The Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator circus made its first trip to Warwickshire’s Shakespeare County Raceway over the May Bank Holiday weekend for round 3 of this year’s championship.

An entry of seven cars was further reduced by the withdrawal of Mark Todd due to engine damage on the big Pontiac.

So just six cars were to battle it out for honours. After the first qualifying session it became clear that whoever could best master the track would have a real chance of victory. At the end of Saturday rookie Richard Billings topped the qualifying list followed by Steve Pateman and Ian Hook.

Sunday saw another rookie, Brian Payne, take his Mustang into second place displacing both Pateman and Hook. Sadly transmission problems for Ron Haslett meant that the six became just five.

No further entries were lost as the remaining cars made it around the picturesque cruise route with no problems

Payne’s improvement in the Mustang had set up a meeting between numbers one and two in the championship, Hook & Pateman, the latter’s crew having made the long drive to Essex and back to pick up some new tyres the previous evening.

The trip paid off when the Calibra found some grip on the freshly cleaned concrete surface to run a best of the weekend 8.54 leaving Hook smoking the tyres straight off the start line. Payne proceeded into round two when his 8.94 proved too quick for Alex McIntosh who experienced a wild tyre smoking trip down the Shakespeare County quarter in his blown Mustang.

The combination of a six car field and breakage for Ron Haslett had provided number one qulaifier Billings with a free ticket to the final and he progressed with a 9.96, coming off the power well before the 1/4 mile.

The semi-final saw Billings through on his second bye with an 8.46 and Pateman into his second successive final with a very impressive 8.3 and a massive 177mph. Pateman’s experience and that quick pass made him favourite for the final and a win would take him to within 50 points of Hook. But the challenging, cold track got him in the end, the Calibra’s radials going up in smoke. Billings had his first ever Street Eliminator victory, an impressive 8.40 to a 10.01.

With a seven week gap until Round 4 at Santa Pod’s Summer Nationals many of the racer’s will be tweaking their combinations to try and get the edge on the opposition. Stay tuned as the cars will get quicker and the action hotter!

Pictures are taken from the 2010 Street Eliminator DVD ‘Hardcore Street’ available now from www.quartermilehigh.com