself into all sorts of problems when he commented on what he thought was an attractive woman marshalling a stopped car on track. I’ll leave it to your imagination what Spanky said but it’s safe to say it probably wasn’t the best thing he could have said when her son was stood next to him! Lol At least it gave us a good laugh, especially as Spanky then hastily attempted to backtrack, saying ‘it was a compliment’ Lol, I nearly crashed laughing.

Still, with practice over it was time to get out of the pits and head off to the campsite that Shaggy and Mike B had arranged for the night. Now I’m using the word ‘campsite’ very loosely here, infact ‘field’ may describe it better. ‘Field and sheep’ would be even more accurate actually ;-)

Still, it was somewhere to be for the night and not far from the takeaways and pub which was something to do on the Saturday night I suppose, anywhere had to be better than facing the campsites ‘toilet’, I’m saying no more ;-)

Sunday morning and with the gates not opening until 8am we didn’t have to get up too early. In fact I’m surprised the organisers managed to get the meeting underway by 10am considering the late start and the fact we still had time for practice and a drivers briefing. Although dry at the start of qualifying the sky was looking dodgy, dodgy enough to convince quite a few people to fit new tyres for round 1 and what might be the only dry qualifier.

Spectators watch the qualifying (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

Onto qualifying then and this week I’d be in the ‘B’s with Spanky, Shaggy and Sean, Jamie in the ‘A’s, Mike B in the ‘D’s. Round 1 didn’t go at all well, the car felt all wrong on new tyres and me constantly throwing it into the scenery wasn’t helping matters. Turns out the left front wheel had come loose which was never going to help. So at the end of round 1 I found myself in unlucky 13th, between Spanky and Shaggy.

Round 2 and this time things went much much better, off to a good start and moving past Spanky when he made a mistake I really started to put some good laps in. Just a few seconds behind me Shaggy was also having a good run and we jumped upto 7th and 8th overall at the end of the round, fantastic!

Some qualifying action (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

Round 3 and it was another good run although I lost a second with a quick roll on the infield and I again had a wheel come loose (time to raid some off Shaggys spare car – sorry mate just realised I still have those) which didn’t help so I was a few tenths slower than in round 2. Watching the final heat of ‘A’ qualifiers Jamie and Tristan were both on better runs to take 7th and 8th which bumped me down the order, fortunately only those two improved enough to jump me so we snuck into the ‘A’ final in 10th place, phew!

Just missing out by a second or two was Wayne in 12th while Spanky was a few places further down the ‘B’ Final grid. Sean lined up 3rd in the ‘C’s with Mike B driving well to 3rd in the ‘D’s

Over in mod / brushless Mike came back from a DNF in race 1 to take 14th with some pretty clean looking driving in the second and third qualifiers.

Stock 'A' Final with Lee Price on pole (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

Finals time then for the last time this season and there was nothing to lose starting from 10th and last on the grid. Imagine my surprise when I came through in 4th at the end of lap 1! It didn’t last long though as for some reason I was getting eaten alive at the end of the straight and it wasn’t long before Bobby and Phill moved through with Andrew going by a few laps later when I made a hash of the chicane dropping me back to 7th. Gary Dyson was now behind me now and slightly to my surprise that’s how it stayed until the end of the race, he was close behind me for a few laps and then I pulled a safe little gap (imagine that happening a few meetings ago!!!) I could see for the last minute of the race we were both closing in on Andrew as I assume he was dumping or certainly having something cost him a bit of pace. The race ended a lap or two too soon though and as we crossed the line for the last time I was still in 7th, 3 tenths back from Andrew and a second or so in front of Gary. Up nearer the front Jamie had driven a good race to finish 3rd or 4th, I’m not sure which as I can’t find any results anywhere.

Bobby, me and the rest dash down the main straight (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

Leg 2 of the finals were absolutely fantastic. I got another fairly good first lap in to come through in 6th and then myself, Nigel Shaw and Phil Nelson had a great scrap over 4th place, at one point they had a bit of a moment coming out of one of the infield corners that let me slip through past the pair of them although it cost me a little bit of momentum going back onto he main straight and they both drove straight past me again! Argh! I need more power!!! Back to 6th again then and I could see Gary Dyson and Lee Price weren’t too far behind although it seemed they were fighting amongst themselves enough that they weren’t going to catch us, in fact if anything we gapped them as they continued their fight. It seemed Phill had ever so slightly more pace than me and Nigel and he went on to secure 4th while me and Nigel continued the 5th place squabble. Managing to get past him again by diving down the inside at the chicane I was back to 5th but a few laps later and Nigel was through again! Fantastic racing! A few laps to go and Nigel got a little offline on the infield which let me move back upto 5th which I was pretty relieved about as I saw Lee had moved past Gary and would no doubt be on the move. With just a few laps to go I could comfortably drive round to take a 5th place that I was absolutely delighted with. I know I got a 5th at Bedworth a few meetings back but that was just down to getting a good start and hanging on with a train of cars behind me, this 5th place was much more of a race with plenty of overtaking and competitive pace, it must have been as I didn’t have that train of cars behind me for 5 minutes ;-)

Not sure where how Jamie faired in this one, certainly didn’t see him all race and I still can’t find the results ;-)

Me chasing Andrew through the hairpin (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

In the ‘B’s Shaggy drove well and took 2nd overall while Adrian was having a few problems and finished further down the order than expected.

The first leg of the ‘C’ Final was fantastic with Kris Kennedy driving better than I’ve ever seen him drive to take the win although only just as Sean was closing closing closing and took 2nd at the end. Not too sure what happened in leg 2, I believe Kris K took 3rd overall and that Sean was also up on the podium, did you win or finish 2nd Sean? ;-)

In the ‘fast between crashes class’ Mike finished where he started in both finals, 4th, which gave him 3rd overall, good effort for a first attempt I thought!

All that was left then was the trophy presentation for this meeting as well as the overall championship positions with Bobby taking home the trophy everyone wanted for winning the 27T championship, congrats!

Bobby the champion! (Thanks to Neil Tompsett)

Andrew Twigger and Lee Price took 2nd and 3rd; top local was of course Mike D in 6th which probably would have been 5th had it not been for missing those last 2 meetings. Jamie’s good results at the last few meetings did his championship the power of good to move him upto 8th while I left it a little too late with my quite frankly rubbish start to the season meaning I could get no higher than 12th, just one point behind Richard Davis, d’oh!

Wayne finished up in 16th with Adrian just a couple spots back in 18th after he missed the opening few meetings. Sean took 21st, James Matthews 30th and Mike B 33rd

Plenty of local drivers in superstock too with Paul H in 13th, Jason 19th and Les beating James in the battle of the Bells with 28th, James in 31st.

Full end of season standings are here

That’s it for another season then, it’s been great fun and I’m pretty pleased with the way it ended even if I was ready to give up after those awful first few meetings ;-) Many thanks must go to Mike for sorting it out for me and everyone else who kept me smiling ;-)

Only a few weeks until round 1 of the Carpet Thrashnals then …… I’d better go get the car ready…..

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