|
Round five of the 2011 Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator series saw seven teams travel to Warwickshire for the Open Sport Nationals staged over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The somewhat adverse weather conditions allowed for qualifying on the Saturday and eliminations on the Monday, but no SE track action whatsoever on the Sunday.
Two teams fell foul to mechanical problems – Dave Murdoch’s Willys broke a rocker and didn’t get to race at all, and, having competed in the qualifying rounds, the back axle on Alan Williamson’s Chevy pick up caught fire whilst out on the qualifying cruise.
The track proved slippy, especially on the Saturday, which kept times down a touch but with so much to play for at this stage in the season the racing couldn’t have been more competitive. Whilst he’s run quicker on slicks, Stuart Williams set a new personal best of 8.631 at 161.91mph, but even that wasn’t quick enough to prevent his Toyota Supra being eliminated by Ian Hook’s ’34 in the semis. Alex McIntosh is pushing hard to take the number 2 championship spot away from Hook and needed to make up a few points on him over the weekend. Sadly this was not to be as the pair were matched together in the first round of eliminations, with Hook taking the win in a closely fought contest.
The final was once again a battle between the current top two in the points table, Brian Payne and Ian Hook. Whilst the pair have staged together in the final on two previous occasions this season never have the cars been so close together at the finish line. Having led for most of the way Hook’s ’34 coupe was pipped to the post by Payne’s Mustang. The margin? A mere 5 inches – does it get any closer than that?
|
