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19th November 1972 - Ipswich - Spede Prix
500
Report from Auto Magazine, January
1973
Thirty two of the top drivers lined up for
the Spede Prix meeting at Ipswich on 19th November for the
first ever 100 lap race for midgets, superstox and hot rods.
The race could not have been run in more appalling
conditions, the rain mixing with the shale thrown onto the
tarmac racing surface reducing visibility to almost nil. Practice
started at 11.30 in a fairly heavy drizzle. Grid positions
were decided by lap times taken from each formula and an average
found. The fastest formula was then started at the back of
the field and the slowest on the front grid positions. By
some crafty driving and in spite of a cash bonus being offered
for the fastest lap time, the front of the grid was taken
up with the hot rods. The midgets then took up middle position
with a one second faster average than the rods.
The flag dropped and the first Auto Enthusiast
sponsored Spede Prix 500 race was on. With over £700 worth
of prize money on this one race is it was going to be difficult
to observe the non contact rule laid down by the stewards
before the meeting.
It was the white escort of Barry Lee that
shot straight into the lead followed closely by some more
rods and a gaggle of the faster midgets. The supers were biding
their time at the back waiting for the others to make a mistake.
It wasn't until the 10th lap when unnoticed, Dave pierce,
struggling through the atrocious conditions brought the BP/CC
sponsored super through to take the lead from Lee who was
working harder than he'd ever worked. After the 25th lap the
order was 320 Dave Pierce (superstox), 351 Barry Lee (hot
rod) and 566 Micky Codling (hot rod).
Drama came when pierce tangled with one of
the Cayzer brothers and struck the safety fence writing off
his offside suspension. This allowed lee to take the lead,
but hang on, through the muck emerged 264 Pete Welland who
had just overtaken Auto sponsored Graham North to move into
second place. There followed a dice that will long be remembered
at the 'Heath with Welland pressing the sideways Lee into
every bend, only to find that Lee is the master of the 'sideways
moment' and not one to give up.
Still in third place 267 Graham North,his
car so dirty it was hardly recognisable as the usually smart
Auto sponsored machine. In the closing stages more drama as
North retired in an ominous smokescreen, Welland slipped through
to take the lead and young Stu Blyth slipped into 3rd place
with his super.
Nothing much yet said about the midgets who
were soldiering on through the wet conditions with no protection
from the elements at all. Steadily carving his way through
the field was no 24 Mick Bonner who had been taken into the
safety wall earlier by a fellowmidget driver. Ace Fireball
exponent Frank Boyles had retired very early in the race after
Barry Plummer had tried to take a short cut across the midget's
bonnet. Rod Tanswell who started as one of the favourites
for the event was motoring steadily in the new Mk3 Fireball
but was well down in the overall results finishing 9th overall.
Overall result: 1st Barry Lee (Hot Rod), 2nd
Pete Welland (Superstox), 3rd Doug McMahon (Superstox), 4th
Mick Bonner (Midget), 5th Stu Blyth (Superstox), 6th Mick
Collard (Hot Rod), 7th Leon Smith (Hot Rod), 8th Brian Randall
(Superstox).
Midget results: 1st Mick Bonner, 2nd Colin
Byrne, 3rd Rod Tanswell.
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