North East 2WD Regional Series 2008 - BATLEY - 20/07/2008
This year Batley only had a one day regional unlike the past few years, so it was just the 2WD class that turned up to race on the Sunday morning. The weather was very changable through the day - with bright sunshine in the morning and cloud and rain with only spots of sun as the afternoon progressed.
Richard Lowe set about owning the qualifying from the start - taking all four rounds in style. Next best was 3-time Euros A-Finalist (will he get sick of us saying that?) Tom Cockerill driving the XFactory X6 with two second in round finishes. Third overall was Hot Bodies designer Adam Skelding - racing the new Hot Bodies D2 at its first official meeting (Adam raced the club meeting at Batley the previous week - testing the car out). Check out the photos of the new car in the gallery.
A Final:
The start of the A final saw Richard Lowe, Tom Cockerill and Adam Skelding slowly pull a gap on the rest - these three looking evenly matched as they lapped the track. Half way round lap three however, leader Richard Lowe made a mistake coming over the table top and rolled - allowing Tom and Adam through. Richards car was on its roof for a while and he dropped down to 6th - more or less putting him out of the running. Arslaan Butt was now up to third.
Tom lead Adam round for several laps, with some very close racing - Adam clearly wanted a win with the new D2 and looked like he'd have a good chance. Coming around the banked corner Adam hit a bump and the car rolled - it wasn't enough to drop him down the order but it was enough for Tom to extend his lead and take the win, Adam came in second and Richard Lowe completed an excellent fight back to finish third after his poor luck earlier in the race.
Above: Tom Cockerill leads the new D2 of Adam Skelding around the Batley grass.
Pos
Car
Name
Result
Avrg Lap
Best Lap
1
2
Tom Cockerill
10/ 300.50
30.05
29.75 (6)
2
3
Adam Skelding
10/ 304.66
30.47
29.42 (7)
3
1
Richard Lowe
10/ 305.18
30.52
28.50 (10)
4
4
Arslan Butt
10/ 309.90
30.99
29.81 (9)
5
10
James Chappell
10/ 313.32
31.33
30.22 (8)
6
6
Graham North
10/ 319.32
31.93
30.83 (7)
7
5
Ben Riley
10/ 320.63
32.06
30.81 (8)
8
8
Steve Kirk
10/ 326.73
32.67
31.66 (3)
9
9
Steven Pierce
9/ 303.98
33.78
29.88 (8)
10
7
Ben Jemison
4/ 133.83
33.46
31.28 (2)
Forgive the poor report - I don't race the North East but came to take some photos anyway :)
All photos are mine, all mine, and not to be used in commercial purposes without prior permission. Jimmy Storey. rc(at)oople(dot)com.