NIF2.com - 2011 - #14 - Ballymena Raceway 3/6/2011

Bringing The Best of Northern Ireland's Oval Racing
to your browser since 2001

#StockcarRacingIsMagic

Added: 05 Jun 2011	Category: 2011 Oval Racing
2011 - #14 - Ballymena Raceway 3/6/2011
The first meeting of two pretty hectic weekends, with the big event of the night being the penultimate qualifying round for the National Hot Rods, with F2's, Gp 2's, Stock Rods and Juniors in Support. I remember looking at this meeting when the fixture lists came out and thinking it could go one of two ways, it would be a cracking meeting with the Nationals battling for the points title and the F2's all getting some last minute track time, or it would be a flop with the Nationals qualifying already mathmatically over and the F2's staying at home. From the Nationals perspective, it was the former and for the F2's it was the latter. In fairness, if you take a drivers point of view, why would you come out to race to do your testing and risk picking up damage a week before a big meeting, when you can go up the road and practice on an empty track where you should only suffer mechanical problems. Maybe I'm wrong, but to me as a fan practice days offer drivers an alternative to bringing their car out on race nights, and that is damaging to the sport. Maybe it's just a case of too many meetings in too short a time, I don't know. Rant over, on to the racing. Glenn Bell and Mark Heatrick went into the evening battling for the final world qulifying spot. Bell was first over the line in heat one, then docked 3 places for jumping the start (twice), he went on to take the heat two win before finishing second to Christie in the final, which included a rather dodgey lap when he was over the grass and in all shapes and angles. Heatrick was 5th in heat one, 3rd in heat two and sixth in the final. Paul Crawford took the victory in heat one after Bell as docked. Frankie Lynn made his National Hot Rod Debut. F2's - 6 cars, 5 in the final, Conor Hughes took a wire to wire victory, Gary Grattan won heat two. I was eating a burger and walking around the pits during heat one, no idea what happened, I don't suspect I missed anything. There was a good turn out Juniors with Marc Morrell taking both the heats before Calvin Blake taking the final. The group 2's also had decent numbers with Freddie Fleck taking the final win, by some margin. Lee Johnston took the final win in another action packed stock rod final.















More Photos on Flckr

Other Sites we Contribute to

- 2 Litre Hot Rod -
- Ballymena Raceway -
- DMC Race Promotions -
- National Hot Rod -