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September 7th Northampton British Championship
Geoff Bunn (28) is the new British Champion. There is a bit
of "keeping it the family" involved as his brother in-law
Steve Young (59) was the defending champion.
The British was the first race of the day
and when the drivers arrived at Northampton International
Raceway the inside line, about ten feet out from the curb,
on both bends were under water. The track crew managed to
get rid of the excess water but this left the track wet and
greasy. With two other races before the big race, drivers
were anxiously surveying the track to aid their tyre choice.
As the cars took to the track, with some
drops of rain falling, most teams had decided to either fit
two "wets" and two dry tyres or go for full wets. The grid
formed up in graded order with non qualifiers starting at
the back and was lead away by Allen Herbert (76) and Geoff
Bunn (28), both had made good starts from the blue grade as
had Daniel Pooley (32). Bunn had taken advantage of his starting
position taking up the lead at an early point. Gordon Pooley
(33) had beaten Andrew Bilby (16) for the drop from the red
grade and was making good progress. Both he and his other
son Jonathon (31) the world champion, had two new wets on
and as the track was drying quickly the tyres began to suffer
with chunks of rubber flying off in all directions. Gordon
and Jonathon fought their way through to second and third
respectfully with the rest of the red grade arguing over the
minor places. Steve Young (59) had to retire following a visit
to the fence after an incident with Cliff Bunn (23). Andrew
Bilby (16), Allen Herbert (76) and Steve Brattan (75) were
having a mini battle for fifth, sixth and seventh. Geoff was
carrying on his merry way and starting to get amongst the
back markers who played the game and gave him plenty of room
to take the win from the father and son duo, Cliff hung on
for fourth.
Heat one lined up without Steve Young as
his car could not be repaired. Daniel Pooley was on a mission
taking up the lead early on. The usual suspects were giving
chase namely his dad and his brother. Geoff Bunn was also
away from the Blue grade hanging on to second with the pack
in pursuit. Herbert and Brattan clashed on the Horton turn
with Brattan hitting the inner curbing and damaging his suspension
causing retirement. Phil Retchless (9) was having a better
run in the Cheetah and seemed to be getting to grips with
the car. Daniel claimed the win with Geoff second and Gordon
third.
A similar race for heat 2 with Daniel taking
the win again from a much improving Retchless and the world
champ was third. Neil Clarke had his best result of the day
coming home in sixth to end a quiet day for the Midlander.
With Daniel having another good meeting,
this will ensure an upgrading to red as he climbs into the
top six. Jonathon continues to lead the points, with Cliff
Bunn in second.
The next meeting is the following week at
Gt Yarmouth for the Derek Kisby Memorial Trophy, a much prized
trophy in the midget calendar.
British Championship 28 33 31 23 16 76 75
8
Heat One 32 28 33 31 23 9 16 76
Heat Two 32 9 31 16 28 77 75 8
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