NIF2.com - Speedweekend Saturday

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Added: 31 Jul 2014	Category: 2014 Oval Racing
Speedweekend Saturday
Like many of the competitors and their crews the Speedweekend for me starts well in advance of arriving at the track on Speedweekend Saturday. NIOvalTV was planning the World Final T-shirt with Clive Marchant ahead of the European weekend at Lochgelly in April, I don’t think the world cup had started when we were doing the first pages of the race programme, I remember working on the programme as results came in from Ipswich, Skegness and Northampton. It’s almost a relief to get to the big day as much as anything. For one of the few times this season I was excited in anticipation of the weekend, checking forecasts daily, that looked pretty grim for most of the run up and planning what we needed to get done and making sure I’d enough memory cards, batteries and waterproofs for the cameras and then ordering more just in case. Saturday night thankfully it stayed mostly dry, and the sunset provided a nice warm glow on the back straight for some of the photos, while the NIOvalTV BBQ kept us going throughout the evening. As you’d expect at a Speedweekend every race on the Saturday night was a good one. The Ninja Karts put on 3 great races with Adam McFall coming out the winner, the 1300 Stock Cars had an epic finish to their final when Ben Armstrong took Curtis Greer and himself into the wall from first and second handing Ivan Elliott the win. Chris Gordon was on it in the Stock Rods taking a heat and the final, a race that nearly half the field picked up a black cross. In the Lightning Rods Nigel Jackson won both heats, but Gary Beggs was extremely unfortunate having crossed the line first in a wet heat two only to be removed from the result for a faulty exhaust, I’m not a fan of some of the rules that remove people from results after the event unless the car is outright illegal, things like spring guards hanging off and drivers doing the race distance and then being removed is another one that bugs me. In 2 Litre qualifying there was heat wins for Mark Madill, Stephen Emerson and Chris Crane. It was clear Shane Murray had done enough to put the car on pole for the final and he’d be hard to beat, and that the men to watch coming through the pack on Sunday would be Wayne Woolsey and Adam Hylands coming out of the second group. The ProStocks have often stole the Saturday night, but while they were still great to watch, they didn’t quite hit the heights of previous years. Greg McMullan won the opening heat with Ryan Abernethy taking the second heat after passing Saloon Stockcar world champion Stuart Shevill Jnr in the closing laps. Curly Haugh taking took the honours in the Irish open final.

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