Report by Graham Thomas.

Graeme Stephenson was too busy with exams to be able to spare the time to compile a report and asked me to do this on his behalf. With only 16 people having raced in last years Newcastle round the expectation was that this would be this years lowest attendance so far. Hence it was a nice surprise to see that 24 people turned out to race. This was in fact the largest attendance so far this year. This figure was the same number as for the 2004 Newcastle round however only 8 of these drivers had raced in 2004. The 24 drivers could have raced in 6 groups but with 9 people choosing to race super production it was decided to keep them in three separate groups which left three groups of 4 and 1 group of three for the Falcon racers

1/32nd Heats

Mike Ogden, winner of Novice Falcon at Pontefract, used his home track knowledge to set the pace with 25.51 laps in heat 1. In heat 2 Matthew Siddall beat Sam Griffin while Alex Hackett-Evans finished third once again managing to beat his dad. Mike Harrison in heat 3 with 26.17 laps, set a new top score. Heat 5 was the first of the super production races and Norman Fawcett set a new target of 26.55 laps. Graeme Stephenson with 27.37 improved on this in heat 6 only to see Paul Shepherd set what was to be the best run of the day in the next heat with a score of 29.21 laps. So after the first round of heats the top four were Paul, Graeme, Steve Sargent and Norman.

In the second round of heats Mike Ogden improved to 26.35 laps, which was to prove to be the best Falcon run of the day. Norman improved to 26.80 but was beaten by home driver Chris Cowan whose 27.38 laps put him into second place overall only for him to be pushed back down to third when Graeme completed 27.78 laps in the next heat.

In the third round of heats Norman with 27.04 pushed Steve Sargent out of the A final only to see Steve record 27.19 in his last run which secured the last A final place. Graeme Stephenson using a car borrowed from Paul recorded 28.63 to move into second place overall.

1/32 Heats

1/32nd Heat Results

1/32nd Finals

  The Falcon and Super production racers are not segregated so there were just 6 finals. Craig Towell won the F final with 38laps.

Martin Jackson won the E final from Richard Wallace and both of these Falcon drivers recorded better scores than the four drivers in the D final which was won by Keith Charles using a super production car.

The C final was a win for myself from David Sergeant, a reversal of the heat results with David having beaten me in all three heats. 

The top two home Falcon drivers, Mike Harrison and Mike Ogden and super production racers Chris Thomas and Norman Fawcett contested the B final. Chris and Norman led the way but after 11 laps Chris had a lead wire come astray leaving Norman to win from Mike Harrison who took first place in Falcon.  Third place in the C final secured another novice falcon victory for Mike Ogden. 

The A final, delayed while we awaited Graeme's return from McDonalds, was a close battle between Paul and Graeme until Graeme retired on lap 21. This left Paul with a victory by over three laps from Steve Sargent with Chris Cowen third.

1/32nd Finals Results

1/24 Team race

With a late start the team race was reduced to 10-minute segments. Paul Shepherd 94.88 laps set the pace in the first round of heats. David Sargent with a good run of 94.75 laps on Red lane put SDS into second place with Newcastle 1 third just 4 parts behind.  In the second round Chas recorded only 88.64laps, which saw SCD Roadhogs, slip from first to fifth place. The new leaders were SDS with a total of 189.41 just over a lap in front of Newcastle1 with Newcastle 2 almost another 4 laps back in third place.

In the third round SDS recorded their worst score of 91.51, which coupled to Newcastle1's best score of 98.42, saw the Newcastle team take the overall lead by almost 6 laps on a total of 286.62 from SDS on 280.92. Paul's run of 95.46 laps moved SCD road hogs up to third place on 278.98 with Newcastle2 fourth 277.76 and Oaklands 1 fifth on 277.61.

In the 4th and last round Newcvastle1 recorded the best run of the day with 98.97 laps securing them the overall victory by just over 11 laps.

SDS managed to grab second place by just under 2 laps from Newcastle 2 with Oaklands 1 fourth and SCD Road Hogs fifth.

1/24th Team Results

An enjoyable days racing finished at just after 5.30pm and thanks must be given to Graeme Stephenson and Mike Harrison for their race control duties and for the other home drivers who helped run the meeting.  I look forward to seeing everyone at the next round at Pirelli on June 11th.

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Copyright ©  2006 to Chris Thomas All rights reserved