1994

The last Midget meeting of the season was held at Northampton Raceway on 2nd October.  This meeting tends to draw out the drivers who you haven’t seen for a while and this year's was no exception.  Eddy Ricketts, (with car we are pleased to say), Ron Elliott (without car, but we hope he'll be back next year) and an old face planning a return before much longer, Graham Sinclair.  Allan Herbert made his debut in the ex-Flymo machine.

The programme for the day saw two Championship races for the registered drivers followed by two Fun Races for would-be drivers, mechanics, wives and Uncle Tom Cobley (but he failed to show).

The first Championship race was over 15 laps and led away by the revitalised Gary Piper - he has really come on in recent races - with Barry Phillips and Gary Granger in hot pursuit.  Surprisingly it took blue graded VW man Stuart aka Junior Haynes 6 laps to close and finally pass Piper to take up the running.  Sonic Sayell was also in the frame though with a £20 modification to the car which helped it fly into third place behind Eddy Ricketts' Dastle as they completed lap 7.

Lap 8 saw Sonic closing in on the fellow VW with Edward R behind caught by Gary Bonner.  Lap 11 saw Sonic into the lead and slowly pulling away (I have it on good authority he was determined to equal a certain young driver's race win total over the season and this was his penultimate chance to do so).  After that the top 5 places were unchanged with Junior second, Eddy third, Gary B fourth, Simon Hiles fifth and Dick Loseby sixth.  Stacker Salter picked up consolidating points in seventh whilst Gary Piper added to his debut season score in eighth.  Disappointment for Nic Grindrod and John Weston, both hoping to score but finishing well down and out of the points after a collision involving Neil Clarke, Flash Pooley.  Nobby was so peeved he wheelspun out of the pits and headed back towards Brum before the second race.

Gary Piper once again took up the early running and was only demoted when a positively storming Grindrod demoted him on lap 12.  Nic was determined to prove himself in the wet whilst the others battled in vain with a combination of Banger racing residue and the elements making conditions very fraught.  Disaster struck for Nic on lap 14 when he took his rival, Dick Loseby, a mite close.  The two cars tangled and ended up next to the fence satisfying spectators that the had seen it coming.  This left Junior Haynes to mop up whilst Barry,Phillips and Gary Piper drove staunchly on to take their first trophies of the season.  Joyce, incidentally, was quite ecstatic and the shrieks of joy are still ringing in my ears.  Simon Hiles picked up an easy fourth with Wiley Weston fifth, Sonic was sixth, Stacker seventh and Dick Loseby scraped home in eighth collecting two points.  This left him one point short of Nic in the final points table (shouldn't have missed that meeting to go on holiday!).

Now on to the Fun Races which saw some interesting car/driver combinations including Robbie Sayell in the Sonic cockpit having had just three driving lessons.  Club Secreatary Joyce Phillips deposed Bazza in the number 12 Dastle with Rosem,ary Goodrum in the Weston machine and Louise Piperin Gary’s BMC.  The Allan Herbert car was handed over to Mike Smith who won the driver whilst Stuart (Haynes mech) Jackson got a repeat ride in the VW after his sizzling lap times in ’93.  Interesting driver swaps included Nic Grindrod in Stacker’s Fireball and Gary Bonner in the Ricketts Dastle which probably proved to be the most interesting driving style of the afternoon.

Another wet race and one that was led away and subsequently won with ease by raffle winner, Mike Smith who certainly looked to have enjoyed his prize drive.  Nic came through to second, failing to follow, the traditional 'stacking' procedures for the car despite the experience gained in the previous race.  Third was Gary Granger, still practising in his own car, with the Sayell craft (Robbie at the wheel) coming through from the back of the grid to finish 4th.  One casualty was Louise Piper who made friends with the armco but was fine afterwards.

Fun race 1 – result|*  1^st 67 Mike Smith, 2^nd 41 Nic Grindrod, 3^rd 25 Gary Granger, 4^th 1 Robbie Sayell, 5^th 8 Gary Bonner, 6^th 19 Stuart Jackson, 7^th 26 Andy Collins, 8^th 33 Steven Burr, 9^th 12 Joyce Phillips, 10^th 55 Rosemary Goodrum

Race two saw the odd change of pilot with Allan Herbert taking over in his own car, Richard Broomhall in 26, Steven Burr having a second race in 33.  Mark Bonner had another go in the Isle of Wight Feriy whilst it's regular Captain, Purser and Steward (Gary) continued to make acquaintance with opposite lock in the number 8 Dastle.  Kevin Stanford took up the helm in the Hay.nes car (gosh aren't those boys brave?!) and finally lapscorer, Shaun Drakeford, hopped out of the control box and into Stacker's car.

Newcomer Allen Herbert led the white grade away, and looked quite comfortable out in front for the next ten laps.  The only trouble with lending your car out to someone is that they might be good at it and this was true of Flymo quite at home in the V-Dub (must be the association with lawn mowers) and once the race was underway he scythed through the field to take up the running on lap 11 right down to the chequered flag.  He did the same in '92 when he drove Sonic's car by the way so shouldn't he be building a VW instead of retiring?  Allan Herbert was second with Shaun Drakeford in third and because the other two were registered drivers, Shaun was declared the trophy winner.  Richard Broomhall was next with Junior Sonic third.

Fun race 2 – result: 1^st 19 Kevin Stanford, 2^nd 67 Allen Herbert, 3^rd 41 Shaun Drakeford, 4^th 26 Richard Broomhall, 5^th 1 Robbie Sayell, 6^th 25 Gary Granger, 7^th 27 Mark Bonner, 8^th 12 Joyce Phillips, 9^th 8 Gary Bonner, 10^th 66 Graham Berry, 11^th 33 Steven Burr, 12^th 55 Rosemary Goodrum

And that, as they, say, is it for'94.