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17th July 1993 - Birmingham Wheels, Report
by Anne Sayell
July 17th saw the Grand Prix Midgets debut
at Birmingham wheels with a seventeen car field taking to
the tight oval. The results saw three different winners and
no less than fifteen of cars scoring points. John Calladine
and Gary Bonner took the fifteen lap heats whilst Harry Sayell
made use of the extra laps to win the final.
The first heat saw Peter Hunt away first from
the white grade chased hard by Calladine, Gordon Pooley and
Bonner. The battle for supremacy amongst the red graded drivers
saw Calladine, once in front, pulling out a substantial lead
with Sayell, Eddy Ricketts and Stuart Haynes all suffering
spins whilst John Salter emerged from the pack to chase the
leader. Fifteen laps was not enough however and Calladine
took the flag from Salter, Pooley and Neil Clarke.
Heat 2 followed a similar pattern but Bonner
took the early lead chased hard by Pooley. Sayell was making
better progress this time however and passed Pooley on the
final lap to finish second behind Bonner.
The final saw the fastest time of the day
with Sayell the eventual winner lapping in 14.70 seconds compared
with the National Hot Rod record of 14.47. The race was stopped
after 4 laps when Clarke and Dick Loseby and came together
on the top bend. The restart was in graded order over the
full twenty five laps. Bonner, again the early leader, was
demoted by Sayell around half distance but stayed in contention
until he spun it all away at three quarter distance. This
left a fierce battle between Calladine and Haynes but this
also ended in disaster when the pair collided leaving John
Weston to pick up the second place trophy followed by Loseby
and Ron Elliott.
Sayell is now comfortably ahead in the Kent
Cams/George Polley Championship with 156 points. Haynes is
second on 103, Weston third on 92 followed by Steve Piggins,
Loseby and Ricketts.
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1st
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2nd
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3rd
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4th
|
5th
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6th
|
7th
|
8th
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9th
|
10th
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| Heat |
32
|
41
|
33
|
77
|
14
|
11
|
8
|
55
|
35
|
1
|
| Heat |
27
|
2
|
33
|
8
|
32
|
55
|
19
|
38
|
14
|
25
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| Final |
1
|
55
|
38
|
6
|
33
|
25
|
19
|
12
|
|
|
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