A big crowd was on hand to witness the second World Semi Final race which would feature at tonight’s meeting. The terraces were packed hoping for another great semi final race on the fast Birmingham Wheels tarmac.
The Fairhurst team arrived at the track with the 295 Wes Goodwin car towed on a trailer behind the Fairhurst team bus.
Things got off to a bad start for the team when Lee took the 217 car out for practice before the start of the meeting. After only five laps, the gear box blew. The team examined the remains when the car was brought back to the pits, but it was not salvageable. The gear box was an old unit taken from a Jayne Bean car so it had seen some miles in its time.
A new Elite gear box was purchased from 21 Mark Gilbank who supplies them and who was thankfully at the track. The team set to work fitting the new unit to the car. As a result Lee missed his heat race as it was a time consuming job.
28 cars lined up for the race, with the 217 car in 22nd starting spot. Lee lined up at the front of the reds but struggled a bit at the beginning because he had not been able to set the brakes up to his liking in the few laps of practice that he got.
Lee worked his way up through the field of cars in front of him and was up to 16th place by the end of lap 1 and up to 8th place by the end of lap 2. By lap 4 the 217 car was running in 7th place and improved again on lap 6 and was running in 5th place.
Lee got up to 3rd place on lap 9 and then up to 2nd place on lap 11 which he held for 5 laps.
The race was being led by white top 429 Gareth Wildman who started on pole, but Lee ran him down and passed Wildman for the led on the final lap. Gareth tried to line Lee up for a last bender but Lee outsmarted him and slowed down on the back straight so that the 429 car had to pull along side him on the outside so that he couldn’t line up a last bend bumper attack. Lee claimed the win 0.364 seconds ahead of Gareth Wildman.
Result – 217, 429, 55, 393, 322, 302 (top six to qualify), 11, 434, 12, 464
Lee lined up in 20th place on the front row of the reds in a 29 car field. Then he noticed that he had a flat tyre and went to the pit gate and was allowed to change the wheel.
Early in the race 391 Andy Smith and 185 Lenny Smith tangled in turn 3 and Lee tried to go up the inside of them but he clipped Lenny Smith’s nerf rail which sent the 217 car towards the inside banking. After a major moment over the kerb and up the banking, Lee regained control and got going again. The incident dropped him to 27th at the end of lap 1.
By lap 4 he was back up to 20th place again. By lap 10 Lee had moved up to 10th place which he held for 4 laps, he then improved another place to 9th which he held from laps 14 – 18. On lap 19 he moved into 6th place which he maintained to the flag.
Lee was pleased with the result bearing in mind the way that the race had started for him.
Result – 390, 515, 321, 2, 16, 217, 447, 459, 259, 391
The 217 car lined up on the third row of the reds in 23rd place alongside 212 Danny Wainman.
55 Craig Finnikin wasted no time in moving from 19th place to claim the lead on lap 3 which he held to the flag. Likewise 390 Stuart Smith also moved into 2nd place from 28th on the grid, also on lap 3.
Lee tucked in behind the superstars and basically had a straight forward race. He suffered some understeer but managed to dial it out by adjusting the brake bias during the race.
He was up to 9th on lap 2 and moved into 5th place on lap 4 which he held until the flag. Only 10 cars out of the 29 starters finished the race.
Lee enjoyed a good battle with 434 Ivan Pritchard during the race which lasted for 14 laps.
Result – 55, 390, 515, 2, 217, 434, 212, 60, 105, 153
The Team worked hard to prepare the car for the semi final meeting and convert it to shale spec. All the nerf rail panels were removed, and new shields made and fitted to deflect the shale from the radiators and lower chassis. The car had new bumpers fitted front and back and new nerf rails to replace the ones damaged at NIR. Tim Farrell delivered the shale wing and what an excellent job he has done sign writing it in red and yellow checkers with a nice sparkly coat of glitter lacquer over the top. The 217 car was certainly getting a lot of attention at its first appearance as European Champion.
The Team also took delivery of their brand new 217 Lee Fairhurst European Champion polo shirts, which have the red and yellow checker aerofoil tarmac car embroidered on the back. These look great and have been developed for the team by Sew Wot & will soon be available to order from their website at www.sew-wot.com
The BBC were on hand again to film at this meeting and spent much of the build up filming around the 217 team and interviewing various people including Derek about what his hopes were for the race and Lee.
Lee came out on track for the parade lap with Derek driving the car, and then lined up on his inside Row 3 grid spot.
On the start Andy Smith got off to an early lead and Lee set about making it around the first bend intact. That however was out of his hands as young Danny Wainman starting from behind Lee on row 4 had a rush of blood to the head and dived up the inside of Lee on the corner. He was carrying way too much speed and hooked up with the side of the 217 car taking both of them out to the wall. Danny has yet to learn that you can’t win a race on the first corner but you can certainly loose it. The 217 car lost at least a lap sat against the fence while Lee got the car restarted and back in gear. 212 Danny Wainman retired to the centre green with damage but Lee continued about 1 lap down.
Unfortunately the contact made with the 212 car in the first turn knocked the front axle forward in the impact which meant that the car simply wouldn’t turn into the corners as the geometry was knocked askew and it kept under steering when it arrived at the bends which made it virtually impossible for Lee to drive. Lee fought with the car for several laps and then spun entering turn 3 and got on the loose stuff sliding out backwards towards the wall and just missed 195 Dean Whitwell who was parked up in the fence. Lee was then narrowly missed by 337 Dave Willis who also joined them in the fence.
Lee got going again but the car was still handling badly and he kept running wide onto the loose wet shale near the fence
Several yellow flags were thrown during the race as the battle for the top 10 places heated up.
Late in the race, still fighting with the car, Lee clipped the stationary car of 335 Mark Woodhull, and knocked the rear edge of the right hand side nerf rail in and up against the right rear tyre. The tyre started to rub and started smoking badly and a lap later the 217 car retired to the centre with a destroyed rear Hoosier that had been brand new at the start of the race.
Sadly the 217 car didn’t qualify for the World Final at Kings Lynn but Lee tried his best and it may have been a different story without the first bend contact with Danny Wainman.
The race was won by 391 Andy Smith with 259 Paul Hines in runner up spot. Finishing in third place in his first race of the year was 33 Peter Falding driving a car borrowed from 4 Dan Johnson.
The result is still provisional due to technical issues but the top three are 391, 259, 33.
The damage was quite extensive to the 217 car and the nerf rail was not repairable at the track and will need replacing once more at the garage this week. This meant that a full width rear tyre could not be fitted on the car so the team had no option other than fit a narrow rally type tyre instead that didn’t rub on the nerf rail. The front axle damage was repaired and the 217 car made it out for the Consolation.
Lee didn’t want to spoil anyone’s race as his car was not ideally suited to the shale track and still suffering with ill handling from the earlier damage, so he lined up at the very rear of the grid and ran around at the back to gain some more experience on the loose shale surface. He finished the race but out of the qualifying positions.
Lee again adopted the same policy and started at the very rear. As the race progressed, he made some steady progress and started to get the hang of driving the car on shale and caught and passed 467 Tim Farrell. Lee again finished out of the top 10 though.
The Fairhurst Team arrived nice and early so that they could get a good place in the top pits area, once there they unloaded the car and got it ready for practice before the meeting started.
The 217 lined up in 18th place on the grid of 31 cars. Tonight would see a different format being used with 14 cars to qualify from each heat and 4 from the consolation event.
Lee got off to a steady start and immediately started to pick the cars off in front of him one by one. By lap 5 he had moved into 15th place which he held for 3 laps before moving into 14th place on lap 8 slotting in between 4 Dan Johnson and H007 Dave Schaap for several laps.
On lap 12, Lee moved into 13th place which he held until lap 14. With two laps left to run, Lee attempted to take the 12th place spot away from 65 Ian Stirk but both cars tangled as they tried to occupy the same part of track exiting turn 2.
The 217 made hard contact with the 65 car and Lee ended up spinning out and parked with the cars nose facing the wall. The car sustained panel damage to the lower nerf rail panel which was destroyed in the incident and left hanging from the bottom of the car. This was basically cosmetic, but the real damage was done to the back axle which had broken the weld in several places.
Up front 197 Ryan Harrison took the lead on lap 1 from 4th on the grid and never looked back and led from start to finish, to win the heat. 153 James Lund finished second with 16 Matt Newson in third.
Result – 197, 153, 16, 11, 84, 259, 21, 391, 2, 4, H007, 249, 53, 37
The damage left the Team with a big task on their hands to repair the car. The axle had to be removed from the car, the weld ground away and then re welded. This meant that there was no chance of making it out for the consolation and they aimed for the Grand National instead.
33 cars lined up for the grand national, with Lee starting in 19th place. The start was fast and furious and Lee got caught out on the first lap which dropped him to the back of the pack, but after a few laps he started to pick off a few cars and move forward.
By lap 10 the 217 car was up to 23rd place but Lee got pushed wide in turn 3 and collected a parked car with the right front corner. The impact broke the front corner of the bumper and the force carried on back through the cow catcher into the nerf rails on the right hand side. The nerf rail kinked inwards and also broke away at the main chassis rail.
Lee got going again only for the car to grind to a halt up against the fence in turn 2 engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Alan ran over to the fence and returned with the verdict that it smelt like diff oil smoke.
Indeed the rear differential had destroyed itself and the team once again faced an even bigger task to repair the car for the European Championship race on Sunday afternoon.
Result – 16, 390, 21, 107, 259, 391, 212, 2, 53, 459
The Team set to work to repair the car and the first job was to remove the axle again as it would be easier to repair the differential with it out of the car. The mechanics stripped down the diff and it was a real mess inside so they had to totally strip the casing down to the shell and rebuild the compete diff. The team sourced the necessary parts from the bus and set to work rebuilding. Alan was not happy with some of the parts used but they were all that they had available so they would have to do in the circumstances.
The rebuild was completed at around 1 am and then the lads set to work refitting the axle into the car again. Work was completed at 1.30 am, the car was loaded into the bus and the team sat down for a well earned beer before retiring to the hotel and caravans for the night.
There was no rest for the wicked as the team still had to make repairs to the damaged chassis, so it was another early start for the Team. The repairs would have to be temporary as it simply wasn’t possible to rebuild the nerf rails back to original condition in the time available. That is a job for the workshop this week.
The chassis was re welded and made race ready in time for Lee to make it out in time to grid for the European Championship race.
The heavens opened up during the Rebels European race which took place before the F1 European. The track was flooded with large amounts of standing water on both bends and big puddles on the straights. This would certainly level the playing field and would certainly benefit Lee against the cars with more horse power as the wet track limits the use of the throttle pedal.
32 cars were on the grid for the big race, made up of the top 20 in points, 6 qualifiers from Saturday night and 6 overseas drivers. The grid was as follows.
249 Jonathon Gibson |
498 Spencer Taylor |
60 Ian Venables |
327 Antony Davis |
197 Ryan Harrison |
H57 Theo Van Lier |
H482 Peter Van Den Bosch |
73 Rob Cowley |
H007 Dave Schaap |
153 James Lund |
462 Scott Davids |
H6 Geert Jan Keijzer |
217 Lee Fairhurst |
212 Daniel Wainman |
84 Tom Harris |
257 Timmy Aldridge |
459 Lee Dimmick |
8 Mick Harris |
259 Paul Hines |
107 Lee Robinson |
37 Chris Cowley |
H22 Lou Wobbes |
390 Stuart Smith Jnr |
12 Michael Scriven |
H247 Gary Castell |
21 Mark Gilbank |
2 Paul Harrison |
16 Matt Newson |
391 Andrew Smith |
53 John Lund |
4 Daniel Johnson |
515 Frankie Wainman Jnr |
Lee had opted for a complete wet set up, so wets were fitted all round, the dampers were softened and a few set up changes made.
As the field roared off turn 4 to take the green flag, several cars behind Lee got hampered by the huge puddle on the corner. This allowed Lee to get a good start and gave him some breathing room behind him as he entered turn 1. He wasted no time and immediately started to pick off the cars in front one by one as all the lower grade drivers in front of Lee seemed to be struggling with the wet conditions.
It was apparent after only a few laps that the set up was perfect and Lee had the car to beat. Indeed only the top 4 cars in the final results managed to post a sub 17 second lap time in the race. The 217 car set the fastest lap of the race with a 16.721 second lap which was set on lap 16.
249 Jonathon Gibson led from the start with 498 Spencer Taylor in second. On lap 6, Lee passed Taylor and by lap 8 the 217 car had moved into the lead. On lap 14 the yellow flags flew to remove the damaged car of 459 Lee Dimmick from the racing line.
The restart order was 217 then 3 lapped cars, 249, 498, 390, 212, 259, 84, 4. Lee admitted afterwards that he thought his chance had gone when the yellows came out, but was grateful that there was 3 lapped cars between himself and second place. He expected that 390 Stuart Smith would be able to run him down as the laps counted down.
Lee got a good restart and built up a lead equal to the length of the straight as Smith moved into second place. However Stuart couldn’t catch the 217 car and Lee maintained the gap as the lap boards counted down.
Lee took the chequered flag to claim his first major title “2009 European Champion”. 390 Stuart Smith Jnr came home in second and 21 Mark Gilbank finished third.
Result – 217, 390, 21, 259, 2, 4, 53, 84, H22, 37
The entire Fairhurst Team were jubilant at Lee’s win to claim the European title. Suzzanne was nearly having fits near the end of the race by all accounts.
Speaking after the win Lee said,
“I am over the moon, I didn’t expect to win the title today, and I don’t think anyone else expected it either. I had a few nervous moments in the race as the track was soaking wet with big puddles in the corners and it was so easy to get caught out.
A couple of months ago I came into the sport as a novice and now I am the European Champion, so I am chuffed to bits.
We had had so much trouble on Saturday night and picked up so much damage, but the lads did an amazing job to get the car repaired and back on track for Sunday. The rear axle was out of the car twice on Saturday night and the mechanics only finished rebuilding the differential and refitting the axle at 1.30 am on Sunday morning. I also picked up lots of chassis and nerf rail damage so that also had to be repaired prior to the big race.
So a big thank you to my dedicated team of mechanics because without them and all their efforts, then I wouldn’t have won the European title.
Winning the title hasn’t quite sunk in yet, I still think I am a novice. But I am sure it will start to feel real enough when I line up in the semi at Coventry with the red and yellow checkers on the new shale wing. Sorry to Tim Farrell who is sign writing the wing this week for making his job a bit harder !”
The 217 car will now adorn a red and yellow chequered aerofoil for the next 12 months, which denotes his European Champion status.
31 cars lined up for heat 2 with Lee starting from 21st place on the grid. There was a pile up coming out of turn 2 on the first lap and Lee went to the inside. However 84 Tom Harris also had the same idea and the two cars tangled and the 84 car ended up perched between the banking and on top of the 217 cars bonnet. Lee managed to free himself from under the 84 car and pulled onto the centre green to assess the damage. The damage proved to be cosmetic with damage to the bonnet scoop and panel and the side panel on the Go Goodwins side got flattened by Tom Harris’s rear tyre. After a lap or so had passed Lee rejoined the race but was 2 laps down so just circulated at the rear of the field. Lee still managed to set the third fastest lap of the race whilst running at the back on lap 6 with a 15.105 second lap time.
Result – 391, 249, 515, 73, H007, 390, 498, 53, H399, 37
Once back in the pits, the team found that the rear axle was leaking oil again and new oil seals would need to be fitted. As a result, the 217 car would miss the Consolation event but would be ready for the Grand National.
With the oil seals now replaced, the 217 car lined up on the grid for the Grand National in 20th place on the grid of 25 cars.
Lee got off to a good start once again and had moved to 14th place by lap 2, 10th place by lap 6 and up to 7th place by lap 8. Things were looking good for a great result in the last race of the day but then the 217 car suddenly started to drop back down the order just as fast as it had moved up through the field. A rear inside flat tyre was the cause and Lee pulled onto the centre to retire on lap 14. Once again Lee had the third fastest lap of the race with a 16.802 second lap which he set on lap 6.
Result - 515, 259, 464, 434, 37, H247, H399, 16, 390, 53
After the race, it was all hands on deck with the Fairhurst Team, (even I got my hands dirty) to give the car a quick spit and polish and get it cleaned up for a photo shoot on the start finish line. The Team, Mechanics and Sponsors posed for a series of photos with the European Trophy to celebrate the European Championship win.
The Fairhurst Team have no time to savour the victory though, as they now have to prepare the car for the World Championship semi final race at Coventry stadium on Saturday 1st August. Lee has earned a 3rd row starting spot after performing well in the qualifying rounds and hopes that his good form continues and allows him to qualify for the World Final at Kings Lynn in September.
Derek is fitting new bumpers front and rear and replacing the damaged nerf rails this week so that the car is back in good shape for the semi final at Coventry. The car is having the side panels removed as well to lose weight ready for Coventry and also to make the removal of shale build up easier.
Lee’s victory was captured by the BBC who were in attendance filming for a documentary style series on BriSCA stock cars, which is to be broadcast later this year.
Lee would be making his tarmac debut from red grade at the track where he made his F1 debut in early May. Then he won 3 heats a final and placed second in the UK Open but his task would be much greater this weekend starting from the back.
21 cars lined up for heat 1 with Lee starting in 18th place on the grid behind 305 Carlos Perez. By lap three, Lee had passed Perez and started to move forward through the field. By lap 5 and 6 the 217 car had passed 8 Mick Harris and behind 288 Simon Panton. Another lap later Lee was up to 10th place ahead of 288 and running behind 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr. 195 Dean Whitwell took the lead of the race on lap 8. Lee was up to 8th place by lap 10 with 195 leading from 498 Spencer Taylor. In the closing laps 515 Wainman Jnr moved up into 2nd place and lee moved through the field to 6th place where he stayed for 4 laps. But on the final lap he moved up another position when he passed 498 Spencer Taylor to finish the race in 5th place. 195 Dean Whitwell took the win with 515 Wainman Jnr in second after surviving a last bend attempt from 259 Paul Hines who finished third.
Result – 195 - 515 – 259 – 464 – 217 – 498 – 4 – 8 – 305 – 447
29 cars lined up for the meeting Final with Lee starting in 21st place. On lap 1 Lee lost 3 places to 2 Paul Harrison, 4 Dan Johnson and 305 Carlos Perez. Laps 2 – 5 the 217 car was running second from last in front of 12 Scriven, but then Lee started to improve his position and moved into 16th place by lap 10, where he stayed for several laps. The 217 car managed to climb into 14 place by the final lap finishing ahead of 4 Dan Johnson. The race was won by 327 Antony Davis with 60 Ian Venables in second and 212 Danny Wainman in third in his new tarmac car.
Result - 327-60-212-41-2-259-16-515-8-447
29 cars came out for the national and Lee started from the 28th starting spot. By lap 5 Lee was up to 23rd place and another lap later he was up to 20th place. By lap 10, the 217 car was up to 14th place and making steady progress through the field. Lee continued to work his way towards the front and got the car into 8th place at the finish., passing 515 Wainman Jnr on the last bend .
19 Cars lined up for heat 1 with the 217 car starting 14th on the grid. Lee moved up a place on lap two and gained another 3 places the following lap which took him into 10th place. He moved into 9th place on lap 4 but dropped back again on lap 6. Then the 217 car had a problem which dropped Lee out of the race on lap 7.
At the front 393 Dave Plumbley lead the first two laps before being overhauled by 103 Richard Masterson who never looked back and took the race win with 302 Jim Bamforth in second and 41 Robert Broome in third.
Result - 103 - 302 - 41- 393 - 515 - 4 - 11 - 90 - 8 - 259
16 cars started the consolation event with Lee starting in 15th place. 209 Nick read lead the race for 9 laps before being overtaken by 498 Spencer Taylor. Starting from 13th place 305 Carlos Perez worked his way through the field and was running in second place by lap 12. He passed Taylor on the final lap to take the win, however he failed the post race weigh in and was disqualified from the results.
Lee also made steady progress and improved his position by two places on each of the first two laps. Laps 3 to 6 saw the 217 car improve another position on each lap putting Lee into 8th place on lap 6, a position that he maintained until lap 11. Then on lap 12 Lee moved into 7th place which he held for 4 laps before finally moving into 6th place on the final lap. Perez's disqualification moved Lee up a place into 5th in the results.
Result- 498 -209 - 73 - 172 - 217 - 447 - 257 - 91 - 13 - 246
30 cars gridded for the meeting final with the 217 car starting from the 19th starting spot. By the end of lap 1 Lee had raced into 14th position but then lost a place to 84 tom Harris on the second lap. Lee moved back up to 13th place on lap 4 and then again leaped up to 8th place on lap 5 after an accident including 246, 393 and 327. The 217 car stayed in either 8th or 9th place in the running order for the most part of the race but moved up into 7th place in the final 3 laps.
The race was won by 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr with 41 Robert Broome in second and 84 Tom Harris in third.
Result - 515 - 41 - 84 - 103 - 2 - 172 - 217 - 302 - 90 - 212
23 cars came out for the last race of the day. Lee started from 20th on the grid and spent the first 3 laps bouncing around between 19th and 21st place. On lap 4 Lee started to improve his position and had moved into 13th by lap 8.
As the race settled down, Lee raced against 212 Danny Wainman for the remaining laps and brought the car home in 12th place behind 212 Danny Wainman in 11th.
At the front 103 Richard Masterson took a leaf out of Lee’s May Skegness form book and led the race from start to finish. Second was 498 Spencer Taylor and third place went to 73 Rob Cowley.
Result – 103 – 498 – 73 – 259 – 60 – 90 – 3 – 41 – 16 - 172
The Harrington / Rigby Trophy is staged annually and is open to drivers who are currently or have held blue grade during the past 12 months. 15 cars made up the grid with 4 yellow tops, 9 blue tops and 2 red tops at the rear in the form of Mick and Tom Harris.
Lee lined up on the front row of the blues along side 467 Timmy Farrell in the ex 218 / 278 car. Timmy was struggling to find the right set up for the car on tarmac and quickly dropped back through the field in the early laps. Lee on the other hand had a good start and started to move through the yellow top drivers. 257 Timmy Aldridge got off into an early lead, building up a ¼ lap advantage over 447 Dave Hopkins and 195 Dean Whitwell in 3rd.
The 217 car had a mid race battle with 97 Murray Harrison but once clear, the 97 car dropped off the pace a little and dropped back down the order. Lee had made it up to 4th place and the first blue top in the running order and in the closing laps he caught 195 Dean Whitwell and with a slight nudge in turn 2, Lee passed the 195 car for third place. However Dean didn’t want to give up the podium finish and returned the favour in turn 3 and punted the 217 car wide and out towards the Armco. Lee lost control of the 217 car and spun ended his race with the nose of the car pointing towards the fence in turn 4. The third place finish was gone and the 217 car dropped out of the results and didn’t finish the race.
Result – 257, 447, 195, 347, 105, 8, 84, 97, 12, 153
The main meeting would be running 2/3rd format and the 217 car would be in heats 2 and 3.
Lee lined up on the front row of the blue tops with 4 whites and 6 yellows in front of him on the 26 car grid.
214 Adam Slater got off to an early lead, followed by 257 Timmy Aldridge and 347 Steve Hopkins. Lee got off to a good start and started to move through the yellow tops. In front Aldridge took over the lead with Hopkins still close behind. Late in the race Aldridge ran wide and Hopkins and Lee went through into 1st and 2nd place.
With a few more laps, Lee could have caught Hopkins, but he had to settle for 2nd place behind the 347 car.
Result – 347, 217, 195, 447, 257, 4, 515, 84, 55, 214
27 cars lined up for heat 3, made up of 3 whites, 7 yellows, 8 blues and 9 reds. The 217 car was lined up on the inside of row 3 of the blue tops.
On the start the train of blues started pushing and Lee got pushed wide on the bend and he found himself on the outside racing line. The train of cars came past him and Lee couldn’t find a way back onto the inside racing line and he found himself quickly at the rear of the field as the train of red tops passed him in quick order. Once able to get back on his preferred line he started picking off a few cars and moved forward but a finish outside of the top 10 and the points was the result.
This meeting saw the return of 197 Ryan Harrison after his long suspension from racing and he wasted no time in regaining his form and led the race from the early laps to claim the win.
Result – 197, 257, 391, 12, 390, 259, 172, 2, 467, 107
27 cars lined up for the final & Lee was one of the 7 blues on the grid. The red flag was shown soon after the green when 105 Chris Bonner and 447 Dave Hopkins were involved in a spectacular incident on the home straight. The 447 car spun the 105 car and the 447 car ended parked up on top of the 105 car and up against the fence and a complete restart was called for.
Lee had some good battles on track including several laps racing 390 Stuart Smith, but then mechanical trouble struck. The 217 car was forced to retire when the arms attaching the front axle were pulled from their mounting points.
391 Andy Smith went on to win the final with 197 Ryan Harrison coming 2nd and 16 Matt Newson in 3rd place.
Result – 391, 197, 16, 84, 2, 4, 12, 515, 55, 390
The entire Fairhurst team mucked in and worked very hard to get the front axle repaired for the Grand National. Mickey ran to the pit gate to inform them that Lee was on his way and they stopped the rolling lap to open the gate and let the 217 car onto the track. Derek then gave the bolts a quick tighten and Lee joined the grid at the rear of the blues.
Lee struggled to find proper pace as the car didn’t have a correct set up due to the hasty repair and the 217 car finished outside the points placing.
There was a three way fight for the win on the last bend with 197 hitting 16 wide, which allowed 12 Michael Scriven to nip through to take the win.
Result – 12, 197, 16, 390, 107, 515, 4, 2, 55, 467
The meeting at Birmingham Wheels would be Lee’s last meeting at white top as he is to be graded as a blue top from the start of June. Lee wanted to make the most of the opportunity so he decided to play his Joker at this meeting to double his points score.
This meeting also brought another surprise as Lee was selected by the BBC to be one of the main focus’s of the evening with the BBC film crew who were in attendance to film for the ongoing documentary being made about the sport. In the past the focus has been on the Smith’s, Wainman’s and Cowley’s but tonight the film crew would be filming both Lee and the Fairhurst team and also Georgia Neachell who was making her debut.
The 217 car was fitted out with no less than 5 onboard cameras prior to the meeting. One facing backwards at the track, one in the cab facing forwards, another in the cab pointing at Lee and two more on the bonnet and nerf rail.
The roaming BBC crew would also be filming the Fairhurst team around the transporter and following them onto the terraces during the meeting, so Lee and the team really were the centre of attention for the evening.
Derek has reported that the BBC were really happy with the footage that they got and that Lee was a pleasure to work with and he handled himself with a level head in front of the cameras.
Suzzanne was also making the best of it and was lapping up all the attention and enjoying her time in the lime light.
During practice Lee noticed that the car was suffering from overheating so the team worked hard in the pits to rectify the situation. The Batwing was removed from the front as a precaution to enable a cleaner flow of air to the radiator with the hope that it would fix the problem.
Tonight would be the usual 2 heats, and consolation format as there was a big turn out of cars and Lee was allocated heat 2.
The 217 car lined up on the outside of the front row and Lee wasted no time in passing Chris Brocksop 325 going into turn 1.
The 217 car was never challenged in the race and Lee cruised to an easy victory.
The rear of the car had developed a smoky oil leak in the closing stages of the race however and the team had work to do in the pits before the final. The cause was traced to the oil tank being overfilled so some excess oil was removed from the tank which solved the problem.
Lee was greeted by the BBC cameras as he extracted himself from the car and received his trophy.
Result – 217 – 321 – 2 – 390 – 231 – 73 – 4 – 459 – 462 – 259
Lee had raced on shale type tyres in his heat but opted to try a full tarmac tyre set up for the final. This proved to be a big mistake and a lesion learned.
From the go, it was noticeable that the 217 car didn’t have the pace that it had shown in the heat and that the rest of the field were catching the 217 quickly. The choice of tyres was wrong and it slowed the car down as it simply couldn’t find the needed grip coming out of the corners.
Lee was soon passed by the yellow tops and the chasing blue and red top drivers which meant that Lee found himself in unknown territory and he quickly had to adapt to racing hard and using the bumper.
Unfortunately the car suffered another problem and it jumped out of gear when he used his front bumper on another car. With a momentary lack of drive Lee was overtaken by about 6 cars at one go on the back straight which dropped the 217 car to around 12th or 13th place and out of the points.
It was a disappointing result for Lee and his worst finish yet but as they say. You learn the hard way and learn from your mistakes.
Having found out the hard way in the final, Lee changed the set up back to what they had run in the heat and went back to a shale type tyre.
Straight away the car was back on the pace again and Lee led the early stages of the race. Lee was enjoying a comfortable lead until about 1/3rd distance when a pile up of cars on the exit of turn 2 caught Lee out. Lee opted to go to the outside of the pile up but got squeezed up against the Armco and lost all his momentum as a result. David Squires 311 who was running in second place and 447 Dave Hopkins had more warning of the chaos ahead and were able to take a better line through the mealy and took over the lead. The 217 car freed itself from the pile up and resumed in 3rd place just as the yellow flag dropped to bring the cars under caution for the pile up.
Lee found himself with Lee Robinson 107 sat on his back bumper on the restart with a train of superstar drivers behind him, including, Tom Harris 84, Ed Neachell 321, Paul Harrison 2, and Craig Finnikin 55.
For the remainder of the race, Lee fought a hard battle with the red tops to maintain his position but once again the car jumped out of gear and Lee lost a couple of places this time. Robinson went on to win the race after Wainman 515 was excluded for weight infringements.
Lee found himself in a big battle with Paul Harrison and Ed Neachell over the closing laps and Lee gave as good as he got and got stuck in with the front bumper. At one point he hammered Ed into the back of Paul and pushed them both wide and retook two places back from them.
Ed finally got the better of Paul and Lee and Finnikin also slipped past the 217 car when it jumped out of gear.
Lee brought the 217 car home in 6th place ahead of Tom Harris. But the GN had given everyone in attendance a taste of how Lee will handle himself against the star drivers when he moves up to blue grade this month. The general opinion is that he should still do ok and isn’t afraid to mix it with the big boys and use his front bumper to good effect.
Result – 107 - 311- 321 – 2 – 55 – 217 – 84 – 257 – 105 – 462
The format would once again be a 2/3rds format which meant Lee would race in Heats 2 & 3. The weather was changeable& was raining early on, but had dried up for both of Lee’s heat races.
18 cars were on track for heat 2 & Lee set off into the lead with Ian Venables 60 in pursuit. By half distance the 217 car had built up a ½ lap lead over Venables, Lee Robinson 107 and Tom Harris 84. During the final laps, Robinson moved Venables out of the way and Harris followed suit.
Lee won the race and was never challenged & won the race by almost ½ a lap.
Result - 217 – 107 – 84 – 515 – 434 – 390 – 321 – 21 – 462 – 212.
With the bad weather moving ever closer to the track, 22 cars lined up for heat 3. Richard Masterson 103 opened up an early lead, but Lee soon moved him aside and started building a lead over David Squire 311 who had moved into second place. The star grade drivers caught and overhauled the 311 car late in the race, but nobody could catch the 217 car.
Lee had won his second heat of the day and had extended his winning streak to 6 straight race victories.
Result - 217 – 12 – 16 – 434 – 53 – 21 – 391 – 311 – 2 – 84.
Unfortunately the rain had started to fall heavily and the track was waterlogged.
24 cars lined up which included 3 white tops. Lee was at the rear of the whites, but wasted no time in moving them out of his way. Lee Robinson who had fitted new Hoosiers all round, quickly moved his way through the field & set about catching the 217 car. Lee was not used to racing an F1 in such bad conditions and was struggling a little bit with the power available and the lack of traction on the rain soaked track. Robinson passed Lee before half distance and nobody could catch him as his speed was in a league of his own.
Lee held off a late challenge from Paul Harrison 2, and took 2nd place at the finish.
Result -107 – 217 – 2 – 515 – 212 – 21 – 16 – 4 – 464 – 434.
The rain continued to fall in the GN & visibility was poor with a fog like mist covering the track as well as it being very cold.
Lee took an early lead but was soon passed by Scott Davids 462. By half distance, Frankie Wainman 515 had caught and passed both the 462 and 217 cars. Paul Harrison 2, then passed both and set off in pursuit of the 515 car.
The race developed into two separate battles between 515 & 2 and between 462 & 217.
Harrison had a last bend lunge at Wainman, but Frankie held on to win the race. Lee tried to out drag Davids to the line but the 462 car just managed to beat the 217 car by about a foot & took 3rd place. Lee came home in 4th place.
Result - 515 – 2 – 462 – 217 – 4 – 53 – 107 – 212 – 12 – 103
In 4 days of racing, Lee had competed in 14 races, in which he has scored 10 race wins, two 2nd place finishes in finals, a 4th place and a DNF. His tally stood at 7 Heat wins, 2 Final wins, 1 Grand National win & 2nd in the UK Open Championship Final behind winner 515 Frankie Wainman Jnr.
The Fairhurst team would be attending both meetings this weekend starting at Northampton Raceway on Saturday night and continuing on Sunday afternoon at Buxton Raceway.
Lee has raced at NIR on many occasions in the Formula 2 and goes well around the track but this would be his debut on the track in the Formula 1. The meeting format would be 2/3rds so Lee would be racing in Heats 1 & 2.
24 cars lined up for heat 1, and Lee got off to a bad start when he missed a gear which allowed a pack of cars to go past him. Lee would have his work cut out to get back to the front. The early stages were led by Nick Read 209, from Chris Stafford 157 and Gary Townsend 223. However with 4 laps to run, the 217 car caught and passed Nick Read to regain the lead. Lee Robinson had made a charge through the field to claim second spot and made a last bend attack on the 217 car but the hit was not enough to move Lee out of 1st place and the 217 car came home across the line to win the heat.
Result - 217 – 107 – 209 – 223 – 347 – 321 – 391 – 390 – 21 – 84
21 cars lined up for heat 2 and Lee got away and into an early lead but the yellows came out for a pile up near the pit gate. On the restart, Lee got off to a flyer and was being chased by Ian Venables 60, Dave Hopkins 447 and David Squire 311. Venables was held up by the lapped Lee Davidson 494 car which allowed Lee to build up a ¼ lap lead which he held until the flag.
2 heats and two wins for Lee.
Result - 217 – 60 – 447 – 16 – 311 – 172 – 8 – 21 – 73 – 390
23 cars came out for the final and the 217 car was lined up at the front of the grid. Lee got off to a good start was away and running at the front with Gary Townsend 223 in second place. A yellow flag period still couldn’t hamper Lee’s race and he had built up a ¼ lap lead over second placed Ed Neachell 321, by half distance. World Champion Andy Smith 391 moved into second place around 2/3rds distance and he set about trying to catch the 217 car which by now had built up a ½ lap lead. Andy simply couldn’t catch the Fairhurst car and Lee brought the 217 car across the line first to win his second Final in as many weeks.
Result - 217 – 391 – 321 – 16 – 434 – 311 – 515 – 390 – 60 – 172
With the possibility of a clean sweep on the cards, Lee opted to line up for the GN at his grade position rather than take the handicap.
18 cars lined up on track for the race and Lee got away unchallenged. Behind him the star grade drivers battled hard for position. Lee once again built up a ½ lap lead over the second placed car which he was never to loose. The 217 car crossed the finish line to score a clean sweep of all his races for Lee. 2 heats, Final and Grand National.
Result - 217 – 515 – 391 – 390 – 172 – 141 – 12 – 4 – 464 – 494
Could Lee continue his good form at Buxton the following day?
