The weekend of the 13th and 14th of May was a double-header in the Oval Track Legends 2017 season, with the 3 races at Ipswich serving only as heats for the main event, the E E Green & Sons East Anglian Championship, to be decided after a 4th heat at Yarmouth.
So Foxhall first on Saturday 13th, and an unusually poorly attended meeting. Although most events are somewhat disappointing in their attendance, Foxhall is Oval Track racing’s premier stadium, and normally busier than it was this weekend. However the racing, particularly the Legends, was exceptional with an action packed first heat. 3 cars no less burnt out their engines and had to retire, and 2 safety cars ended up being crucial to the result for Damian. From the start Damian made up ground as he usually does, and found himself in a firm 2nd place. However he wasn’t gaining ground on #49 James Hyett no matter how hard he tried, until #151 Chris Pye became the 3rd engine blow-out of the race and a last safety car put Damian right on James’ bumper. From the restart Damian waited for his opportunity, which came when a back-marker held them both up and Damian got to the gap first. From there he held onto the lead for his first heat win of the season!
Things went from good to better when he then won the 2nd heat as well, and came a respectable 3rd in the final heat. With points from these heats deciding the grid for the Final Damian arrived at Yarmouth with an almost unassailable lead over his closest rival, Dan “Golden” Holden. Needing only to basically survive the 1st heat at Yarmouth Damian was in a decent position for more points, but he decided to win anyway putting himself on pole for the East Anglian Championship Final. Did we dare to dream?
Well we did, and … that’s where the dream ended. Damian was complaining of clutch problems even taking the win in the heat. Coming out the bends there was a noticeable delay between putting his foot down and the power going down, coupled with growing unease at how much grip, or lack thereof, his tyres had, and the final was a bit of a disaster. On pole with Dan next to him, he went wide at the very first bend, and Dan, #178 Mark Dews (the eventual winner) and (someone else?) went past on the inside and Damian was 4th by the 2nd bend.
Things then got worse when Damian was judged (harshly in my un-educated and entirely biased opinion) to have not given sufficient room to #272 Aaron Lee and was blue-flagged, twice, and then disqualified for ignoring the blue flags!
It was touch and go whether Damian would come out for the final race of the day, a fairly meaningless race considering all the points he’d racked up already this weekend. He was cajoled into doing so by his pit crew, and started last, and finished last. Oh well, 3 wins from 4 heats was still pretty spectacular for someone who’s only just returned to the formula!
Videos are on YouTube :-