A 23 car Outlaw Anglia field was strong for the first event of the year but since the event schedule has been altered the need to go racing was even more prevalent as we are usually out and about early April, a few of us managed to get a run in on the Friday, trying to get those cobwebs blown away and the first run of the years nerves out the way before the serious racing began.
The Friday nights rain was torrential mixed with hail stones and wind and looked very much like the event would be a disaster.
Waking up in the morning the sun was out and the track was drying and we thought maybe the tide is turning and we were right as our first race was at midday with some quick times and good solid straight racing, another round the back of three and the last one with great air at half past seven at night, by this time the qualifying was starting to show some pretty serious times with four cars into the 7 second mark making it a very interesting time going into eliminations.
A strong 16 car field was ready to deliver early Sunday morning, the wining 8 moving through to the quarter finals but unlike before the 8 losing cars going through to an Outlaw Anglia ET Bracket which they used to run back in the day and the resurgence of this event was really anticipated for all who ran in it.
It sounds simple but running a Pro tree on ET is very hard on your gearbox as when do you get on the noise especially if your competitor is away a few seconds before you !!
Into the quarter finals with parings of Paul Hensher vs Ronnie Mercer, Simon Barlow vs Jeff Meads, Colin Millar vs Gary Bird, Scotty Crookston vs Steve Wells.
We had a really nice surprise with the reappearance of an old hand in OA Jeff Meads, its so good to see him back out for a full racing season in OA and as always his car is looking and going great, been a while out the seat but didn’t take any time to get back into and sporting his new wheelie bars.
Something had happened that no one could explain, the need for speed, the electric atmosphere, the tension was all around the OA pits as the class moved into the quarter finals.
How had the bar been raised, where did it come from, who cares as it was happening right there right now, PB’s for 14 OA’s out of the 19 cars that had run, making history and we were when you see the final results.
The following racers noted PB’s, Simon Barlow, Mark Bracking, Steve Wells, Colin Millar, Scotty Crookston, Barry Crookston, Garry Hill, Paul Hensher, Gary bird, Philip Drewitt, Ronnie Mercer, Ted Booth, Kim Harrison and finally Luke Hoskins.
The fiercely contested semi finals were round the corner with Scotty and Simon and Colin and Paul, Simon and Scotty up first with a fantastic race Scotty getting away first but then the power was unleashed from Simon delivering a storming 7.33 @ 190.69 backing up the new OA speed record, Colin and Paul up next with a storming run from Paul with a bit of tyre shake from Colin and possibly the closest race ever in the OA series with a winning Paul on 7.412 and a losing Colin on 7.413.
Another first was the dulcet tones in the tower of two OA racers, Simon Barlow and Phil Ginner Middleton, couple of comedians with Colin Theobald no doubt sweating as this was a time bomb waiting to go off especially on the Saturday night as Ginner had a to have a few refreshments in the afternoon to keep his spirits up, but hand on heart after listening to the live feeds both done a very professional job,
Onto the Finals
The Outlaw Anglia ET Bracket class was ready to run the final with Phil Drewitt and Mat Cooper (come on the Benders) with the old hand bracket racer Phil taking the trophy (but we forgot to get one, typical of OA lol )
Up steps Paul Hensher who had just run the fastest ET of his career, he skipped the 7.5’s and moved straight into the low 7.4’s, up stepped Simon Barlow who had just taken the OA speed record as well as a new ET PB of 7.33, it was a cracking race with Paul getting the jump on Simon but again the power came on and he took the win on a storming 7.34 and setting a new OA ET record as well as the speed record.
Well It has to be said that in the time that we can remember it is hard to think of any event that was better or faster or more competitive in Outlaw Anglia and folks that’s only round one, can it get better you bet your life it can, come watch live come watch Santa Pods fantastic live stream but make sure you mark the date for the next fantastic racing extravaganza, Outlaw Anglia Summer Nationals 21st to the 23rd of June, be there or be square !!!!
