BriSCA F2 2012
World Champion
BARFORD - Barnard Castle
Micky Brennan
BriSCA Formula 2 World Championship – Barford
Raceway, 9th September 2012.
Barford Raceway was the host venue for the 50th
running of the F2 World Championship final and
the tight confines of the County Durham track was
expected to provide an action-packed race.
The race program started on Saturday evening
with the “last chance consolation semi-final”,
which provided the opportunity for six drivers to
start at the rear of the World Final grid the
following day. Fan favourite, 100 George
MacMillan Jnr. won the consolation semi to book
his grid place along with 823 Sam Wagner, 647
Chris Burgoyne, 676 Neil Hooper, 964 and John
Fortune and 301 Charlie Whitfield. Last year, at
Kings Lynn, Mark Simpson won the world title,
having won the consolation semi-final, could
history be repeated at Barford ?
Saturday evening also saw the staging of the
BriSCA Ministox National Championship gold top
race, which was won by 515 Frankie Wainman
Jnr., Jnr, with a very mature drive to keep
everyone else at bay after starting from pole
position. Unfortunately for the youngsters, it was
the only race they would get that evening, as the
other races were cancelled on safety grounds. (It
was deemed too dark for them to race safely, due
to lack of adequate track lighting.)
A large crowd was in attendance on Sunday for
the big event and fortunately a large field was
provided for car parking. Those who had made
the effort to travel to Barford were greeted by
10
Photos by: Alan Panther
fantastic sunny weather, with just a slight breeze,
perfect conditions to sit out on the grass banks
that surround the track.
Previous World Champions were paraded around
the track on the back of a truck, prior to the big
race, which was followed by the presentation of
the drivers for the World Final.
joined the pile-up.
As the cars rounded turn four to take the green
flag, the front two rows made a clean start, and all
went together. Row three starter NI371 Denver
Grattan didn’t quite get away as cleanly, which
caused the following pack of cars, that were
already up to speed to trip over him. As a result,
only John Dowson Jnr, Micky Brennan, Barry
Goldin and Paul Ford made it around turn one
cleanly as the rest of the field self destructed
behind them.
Restart number two and Brennan maintained the
lead once more, but only another two laps were
completed under green before the third yellow
flags flew for at the three car pileup, which
involved 301 Charlie Whitfield and 676 Neil
Hooper. Speak was now up to 6th and Moody 7th,
but on restart number three, Moody spun but
continued after dropping several places. As
Speak and Grattan tried to advance, pole sitter
Dowson got pushed out wide and collected the pit
gate and the yellows were out again. By this
point, Brennan must have been wondering what
he had to do to win this race as every time he
made a break for it, the yellows came out again.
Once the drivers were gridded in the correct
order, the field was led away on the rolling laps by
Roy Goodman 800, who won the world title in
1963. Roy would pull off onto the centre green in
the heritage car prior to the green flag dropping
on the big race.
Meanwhile Dowson had taken an early lead, but
Mic