Bedworth Winter Series 2004/05 Round 3 – 16 January 2005

Early morning track conditions were cold and damp

After a week where the weather forecasts for the weekend were different seemingly from hour to hour, Sunday morning dawned to reveal a damp track, but unlike Round 1 back in November which started damp and stayed that way, the track conditions would change throughout the day, making for some very interesting action both on the track and in the paddock, where car settings would need constant monitoring from round to round, especially as far as tyres were concerned. Those who ventured out to practice early on found that the track offered a consistent, if low, level of grip most of the way round, with only turn 3 causing problems as the cars spun when asked to slow down and change direction sharply simultaneously, at a point where all but the best setup cars are still settling from the fast turns that precede it. It was obvious that a deft touch on the left thumb (or trigger finger) was going to be vital as, with Round-by-Round qualifying in use for this series, even the runs on the damp early morning surface would be vital.

Qualifying – Round 1

Stock Touring

The 20 drivers entered into this class would be the first to try the track under officially timed conditions – and the resultant times weren’t fast, as the surface put paid to anyone gung-ho enough to attack. Instead, consistency would ensure a good score early on, and it was Yokomo CGM driver Michael Polson who drove with the coolest head to TQ the round in 14/305.49. Nigel Shaw was next up 8/10th of a second back, then in third came Mark Handford Jnr, who showed that practice racing 1/12 indoors can pay dividends in any conditions as he was seeded lower in the heats than the other drivers at the sharp end and had to overtake plenty of cars to get this fast time. Next up was the result of a battle Royal in the top heat as James Parker, Craig Daffron and Rob Cunliffe came home within 3/10th of a second of each other, with Marcus Gorvin completing the 14-lap runners.

19 Turn

Dominic Carter continued where he left off in Round 1 of the series by taking TQ for the round, fifteen seconds ahead of second-place man Stew Noble! Shane Dye and Adi Wright were the only other 15-lap runners and finished within a couple of seconds of Stew. Ben Emery placed fifth, ahead of a tight pile of runners headed by David Bailey, with Bob Burr, Steve Dye and Nick Bruty within 3 seconds of him. Phil Chambers seemed to have trouble with consistency, but looked fast over a single lap, and was placed 10th for the round.

Round 2

Stock Touring

The track was drier for this round. But as the water started to go, the greasiness remained, and thus times were similar to what we’d already seen – indeed, Michael’s FTQ from round 1 would still have stood were the FTQ system being used. HPI Pro 4 driver James Parker took TQ for the round and the ‘Mr Consistency’ award for a non-spectacular but very regular run. Following a single second behind was Mark Handford Jnr, proving that his round 1 run was no fluke, giving himself an excellent chance of qualifying for his first Winter series ‘A’ final from the sharp end. The Petch brothers came next, Jason finishing 3 seconds clear of David (and only 0.08 seconds behind Mark Jnr). Michael Polson was next up, consolidating his points score, with Rob Cunliffe in close attendance, himself just ahead of Trevor Stokes. Craig Daffron completed the 14-lap runners in 8th.

19 Turn

The field closed the gap to Dominic Carter this time round, but only by a small percentage as the HPI driver still had an eleven second gap. At the other end of this gap was a tight bunch with Nick Bruty, Shane Dye and Bob Burr in a three-second window, Adi Wright’s fifth place completing the 15-lap club. Stew Noble, David Bailey, Steve Dye, Ben Emery and Howard Harrison completed the top ten.

Round 3

Stock Touring

The sun had come out by now, and the track was drying rapidly – however, corners that lay in shadow remained wet and treacherous, presenting a tyre conundrum – go out on wets or inters and lose time on the dry sections (and risk wrecking your tyres), or go out on dries and risk spinning and losing chunks of time in the wet corners? The answer was ‘go out on dries and drive like Miss Marple through the wet corners’, and this was the strategy used by the fast runners this time round. 15 laps suddenly appeared, Jason Petch once again making it 3 TQ holders in 3 rounds in this class. James Parker followed up a second-and-a-half behind, with David Petch making third only a quarter of a second further back. Another 0.25 second gap back to Craig Daffron in 4th, with Mark Handford Jnr putting in another good run to 5th. These drivers made 15 laps, with 14s going to Marcus Gorvin, Dean Coupland, Nigel Shaw, Trevor Stokes, Kris Kennedy, Michael Polson and Rob Cunliffe. The fastest times in the earlier rounds would have only placed 7th this time around.

The overall qualifying top 10 in this class:-

1 James Parker
2 Jason Petch
3 Mark Handford Jnr
4 Michael Polson
5 David Petch
6 Craig Daffron
7 Nigel Shaw
8 Robert Cunliffe
9 Marcus Gorvin
10 Dean Coupland

James would start from pole for the second time in this series, and Mark Jnr would start his very first Winter Series ‘A’ Final from 3rd, a remarkable achievement. Jason looked very strong in 2nd, while drivers such as Craig and Rob would look to charge up through the field.

Trevor Stokes and Kris Kennedy would fill the front row in the ‘B’ Final; both were unlucky as they had points scores (16 and 18 respectively) that would normally make the ‘A’ in this class.


19 Turn

With the track drying rapidly now, being in a later heat gave a sizeable advantage, and with this class running later in qualifying times really started to drop, no fewer than nine drivers posting 17- or 16-lappers. No surprise to see Dominic Carter at the top of the pile, but that gap was now only 0.67 seconds back to Shane Dye, with Phil Chambers fastest of the 16-lap runner, approximately five seconds further back. Stew Noble was next up, then Adi Wright brought his Xray into 5th, followed by Ben Emery, David Bailey, Nick Bruty and Bob Burr – all these drivers got in the 16-lap bracket.

Overall top 10 for this class:-

1 Dominic Carter
2 Shane Dye
3 Stew Noble
4 Adi Wright
5 Nick Bruty
6 Bob Burr
7 Ben Emery
8 David Bailey
9 Phil Chambers
10 Steve Dye


Dom-inator Carter - another fine pole and win

No surprise then to see Dom on pole, but the drivers behind him were more than capable of taking the fight for wins to him, this final would be one to relish with plenty of drivers capable of coming out on top.

The Finals

A mixture of dry and damp track conditions for the finals

Stock Touring ‘B’ Final

Stock B finalists line up the first leg

Leg 1 – 10 cars in this race, but only 9 came to the grid, Ashley Coupland the absent driver. Right from the start, Trevor Stokes and his Associated TC3 looked in control, the former 27-turn lap record holder having lost none of his touch. Kris Kennedy followed with his immaculately Porsche-bodied TC3 donning his usual Mobil One livery. These two broke away from the very first lap, initially pursued by Norman Britton, John Toman on his first visit to Bedworth with his HPI Pro 4, Paul Dickens’ Losi, and the Pro 4 of Mark Handford Snr making up the midfield bunch, with Gavin Tuson, Philip Hughes and Leigh White following on. Back at the front, the top two were pulling away, a slip by Kris on lap 3 allowing Trevor a comfort zone, and the leader then drove consistently to the win, with a time that at the point it was made was the fastest 27-turn run all day! Kris had dropped to 12 seconds behind Trevor, but still made 15 laps in his 2nd-placed run. Norman Britton ran strongly until an incident on the very last lap while pursued by Mark let the latter into 3rd and demoted the former to 4th, only just beating Paul’s familiar blue-and-yellow car. Gavin followed a few seconds later, inheriting a place from John who didn’t quite make 300 seconds, with Philip producing some sound laps on his way to 8th. Leigh, in his very first full-length race meeting, concentrated on learning the lines and put in a performance that was a considerable improvement on the Newcomers’ meeting just a fortnight previously, an achievement that should be applauded!

Leg 2 – All the cars on the grid this time, and it was Ashley’s Pro 4 that was first round the initial lap, followed by Gavin who had stormed from 8th spot on the grid. Trevor was in close attendance, followed by Norman and John in a very tight battle, then Philip, Paul and Mark close together, followed by Leigh. Kris had seemingly disappeared and was only to put in a single lap in this leg. Trevor got by Gavin in the next lap and set off after Ashley, whilst the 3rd place man decided to try to hang on to the TC3’s coat-tails, a wise move… Norman spun out of 4th on lap 5, letting John and Mark through. On lap 9 Trevor got by Ashley at the Race Control sweeper, with the latter also suffering a spin, but I don’t know whether there was contact or whether Ashley, forced to the still-wet outside line at high speed, just failed to hold the HPI, but in any case he set off still in 2nd place. From here, the race settled down somewhat, Paul having to retire on lap 9, and Mark suffering an off on lap 10, however Ashley had to pull out of 2nd with only about half a minute left, Gavin the driver to gain the most from this. Eventually, after 5 minutes Trevor came round to record a double win, with Gavin following eleven seconds back, but a great run from the 2nd-place man, driving very solidly so as not to throw his excellent start away, and still getting 15 laps. John Toman capped a good debut meeting with third in the leg, whilst Mark Handford made sure of a trophy finish with 4th. Ashley was eventually classified 5th, Norman missing the 14th lap that would have given him the place by 0.37 seconds. Philip came in in 7th, Paul’s run placed 8th, while Leigh’s improvement continued, his 9th place run a lap better than final leg 1. Kris, as previously mentioned, could only record the 1 lap and placed 10th. Commiserations, Kris, Better luck next time.

Overall positions for this final:-

1 Trevor Stokes
2 Mark Handford Snr
3 Gavin Tuson
4 Norman Britton
5 John Toman
6 Kris Kennedy
7 Paul Dickens
8 Ashley Coupland
9 Philip Hughes
10 Leigh White

Congratulations to Trevor for the win, and to Mark and Gavin for some good driving on their way to top 3 finishes.

Stock Touring ‘A’ Final

Stock A finalists line up for the their 2nd leg while  Gav Tuson (marshalling) orders a pizza.

The Grid lined up like so:-

Stock A finalists line up on the grid for the second leg of the final.  Plenty of tyre additive in use by someone!

The familiar colours of pole man James Parker's HPI Pro 4

Leg 1 – The leading cars got around lap 1 intact, James having to defend from Jason as the Xray had a look down the inside at turn 3, but several mid-grid drivers got caught up in incidents in the first few bends. At the end of lap 1 James led by a very narrow margin from Jason, then a following pack of Michael, David, Mark, Nigel, Dean, Marcus and Rob all covered by 2 ½ seconds, then a recovering Craig. Jason put his Xray into the lead on lap 2, with some firm but fair doorhandling into turn 2, then proceeded to pull out a lead. James had settled for second then spun at turn 1 on lap 6 which brought the chasing pack back into play, still led by David. On lap 8 Michael had to retire in a hurry when his motor cried ‘enough’ and threw a wind in the infield, meanwhile James had another moment which let David and Mark through into 2nd and 3rd, with Craig having recovered to sit in 5th and Marcus not far behind him. Mark was in excellent form holding firm against David’s attempts to get past, and despite excellent action through the field no-one was able to make any moves stick, and thus the field held static. Toward the end, another wobble from James let Craig up to 4th, and despite the poleman getting briefly back in front, Craig got the switchback at turn 6 and kept the place. After 5 minutes, Jason came round to take a deserved win and a 16-lap run, ahead of the rest by some seven seconds. Mark Jnr showed an incredibly cool head, allied with some excellent driving, and his HPI held off David all the way home, the gap at the end 0.7 seconds, as it had been for most of the race. Another couple of seconds back to Craig, who was chased home by James and Marcus, with Rob and Nigel next up, followed by Dean and Michael’s retirement placing him 10th. This was an excellent final with lots of clean racing moves and an evenly matched field – top 7 within a lap of the leader, 6 seconds covered 2nd to 6th, and those numbers would have been larger but for Michael’s motor trouble.


Stock A finalist in action during the first leg

Jason Petch leads at the Complex with his Xray with pole man James Parker in pursuit

Leg 2 – Again the Associated-liveried HPI (don’t ask!) of James led the field round the first series of bends, but a clean initial lap throughout the field meant a freight train of cars pulled onto the front straight with very little in the way of gaps between them. Jason got the better exit from the Dunlop Bank and took the lead over the loop for the first lap, followed by James, Mark, Craig getting a much better start this time, Michael just leading Rob, then 2 seconds back to Dean who made a good start from the back and led David and Nigel, with Marcus the only one to suffer in the lap 1 shuffle to any great extent and playing catch-up. All held station for the first few tours, then a slight error by Jason on lap 5 let James, Mark and Craig through. Jason didn’t even go off, and he lost less than 1.1 seconds to his average lap, but he just got ‘let out to dry' and couldn’t find a way back into the queue! James led for a while with Mark Jnr latched on to the leader’s back bumper, very cannily knowing that with Jason 4th, finishing like this would give him the overall win in his debut ‘A’ final! James’ troubles continued on lap 9 as he himself was subjected to the ‘let out to dry’ treatment after a wobble out of the Horseshoe (turn 4) and dropped to 3rd behind Mark and Jason, Craig having begun to drop back with steering woes at about the same time. Nigel had climbed up the field by now and was up to 5th, and then he, Rob and Michael passed the struggling Craig. Yet another error from the normally consistent pole man let these drivers through, and then a good battle between James and Rob ended with an incident when the two cars squabbled over a patch of tarmac at the sweeper. Mark Jnr was still leading the race at this point with Jason on his bumper, then the red-and-blue Alfa-bodied HPI went on its side (the only time it wasn’t glued to the track all day) and let the Vectra-shelled XRay through, but only just as Mark, by now unrecognisable as a driver from just a few meetings ago, hounded the leader. Jason was made of sterner stuff however, and crossed the line after 16 laps and 312.36 seconds to take the win, with Mark only 0.34 seconds back. The chasing pack stayed ready to capitalise on any errors to the very end, Michael in third 1.8s behind Mark, really beginning to gel with the Yokomo, and pulling out a sizeable (by the standards of this race) lead of a whole 2.7 seconds on the hard-charging Nigel. Craig was the last driver on 16 laps, a fact for which he was grateful as his HPI was by now very reluctant to turn left with a damaged servo, and had the three behind just made up the short time to get the 16th lap, they would surely have got past the red Pro 4. These three were Rob, Marcus and James, the latter wondering what on earth had happened to leave him down in 8th! David had a rather trying run by his standards, as did Dean, and these two completed the order. Another exceptional race – top 9 on the lead lap, top 8 covered by ten seconds or so, top 4 by five – the Stock class at these meetings is really good both to watch and to drive in!


Bad Boy racer Mark Handford Jnr did very well at round 3


James Parker bagged another A final Pole

Overall results for this final:-
1 Jason Petch
2 Mark Handford Jnr
3 Craig Daffron
4 David Petch
5 Nigel Shaw
6 James Parker
7 Michael Polson
8 Rob Cunliffe
9 Marcus Gorvin
10 Dean Coupland

Congratulations to Jason for taking a deserved double win. An astonishing meeting for Mark ends with a second place earned by pure skill and cool-headedness, and Craig was surprised to take 3rd despite his troubles.

19 Turn ‘B’ Final

4 cars were entered for this race, but unfortunately Richard Coomber could not start due to speed controller woes, making it a 3-car final. In Leg 1 Howard Harrison led from lap 1 and lapped consistently to take the win, just over a lap ahead of Gary Smith, with Mark Palmer a further lap back. Howard produced a repeat performance in Leg 2 to wrap up the overall win, with Mark taking second this time by 10 seconds from Gary.

Overall results for this final:-
1 Howard Harrison
2 Mark Palmer
3 Gary Smith
4 Richard Coomber

Well done to Howard for the win.

19 Turn ‘A’ Final

19 turn A finalist line up for their 2nd leg.  Steve '77' Dye looks pleased with his A final place

The top final for the faster cars was next up. Grid was as follows:-

Leg 1 – 9 cars came to the grid, with 2nd place man Shane unable to make the start. With this bit of breathing space Dominic led the first lap by just under 2 seconds from Nick, followed by Stew, with a hard-charging Phil having hauled his Tamiya up from 9th to 4th in the opening lap. David followed Phil up the order, then came Bob and Ben, with Steve and Adi moving to the back. Dom took a couple of laps to truly get into a rhythm and then lapped like clockwork to stay in the lead – mind you he needed to as the rest of the field weren’t about to make any mistakes. This was a good final to marshal as you were hardly called upon at all! As a result movement up and down the field was limited – no-one told Phil though, who got by Nick into second on lap 15. Ben managed to get by Bob and Stew into 4th, whilst David was passed by a couple of cars after his good start. Phil had his Tamiya on rails and was closing on the poleman, but just couldn’t do it before 5 minutes were up, Dom taking the win in 17/311.60, 0.67s ahead of Phil. Nick followed 3.5s further back and the last of the 17-lap drivers. Ben would have had 17 but failed to complete his last tour, but it didn’t matter as he was still ahead of Stew, who missed out on 17 by less that a quarter of a second. Bob finished just behind Stew after being overtaken on lap 15, then next came David, with Steve completing the finishers, Adi pulled out with 35 seconds left (due to a battery lead off) and Shane’s unfortunate DNS left him 10th.

Winter Series regulars Nick Bruty and Adi Wright had mixed fortunes in the A final.

Leg 2 – 9 cars started again this time (the missing car was, unfortunately, first leg charger Phil), and a proper, yet clean and quick, scrap through the first lap meant Shane led from Dom by 0.01 of a second! Stew followed them, then Nick, Adi, Steve, Bob, David and Ben very close together – another train of cars in the by now dry conditions. Dom then had an off on lap 2 which let Shane off into the lead and meant that the train got by him, and he had to start coming up through the order –sadly, having to charge put him off again 2 laps later, but he continued to play catch-up. Nick only lasted 4 laps before having to pull out of the race as his car decided to have a mind of it's own and went haywire.  Although Steve is clearly getting to grips with 19t he began slipping back though the order as the more experienced racers snuck by him. Dominic was back on track in both senses of the phrase and lapping constantly in the 17 second bracket. Phil got onto the circuit as the others were on about lap 8, using it as a test race, and considerately kept out of the way of the battles. Shane kept hold of the lead despite the odd wobble, but Bob, who is really enjoying driving the Yokomo chassis, was hauling the TC4 in, having got to the front of the tight chasing group. The top two then pulled away into their own battle, and that’s how it finished with Shane taking the win 1.55s ahead of Bob. Ben finished 3rd on 16 laps about 7 seconds behind the Yok, just ahead of Stew, who in turn finished 3 seconds up on a fast-recovering Dom. Adi, Steve and David completed the finishers, with Phil’s late run putting him 9th, ahead of the unlucky Nick.

Overall positions for this final:-
1 Dominic Carter
2 Ben Emery
3 Bob Burr
4 Stewart Noble
5 Shane Dye
6 Phil Chambers
7 Nick Bruty
8 Adi Wright
9 David Bailey
10 Steve Dye


Under the shell of Dominic Carter's 19t winning HPI Pro 4

Well done to Dom on converting pole into a win, despite his 2nd leg 5th, and also to Ben and Bob, the latter driving a car which still has a lot of development potential in it.

Championship Standings

With 3 rounds gone, a clearer picture of the overall series standings can be seen if we take the two best scores from each driver.

Stock Touring

1 James Parker 395 Points
2 Jason Petch 394
3 Craig Daffron 390
4 Michael Polson 385
5 David Petch 385
6 Adam Barker 384
7 Dean Coupland 379
8 Robert Cunliffe 378
9 Mark Handford Jnr 377
10 Nigel Shaw 375

The tightness of this class is evident with 5 drivers within 10 points of the lead – with 200 points up for grabs at each of the 2 remaining meetings, we could be reaching for the tiebreak rules again…

19 Turn

1 Dominic Carter 400
2 Stewart Noble 392
3 Shane Dye 392
4 Ben Emery 388
5 Nick Bruty 386
6 Adi Wright 382
= 7 Phil Chambers 381
= 7 Bob Burr 381
9 David Bailey 376
10 Gary Smith 371

Despite missing a round, Dom can drop that score to leave him with a perfect result. A little more spread out than Stock perhaps, but a lot can still happen between now and the end of the series. The next round, however, is on the 20th of February – if the racing’s this good, it’ll definitely be one not to miss.

Race report by James Parker
Pics by Adi Wright & Andy Gordon