25th April, 2009
Birmingham, British Championship
Marc de Land raised a few eyebrows as he ran away with the
British Championship in his only fourth ever Grand Prix Midget
race. The meeting was billed by Incarace as a follow up from
the 2008 end of season finale where the racing was overshadowed
by the carnage that claimed so many cars.
The meeting started with the prestigious 25 lap British Championship.
On the front row Nigel Robinson and Allen Herbert (76) led
the cars away with the rest of the field bunching behind them.
Within a couple of laps Nigel clipped the inside rumble strip
forcing the BMC Dart to spin. Fortunately the closely following
pack manage to avoided the stranded car and began to close
in on the 76 car. At this stage of the race rookie racer Marc
de Land (15) was starting to cut his way through the blue grade
from the front of the reds. At the mid point two pre race
favourites started retired. Cliff Bunn had engine problems
forcing him into the infield and 2008 world and points champion
Jonathan Pooley had suspension failure which led to him hitting
the wall at the end of the straight. Marc de Land challenged
Allen Herbert for the lead and took over in the Vauxhall powered
Midget. As the laps ticked away West Country Champion Philip
Retchless took over second and then started to close in on
the 15 car. with five laps to go you could not split the first
two as all eyes were focused on the head of the field. On
the last lap de Land looked to have lost it going into turn
one however, it had a positive effect as it made a chain reaction
to the pursuing Retchless as the Cheetah had to slow down
to avoid causing a crash. This allowed Marc to pull away and
claim his first major title in his only forth race. The beaming
brum could not believe it as he raised the historic trophy.
British Championship:- 15 Marc de Land, 9 Phil Retchless,
77 Neil Clarke, 76 Allen Herbert, 26 Clinton Dorrell, 32 Daniel
Pooley, 59 Steve Young, 16 Andrew Bilby.
In Heat 1 Nigel Robinson and Allen Herbert leading off the
cars with Alan getting the jump at the start which, he never
looked like giving up. Mid way through the race the Midgets
lived up to the Incarace billing as a multi car pile up on
the main straight caused major damage to many cars Daniel
Pooley and Phil Retchless had a coming together the following
pack tried to avoid however, the blinded Clinton Dorrell drove
up the back of Nigel Robinson's car which ended took off into
the air and destroying the suspension when it hit back to
the earth. At the end of the race Andrew Bilby closed in on
the 76 car and only just finished second by only 0.054 seconds.
Heat 1:- 67, 16, 31, 15, 77, 59, 67.
Compared to heat 1 the last race of the evening passed with
no real issues. The drive of the race came from Andrew Bilby
who was rewarded with an excellent second in the previous
race with one better by taking the spoils in heat 2. Andrew
did not have his own way and had to keep a very fast Jonathan
Pooley as bay for the last 5 laps of the race.
Heat 2:- 16, 31, 9, 15, 76, 23, 59, 77, 67.
