News > Stock Car European Championship @ RSCL, 31/5/09, Meeting Report

The meeting was met with beautiful sunshine and the drivers had been working hard with practice available for three days prior to the meeting. Sixty- three drivers set off with the quest of winning the European Title held by 391 Jody Foster.

Round 1

With the track in excellent condition the meeting began and leading driver in Round 1was Ben Harding 471 with 50 Laps with defending champion 391 Jody Foster with 48 and 46 Simon Farrer matching the same number of laps. What was noticeable was how close everyone was in Laps and that would play a major part throughout the day.

Round 2

Joint Leading Laps from 471 Ben, 391 Jody and 46 Simon all with 48 Laps with our Dutch visitors 130 Michel Berendsen and 45 Brian Weijers both with 47 Laps. Once again a lot of drivers were very close behind the leading pack with one more qualifying heat to go.

Round 3

471 Ben and 130 Michel both headed the Heat 3 standings with 48 Laps on a track becoming more and more slippy due to the oil content and the hot weather close behind 391 Jody, 46 Simon with 47 Laps and on 46 Laps 168 Eddie White, 390 Scott Grocock and 55 Paul Dexter which were all exceptional scores.

Then the 63 drivers were whittled down to 24 for 4 quarter finals with 6 cars in each, each drivers 2 best scores out of there 3 heats counted, looking at the results it was unlucky for South Coast visitor Tony Williamson and Dutch entrant Maikel Rutten who were eliminated from the meeting on throw away score.

Quarter Finals

Quarter Final 1

All races over 5 minutes now and the weather now was very hot with the track very slippery but going through to the Semi Finals were 471 Ben Harding with 60 Laps, 97 Lee Wearing with 59 Laps and 56 Alex Wood with 59 also eliminated at this stage were Mark Whittaker, Julian Vaux and Steve Wearing.

Quarter Final 2

It was equally as quick in this quarter with 391 Jody Foster winning with 60 Laps, Dutch visitor 45 Brian Weijers coming home in 2nd and 491 John Gould taking the final qualifying place in this quarter final with 58 Laps. Eliminated from this quarter final were Roy Watson, Gary Gamlin and Paul Dexter.

Quarter Final 3

This was a real scrap with all 5 drivers battling for the positions but the drivers who got through were 46 Simon Farrer with 58 Laps, 168 Eddie White with 58 Laps and 3rd going to RSCL driver 28 Tom Gardner with 57 Laps. Eliminated from the meeting were Jonathan Goodacre, Martin Kinton and Dennis V Asten

Quarter Final 4

Like the previous race this again was very fast and close between all six drivers but taking the win was 130 Michel Berendsen with 59 Laps also qualifying on the same laps were 167 Richard Swales and 390 Scott Grocock. Unlucky to the drivers leaving the championship with 3 Laps covering all 6 drivers the drivers eliminated were Andrew Whittaker, Steven Swales and Steve Gould

The Semi Finals were drawn with the top 3 drivers going through to the Final

Semi Final 1

The racing was getting really good at this point and Ben Harding won the race with 62 Laps followed by Alex Wood and Brian Weijers, sadly the drivers knocked out were Simon Farrer, Richard Swales and Tom Gardner

Semi Final 2

The race was electric from start to finish but our Dutch visitor 130 Michel Berendsen was victorious with 61 Laps, also going through were 391 Jody Foster and 97 Lee Wearing. Sadly the drivers knocked out were Scott Grocock, Eddie White and John Gould.

Before the European Final the Junior European Race was run with 4 drivers vying for the title of Junior European Champion the title went to Danielle Chadbourne with Sam Flood second and Nora Driver Amelia Batty in third, sadly the Junior World Champion Dwayne Thompson cam fourth after having car problems for the majority of the day.

European Final

This race was an absolute classic with Jody getting a great start with Ben Harding chasing him then about 2 minutes Ben made a small mistake allowing Michel Berendsen to take 2nd from Ben and Michel set off after Jody and he reeled him with a stunning drive Jody was hanging and with 30 seconds of the race to go Michel went to pass Jody but got it wrong and lost a bit but he caught him again and had a another go but couldn't move the defending champion Jody who held on for a memorable win.

Result

1st - Jody Foster (391) - 63 Laps
2nd - Michel Berendsen (130) - 62 Laps
3rd - Ben Harding (471) - 62 Laps
4th - Brian Weijers (45) - 62 Laps
5th - Lee Wearing (97) - 61 Laps
6th - Alex Wood (56) - 34 Laps

A fantastic advert for 1/8th Stock Car racing and well done to Jody on retaining his title. Pictures to follow of the meeting.

Gary Osborne
1/8th Oval PRO