Superstox British Championship
Billy Smith, seen here at last years Spedeweekend
The Superstox British Championship was run at Aldershot on 8th April, and a thrilling race was taken by Billy Smith.
Three Scots attended – defending champion Stuart Gilchrist plus Chris Stewart and George Macmillan Jnr. The draw for the grid put Phil Proctor on pole with Smith alongside, while Gilchrist ended up on the very back row of the 28 car formation. A big push on the first bend resulted in Stewart being fenced hard and a complete restart required, with favourites Stephen Jackson and Jason Cooper amongst those unable to rejoin the grid. Smith made a good start to lead the restart, with Todd Jones in pursuit. Liam Lambert and Steve Hamilton were forced into the pit bend fence, with Ben Munford spun hard into Hamilton a couple of laps later. Lambert got going again only to collect Nick Smith, Smith then T-boning Lambert on the infield for being taken out of the race. Meanwhile, B.Smith was having trouble with the backmarking Chris Roots, and he shoved Roots aside into the pit bend, which allowed Jones to close. Jones then made his move into turn 1 to bumper Smith aside for the lead, as Paul Langridge shoved his way into third place. B.Smith caught Jones and put in a hard hit into the pit bend, sending Jones into the plating to retake the lead and from then on Smith was not troubled to the line for the title. Shaun Brooker gave Langridge a big hit on the penultimate lap to spin him into the turn 3 to secure second, with David Miles Jnr, Brett Wesbroom and John Saunders completing the first five home.
The rest of the meeting saw a two-thirds heats format run, with Gilchrist continuing his feud with B.Smith from last year by launching a massive hit into turn 1, lifting Smith’s rear off the deck, before both of them collected the fence to scuff round the plating with Gilchrist riding over Smith’s car. Gilchrist was loaded for actions, with Cooper taking the win on the restart after a last bend hit on long time leader David Pike.
Heat 2 saw Luke Hamilton open up a gap over the chasing pack, with just Alan Gray in contention, Hamilton staying ahead for victory, while Cooper came through quickly in the third heat to take his second win of the day.
Chris & David Whiting
