The final F1 and Mod round of the season drew 9 racers to Yelling. Paul Homewood had already bagged the F1 trophy and had one hand on the Combined Championship but the Mod trophy was still up for grabs…
The Track
F1
Qualifying
Bruce narrowly took pole by just 0.3 laps from Nick. Newly crowned champion Paul Homewood was nearly three laps further back in third. Jim was 0.6 laps behind him and 0.2 laps ahead of Al in fifth. Roy, Paul Rose, Steve and Tony completed the order. Tony had struggled with car setup for much of qualifying only getting his setup nailed towards then end of the session and allowing him to bag the fastest F1 lap of the night.
C Final
Early offs for Paul Rose in red and Steve in white handed Tony in blue the early lead. After a couple of offs for Tony both Paul and Steve closed up the gap, but after a nail biting three minutes Tony took the win by half a lap from Paul with Steve just over half a lap further behind.
B Final
Tony took the hop up to the yellow lane and again found himself in the lead following offs for Roy in blue, Al in red and Jim in white. After a single off Tony settled into the groove and held the lead from Roy to take the win by just over a lap and half. A late off for Roy allowed Jim to pip him to second and Al rolled in fourth after being generally unhappy with his Tyco for the duration of the session.
A Final
Tony again hopped up to yellow, to take on Bruce in red, Paul Homewood in white and Nick in blue. Pole sitter Bruce ran into mechanical issues early in the race but did at least finish. An early off for Nick left him in third behind Paul and Tony who were left dueling for the lead. Paul was the first to leave the track but they both had a number of offs leading to some nail biting moments until against the odds Tony took his first F1 win of the season after starting from the very back of the grid!
Mod
With Al leading the championship, Paul Rose knew his best chance to take the trophy was if he could take the win and fastest lap with Al finishing no higher than third…
Qualifying
After taking 3 scores in the fifties Al thought he had probably done enough and so retired from his final lane. Paul Rose did much the same but because he realised he hadn’t done enough to out qualify Al. His suspicions were correct and Al took pole from Paul by just over five laps. Nick was third just under two laps further back and 0.7 laps ahead of Paul Homewood in fourth. Roy, Tony, Steve and Bruce completed the order with Bruce dropping out of several heats with more mechanical issues.
C Final
Bruce in blue gave Steve in white a good race for the first 30 seconds before a series of offs left Steve to cruise on to take the win by 2.5 laps.
B Final
Paul Homewood took the early lead in white with Tony in blue and Roy in red behind him. Tony pushed Paul hard for much of the race before a few offs dropped him back and left him racing Roy for second. At the end of the three minutes Tony finished just a few inches ahead of Roy on the track. Paul took the win by a comfortable three laps and Steve finished fourth after struggling to keep pace with everyone else from the the yellow lane.
A Final
For the first 20 seconds there was very little between everyone in the A final. Paul Homewood was the first to leave the track from the yellow lane followed 15 seconds later by Paul Rose from white. Paul Rose and Paul Homewood then had a good dice, with Paul Homewood eventually edging his way ahead to take third.
Al and Nick continued to race for the lead just a few inches apart for the duration of the race. The lead changed hands several times but neither of them could pull out a gap of more than a foot or two. Although Al knew he had now sealed the Modified championship he was very keen to take the last win of the season and in the final seconds of the race with Nick just ahead of him he pushed just a bit too hard and binned his car. Nick continued on to take the highest score of the night and his maiden Mod win in fine style. He finished half a lap ahead of Al after one of the closest flat out Mod races the club has ever witnessed.
With Al finishing ahead of Paul Rose he extended his championship lead and took the Modified title for the third year in a row.
After taking the F1 trophy last month another strong combined finish ensured that Paul Homewood also took the Combined F1 and Modified trophy.
Congratulations to all the champions and winners in 2013 and thanks to all who attended!