Corny 391 Posted May 3, 2022 Report Share Posted May 3, 2022 Northampton (WCQR 8 of 15) - Thursday 28th April 2022 With the rubber dust having long since settled on this eighth 2022 UK-Dirt F1 World Championship Qualifier, those 35mm film reels from several photographers positioned around the raceway are back from the developers. So now for a look at just what those lenses captured and what went on during this slick session on the traditional Northampton tarmac. Plenty of high quality, fast, hard but fair racing was in evidence, as well as a healthy dose of unusual and eye-catching moments along the way... The charge towards the front in the early laps of Heat One - HGR (777) defies gravity for a brief moment as a result! By the end of lap seven StockcarboyDanny (114) was through to a race-winning lead, edging sharky (248) aside here. Mav's (525) second place finish in Heat One was a season's best so far. Last bend of Heat Two. Having won the yellow top battle in the early stages then taken over at the front from Mav at the start of lap eleven, leader NobbyClarke (108) had a back marker (yours truly!) ahead and a determined Trez (259) behind. With simultaneous contact both front and back, the laws of physics took over and the 108 went skywards! Trez' momentum carried him to the plate along with NobbyClarke quickly down to Earth and still ahead - but by the time the pair had scrambled out of that turn and away from that dramatic scene, Tomdavison (461) had taken his usual racing line through the bend, gone up their inside and was powering to victory! Four wide through turn four a couple of laps into Heat Three, and StockcarboyDanny gets his nose ahead to lead... ...withstanding his rivals' best efforts a lap later to pull clear from then on and take his second win of the evening. Lap six of Heat Three for sharky and having already been in quite a skirmish in the same place a circuit earlier, this time around he got it all wrong on corner entry, the 248 car slamming into the inner marker tyres, bucking up with the stop and well, the images from then on speak for themselves! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corny 391 Posted May 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2022 Still with Heat Three and going into the last bend I (391) found myself in a SuperStar sandwich. Tempted to say 'the meat' in it but given the car colours, maybe er, blue stilton with a black pepper crust?! Hmm, better stop there actually before nausea sets in... ...the scene as it panned out certainly seemed to leave Jack Ward (484) a little cheesed off anyway as he stayed right where he was, in the fence, but I for one could have no issues with the move as executed by Ellis_Rogers (889), a fine piece of StockCar driving with the bumperwork executed to perfection and moving himself up from 9th to 6th in the process. The 20-car Final grid rolling, barely a blink of an eye before the green flag is to be waved... Lap five of the Final. StockcarboyDanny relieves Mav of the lead in turn one... ...and Kane_M (238) pulls a gap on his fellow SuperStars StockcarboyDanny had looked quite alright up front and poised perhaps to make it a Heats and Final triple... As the '5 to go' lap board was being prepared however, something went drastically wrong around turn four, the 114 pilot spinning of himself out. By the time he had managed to recover, Tomdavison was through. Just less than five laps remain, and Tomdavison has the 461 car comfortably clear of the field and on the way to a first UKDirt F1 Final win of 2022. Three and a bit laps left and with 461 nearly a quarter lap ahead, competition for the podium places is intense. With so many cars jostling in such close confines it was perhaps inevitable something had to give, and give it did - no sooner had this pack got down the home straight than it was fast track (527) whose turn it was now to catch those marker tyres! Ellis_Rogers came off worst of all with the 889 car immediately stricken and several cars were sent wide into that bend, though it was not the carnage it could have been. In the Grand National StockcarboyDanny took the lead at the start of lap six, moving both Nobbyclarke and Mav aside, but a few laps later a momentary delay in traffic for 114 opened the door for the 108 driver to go through. The pair were virtually inseparable for the remainder with little to no difference in pace between them, and it was perhaps only being unsighted by back marker Walton (158) up ahead that made the leader 108's task that bit more complex into the closing stages. Right to the final bend it went and StockcarboyDanny got the crucial shove in to go through and make it three wins on the night. A case of "so near and yet so far" for Nobbyclarke after his last gasp loss of Heat Two earlier, but with a 48pt haul and clearly in such strong form it seems unlikely he will have to wait too long to add his name and number to this seasons F1 race winners' chart. I gather you likely have to click on these to get the 'full size' pictures up by the way. They are still downsized from the originals in order not to eat up the forum's entire bandwidth in one sitting! If anyone wants any of the originals which are 2560x1600 then please let me know. Cheers, Corny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mav Posted May 4, 2022 Report Share Posted May 4, 2022 Superb coverage of the events, with a few mentions to boot! Thanks for posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby108 Posted May 4, 2022 Report Share Posted May 4, 2022 Awesome write up mate, can tell a lot of time went into that. Look forward to seeing some more race reports from you bud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts