Swaffham - Gold Roof Championship - 16-17/08/19

A fantastic 20 cars were in the pits for Swaffham’s Gold Roof weekender.  Amongst the ‘home’ entry were first appearances at the track this year for 116 John Smith and 206 Michael Lee.  Visiting interest came from Grimley Gold Roof 115 Ben Farebrother and a 10 strong raiding party from Standlake – with 508 Terry Butcher, 509 Jordan Butcher and 776 James Trigg all making their track debuts.

With the grid drawn out of a hat, Heat 1 saw 776 Trigg and 206 Lee on pole.  Lee got the best start while further back 508 Terry Butcher tangled with 185 Jess Webb, leaving the pair stranded on turn 4.  A lap later and both 666 Sarah Rash and 874 Neil Moss joined the incident, bringing out the red flags for a complete restart.

Lee again got away at the front on the restart, but from his 11^th place start 115 Farebrother was making his way through the field and with 5 laps to go was up into 2^nd only a few car lengths behind Lee.  It looked like the 206 car would hold on, but Farebrother went hard into turn 3 and was able to make contact and get through for the win.  Lee spun and only managed to recover for 10^th.

Result: 115, 352, 261, 348, 856, 421, 563, 12, 116, 206

Down to 19 cars for heat 2, which was a reverse grid from heat 1.  This saw 510 Dan Allen and 12 Vince Foley occupy the front row and it was the former who lead the early laps.  A 5 car battle behind him for 2^nd eventually saw 856 Paul Webb take the position and he reeled Allen in shortly after, with Farebrother following him through into 2^nd.  Moss spun on turn 3 to end his chances of a top 10 finish, while Allen clipped the turn 2 kerb and dropped back as 352 Andy Webb, 563 Keith Walding and 12 Vince Foley came through.  Paul Webb held Farebrother off over the closing laps to take the win.

Result: 856, 115, 421, 352, 563, 116, 510, 12, 508, 348

Saturday night’s last heat again featured 19 cars with 206 Lee and 776 Trigg on the front of a grid repeat of heat 1.  This was to prove to be a much more straightforward race for Lee as he took an untroubled flag-to-flag victory.  Behind him, Farebrother and Paul Webb were again battling their way to the front as they finished 2^nd and 3^rd respectively.  Futher down the grid, there was a good battle between Walding, Moss and 116 John Smith with the latter getting the better finish of the trio.

Result: 206, 115, 856, 348, 352, 421, 116, 261, 563, 510

The final qualifying heat on Sunday raised 19 cars, with Foley having loaded up for the weekend.  The reverse grid left Allen alone on the front row, with 623 Rob Dobie and Gary Webb behind.  Gary took the lead on lap 2 with Farebrother close behind.  Rash spun on turn 4 before 14 Rob Taylor repeated the act a couple of laps later in the same spot.  After some close racing over a number of laps, Paul and Andy Webb moved into 3^rd and 4^th, catching and passing Walding, leaving the latter in 5^th.   Moss suffered damage and with it, his 3^rd DNF of the weekend so far.  Paul Webb was eventually able to pass Farebrother for 2^nd, but couldn’t prevent Gary Webb taking the win to make it 4 different winners from the 4 heats. 

Result: 421, 856, 115, 352, 563, 510, 116, 206, 508, 348

17 cars made it out for the Gold Roof race, with Trigg and Moss both out for the rest of the meeting with damage.  Farebrother sat on pole alongside Paul Webb, with brothers Andy and Gary on row 2.  The 3^rd row featured Walding and the top Swaffham qualifier 348 Sonny Sherwood with Michael Lee and 261 Roger Mountney completing row 4.

Farebrother lead the early stages as Andy Webb moved into 2^nd ahead of Paul.  The 352 car was looking quick and a few laps in he took the lead from the Grimley man, who was also passed by Paul and Gary Webb to sit 4^th.

A few laps short of halfway and Paul moved Andy wide to take the lead, with Gary also following him through.  At half way the 856 car was just holding a lead over the chasing pack.  Farebrother moved into 3^rd to break up the all-Webb podium – although Andy unfortunately retired with 5 laps to go having blown an engine.  Further down, an impressive showing from Allen was halted when he was also forced to retire.  Top Swaffham driver was now Smith in 4^th place, having made his way up from the very back row by the closing stages.  Up front though it was as-you-were, as Paul Webb came home to claim the gold roof.

Result: 856, 421, 115, 116, 206, 563, 508, 348, 261, 84

The Allcomers race was run in graded order and left Jess Webb as the only white top.  261 Mountney got a quick start from yellow and soon took a lead he was never to be challenged for.  Lee spun on turn 4 as Walding retired with engine trouble.  Paul Webb made quick progress through the field and found himself 2^nd after a few laps, with Smith and Farebrother giving chase behind.  Mountney took the win to complete a great weekend which saw 5 different winners across the 6 races and some very fast and close racing.

Result: 261, 856, 116, 115, 510, 348, 206, 84, 623, 185