2001

Rob Sayell took the Midland Cup Challenge Cup back home again together with a trophy for heat two - the trophy has yet to leave the Sayell household since its inaugural meeting five years ago with Harry Sayell taking the first three years and Rob the last two. Eric Walker took the first heat and third place in the final with 2000 Best Newcomer Chris Phillips very much in command at his first ever meeting at Buxton Raceway with a sixth in heat one and two runner up placings in heat two and the final.

The meeting saw 12 cars on track Tim Barton and newcomer Andy Smith not managing to get out of the pits. Barton's chassis apparently collapsed whilst Smith made the journey from Bedford in the hopes it would be dry as he did not have any wets - unfortunately the track was wet for each race.

The meeting settled Rob Sayell's third consecutive drivers' championship quite emphatically with main rival Clarke having an off day not scoring a racing point and Andrew Bilby's highest result being a fourth in the final. This was enough however to move Bilby back up to second overall just two points ahead of Clarke - their battle for runner up going down to the very last meeting in two weeks time. Meawhile Gary Jones' fourth place is still not certain with Mark Hodges and Gary Granger still capable of stealing the place. The top six drivers are decided however with seventh man Eric Walker 42 points adrift and only 40 available. Nonetheless an excellent first full season for Ez. 'Man of the Match' for us was Chris Phillips who comes on stronger at each outing and is now holding his own very satisfactorily in the blue grade despite this being only his second full season and still the tender age of 18 and quite likely to finish the season in the top 10.

Heat One: 1st Ez Walker, 2nd Rob Sayell, 3rd Peter Bourn, 4th John Bilby, 5th Mark Hodges, 6th Chris Phillips, 7th Gary Jones, 8th Andrew Bilby, 9th Neil Clarke, 10th Andrew Hinch, 11th Ben Pashley

Heat Two: 1st Rob Sayell, 2nd Chris Phillips, 3rd Peter Bourn, 4th Andrew Hinch, 5th Ez Walker, 6th John Bilby, 7th Andrew Bilby, 8th Mark Hodges, 9th Gary Jones, 10th Neil Clarke, 11th Ben Pashley, 12th Barry Goldsby.

Midland Challenge Cup: 1st Rob Sayell, 2nd Chris Phillips, 3rd Ez Walker, 4th Andrew Bilby, 5th Peter Bourn, 6th Andrew Hinch, 7th John Bilby, 8th Mark Hodges, 9th Gary Jones, 10th Neil Clarke, 11th Ben Pashley.