The weekend of Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd July 2018 is a double-header event in the Oval Track Legends calendar, where the 3 races on Saturday, and the 1st race on Sunday, represent qualifying heats for the 2nd race on Sunday, the East Anglian Championship. The last race on Sunday being entitled, I believe, a Grand National one-off race (should probably fact-check these articles before posting them!).
At this event last year Damian won 2 of the 3 heats on the Saturday at Ipswich and the 1st race (heat #4) on the Sunday, putting him on pole for the Championship race, which promptly went completely wrong as Damian was passed by 4 cars on the first lap and eventually black-flagged. It was in fact this fixture last year that prompted Damian to spend £3k on a new chassis, which was then destroyed by a vindictive #21 Sean Smith at the very next race.
Here’s hoping for more luck this year!
On a very hot Saturday evening Damian wasn’t able to reproduce last year’s first leg success, finishing 6th in heat #1 and 5th in heat #2, although starting from near back of the grid now these heats are always going to be tough. Things went downhill though in the 3rd heat when Damian was hit and the car lifted off the ground landing with a significant thud! Back at the pits it appeared the chassis was bent, specifically at the front, prompting memories of last year, but this time even worse if a new chassis were indeed required as this was only Damian’s 4th race since returning from his ban.
Upon inspection the following morning Damian decided the damage could be temporarily fixed with a bit of elbow grease and some large things to hit other things with, so he and a few friends managed to get the car fit to race again and off we set for Yarmouth!
There weren’t as many cars at Yarmouth as there had been at Ipswich the night before, but even so, from nearly the back of the grid Damian did repeat last year, finishing 1st in the 1st race of the day, being heat#4 of the Championship.
In the Final, 2nd race of the day, 5th of the weekend, Damian was on the 2nd row of the grid, #161 Dan Holden in pole, #395 Tom Sutton beside him, and #105 Karl Baker on the inside of Damian. From the off Damian struggled to get past #105 Karl Baker, and #161 Dan Holden stormed off into the distance with #395 Tom Sutton hot on his heels. After eventually clearing #105 Karl Baker Damian set about gaining ground on the leaders but could only just about match their pace, #161 Dan Holden dropping #395 Tom Sutton as they passed the back markers.
Towards the end Damian realised 3rd was the only real possibility and dropped off a bit, but that let #178 Mark Dews close the gap from 4th and Damian was lucky to hold on for a podium finish.
But 3rd it was, and from starting the day not knowing if he was going to race to going home with 2 more trophies for the collection we can only say it was a very welcome and pleasing result for all of us at Team #114.
The video of the Final is on Youtube :-
