Something a little different comes to Foxhall Stadium this Saturday night (6.45 start time) as promoters Spedeworth have bought back the European Late Model Series to the wide open Ipswich oval. To some supporters these cars may be familiar, they were here for a one off visit in 2009 and have proved popular with Sky TV audiences. The drivers themselves asked to come back to Foxhall as the raceway suits the big cars with its smooth sweeping bends and long straights, plus the accessibility to the ports for mainland Europe where most of the top teams are based.
These cars look like the American NASCAR racers and feature a few of the ASCAR type race cars which raced in the early days of Rockingham Raceway in Corby. Like so many “new” formulae, ASCAR started off with big hopes and big crowds but by 2006 was attracting small grids and few spectators, the dream to bring American style oval racing to the UK was all but over. But the drivers still owned the cars, and there was a class racing in Holland and Belgium with very similar looking cars so the two have combined to form the European Late Model Series and very impressive they are to. Fourteen drivers are booked to race this weekend, which may not sound like a big number but will be more than enough around a quarter mile track. Two names will be familiar to oval racing fans Shane Brereton from the west country is booked to race, the ex National Hot Rod star lining up with Tony Roots, a well known name in Superstox racing back in the 1990’s. Gary Ellis won a heat here last year and will be looking for a repeat this time, so will form man Wim Moonen who won the final last time out at Warneton in Belgium 3 weeks ago. Wim Verloo will be racing his new Toyota Camry, a spectacular flame effect wrapped car with a GM Goodwrench 450bhp Fastburn 5.7 litre V8 under the bonnet, Wim is bringing his new car over from Belgium and if it proves as quick as it is eye catching then he could be the one to watch this time out. He will need to avoid trouble though, as these ultra fast cars do have some high speed crashes as we saw at their 2009 outing when 3 cars tangled in a spectacular crash right in front of the home straight grandstand.
The 2.0 Litre Hot Rods will look a little small in comparison the big V8 monsters. There will be no shortage of action on track though as they compete in their last Ipswich outing before the World Final here in July. All the top names are booked in with 3 ex world Champions racing, Mark Paffey, Kevin Randell and Gary Goodswen who have all held that coveted gold roof in the past and all could be considered candidates to hold it again for 2010. Current form man is Farnham based Chris Crane, his quick white Tigra having taken him to a top spot in the points chart, Crane is a consistent race finisher at tracks all over the UK. East Anglian hopes will be on the aforementioned Goodswen along with Ex Karting stars Danny Fiske and Will Reed. Another very quick driver is Yarmouth’s Carl Pye, on his day he can be very fast around Foxhall, but all too often attracts the attention of the steward with his forceful driving style.
National Bangers make up the contact element of this meeting with over 30 of them battling it out in a World Championship qualifying round. Mondeos will be the tool for the job as this is an under 2100cc meeting which rules out the big Jags and yank tanks. The Ford Mondeo is in plentiful supply for Banger racing and is considered by many to be a good strong car by modern standards. Regular World qualifiers Alan “Jethro” Hunt and Carl “Gouldy” Gould will be in town to ensure their place on the grid here in October. Essex superstar Sonny “Mushy” Sherwood is another tough customer who likes to qualify early but may have to deal with longtime foes the Gladiators who are always in the thick of the action . With other big names from the south such as Mark Welland and Charlie King coming to do battle with the East Anglian regulars Jonny Wilkinson and Kieran Cannell It should be action all the way!