It was back on the black stuff next for Wainman Racing as we headed for Skegness and the second semi-final meeting of the season, where both Frankie and Danny would be vying for a place in September’s world final.
Phoebe, Frankie JJ were also racing and we also took the James Hall-Morton (132) and Dean Whitwell’s (195) cars for the meeting too.
The meeting was the usual format these days of 2 heats (the second being the semi), consolation, final and grand national.
Heat 1
Phoebe and Frankie JJ were in heat 1, and they lined up with the reds, Phoebe on pole and Frankie outside Finn Sargent on row 2.
James Hall-Morton (132) took the early lead in heat 1, and not much after that Phoebe and Paul Carter (300) came to a standstill in front of the starters rostrum, whilst at the same time Frankie JJ came to a halt on the exit of turn 2.
Callum Thornton (368) was now in the lead with Courtney Finnikin (551) closing him down, and passing him with 3 laps to go. A last bender from Callum saw him pass Courtney to take the win with the 543 car of Drew Lammas 2nd and Courtney 3rd.
Heat 2 (second 2022 Semi)
Frankie and Danny were out in heat 2 as it was their semi, Frankie on the front row next to Tom Harris (1) and Danny (212) on the inside of row 4 alongside Liam Gilbank (20).
When the flag dropped Tom got away cleanly and had a good lead by the end of lap 1, which accounted for both Lee Fairhurst (217) and Luke Davidson (464) as they collided and both retired with punctures.
At halfway, Tom was still leading with Frankie 2nd and Bobby Griffin (166) in 3rd, and now Frankie’s car was smoking from the outside but this was a fuel pump issue with the oil falling directly onto the exhaust, and this didn’t appear to be affecting his speed.
Jack France (216) retired with a mechanical issue and there was a spin involving Mickey Randall (172), Chris Cowley (73) and Kyle Gray (124) resulting in retirement of the 124 car.
At the front Tom was still leading with Frank holding off Bobby, with the latter not being able to get traction due to the oil on track from Shaun Websters (48) back axle.
At the flag it was Tom who won the semi with Frankie 2nd and Bobby 3rd, with Danny finishing 5th after an excellent drive!
Consolation
Phoebe and Frankie JJ went out for the consolation, and with Frankie JJ retiring early on it was left to Phoebe to fly the Wainman flag in this race, and despite hitting the spinning Craig Finnikin (55) car about half way, both got going again and Phoebe came home 7th and qualified for the final. The race was won by Josh Spiers (452), his first in an F1, with Mickey Randall (172) 2nd and Lee Fairhurst (217) 3rd.
Final
Frankie, Danny and Phoebe all lined up for the final which was for the Wilf Blundell Bowl, and it was a very exciting and action packed start with an almighty crash on turns 3 and 4 involving half the cars and resulting in a complete restart, which sadly Danny didn’t make as he had too much damage caused by Paul Hines (259) in the ex Ryan Harrison car, landing on top of his car.
Two laps later we had the same again, but this time on the back straight where we had 11 cars all piled up together, including Phoebe, and at this restart it was Josh Spiers who had the lead with Callum Thornton 2nd and Tyrone Evans (381) 3rd.
There were no more stoppages and the outcome was a win for Tyrone Evans (his first race win for almost 2 years, all of which have been at Skegness), with Tom Harris (1) 2nd and Callum Thornton 3rd. Frankie finished 5th.
Grand National
Danny didn’t make it out for the national and loaded up, so it was just Frankie, Phoebe and Frankie JJ on track for the final race of the evening.
Tom Harris set off with a blistering pace and by half way was up to 4th, with the top 3 being Callum Thornton, Kyle Gray and Courtney Finnikin, and with 3 to go Kyle passed Callum for the lead with Tom Harris closing in fast, it took Tom till the last bend when he managed to push Kyle aside for his 2nd win of the evening, with Kyle recovering for 2nd and Courtney 3rd, Frankie finished 6th with Ted 9th.
Congratulations must also go to John Lund (53) as his 10th place (in his shale car) qualified him for yet another world final!
Next up for Wainman Racing is across the water in Holland (Venray) for the ‘World Cup’ weekend, see you there.
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Photo’s ©Ian Bannister
