Super Spring Nat's 4-6 May 2002

Shakespeare County Raceway

Entrants

First off, as you may have read elsewhere, Gary Malin rolled his Pop during the pre-season test & tune at Shakespeare County Raceway on Sunday 21st April. Although Gary is ok, the ex-Dennis Boyle car didn't fair so well.

 Qualifying

Track time was at a premium this weekend, with a high number of sportsman & bike entrants, along with the 1st round of the UK Nitro Funny Car Championships, all topped off with a liberal amount of spilt fluids.

after 3 qualifying sessions, 2 Saturday & 1 Sunday, the standings were:

1.  OA19    Paul Hensher    8.66/153.5 mph

2.  OA1      Cliff Griffin       10.80/125 mph

3.  OA2      Rob Stone         15.50/93.7 mph  (1 run)

Eliminations

1st Round    OA1  Cliff Griffin   v   OA2  Rob Stone

Cliff strapped in the blue bottle, for the first time with this new motor, but despite a personal best of 10.38/129mph, he was unable to fend off Rob's hard charging 9.71/138mph

1st Round    OA19  Paul Hensher  -  Bye

Paul Hensher also had a bottle of the funny stuff on board, & planned to test it during his bye. But a trans-brake problem meant he was unable to stage the Gas Attack car, therefore leaving Rob a bye in the final.

Final    OA2  Rob Stone  -  Bye

Due to time restraints, Rob staged & broke the beams to take the win.

 A jubilant Rob couldn't believe his luck, after thrashing all week to build an engine, it was touch & go whether he would even make the event. Finally  finishing off in the pits Sunday morning, & getting only 1 poor qualifying pass before going into competition.