Rug Racers Round 3

Round 3 of Rug Racers brought drivers back to Wodson Park for another great race meet. As before we had a full compliment of drivers including some of the touring car worlds top British stars. We would see a full 12 heats of racing, including a 1/12th heat, to try and get into the top finals for the day.With the practice underway in timed heats some familiar faces could be seen around the pits. Adam Smith and Matt Pocknell where back to battle for the 27t crown while regular Dave Saul and Malcolm Hall would be there to fight for 19t. Olly Jeffries had made the trip back again for this round along with Ben Cosgrove, Elliott Harper and Chris Grainger.

Qualifying would be hard fought in Stock, Adam Smith staying top dog until round 3 when Paul Pickney stuck in a ballistic run taking the only 24 lap score to go pole. Adam would maintain second while Matt Pocknell put in a quick run in round 3 to nab the third spot on the grid. 19t would see the top drivers swapping places for most of the rounds. Malcolm Hall would take pole in round 1, then John Painter stole it away in round 2 only for Dave Saul to secure it all in round 3. This left Dave sitting up front on pole, Malcolm second and John with his best start to date in third. In Mod Olly Jeffries kicked off the pace to take round 1 & 2 followed by team mate Andy Moore. Both drivers seemed to have a great deal more pace and where over 4 seconds ahead of the pack. However Andy was not going to sit back and by round 3 had taken control. This left Andy on pole, Olly second and Elliott Harper third. In the stock Recoil class it would be round 3 when the top guys would put up their best times leaving Mark Young on pole followed by Malcolm Hall and Spencer Jones. In the mod Recoil Dave Ringsell would put in an unbeatable time in round 2 to secure his top spot to head off Gary Brace and Keith Helmke. Finally over in 12th scale Jonathan Dixey would have his way in round 3 pipping Paul Upton to poll by less than a second with Dave Saul a lap back in third.

The first leg of the 27t A final would see a bit of a melee at the start dropping pole man Paul back down the pack and leaving Adam Smith to start building a lead in front. Paul though was showing some stunning pace and just worked himself back through the field to bring down Adamís lead. However close though Paul would get he would not get close enough with Adam taking this leg by two seconds from Paul. A very consistent drive from Matt Pocknell saw him take third place in this leg. Leg 2 and this time Paul was on a mission. From the start he dominated the race with Adam trying to keep in touch. Adam would make a couple of mistakes which allowed Dave Ringsell to challenge for second spot. It seemed Paul would have this leg his own way until late in the race where a few mistakes cost him allowing Adam who had cleared away from Dave to pull Paul back in. Into the last 3 laps and a mistake from Paul let Adam into the lead but Paul was charging, his car clearly faster and take huge chunks out of Adam slender lead. Paul would get close then make a mistake pushing so hard. In the end Adam held on crossing the line just under a second in front of Paul who had Dave hot on his heels just 300ths of a second behind in third. This left Adam taking the overall win from Paul with Matt taking third spot.

In 19t the first leg started like a scrap letting pole sitter Dave Saul off into a commanding lead. Jamie Hickin and Philip Randell would move through the group into second and third respectively fighting for second spot. By half way though Philip was trying to close down Paul having taken over second spot with John Painter now up to third from fifth and trying to real in Philip. By the end though Daveís lead wouldnít be challenged crossing the line 4 seconds in front of Dave with Philip just holding off John by under 2 seconds. Leg 2 saw Malcolm Hall on a charge. He was pushing Dave until he took the lead on lap 9 and began opening up a gap he would not loose taking the win by 5 seconds from Dave with Philip Randall having a consistent run to take third spot again. This meant Dave Saul had taken the overall win followed by Philip and then Malcolm.

Mod was going to be one to watch with Andy Moore and Olly Jeffries so closely matched on track. Leg 1 started with Andy heading Olly away followed close by Elliot Harper. On lap 3 though Andy made a mistake gifting Olly the lead which he set about extending from the chasing pack. Andy would further loose second place to Elliot who gave chance after Olly. Some brilliant driving from Elliott saw him close up on Olly but he could just not get close enough with Olly taking this leg by just under a second from Elliot, with Ben Cosgrove coming from 5th to take third spot this time. Leg 2 began with Olly getting the jump on Andy again. He got into 1st place and would hold this to take 2 wins from two. Elliot was hot on Andy’s heals though and got past him just after half way through the race. He then set his goals on Olly again putting in some stunning laps but as before time would run out for him. This meant Olly took the overall win ahead of Elliot with Andy Moore doing enough to take third spot.

In the Recoil Stock Class It was the Malcolm Hall / Mark Young show. These guys fighting it out hammer and tong through the 5 minutes to end up with Malcolm taking the leg by just under 2 seconds from Mark, followed home 2 laps back by Spencer Jones. Leg 2 would see more of the same with Malcolm once more pipping Mark by just under 2 seconds once more. Dani Young would take third spot this time as Spencer did not start. Overall this meant Malcolm took the win overall, Mark second and Dani young third.

In Recoil Mod Dave Ringsell was simply in a class of his own in leg one. He would disappear into the distance and take the win by 2 laps from Garry Brace who fought off Matt Curtis just 4 seconds back. In leg 2 though a bad start put the pack in the air. Richard Thorpe took advantage from 7th to take on the lead with Matt Curtis in chase mode behind him. Bad luck struck Richard though, his car pulling out on lap 6 promoting Matt into the lead followed hotly by Garry Brace who had worked back up to second now. Dave Ringsell was also on the move and was circulating third hunting down the leading drivers. Come lap 12 Dave had caught and passed Garry and was set on catching Matt but with a huge gap to chase down. Keith Helmke had also made a move and was now up to third place coming back from fifth at the start. With time running out Dave was getting closer but just not close enough to challenge Matt and this is how it would end with Matt first, Dave second and Keith third. Over all this meant Dave would take the win ahead of Matt Curtis and Keith Helmke.

In leg one of 12th Pole Man Jonathan Dixey had trouble on lap 7 dropping out leaving Kit Jones to take up the lead. He too would suffer issues on lap 16 gifting the lead over to Alex Carter who would see it to the end taking the win ahead of Spencer Jones and Tony Ryder. Leg 2 would see a strong drive from Jonathan this time taking the win by over a lap from Paul Upton and Alex Carter. This meant overall Alex Carter with consistent runs took the win followed by Tony Ryder and Jonathan Dixey.

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