This past Sunday, 17th January, Civil War 17 took place at a very cold and snowy Hednesford Hills Raceway.

Twelve Rounds of Battle took place and at the end of it all the SOUTHERN ARMY returned home triumphant for the third year in a row, led by General Paul Adams over the Northern Army led by General Scott Wagstaff.

Early morning snow failed to dampen the action with the recovery trucks working to clear the racing surface prior to start time, and the two armies marched into battle with the South seizing the early initiative thanks to 106 Darren Terry-Brand’s win in the opening Light Brigade heat after he spun out 382 Jack Foster Jnr, and they never looked back from there. The North did dominate the first Infantry heat with 129 Jono Brooke winning but they were docked 100 points for a hit under red flags, and two further dockings put them on the back foot and they never really recovered.

The South ran riot in the Tanks division with 239 Steve Carter and 427 Dean McPhilimey scoring a hatful of points while the first heat saw a classic Civil War pile-up, the two TX1 Taxis of 149 Wayne Bailey and 43 Nicky Bishop right in the middle of it. This division is where the North sadly struggled, failing to score a point from their unlimited cars all day.

The race of the day was undoubtedly the Light Brigade final which was red flagged early on after another massive turn three pile-up, the restart seeing 135 Jamie Batchelor and 326 Edward Kennett enjoying a great battle with the Foster family and 79 Mike Byram. Meanwhile 310 John Nicholson and 355 Martin Mullins took up positions on turn four at the exit of the pile-up and a classic game of Civil War cat and mouse blocking ensued, the Southern cars finding a way through lap after lap but eventually both Kennett and Batchelor were stopped to a huge roar from the Northern fans who’d had precious little to cheer about all afternoon, 382 Jack Foster Jnr leading home three Northern cars.

The South’s triumph however was all but assured by this stage and with two DD wins to the North’s one (secured by an impressive display from 275 Joe Morgan in the Infantry) they ran out the winners by 2600 points to 700 closing the gap to 9-8 on overall War wins – will they score the equaliser next year?

Spedeworth/Incarace would like to congratulate the Southern Army for the victory over their rivals but we would like to especially thank each and every single person present at the meeting for attending, from Drivers, Crews, Officials, Staff and especially the Fans who braved incredibly cold elements to not only attend the meeting but support it in the way that all you good people did.

Again, Congratulations and thanks from us all at Spedeworth/Incarace.

(Photo courtesy of Phil Cornish Photography)

Full results are listed on the results page

Click here to see a full breakdown of the day’s Battle points