THE NATIONAL Hot Rods awoke from their winter slumber at a cold Birmingham Wheels Raceway on March 9th for World Series England Round 9, writes Dave Goddard.

The opening heat was led off by the fast starting 316 Paul Frost until 278 Colin Gomm went around his outside at turn one and drove on for a clear win, while heat two saw 92 Jack Blood bash his way past 369 Tommy Maxwell to lead while 18 Ben Taylor spun and was collected by 217 Brett Walter and 44 Dave Garrett. Blood took the flag but was docked to third for the contact on Maxwell giving 152 Shaun Taylor the win – a welcome result after the latter’s repeated engine problems last year.
The third heat was red flagged twice, first when 339 Danny Hunn failed to get away and then when Frost spun down the home straight and was collected by 2 Ken Marriott and 117 Rob McDonald at the end of lap one. Blood got it right on the restart with a clean pass on Maxwell and he went on to win to celebrate his birthday weekend. His luck would run out in the Final however as he was an early spinner, while Shaun Taylor also had a full 360 on the home straight but recovered rapidly and continued. Up front Gomm was in dominant form and sped clear of early pacesetter Frost to complete his double, 348 Shane Brereton inheriting third after Maxwell was docked for contact.

The BriSCA F2 Stock Cars contested the second round of their March Spedeweeks series and heat one saw a nasty smash when 732 Daz Kitson bounced off the home straight wall entering the last lap and cannoned into 700 Adam Rubery sending both heavily into the banking. Both got out OK and Rubery would make it back out later on, while the win went to 101 Kelvyn Whalley.
Whalley tangled with 890 Paul Rice in heat two as up front 866 Bob Griffin took the flag but was docked for jumping the start handing gold top 1 Micky Brennan the first win for his new car. Brennan took the Final too after passing 184 Aaron Vaight, while the second place battle came to a head when 921 Jack Aldridge stuffed Whalley into Vaight sending all three spinning, Aldridge recovering for third behind 154 Steve Green Jnr before Griffin held off 886 Chris Bradbury to win the GN.

Just six National Bangers turned up for the first round of the new Figure of Eight series including former Blue Crew member 557 John Small on a visit from the South, the heats being won by 659 Mike Clemence and 120 Damon North before 199 Jacob Roff enjoyed a good scrap with 129 Jono Brooke en route to winning the Final.