October 16th/17th |
SPR. Winternationals. The meeting was attended by the largest group of Swedish racers ever in the UK. The final round of the Tor Line Funny Car Championship was contested at this meeting with only Clive Skilton and Dennis Priddle in with a chance of winning the title. Priddle qualified with 7.19/209, ahead of Allan Herridge with 7.29/145 on a one gear pass. Skilton had borrowed Pete Barnett’s car but could only manage a lowly 18 second pass. Number one qualifier was John Andersson at 6.63/187 although the run did cause some controversy as a skirt had been fitted to the front end. By the time the eliminations had started, some of the English drivers had skirts fitted! Andersson sat out the first round as top qualifier. Herridge ran 7.30/141 which was too strong for Phil Elson, and Priddle, now fitted with front end skirt, put down a 6.49/200 solo. In the last pairing, Dave Stone defeated Skilton 7.40/192 to a losing 9.84/91. Even though Skilton had lost in the first round, he had amassed enough points to win the FC Championship. In the semis, Herridge holeshot Andersson and crossed the stripe first in 6.79/210 to the Swede’s quicker but losing 6.53/198. Stone then defeated an off-form Priddle, 7.46/183 to 8.89/97. In the final, Herridge had staging problems and popped a red light handing the win to Stardust which ran an easy 8.12/127. Pro Fuel was a four car field, and in the first pairing, Ronnie Picardo shutdown Norway’s Fred Larsen in the Sundance rail, 6.89/197 to a losing 8.44/133. Roz Prior then ran 8.34/171 as Tony Froome failed to make the line. It was Picardo in Highway Patrol all the way in the final as his 6.83/212 was too strong for Prior’s 8.21/166 effort. In the first round of Pro Comp, Gerry Andrews defeated Pat Cuss 7.71/159 to 9.20/164, Ludvig Bjornstad beat fellow Norwegian Aage Kristiansen 8.58/168 to 10.00/157, Jim Rowatt beat Liz Burn with an 8.27/150 and Mike Hall shutdown Jim Read with 7.93/151 to 8.14/182. In the semis, Andrews had the misfortune to destroy his engine on the burnout allowing Bjornstad to solo through. Mike Hall then had a problem as Shutdown refused to fire. So, Jim Read came down the fire-up road to face Jim Rowatt, but as Read had no time to burnout, Rowatt took an easy 8.43/165 win. The Senior Dragster final was between the two Swedes, Krister Johansson and Anders Hojner, and it was Hojner who took the win in 9.82/159 to 10.54/132. In Middle Dragster, John Whitmore qualified with a tremendous 8.74/144, and he went on to win the final defeating Glen Read with a 9.82/136 to 11.69/117. Mick Pearce took the Junior title with a 14.35/107 win over Pete Rowley. Senior Altered saw a wild race between Gary Page and Kjell Johansson with both drivers getting out of shape and refusing to back off. Panic took the win for Britain with a 9.48/136 to a losing 9.82/111. Middle Altered was won by Svante Ericksson in his Chrysler powered jeep. His final round opponent was Geoff Modeley in the Incredible Hulk who went down in 10.35/126 to a winning 9.20/145 from the jeep. Norm Wheeldon was the winner of Junior defeating Brian Mondey in the final. In Top bike, Jeff Byne qualified at the top with his first eight second pass in 8.70/156, followed by John Hobbs 8.76/163. In the eliminations, Byne defeated John Lloyd and Brian Chapman, while Hobbs overcame Pete Smith and John Clift. Just before the final, Byne discovered a worn clutch sprocket so Chapman came back in and took a surprise 9.49/144 win as Hobbs slowed with a broken transmission. Steve Tidy was the Senior bike winner as his 10.02/138 was too strong for the 10.70/120 from Dutchman Cees van Dongen. John Cheadle beat Tom Quinn, 10.45/122 to a losing 10.52/125, to take the win in Middle. Junior bike winner was Pete Wood who overcame Dave Hewitt in the final. (Clive Rooms) |
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