Report by Paul Toward
50 cars gathered for the 2007 Coventry Masters, most of which were the usual Volvos, Granadas and Jags. 34 Warren Burnham and 443 Dave Harvey supplied fresh Mk2 limos, Harvey’s on it’s third attempt after failing to race at Kings Lynn and Buxton. More impressive in the Granada front was a Mk1 for 146 Dan Wigman but the top Ford’s were the coupes of 218 Lee Clelland and 474 Matty Threlkeld, the latter’s a real head turner. 536 Annette Nicholls brought out one of her obligitory XJS’ but the car with the most talk belonged to 260 Keith Reynolds with the sports’ first ever Lexus, an LS400.
Half cars for heat 1 which started off extremely roddy, the only spins coming by way of an accident. The first meaningful hit came from 11 Steve Matthews as he took 34 Wobby in but the freshly watered track meant he lost hold of him just before the fence resulting in the limo just bouncing round the plating. 269 Dean French attacked and spun 377 Hammer on the home straight as 474 Matty met 827 Nigel Hopkins on the nose on turn 2. Finally a proper shot went in as 277 Des Owen was walled by 564 Splat and this was followed by 397 Stu Sandell nailing 34 Wobby’s limo on the home straight. 347 Mark Burbridge blasted 397 Boo to form a train but probably wished he hadn’t as he was first given a roof bender by 67 Ricki Beasley before being boned by 61 Stuart Holdsworth which left him open to a revenge package from Boo. 237 Paul Tagg took the win from Matty and celebrated with a nudge on the slowing Boo and 8 Darren Owen spun aside 11 Yeti. 372 Martin Scully claimed third.
The rest of the field for heat two started much better as 262 Buddy James fenced 362 Matt Godden on the drop of the green while 59 Marc Blower tagged the spun 266 Callum Hall on the opposite turn. 252 John Wibberley continued the turn 1 action as he fenced 35 Rob Jopling followed just behind by 443 Harvey using his limo to bury 179 Shaun Rushton backwards into the fence which ripped the boot out of his Mk2 spectacularly. 35 Bug was trashed further as a flying 310 John Nicholson was bundled head on into him. Back to turn 1 and 260 Keefy burried 146 Wiggy and 266 Oddjob in one move before assisting 252 Wibbsy in taking 218 Clelland into the fence. Bug’s night was then ended by 380 Bradley Evans who gave him a tasty roof bender although 59 Blower inflicted similar damage with a bigger shot. This shot broke Blower’s steering however and after trying to continue he was left a sitting duck for 283 Nigel Forton to nail. Keefy continued his impressive display as he picked up and spun out 310 Eno into the parked 592 Mark Marchant car. 362 Godden lost it on the home straight and was blasted by 262 Buddy which killed the midlands young gun. Wibbsy was next man round and planted himself in Buddy and he was followed by Keefy who put the rear end down on Wibbsy’s estate. 271 Dean Goodearl slowed on the last lap but managed to cross the line having taken pretty much a flag to flag victory while just behind 265 Stu Foster was spun by the pack head on into Wibbsy. 617 Jack Overy grabbed second and he was followed home by 998 Wayne Cotterill.
The consilation started much as heat one with mainly spins until Blower gave Boo a shot over the rear wheel. Once again the big shots came on the home straight as 365 Chubbs was spun out by Splat and given a huge shot from 377 Ashley Tompkins, the well disfigured Mk2 coming to rest in the centre of the track causing problems for some. Blower attacked Oddjob on the other turn and took him all the way to the fence. Back to turn 1 and Boo followed 422 Chris Ault in big time with 58 Matthew Girling latching on to snap the 422 Cault estate. Boo carried on but struggled and was blasted by 149 Wayne Bailey as just behind 179 Cool burried 334 Steven Court which snapped his estate in a similar manor to Caulty. The reds were called for Caulty who was cut out of his car and the race was called in favour of 269 Popeye, 537 Martin Brunson 2nd and 61 Holdsworth 3rd.
It was qualifiers only for the Masters although with plenty of finishers in the earlier races this was no problem. The race started extremely roddy with spins being as good as it got. 271 Goodearl, 617 Overy, Popeye and Matty battling for the lead. Matty was flying through the field and seemed to be the quickest by far and caught the leading Deano, only to mess up his attack on him and ended up in the wall thanks to Holdsworth. Keefy meanwhile thundered in Yeti on turn 3 which snapped the XJ40 impressively. 271 Deano slowed and attempted to hook out Popeye as he went past as the faster car before he was himself hooked out as Popeye raced to the win from 22 Dave Vincent and 67 Beasley.
The biggest field of the night contested the allcomers which started well as Wibbsy burried 810 Alex McBain and Popeye did similar to Buddy. On the other bend 537 Bruno fired away 237 Spanner but turn 3 had more fun with 372 Scully wiping 283 Son of Zoot into the armco and Cool took 149 Bailey into the pile of cars formed from the opening follow ins. Scully caught Son of Zoot once again and put him into the fenced Spanner Volvo which was followed by Keefy blowing him up too. This started a quality train as Wobby gave Keefy a shot and Son of Zoot going in on him with rated airtime. Popeye then burried Matty into Zoot and he was blasted by Bruno. The lure of a well used Mk2 rear was too much for Bailey as he went in and got stunning airtime. The well repaired Chubbs went in on Bailey but he was destroyed by Keefy with a rated shot. 555 Ben Williams was the last man in on Keefy, almost snapping his own Volvo in the process and he was bundled out of the way by Splat as he reversed off. It went quiet for a while owing to the lack of cars still circulating but Boo ended that by meeting Oddjob’s spun Volvo head on and Eno burried 25 Mark Thomas into the pile up. Clelland taking the win from Overy.
Only a handful for the DD with Keefy doing well to repair but being shut out due to the curfew closing in. Several of those who made it had also done well to repair and some struggled to start, Eno gave Wibbsy a push but failed to get him running as Cool blew up 380 Bradderz and followed him in. 810 Rugrat turned round to sportingly assist Wibbsy while Zoot piled in on Cool. Eno picked up Spanner on the home straight and followed him in, snapping him off even further, 384 John Golden was next man in with a shot to Eno but he was blown up by Wibbsy. Rugrat then sent Wibbsy’s rear end into orbit with a monster portion followed instantaniously by Zoot giving an equally fierce shot. 555 Shifty took the win despite hitting nothing and even rejected the train by pulling onto the centre. Wibbsy was left with his rear wheels clean off the ground; the crash later voted best crash of 2007 by Wasted readers.
Overall, the meeting was average at best until the Alcomers and DD which certainly made up for it and gave us that buzz!
