| |
| Added: 30 Sep 2015 |
Category: 2015 Oval Racing |
| Bradbury's World at Aghadowey |
Chris Bradbury won the 55th Superstox Championship of the World at Aghadowey Oval on Saturday night, leading home Stuart Gilchrist and David Frame in a cracking World final.
Since the NHR weekend at the start of September Aghadowey had been given a bit of a makeover and the stadium was looking well with it’s fresh lick of paint and various branding around the track.
In the Superstox the draw for pole is done between the top point scorers from each country and it was Denver Grattan who pulled out the pole with Barry Stephen lining up alongside and Jason Cooper on the inside of row two.
After the sort of build up you’d expect from a “Stockcar” world final the action got underway under the floodlights and exploded into life in the first bend as a number of cars ended up in the wall in turn one, this called for a complete restart and drivers were given time to work on their cars. Amongst others Chris Roots, Ben Majoram, Gregg Hyndman, Gary Chambers and Adrian McKinstry found themselves out of the race.
The full restart that followed was also short lived as Denver Grattan rode a hit from Barry Stephen in turn one Jordan Robinson and Stephen Stewart tangled on the home straight bringing out the yellows just after Stephen had taken the lead on turn two.
Barry Stephen led them away on the second restart with Gary Grattan in second and Steven Jackson third, at this stage Bradbury and Gilchrist having made quite a bit of process through the field. Stephen got far enough ahead into the first bend to withstand a challenge while Jackson and Gary Grattan came together leaving Grattan out of the race and Jackson well down the order. Bradbury was now up to second and soon challenging for the lead pushing Stephen wide in turns three and four. While Bradbury was building up a cushion Denver Grattan was attacking Stephen for second and after a few laps got through on the inside but David Frame, Stuart Gilchrist and Jordan Salmon were now in a five way battle for second.
Denver Grattan eventually made the break from the scrap and pulled out a few cars lengths on Gilchrist who in turn was a few car lengths ahead of Salmon.
With Bradbury’s lead now the length of the straight and the race was around mid distance the yellow flags came out when Jeff Minnish was in trouble in turn one. The restart grouped the pack again and had slotted Barry Stephen back into the lead pack but now a lap down. From the restart Bradbury got away and Grattan pulled wide with a puncture and was put into the wall by Stephen which brought about a further stoppage.
Bradbury led away Gilchrist, Frame and Salmon, withstanding a first bend hit and a run around the wall from Gilchrist who dropped to fourth in the process with Salmon now up to second. A few laps on and a further stoppage was required when Davy McMenemy’s spring guard ended up in the middle of the track and the race resumed with Bradbury leading away Salmon, Gilchrist and Jackson who was now back up to fourth.
On what was to be the final restart of the race Jackson and Gilchrist battled for third which let the lead pair away and with just over a lap to go Jordan Salmon was close enough to put a hit in on Bradbury but perhaps pounced too soon, pushing the 886 car wide around turn three and four and getting up the inside of Bradbury down the straight as they crossed the line, only for Bradbury to come back at him and leave him in the wall in turn one and out of the race, Bradbury now had clear track behind him and went on to take the win with Gilchrist second and David Frame third. Three local finishers crossed the line on down the order being Geoffrey Moffett, Darren Bevan and Lucinda Smyth.
In terms of a spectacle there could be no one in any doubt it had been a cracking race and a well deserved win for Chris Bradbury.
On a personal level I was a bit disappointed with my haul of photos from the world final itself, I got a wee bit distracted in watching the race and almost forgot what I was out on the infield to do and I don’t fare terribly well with getting photos in the dark at Aghadowey anyway. On the flip side of that disappointment it was great to see people walking round the pits getting drivers to sign the posters we’d produced and getting into the spirit of it.
In the Superstox support races there was a win for Jason Cooper in the Dash4Cash and a win for Nick Roots in the meeting final.
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
.JPG)
|
| More Photos on Facebook |
|
|
|
  |
|
|
|
