National Series Shoot Out Round 6
The Belle Vue round of the National Points Shoot Out was dominated by a driver who isn’t in it. Stu Smith made short work of a heat and final double at his local track. Of the Shoot Out contenders, Tom Harris won a heat, while Mick Sworder won the Consolation and Grand National.
The opening heat was led by impressive white-top PJ Lemons until after the halfway when the very rapid Smith (390) barged past. Smith went on to win comfortably, while behind him Dan Johnson and Paul Harrison spent the last part of the race almost side by side, swapping places a number of times. Johnson got the verdict with a perfectly timed hit on the Harrison nerf rail in the last bend.
Craig Finnikin made light work of the second heat but towards the end of the race the 55 car seemed to lose pace, allowing Tom Harris to catch and pass with a few laps to spare.
After relatively quiet heats, the Consolation race descended into carnage as soon as the green dropped, and could possibly be described as a race of three fence posts. It wasn’t long before the inevitable waved yellows, this time for John Brown (134), who was wedged in the back straight fence. After delaying Frankie Wainman (515) in the heat, Roger Bailey (165) again steadfastly held his line and made it difficult for the red tops behind him.
Steve Reedman (361) gave the starter (and probably himself) a bit of a scare when he caught the home straight fence and took out a fence post, and nearly the starter’s rostrum.
Dave Willis was the man responsible for breaking the third fence post of the race, with a typically-Willis hit that put Mark Sargeant (326) into Nigel Green (445), and both collided heavily with the turn 3 fence.
While all this was going on, Sworder kept his head down and worked his way to the front for the first of two wins on the day. Also qualifying was Nigel Harrhy; a great result considering he’d spun out and been battered by the pack at the start of the race.
A bigger grid for the Final, and there were problems immediately for lone white top Roger Bailey, who hesitated when the green dropped and was fired straight into the fence by Ben Hurdman.
Early problems for some of the Shoot Out contenders too; Tom Harris retired to the infield almost immediately, while Dan Johnson was lucky to land back on his wheels after going skywards over Nigel Harrhy.
From an admittedly advantageous starting position in front of the Shoot Out drivers, Smith stormed through the field, with only Sworder able to get anywhere close to matching the pace of the 390 car. Sworder moved up to second place after dumping Steve Whittle (183) and Ben Hurdman into the fence, but try as he might, there was no catching Smith.
The last bend saw Nigel Green snatch the final place on the podium by planting James Morris (463) into a parked car.
The GN had the biggest field of the night, and turned out to be a proper stock car race in every sense of the phrase. It was Mick Sworder who again took the chequered but that was largely incidental to those watching from the terraces, as every lap saw the bumpers going in somewhere and there were incidents aplenty.
This was the last Belle Vue meeting of the season and it certainly went out with a bang.
Photos: Colin Casserley
