The final round of the 2023 season was held on the 30th September & 1st October
at the Halifax circuit in Yorkshire.
Saturday morning started dry allowing plenty of time for practice and set up for the early arrivals. Unfortunately at lunchtime the heavens opened and rain continued the rest of the day curtailing any more practice. Several of the final championship positions were still to be decided so plenty to race for on the Sunday.
It rained overnight and Sunday morning was initially dry with a damp track.It was agreed to delay racing until 11am to see if the weather would hold. A few drivers ventured out in the early heats with light rain falling. This eased off and the times gradually improved.
Craig Nutting was absent but had already clinched the GT8E championship. Young Alfie Wadsworth was having a go in the GT8 electric and Mark Green entered the 220mm class ensuring a challenge to Matthew Cook and Adam Southgate. As at Cotswold several drivers in the 200mm Touring were running the a wide bodied Touring shell with the wider tyres. Again there were no entries for the 1/8th GT8 Nitro with this looking like the end for this class.
After four rounds of qualifying the positions were as follows :
GT8 Electric
TQ Andy Travis
2nd Alfie Wadsworth
3rd Steve White
1/10 IC 220mm GT
TQ Mark Green
2nd Matthew Cook
3rd Mark Boothman
1/10 200mm Touring
TQ Neil Wallace
2nd Dev Mahatme
3rd Jon Withington
Finals
A Final GT8 Electric
Andy Travis won the first two legs and opted out of the third. That left a close battle between Alfie and Steve in the final leg to decide the final podium positions. Experience won over youth with Steve taking second despite a great performance from young Alfie.
1st Andy Travis (Harm)
2nd Steve White (Serpent)
3rd Alfie Wadsworth(Serpent)
A Final 200mm Touring
This was two finals in one with both the usual 200mm drivers and the Wide bodied shell drivers fighting their own battles.. Ady Garrick eventually came though for the wide bodied racers with Mark a couple of laps down ,one lap ahead of Nigel. Neil Wallace showed his class winning the 200mm Touring comfortably and finishing only one lap behind Ady despite running the narrower shall and narrower tyres. Dev took second just one lap ahead of Jon who completed the podium.
A Final wide bodied shell:
1st Ady Garlick (Capricorn)
2nd Mark Owen
3rd Nigel Philpott (Capricorn)
A Final 200mm Touring
1st Neil Wallace (Serpent)
2ndDevendra Mahatme(Capricorn)
3rd Jon Withington (X-Ray)
B Final 220 GT
The track started slightly damp but dried out resulting in faster laps for the drivers who chose foams over damps. A close final with the first three within 2 laps of each other .Daniel took the win, from Dev with Ian only 3 seconds behind in third.
A Final 220 GT
TQ Mark Green led from start to finish with Matt Cook taking a comfortable second. Most of the remaining drivers had mechanicals or flame outs with Mark Boothman eventually completing the podium just a lap ahead of Ollie King
Championship Results
The overall results were calculated to decide the National champions in the various classes and were as follows :
GT8 Electric
National Champion Craig Nutting (X-Ray)
2ndAndy Travis(HARM)
3rd= Adrian Dew
3rd= Martin Thorpe
Andy Travis
200mm Touring
National Champion
Devendra Mahatme (Capricorn)
2nd Nigel Philpott (Capricorn)
3rd Jon Withington (X-Ray)
220 GT
National Champion
Matthew Cook (Serpent)
2nd Daniel Chilvers (X-Ray)
3rd Adam Southgate (X-Ray)
Congratulations to all those who finished on the championship podiums.
All down to skill, hard work and a fair share of luck along the way.
Another season of competitive and friendly racing with great work by the committee and in the race control with a special mention to Muriel Russell.
Hoping for higher entries next season. Plenty of help and support on hand so any newcomers, and also some of the “old faces “ from the past, would be welcomed.
Next on the calendar to conclude the season is the AGM in October.