Defending champion Chris Haird came within an ace of trumping surprise pole-sitter Matt Simpson at the start of this gruelling 75 lapper but that was the closest he came to keeping the gold roof with Malcolm Blackman ultimately snatching it away in dramatic fashion with Gavin Murray proudly waving the Suffolk flag with an impressive fourth place finish, writes Kevin Wegg.

After blowing the field away and setting a scorching qualifying lap time of 14.2 seconds for the big race the next day, Simpson then used his spare car on the Saturday evening to get in some useful competitive practice with victory in the night’s final. Fast forward a day and having shaken off Haird in the race that really mattered he pulled away from the field only for Republic of Ireland star Shane Murphey to close the gap. These two looked well set until Simpson closed on back-marking Tommy Maxwell. He hastily switched to the outside line only to clash with Murphey which sent Simpson spinning in to the armco and sensationally out of the race. Blackman had already been lining up an outside pass on Haird as the melee unfolded with Haird taking avoiding action by switching to the shale whilst Blackman took full advantage with an outside blast on the tarmac which proved decisive in this 40th anniversary running of the big race.

Blackman never looked back but the race was very much on for second with Murphey diving up the inside of Haird to take second spot. Newmarket-based Haird was clearly struggling with first Christie picking him off then Murray appeared to get ‘second wind’ as he came right back in to contention with a magnificent effort to get past Haird and secure a coveted place on the rostrum. Just to add salt to Simpson’s wounds on the very last lap Dutch driver Lauren van der Velde spun and hit his car as fellow Englishman Blackman ensured the English stranglehold on the trophy continued.

Brief Snippets
There was some consolation for the Irish with Christie winning the “Best in Britain” final later in the day with Murray underlining his credentials yet again for next year with a superb runners-up spot.

In the other major title of the weekend, the Irish again took the spoils with Denver McClean winning the 2.0 Hot Rod European Championship and they showed their dominance of the formula with Wayne Woolsey scooping the “revenge” race later on.

Memorable incidents abounded during an action-packed thirty-three race weekender with Scotsman Davy Philp completing one-and-a-half roles in the supposedly non-contact Stock Rods after clipping Karl Graves who had slammed in to the already stricken Shaun Taylor. Rolling somewhat more sedately was sixteen year old Scott Russell as he flipped a car nearly three times his age when his MG Magnette completed a 360 having already spun out in the same spot just one lap previously!

Another sixteen year old - James Meadows - showed the maturity of someone twice his age with an impressive brace of wins in the Superstox heats although the terrible run of bad luck for Michael Robinson continued as he slammed in to the fence at full chat. The final race on the Sunday for the 1300 Stock Car Supreme Championship brought both the house and curtain down in style on yet another memorable weekend when Mark Smith completed a high-speed double roll-over.