LessThanSte
31st August 2009, 21:48
Well it must be said that today was a blast. First time ive managed to get to Hednesford in about 4 years but well worth it with terrific racing throughout the day.
Ive missed the V8's. Seeing the cars powerslide out of turn 2 was a lot of fun and reminded me of those days sat in turn 4 at the Rock.
It started in a way though that i thought for a while might have put people off, with two attempted starts before the race was red flagged. It quickly became apparent that the marshall's attempts at cleaning away the oil from the Legends crash in the race before had not worked and more cement dust was needed. Happily, the Hot Rods did a cracking job of clearing it up.
Race 2 and the final were interesting, though not spectacular, put down to the lack of firmiliarity with the track for most drivers. Indeed i assume that aside from a quick practice on the morning track time was limited.
But it meant that when the first race was rerun at the end of the day (and a good job it was, too!), the drivers all had it figured out and the race was an absolute blast. First the 88 got into the lead and had a big gap before the 07, 48 and 13 began to close the gap around half way. Then a titanic 4 way battle for the lead lasted for numerous laps before the 07 got a, you would have thought safe lead with 4 laps to go. But a late charge from the 13 left everyone wondering what if, coming up just short. With one or two more laps the result could have been very different.
Best of all though the crowd seemed to enjoy it, with the cheers for the winners being amoungst the loudest of the day in the West Bend grandstand. That can only be a good thing.
I did notice that the ex-SCSA cars seemed to have a bit more difficulty getting round the track than the ex-CAMSO's. Speedwise they were similar but it did seem like the 73 and the 07 could put the cars wherever they liked. Still, i did some timing and saw that the V8's were lapping faster than the Legends and only marginally slower than the Hot Rods. Be nice to see them with a more tuned up setup on the cars. It also seemed that the lining up was very haphazard, I would personally prefer to see a bunched up field, 2 wide off turn 4 before hitting the gas, instead of having some cars starting the best part of a lap behind, though understand that this is the short circuit was. That said it didnt affect the 48 too much in the 3rd race!
The only disappointment really was the short race distance, though this was perhaps expected.
Otherwise Hednesford was a treat. The Legends and Hot Rods were both superb, with some very nice paintschemes on show, best of the day without doubt going to the 61 for a Jeff Gordon inspired flame-job. The Bangers initially failed to excite when racing as side-by-side pairs, but following the change to a single car format and with a much swelled grid the racing was actually quite good with some decent racing and not just people being fired off (though that did happen). Infact the winner of the first race didnt spin anyone on his travels, despite starting mid pack.
The Reliant Robins also deserve a shoutout as, despite a grid of 7 cars provided much hilarity for the crowd. The change to a figure-of-8 final was a good one that the crowd loved and the post race destruction derby was a battle of tactics, finished only when the two remaining cars got stuck together both with a wheel in the air, that ultimately left the entire crowd trooping home with great impressions!
Ive missed the V8's. Seeing the cars powerslide out of turn 2 was a lot of fun and reminded me of those days sat in turn 4 at the Rock.
It started in a way though that i thought for a while might have put people off, with two attempted starts before the race was red flagged. It quickly became apparent that the marshall's attempts at cleaning away the oil from the Legends crash in the race before had not worked and more cement dust was needed. Happily, the Hot Rods did a cracking job of clearing it up.
Race 2 and the final were interesting, though not spectacular, put down to the lack of firmiliarity with the track for most drivers. Indeed i assume that aside from a quick practice on the morning track time was limited.
But it meant that when the first race was rerun at the end of the day (and a good job it was, too!), the drivers all had it figured out and the race was an absolute blast. First the 88 got into the lead and had a big gap before the 07, 48 and 13 began to close the gap around half way. Then a titanic 4 way battle for the lead lasted for numerous laps before the 07 got a, you would have thought safe lead with 4 laps to go. But a late charge from the 13 left everyone wondering what if, coming up just short. With one or two more laps the result could have been very different.
Best of all though the crowd seemed to enjoy it, with the cheers for the winners being amoungst the loudest of the day in the West Bend grandstand. That can only be a good thing.
I did notice that the ex-SCSA cars seemed to have a bit more difficulty getting round the track than the ex-CAMSO's. Speedwise they were similar but it did seem like the 73 and the 07 could put the cars wherever they liked. Still, i did some timing and saw that the V8's were lapping faster than the Legends and only marginally slower than the Hot Rods. Be nice to see them with a more tuned up setup on the cars. It also seemed that the lining up was very haphazard, I would personally prefer to see a bunched up field, 2 wide off turn 4 before hitting the gas, instead of having some cars starting the best part of a lap behind, though understand that this is the short circuit was. That said it didnt affect the 48 too much in the 3rd race!
The only disappointment really was the short race distance, though this was perhaps expected.
Otherwise Hednesford was a treat. The Legends and Hot Rods were both superb, with some very nice paintschemes on show, best of the day without doubt going to the 61 for a Jeff Gordon inspired flame-job. The Bangers initially failed to excite when racing as side-by-side pairs, but following the change to a single car format and with a much swelled grid the racing was actually quite good with some decent racing and not just people being fired off (though that did happen). Infact the winner of the first race didnt spin anyone on his travels, despite starting mid pack.
The Reliant Robins also deserve a shoutout as, despite a grid of 7 cars provided much hilarity for the crowd. The change to a figure-of-8 final was a good one that the crowd loved and the post race destruction derby was a battle of tactics, finished only when the two remaining cars got stuck together both with a wheel in the air, that ultimately left the entire crowd trooping home with great impressions!