Scotland’s ‘Tartan Tornado’ duly tore in to Foxhall Stadium as forecast but rather than blasting the fence at the hands of his English hosts as so many had predicted, Stuart Gilchrest drove a super-cool race to weather all that was thrown at him and became the first-ever Scottish winner of the Superstox World Championship on English soil, writes Kevin Wegg.
For one brief moment fellow countryman Fraser Clark threatened to make it a golden double in the 1300 Stock Car event only to be hustled back as Barry ‘Butch’ Radcliffe notched an impressive victory….that was until the Scrutineers were let loose and the drama then continued well in to the wee small hours. Read on!.....
SUPERSTOX ‘GOLD’
Many years ago the fore-runners of the present day formulas were the only ones that regularly graced the ovals and what a treat Saturday proved for pure Stock Car connoisseurs with plenty of good old-fashioned bumperwork throughout. Gilchrist won the draw with Steven Jackson to decide pole for the big one however it was Jackson that surprisingly got the drop to briefly take it up before Gilky came fighting back. Two of the pre-race favourites were quickly in trouble: Jason Cooper losing valuable ground when he was shuffled, whilst there was big-race heartache yet again for Ryan Eaton as he got punted wide and ultimately out after a clash with Glenn Salmon. Gilky meanwhile was off at a blistering pace chased by Jackson and a quickly recovering Cooper yet with the laps ticking by the 1-2-3 looked well set. That was until the Scottish points champion nudged Phil Proctor wide who in turn gently rolled Ben Styles on to his roof to bring out the yellows.
The restart potentially gave both Jackson and Cooper the opportunity to give Gilky the ‘heavo-ho’ and Steven certainly gave it all, but Gilky was giving a masterclass under pressure and never really looked like succumbing. With the ‘Tornado’ clearly dominating the landscape the fight was on for the remaining rostrum places with a particularly entertaining fight between Shaun Brooker and Ben Marjoram which the latter eventually won. Gilky was so thrilled with his win that he was already punching the air with delight down the back straight and again around the final turns. And rightly so, for not only has he realised a long-held dream but he has also made both Superstox & Scottish history in the process – a very worthy ‘old skool’ Stock Car champion indeed and superb ambassador for the formula off-track too.
1300 STOCK CAR ‘GOLD’
Lee Pearce was red-hot favourite to paint the town gold especially after the Honda Civic was finally given the all-clear to race and duly hit the front from row two after some fabulously hard-hitting opening laps. Mark Skoyles won the ‘last-chance’ qualifier to join the grid but very nearly wiped Pearce out when retiring to the speedway track. Pearce escaped that one but ‘disaster’ was rapidly gaining ground with the back-marking Luke Morphey also keeping him on his toes – ironically in the Clark Wells ‘Rent-a-Honda-stockie’. Before said ‘disaster’ struck, Chris Partridge rolled to bring out the yellows and from the off Morphey was clearly giving Pearce plenty to think about especially when he dived up his inside. That also gave the chasing Pete Beldom the chance to latch on to his tail and cause a half-spin. In the melee that followed Fraser Clark briefly led before Beldom sorted both him and Morphey out to take it up with Radcliffe now in second. Pearce later revealed his engine had started to give way before expiring completely which was tough luck indeed. Further back in yet another Honda Ian ‘Duckie’ Beaumont was faring much better. He was having what can only be described as a truly sensational and totally unexpected drive in a car that was only finished by Neil Dunne at 2:30pm that very same afternoon! The ‘Fastest Quacker in Town’ ultimately finished a magnificent third place – surely one of the most amazing car debuts of all time? In a race that will live long in the memory there was still more drama to come up front with back-marking Daniel Wenn slowing in front of Beldom which effectively gifted Radcliffe the lead with just over a lap to go. He made no mistake although his car very nearly did when the throttle jammed for the second time in the race and he slammed Gemma Rainer in to the armco as a result after the flag which caused him considerable back pain in the process – hopefully the champagne that flowed shortly after to honour his terrific drive from row five helped to ease that somewhat!.....Or has it?…….Without doubt post-race scrutineering has certainly thrown a couple of spanners in the works. First it was revealed that Fraser Clark’s car was deemed underweight whilst Barry Radcliffe now has a headache to add to his back pain when the car failed scrutineering due to the distributor not ‘being freely moving’. He has also been suspended from racing pending his appeal being heard - which will be undertaken as soon as he has formally submitted his appeal. Spedeworth will announce the outcome of that and the official race result as soon as possible.

SUPPORT RACES
Superstox:
Put simply, Ryan Eaton went on to have a real ‘mare’, crashing out of both support races as well. He never even completed lap one in the first heat after getting out of shape and giving Billy Smith no chance – the latter having previously driven supremely well by the way to take 4th in the world. Ben Stacey was looking very quick and led until a restart allowed Jordan Aylward to simply fly away for an excellent win as Dad (Colin) pushed Salmon wide who in turn spun the newly crowned Gilky! Race two was a battle against the Council Curfew Clock and that - coupled with the early damage - only left twenty-two cars but don’t let that for a moment take anything away from a superb win by youngster Ben Styles and an equally thrilled Dutchman Jereon Laurijssen who followed him home – always good to see lesser-names rewarded for their efforts.

1300 Stock Cars:
Adam O’Dell had the dubious honour of ‘Smash-of-the-Day’ but proved just how strong both the car and his seat is having thankfully walked away unscathed. In their first heat he was hit very hard mid-ships by the pack and then rolled one and a half times for good measure – duly waving to the crowd afterwards. Good man! Karl Douglas made up for the disappointment of having victory in the last-chance qualifier snatched away for jumping the start when he made no mistake from the restart. Jason Nicholls treated race fans to a classic last-bender on second-placed Jamie Blackman only to lose all momentum in the process yet the results show he just did enough to snatch it. Pearce & his crew deserve all credit possible after miraculously changing engines following the world final to get out for the last one and he was clearly on a mission – that mission seemingly being the removal of Pete Beldom! The good-sized crowd on a beautiful summer’s evening were treated to a real feast of all-action Stock Car Racing as a result, with Pearce twice rattling Beldom in to the armco but the British Champion was not taking it lying down. Pearce made the mistake of not finishing him off and allowed Beldom to return the compliment before he then landed an almighty hit on the pack as well! It was entertaining stuff indeed with Scotsman Jason Secker squeezing Beaumont in to the pit gate only to be later planted at speed in to the armco himself and catch fire for good measure! That brought out the waved yellows with two laps to go and a race declaration which thwarted Radcliffe’s plans as he’d waited until the last lap to push Morphey wide only for the result to be counted back. A fine win then for Morphey, not to mention the Honda – clearly something we’ll be saying more often in future.

Next Year?
The eagerly-anticipated all-Stock Car feast duly delivered in breath-taking style at Foxhall and here’s hoping that we can look forward to much more of the same format in 2013. It may be asking too much for the ‘Worlds’ again so how about the ‘Europeans’ or the ‘British’? The latter with our Dutch friends of course!......

Check out Wheelspin Magazine for a full report, pictures and post-race interviews with both Gilky, Butch and more!