 |
Clear Skies at ShakespeareWords and photos by Ivan Sansom and Rose Hughes We’re heading towards the end of the European season and, having travelled over much of the continent in search of straightline stories (and the sun!) it took a 20 minute drive down the road to find action aplenty under largely clear blue skies at our local track. Shakespeare County Raceway has had something of a rocky ride over the past few seasons, and lost their first championship meeting of the season due to rain back in May. With a decent sportsman entry this time round things were looking more promising, and, despite the facility appearing a little worn after hosting two major festivals in the preceding month, some high quality racing was delivered once the track started to come around. |
 |
Nostalgia Fuel Altered Association
The NFAA keeps on growing, with the mix of alky and nitro burning altereds providing the basis for a good show and some tight racing. Tony Betts is currently the head of the pack in performance terms, running a new PB at the Open Sports Nats with a 6.473/215mph from the Venom car to move up to second in the all time AAFA charts in the UK (NFAA rules are purposely restrictive to keep the budgets down and as many teams out on the race track as possible).
Another nitro burner cackling to a new PB was the Chaos car of Lawrie Gatehouse shoed by John Wright. A 6.743/218 was enough to top Betts in the TS stakes, but was accompanied by some death smoke as the Topolino went over the finish line “That’s what spare parts are for,” beamed Gatehouse, but damage to the AJ heads wasn’t repairable during the meeting.