Reports
2011 Northern Championship: Rounds 3, 4 & 5
Venue: Anglesey – Coastal Circuit
Date: 22nd & 23rd April 2011
Introduction
The second meeting of the 2011 Northern FF1600 Championship took place at the Anglesey Circuit over the Good Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend; the meeting also being the second event of this season’s National Championship. It was a meeting that saw a new format being tried for the championship in the form of a triple header event. The first day of the meeting featured a qualifying session for each of the Post-89 and Pre-90 categories, followed by their first races later in the day, with the grid positions being set by the fastest qualifying times. On day two there were races two and three for each of the categories, with the race two grids being set by the race one results and the race three grids being decided by the drivers’ second fastest qualifying times.
Click on image to resize it!
Post-89 Qualifying
14 cars took to the circuit for the meeting’s Post-89 qualifying session, in sunny and dry conditions. In the opening laps it was Northern Championship regulars, David McArthur, John Murphy, Doug Crosbie and Martin Short setting the early pace at the top of the time screens. On lap four there was a brief spin for the ever improving Rob Smith, while a lap later, American teenager, Austin Kimberly, stopped out on the track with mechanical gremlins that put an end to his qualifying session. Lap five also saw perhaps the key moment of the session, when there was contact between front runners Crosbie and Jamie Jardine. The incident left Jardine stranded on the circuit and forced Crosbie to retire to the pit lane. You can find our downloads interesting.
The battle for pole was then left between Murphy, McArthur and Short, with Chris Chisnall also improving his times as the session unfolded to get himself in the mix amongst the leading drivers. However the times were exceptionally close between all of the top eleven drivers. At the chequered flag, it was Murphy who managed to grab pole from McArthur by less than a tenth of a second. Chisnall and Short would occupy row two of the first race grid, ahead of Chris Middlehurst and Nigel Doe on the third row. David’s Dad, Neil McArthur, qualified seventh, ahead of Abdul Ahmed, Crosbie and Smith. Remarkably, just over eight tenths of a second covered all of the top ten qualifiers.
Pre-90 Qualifying
19 cars started the 20 minute Pre-90 qualifying period, with Juiceie Bruceie joining five minutes later to make it 20 cars out on track. Making a welcome racing appearance for the meeting was Medina Sport boss, John Loebell, and he quickly showed he has lost none of his ability behind the wheel, by setting the pace at the top of the time screens from the start of the session. Behind Loebell, it was Nigel Dolan, Ian Parkington, Andrew Thomas, John Wilkinson and Matt Ridge leading the challenge in the opening laps. Graham Legget was an early spinner in his class E Crossle 25F, while class D’s Mike Stewart was an early visitor to the pit lane. Stewart went back out on track, but was soon to return to the pits, with mechanical problems putting an end to his qualifying session.
By the half session point, Loebell continued to dominate, with a fastest lap nearly half a second quicker than his closest rival! Dolan, Parkington and Thomas were the next quickest, with class E’s Colin Williams putting in a very impressive performance to be sitting in a provisional fifth place for the first race grid. Williams continued to push hard, with a brief spin as the session continued, meanwhile his fellow class E competitor, Stuart Dix, was much less fortunate. A major drive train failure forced Dix to retire his stunning Cooper Chinook at the exit of Church corner; sadly spelling the end of the Stoke on Trent driver’s race meeting.At the end of the session, Loebell took a well deserved pole position, with Parkington just edging ahead of Dolan for second in the latter part of the session. Thomas and Williams qualified fourth and 3 | P a g e fifth, with Jeff Hodgson and Mario Sarchet in sixth and seventh. Wilkinson, Ridge and Phil Nelson completed the top ten qualifiers.
Post-89 Race 1
Conditions were cloudy and rather cooler for the meeting’s first Post-89 race on Good Friday. Austin Kimberly unfortunately encountered electrical problems on the green flag and was unable to take to the grid. After a short delay while Kimberly’s car was recovered from the circuit, the grid was reformed and the race ready to start. Pole man, John Murphy, got away well to take up the race lead, however David McArthur alongside him was a little slower off the line, allowing Martin Short to get past him into to second place.
On the opening lap, Chris Middlehurst was a spinner at Rocket, resulting in contact with class B’s Nigel Doe. The incident sadly spelt the end of Doe’s race, and while Middlehurst was able to continue, he was subsequently called into the pit lane by the scrutineers to have the damage to his nose section temporarily repaired before he continued in the race. In the early stages, the battle for the lead developed into a four way affair between Murphy, Short, Chris Chisnall and David McArthur. Neil McArthur was running in fifth, while Jamie Jardine and Doug Crosbie, both of whom started further down the grid 4 | P a g e than normal following their collision in qualifying, were in sixth and seventh. The battle for eighth was between Daniel Headlam and Rob Smith.
As the race unfolded, Kimberly was able to join the proceedings from the pit lane after his earlier problem on the green flag lap. At the head of the field, the four car lead group had split into two pairs, with Murphy and Short breaking away from Chisnall and David McArthur. Further back, Crosbie had closed right in on the gearbox of Jardine, while a battle for tenth had developed between teammates Vincent Jay and Abdul Ahmed. On lap seven, Headlam retired his Van Diemen with clutch problems just after the Banking. A lap later, an understandably frustrated Short was forced to retire from the battle for the lead with gear linkage problems. Short’s retirement left Murphy with a clear lead, while David McArthur was challenging Chisnall hard for second position.
Crosbie’s pressure on Jardine finally paid off as he took fifth place, and then quickly set about closing in on Neil McArthur in fourth. At the chequered flag, Murphy took the race win by nearly four seconds from Chisnall, with David McArthur taking the third step on the podium. Neil McArthur finished fourth, with Jardine taking fifth, after Crosbie lost ground in the closing stages and fell back behind him to finish in sixth just ahead of Smith. Ahmed, Jay and Middlehurst completed the ten race finishers, while Short earned a small consolation for his non-finish by taking the fastest lap points.
Full report can be found here.