News > 26TH July 2009 1/8th Stock Car British Championship

The 2009 British Championship was held at Notts + Derby with 33 drivers in the pits it promised to be an excellent days racing. On arrival it was dry but with about 1 hour of practice to go the rain arrived which altered drivers thoughts on setups and made the practice session very busy indeed but then the rain stopped prior to the start of the meeting at 11.00am.

In the field of cars we had 2 visitors from the Netherlands H144 Maikel Rutten racing a Ben Harding prepared car and H45 Brian Weijers who had both made the long journey over we thank both drivers for there effort in attending the meeting.

Round 1

The meeting started on a greasy track which made tyre choice tricky but there wins in Round 1 for 217 Mark Whittaker, 34 Thomas Yarwood, 111 Ian Yarwood Junior, 391 Jody Foster, 471 Ben Harding and 56 Alex Wood. 391 Jody Foster held the lead with 54 Laps.

Round 2

The track had dried by this point and the racing was getting quicker as a lot of the drivers reverted back to dry set up the heat winners in this round were 217 Mark Whittaker, 46 Simon Farrer, 491 John Gould with a good 50 Laps, 144 Maikel Rutten, 471 Ben Harding and 45 Brian Weijers who also did the most laps of the Round with 53 Laps

A small break occurred now while there shuffled the Heats and with the weather still good it was going to become very fast racing.

Round 3

Heat wins in this round went to 57 Jonathan Goodacre, 34 Thomas Yarwood, 391 Jody Foster, 214 Ian Yarwood, 133 Ross Wiffen and 45 Brian Weijers. Fastest Laps of the round went to Jody Foster with 55 Laps

Round 4

Last round of heats with everything to play for but the weather was starting to threaten and after 57 Jonathan Goodacre won Heat 1 of the Final Round the heavens opened with the rain that had been forecast which made racing very difficult and Jonathans win the remaining heat winners were 34 Thomas Yarwood, 391 Jody Foster, 214 Ian Yarwood, 56 Alex Wood and 217 Mark Whittaker. After the rain the laps suffered but 57 Jonathan Goodacre made good use of the good weather clocking 54 Laps.

After this the top 24 drivers went through into 4 quarter finals with the top 3 going through into the Semi Finals where the same top 3 would qualify making a 6 car final for the British Championship.

Quarter Final 1

It had stopped raining again but the track was damp but well done to the qualifiers who were 391 Jody Foster, 57 Jonathan Gioodacre and 827 Darryl Whitfield

Quarter Final 2

The qualifiers going through this time were 214 Ian Yarwood, 34 Thomas Yarwood and 471 Ben Harding

Quarter Final 3

The drivers qualifying were 217 Mark Whittaker, 24 Steve Whitehead and 444 Sam Flood.

Quarter Final 4

The final qualifiers were 45 Brian Weijers, 64 Dick Batty and 226 John Allen All the quarter finals were very close and fast racing and a credit to the drivers for making them entertaining.

Semi Finals

The 2 semi finals would prove to be very good races with rain steadily falling the track was damp the 12 drivers did excellently in the conditions but qualifying from Semi Final 1 was 391 Jody Foster with 45 Brian Weijers behind and the Final spot going to 226 John Allen who was having an excellent day. Semi Final 2 was won by 471 Ben Harding with 34 Thomas Yarwood behind and 57 Jonathan Goodacre coming home in third and taking the final spot in the British Championship Final

British Championship Final

The six drivers who had qualified for the final had driven superb races all day and was down to the championship race the buzzer sounded and the field set off with lots of battles going on but Jody Foster was going the best beating his rival Ben Harding into 2nd Jody finishing with 57 Laps and considering the conditions a masterful drive.

British Final Result

1st - Jody Foster - 57 Laps
2nd - Ben Harding - 54 Laps
3rd - Brian Weijers - 54 Laps
4th - Jonathan Goodacre - 51 Laps
5th - Thomas Yarwood - 50 Laps
6th - John Allen - 46 Laps

Many thanks to all the drivers who made it an excellent day and well done to Jody on retaining his British Title. Pictures on soon too,

Till the next time

Gary Osborne