DanSkin Posted November 7, 2012 Report Posted November 7, 2012 At this Thursdays Birmingham meeting, the qualified drivers will compete for the Grand National Championship. Compared to the last few weeks of inherently dangerous battling with the post and wire tracks at Yarmouth (Tarmac Masters) and Belle Vue (Shootout Finale) some will be pleased to race at a safer track, not that I would expect the racing to be any less brutal! Drivers have amassed points from a maximum of 30 possible Grand National races over the course of this season. For each race, the drivers scores have been put through a multiplication system (white x2.5, yellow x2, blue x1.5 & red/ss x1). The grid will be formed from the first 22 available drivers on the day, with the highest points scorer on pole (no gaps). The race will be 20 laps in length, will run before the meeting and be non-point scoring. (A normal meeting format will follow). Grid based on top 22 drivers: 112 - 236 300 - 527 249 - 254 238 - 525 291 - 237 560 - 151 600 - 48 115 - 515 184 - 39 92 - 262 305 - 277 Reserves in order: 233, 315, 221, 33, 292, 3, 391, 338, 122, 107, 129, 65, 98, 517, 137, 516, 504, 172, 450, 285, 380, 255, 41, 341, 419, 437, 87, 31, 21, 8, 550, 16, 518, 520, 164, 495, 290, 488, 456, 330, 365, 227, 431, 152, 131, 125, 256, 37, 67, 90, 235, 231, 961 TomD secured the pole position a fortnight ago with a healthy lead in the points over DanSkin, the other half of the front row. The pair also lead the way in grand national wins this season with 6 and 5 respectively. Matty edged out Fasttrack at the last meeting to take the inside of row two, making it an all blue top affair. Stoxjack returns to racing, qualifying on the inside of row three, while on his outside Samwit has capitalised on the available multipliers to be the first yellow grade on the grid. In similar fashion, current white grade drivers Rickyljames and Big Al qualify, making the fifth and seventh rows respectively. Chevykiller and Grasser took the meeting finals at Birmingham so far this season, and the latter will qualify due to the suspension of some of the direct qualifiers. So undoubtedly these two drivers will start the race with some confidence and positive memories, although with both of them towards the rear of the field it will require a big effort to race to the front. From the whole Grand National Championship grid, looking at direct qualifiers, 6 of the 22 drivers qualify without having won a grand national race this season – Fasttrack despite this has qualified well, while Dodge, Lithgow, Bigal, Harmen and Southy also make the grid with this distinction. For TomD this will be his second attempt to retain the Grand National Championship for successive seasons having had an unsuccessful defence last year of his 2009 title, coming home second to Dazza! He could potentially be joined on the grid by a whole gaggle of former champions who are still (more or less) active racers: Dazza (2010), LeeK (2009), Daveyboy (2008) MoR (2006), Grasser (2005), and Travel (2001). Good luck to all participants!
Matty300 Posted November 8, 2012 Report Posted November 8, 2012 Nice preview again Dan, well done & appreciated
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