Inside Stock Car World Magazine | Page 10

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