Charity Memorial Meeting 2006

1st May 2006

The May Day Bank holiday saw the running of this year's annual West London Racing Centre charity memorial meeting with all the monies raised going to the British Heart Foundation.

The day started very wet with a flooded track but the weather forecast said the rain was going to blow over by early morning and it was decided to delay the start of the meeting to see if this was going to be the case. The weather did clear as promised. Unfortunately a number of drivers abandoned the meeting early having no belief in the weather man (although some did donate their entry fee to charity anyway). This left 52 drivers racing.

After booking in the day started with a driver's briefing which included a minutes silence not only for previous WLRC committee members who had passed away but for everyone connected with racing who has died.

At driver's briefing it was announced that the format for the day would be a little different as we would use round by round qualifying with the best two from four rounds to count. This should suit the drying track with perhaps the potential for more rain. There would be two leg finals, weather permitting.

Qualifying

The weather got better and better during qualifying as the sun came out and dried the track. As news got around that we were racing we even acquired four more entrants. As expected each round of qualifying was quicker that the previous round. What was unexpected was that even using round by round qualifying the FTD in all three classes would come down to the final qualifying run. In 27 turn stock, Spencer Jones, Graham Douglass had three points whilst Remo Casadei had four points, all three having set the fastest time once in the previous three rounds. In the last round it was Remo who set the fastest time to take FTD finishing ahead of Graham and Spencer but on the decider Spencer got second from Graham (something that confused both of them). In 19 turn super stock it was between Chris Kerswell and Russell Williams for FTD. Chris already had two fastest times to Russell's one but FTD in the final round for Russell would see him through as the track was still getting quicker. In the end Chris set fastest time for the third time to secure FTD from Russell. Modified saw a similar battle to 19 turn between Soteris Liasi with two fastest times against Westley Payne with one. This time though Westley took the fastest time with the quickest overall time of the day to secure FTD.

As the weather was now glorious two leg finals were declared with the raffle being drawn in between the two legs.

Final - Leg 1

The first leg of the 27 turn A final went to pole man Remo Casadei but only after Spencer Jones gifted him the win. Remo made a mistake early on to allow Spencer through from second place but with four laps to go Spencer rolled to let Remo back through for the win. Graham Douglass finished third. In 19 turn it was a win for Nathan Parker from fifth on the grid. Nathan made the best of a scrappy first lap to lead from the front. Meanwhile, pole man Chris Kerswell fought back from last on the first lap up to third which became second when Russell William's car expired. Mark Holloway finished third. Modified saw a comfortable victory for Westley Payne as he lead from start to finish.

Raffle

The raffle was drawn between the two legs of the finals. Thanks go to Helger, CML, Mirage, TiR, Spec Racing and Cool Fans for their donations. The place to be for the raffle was sat on the fence with the threesome of Tim Hamm, Matt Digby and Dave Johnson snaffling a good few prizes. Top prize of a Ready To Fly plane went to Darryl Osbourne.

As the meeting attendance was smaller than hoped due to the bad weather about half the prizes were held back and a second raffle will be held at the next club meeting to boost the money raised from the raffle. This will result in more money for charity in the long run.

Thanks were given to all who attended and for digging deep into their pockets to support the raffle. The confirmed amount from the race day is £730 with more money still to come from the second raffle. The final figure will appear here once the money has been totalled.

Final - Leg 2

So to the second and deciding legs of the finals. The 27 turn A final saw an easy win for Spencer Jones from second on the grid with Remo struggling with too hard a tyre and Graham inflicted by electrical gremlins. In 19 turn Chris Kerswell made a better start to win from the front from Mark Holloway up from sixth who just held off third placed David Saul. In modified Westley Payne remembered how to drive an lapped the entire field.

This left the overall winners as Remo Casadei, Chris Kerswell and Westley Payne.

All the results can be seen here.

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Page last updated on the 2nd May 2006.