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8th June, Ringwood Raceway, Bill Boarer
Memorial Trophy
Thirteen cars lined up for the hastily rescheduled
Bill Boarer Shield. With defending champion Gary Granger unable
to make it the meeting was wide open.
In heat one young David Smith had to pull
off the grid before the warming up laps with no power leaving
Nikki Rickett to lead the field away. John Salter made quite
a tardy start and was swamped by Chris Phillips and the Bilby
brothers. Andrew Bilby took full advantage of his downgrading
and hit the front only for the race to be stopped after Daz
Ryecroft hit the fence on the start-finish straigh. At the
restart John Bilby got away from Salter, Phillips and Andrew
Bilby but was soon reeled in by his brother. At the back of
the field Rob Sayell, who was dogged with clutch problems
all night, was having problems from an in-form Neil Clarke
and a flying Andy Collins. Towards the end of the race Andrew
Bilby and Phillips were caught by the shifting pack and Sayell,
Collins and Clarke all passed Bilby with two laps left. The
first eight drivers were all less than the length of the straight
apart at the flag.
David Smith remembered where the fuel tap
was and turned it on for heat two! The youngster demonstrated
what he learned in his Ministox outings at Matchams and took
a flag to flag win - his first in the GP Midgets. Behind David
Andy Collins was towing the pack including Clarke and Sayell.
Both Bilbys were having problems with grip and John had his
mirrors full of John Salter's Starcraft as the Essex based
publican got more used to his new set up. Barry Goldsby was
next up trying to pass the lot of them and finally edging
out Salter on the last lap.
In the final Smith once again took the initiative
to establish a good early lead. Andrew Bilby was having a
slightly better time of it and took up the chase. Sayell was
making good progress from the back and was soon engaged in
battle with Bilby for second. Having rebuilt the front suspension
of the Venom after his first race crash Ryecroft was back
and on song and soon challenging Bilby who had been passed
by Sayell. Rob went on to catch Smith with just a few laps
to go and Bilby held off Ryecroft to the flag.
A very good meeting overall and thanks must
go to Ringwood Raceway for for staging the meeting at such
short notice. Nikki Rickett had a good meeting with three
solid finishes and was looking considerably quicker at the
end of the night. Daz Ryecroft came over to Team Bilby with
a tape measure after the final inisting that Andew's car was
over ten feet wide!!
Heat 1: 1st Rob Sayell, 2nd Andy Collins,
3rd Neil Clarke, 4th Andy Bilby, 5th Chris Phillips, 6th Peter
Bourn, 7th John Bilby, 8th John Salter
Heat 2: 1st Dave Smith, 2nd Andy Collins,
3rd Neil Clarke, 4th Rob Sayell, 5th Andy Bilby, 6th John
Bilby, 7th Barry Goldsby,8th John Salter
Final Bill Boarer Shield: 1st Rob Sayell,
2nd Dave Smith, 3rd Andy Bilby, 4th Daz Ryecroft, 5th Chris
Phillips, 6th Neil Clarke, 7th Andy Smith, 8th John Bilby
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