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IMPORTANT MAJOR UPDATE Would you like to see THE BIGGEST MOTORSPORT /
MOTOR SPECTACULAR THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER SEEN
on the streets
of Birmingham? We have had to have a major rethink of our plans to bring
back motor racing, but have come up with something potentially even more
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and organisations as we can to try to make this happen again. It could
bring huge benefits to the region, but it needs as much support as possible
to make it happen. CLICK HERE
TO READ MORE, VIEW VIDEO & PHOTOS FROM THE OLD SUPER PRIX, AND TO SEE
HOW YOU CAN HELP BRING ABOUT THIS SENSATIONAL AND UNIQUE EVENT.
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Stevie
Hodgson scores hard-earned first Days of Thunder Round 5 victory
Days of Thunder Championship points leader Stevie Hodgson scored his first
series win in a gripping NSPCC 180 opener at Rockingham on Sunday. Hodgson, from
Mirfield, North Yorkshire, who had come close to winning races during the past
two seasons, fought hard to stay at the front in the Team Monopoly Torquespeed
Chevrolet to win ahead of his main series rival Colin White in his Powerade CWS
Chevrolet and Hodgson’s Xerox Torquespeed team-mate John Mickel. At
Steward takes dramatic Virgin Days of Thunder Round 6 win
In one of the most dramatic finishes to a Days of Thunder race 57-year-old
veteran racer John Steward took a hugely popular victory in his Virgin
Experiences Steward Racing Ford, ahead of John Mickel in the Xerox Torquespeed
Chevrolet and long-time leader Oli Playle in the Liberty X Team West-Tec
Pontiac. SEE ALSO: Days
of Thunder report and photos Rounds 3 & 4 June 2004 PLUS : FOR A WHOLE WEALTH OF MOTORING ARTICLES GOING BACK MANY MONTHS, DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUR PREVIOUS ARTICLES ARCHIVES If you wish to contact us either : PHONE
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the
start of the 60-lap race interest focussed at the back of the grid as well as
the front Reigning champion Ben Collins was forced to start the race at the back
of the 22-car filed as a penalty for the controversial incident at Rockingham
last month in which both Collins and White ended in the wall on the opening lap.
With White also starting at the rear end of the field alongside Collins because
of his failure to qualify on Saturday sparks were expected to fly at the start.
At the drop of the green flag pole-sitter Mark Willis, in his first Days of
Thunder race, made a cautious start while fellow front-row starter Vergers got a
flyer and pulled clear of Hodgson and Willis. The sparks did fly further back,
but it was Chris Robinson, Malcolm Clein, Mike Luck and Steve Hobday who caused
them, leaving Robinson and Clein with wrecked cars in between Turns Two and
Three on the opening lap. The
yellow flags were out straight away to clear up the debris, with the race
re-starting on Lap 7 with Vergers fending off Hodgson, until Hodgson in the Team
Monopoly Chevrolet dived up the inside of the NEC Team West-Tec Chevrolet into
Turn Four. Vergers didn’t give up the lead with out a monumental fight, however,
and Hodgson and Vergers raced side-by-side for more than a complete lap until
Vergers kept his nose in front. “Michael and I proved that Rockingham is a
two-groove racetrack,” Hodgson said later. In fact, Vergers pulled clear of
Hodgson at this stage, while Willis began dropping places. By lap 15 the order
was Vergers, Hodgson, Mickel, John Steward, Anthony Swan and Oli Playle, while
White had made remarkable progress through the field from the back to go
seventh, demoting Willis to eighth. Reigning champion Collins was struggling to
make an impact in the Texaco Havoline Racing
Chevrolet
back in 12th place. Hodgson then began to close up on the leader and was able to
force his way into the lead on Lap 19 into Turn Four and began to pull clear of
the Dutchman. Further back Mickel was holding on to third place ahead of the
third Torquespeed car of local hero Swan in the Fotostop-back Chevrolet. As
Hodgson pulled more than two seconds clear, Vergers began to slip back and was
passed by both Mickel and Swan out of Turn Four on Lap 26, with Swan getting
ahead of Mickel to go third. Vergers went even further back with Playle moving
up to fourth place. The leaders pitted on Lap 28 for their mandatory pit-stop,
with Mickel out fastest of all to lead ahead of Hodgson, but Hodgson soon
regained the lead. As the order sorted itself out after every car had pitted,
Hodgson led a Torquespeed 1-2-3, with Mickel fending off Swan in second place,
while Playle in the Liberty X Team West-Tec Pontiac was hot on their heels in
fourth. Vergers was now fifth but was soon passed by White on Lap 32 into Turn
One, while up at the front the battle for the lead intensified into a four-way
battle. The complexion of the race changed on Lap 40 as the leaders passed
backmarker John Higgins. Hodgson got a lucky break to get through in Turn Four,
but Mickel, Swan and Playle had to sit behind the Crash.net Renegrade Racing
Chevy until the exit of Turn One. Mickel managed to get through into Turn Two,
but Swan spun, spearing into the wall and out of the race.
The
race was restarted on Lap 45 with Hodgson pulling clear, while White got a great
restart to move up into second place ahead of Mickel and Playle through Turns
Two and Three. Further back Steward was fifth, just ahead of Team Turn Four
team-mates Collins and Rob Speak, until Collins glanced the wall out of Turn
Four on Lap 48, allowing Speak in the USAutomotive Ford to get by a lap later
into Turn One. Hodgson surged 1.5 seconds ahead of White, Mickel and Playle with
ten laps to go, as Collins dropped back into the clutches of Tony King in the
Kent Pharmaceuticals HTML
Pontiac, who was having his best-ever Days of Thunder race. King went past
Collins on Lap 52 and then took Speak to go sixth on Lap 56. Up at the front
Hodgson flashed past the chequered flag to score a famous and well-deserved
victory ahead of the remarkable White - celebrating his 17th wedding anniversary
in style in second place - with Mickel scoring his first podium since 2001 in
third. Playle finished a hard-charging fourth ahead of Steward and King, with
Collins passing his team-mate Speak on the line to finish seventh. “The car was
awesome today,” said Hodgson afterwards. “I have to thank John [Mickel] and Asa
[Burrows] – they are a great team. We’ve been bitten a few times in the past,
and the car was a handful for the first few laps after the pitstops but to win
our first race is fantastic.”
drop
out from eighth place as Steward passed Mickel to go fourth a lap later with the
dsi Torquespeed Chevrolet of Willis in sixth ahead of Vergers and a
hard-charging Rob Speak in the US Automotive Team Turn Four Ford. By Lap 22
Playle was totally in control of the race, despite suffering from painful burns
to his face after an industrial fire at his work earlier in the week - the
youngster stretching his lead still further to 3.5 seconds ahead of Hodgson, who
had retaken second place from White. White was dropping back into the clutches
of Steward, who took third place from the Powerade CWS Racing Chevrolet on Lap
25. White was forced to defend his position from a gaggle of cars in fourth
place, with Mickel, Willis, Vergers and Speak in a tight group behind him. All
this changed on Lap 27 when Speak slipped inside Vergers and Willis and then
passed Mickel on the home straight to go fifth. Behind him Vergers
spun and hit the Turn Four wall hard to bring out the yellow flags.As the cars
followed behind the pace car, spots of rain threatened to bring a halt to the
race, but after the debris was cleared after Vergers’ accident, the track was
dry enough to continue. The pitstop window was moved to Lap 34, with all the
cars coming into the pits apart from Speak, Peter Falding and Mike Luck, who all
came in a lap later. Speak’s Team Turn Four outfit regretted to tactic as Speak
went from fifth to 14th place on the restart. After the pitstops, with the race
still under yellow, Playle still led from Mickel, Hodgson, Willis, Steward,
Shaun Richardson, White and Collins. The race went green on Lap 40 with Playle
holding off Hodgson but a lap later
Skid
Carrera hit the Turn Four wall to bring out the yellows once more.Six laps later
the race restarted, with Playle having to fend off Hodgson into Turn One,
followed by Mickel and Steward. Hodgson kept his foot in and just nudged ahead
of the 18-year-old in Turn Two, but Playle wouldn’t give up the lead easily and
challenged again through Turn Three. Hodgson and Playle fought wheel-to-wheel
for the next couple of laps before Hodgson was able to keep his car in front.
But as the two leaders fought tooth and nail, both Mickel and Steward were able
to close up and Mickel made a bid for the lead into Turn Four, followed closely
by Steward in a three abreast battle. Then in a dramatic few seconds, Steward
seized his chance to slip up the inside of Mickel down the home straight to take
the lead on lap 49. Hodgson, having led two laps earlier, was now fourth behind
Playle. Steward then had ten laps to hold off his rivals to take his first Days
of Thunder win. With the crowd willing the veteran on, Steward took an emotional
chequered flag just ahead of Mickel and Playle, with Hodgson fourth, Richardson
an excellent fifth in his Team Darkness Chevrolet and Collins sixth. “It must be
down to the new car,” Steward said. “We’ve spent eight weeks building it and
it’s faster than the old one. The team have done me proud. It was brilliant.”