ELF / Hill House Hammond Super 4:  - Larkhall

 After a gap of 10 weeks, the ELF / Hill House Hammond, Super 4 Series resumed with the penultimate round at Larkhall.

All the classes have yet to be decided, but even so, unsurprisingly entries were a little down, mainly due to lower 250 entries. The two main 125 classes required `B` Finals and they provided some of the finest racing this year.

The finals began with 125 Europa. Dave Morris had led, the four drivers entered, home in each of the three heats and he moved sweetly into the lead followed by Charles Long, Mark Leeson and Dave Lucas. They continued in that order for a couple of laps, but a rather ambitious move by Long at the Horseshoe ended in tears as he rode over the back of Morris. Both continued but only briefly, Morris had extensive damage to his radiator and lost all his water, Long also receiving some damage, which ended his race. With 12 laps left Leeson now led from Lucas, lap after lap they circulated as one. With a couple of laps to run Lucas pressed that little bit harder for the lead but Leeson stoutly defended his place right to the flag. Going into the final round at Shennington Leeson now leads the championship table by 89 pts from Long and Morris.

  Just a handful of drivers ventured up to Larkhall in F250`E`, Paul Troalic coming all the way from Jersey. Paul Kennings score maximum pts in the heats, but Carl Kinsey followed him home, every time. Predictably the winner of the final would come from this pair, Kinsey moved into an immediate lead at the green light, Kennings slotted into 2^nd, lap after lap it remained close, gradually they pulled away from Stuart Cryer in 3^rd. Kennings had a brief look at Kinsey half way through the race but he seemed happy settling for a solid scoring 2^nd place, leaving it to Kinsey to lead them home, Cryer would take an unchallenged 3^rd with Andrew Scott 4^th, Sadly, Paul Troalic failed to finish after pulling off on lap 10.                                  Just 1pt now separates Kennings and Kinsey going into the final round.

Jamie Blackburn (1) and John Riley (2) mopped up in the heats, title contender Dave Harvey suffered a cruel blow to his chances even before the green light, a broken rose joint eliminating him from the race.   Blackburn was the early leader and along with Riley they began to ease clear of the rest. On lap 4 Riley moved to the front, Blackburn managed to stay in touch over the next handful of laps and with when Riley began to struggle with his brakes, he was there to reap the reward. Regaining his lead into the hairpin with 6 laps to go he slowly began to ease away. Riley never really managing to put in a serious challenge for the lead and that’s how they would finish.  Behind Alan Bott had held a lonely third place but he retired mid race, Rob Millar had led a chasing pack which included Mike Young and Stephen Peace, but he failed to finish leaving Young to take 3^rd, Peace was 4^th with Graham Lewis, after an early excursion 5^th.                                                         Riley continues to lead the championship but after failing to score in the final Harvey has dropped to 3^rd behind Blackburn, who is 55 pts shy of  John at the top.

   F250 National was certainly down in numbers but the main championship contenders were there, Neil Burroughs (1win) and Roy Bennett (2) were the victors in the heats and as it turned out they were the main contenders for the final, Burroughs led with Bennett in pursuit, they quickly pulled clear, leaving the rest to battle for 3^rd.  Close throughout, Burroughs looked to have in the bag but on the last lap Bennett swept past snatching victory within sight of the flag. Malcolm Witts, Don Kennedy, Andrew Walker and Andrew Smith were the group racing for 3^rd, Witts headed the chase, Walker half spun on lap 6 allowing Smith into 5^th, lap 10 and contact round the back of the circuit put Kennedy out of contention, Walker by then had rejoined Witts and Smith.  Smith moved into 3^rd, ahead of Witts on the next lap, with Walker taking a few more before he got the better of Witts to take 4^th place by race end. Steve Bennett would take 6^th after an early dice with Steve Harold.                                                                                                                                                                     Neil Burroughs needs just 15 pts from the final round to take the overall title. Second place is very close with four drivers in with a realistic chance of take the runner up spot.

Three different drivers took heat wins in F125 National, Carl Hulme, Scott Neal and Matthew Bett with Andrew Agnew leading home the four qualifiers from the `B` Final.                                                   Bett made the most of his pole position and moved into the lead at the lights, Kevin Pinder slotted into 2^nd from Scott Neal and Richard Ward. The first handful of laps were close but there were no position changes at the front, Neal slipped past Pinder on lap 5 and from there he and Bett began to ease away leaving Pinder on his own in 3^rd, some 40 yards behind him Ward was busy leading a pack of 10 karts.  As the race unravelled the two local drivers continued to stretch their lead, Neal began to press Bett for the lead mid way through and on lap 11 he dived up the inside at the hairpin into the lead, circulating together for the rest of the race Bett did manage a challenge into the hairpin on the last lap but Neal held his line, a gentle nudge hindered his progress but not enough to stop him taking the win.3^rd place went to an unchallenged Pinder, Ward managed to shake off the pack and took 4^th, Paul Parsons demoted Simon Scott towards race end after Scott had valiantly defended  6^th, Jeff Stewart was 7^th with Andrew Agnew putting in a superb drive from the back taking 8^th.                                   Kevin’s 3^rd place keeps him at the top of the leader board, but only 15 pts now separate him from Matthew.

  Paul Ozanne, Mark Brookman and Richard Hanmer shared the heats in F125 Open, Martyn Turner putting in a fine drive to win the `B` final. Come the final Nelson Rowe put in a great performance taking a lights to flag victory, behind Mark Fell briefly held 2^nd until contact with Ozanne eliminated them both, subsequently Paul was excluded from the result. Fell rejoined eventually finishing 9^th.   Mark Brookman and Robin Kingham then proceeded to battle for 2^nd with Kingham edging out Brookman for the place with two thirds of the race run, Jeremy Ferguson scored his best result of the year taking 4^th, with Wesley Crankshaw and Dan Grieg coming from well down the grid taking a very respectable 5^th & 6^th. With just the final round left Mark Fell heads the table with Wesley Crankshaw now 2^nd ahead of Paul Ozanne and Nelson Rowe.

Robin Haworth