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September 5th at Rissington, competing for the Midland Championships and The Roger Memorial Shield, saw perfect weather, a perfect setting, super grid line up, superb fast, close and exciting racing and who could forget Camaraderie at its best. What more could we ask for? The weekend made us all proud to be a part of the 210 Challenge. With thesaurus tab open this report was going to take more than a few adjectives and adverbs I would need fronted adverbials!!!
Heat 1 – Plain a guest for the Midland Champs led the chasing pack and by lap 4there was nothing between the first 3 of Plain A. Sifleet and Perkins. On lap 5 A.Sifleet took the lead from Plain and now L. Sifleet had rapidly joined the mix at the front in 4th. On the next lap L. Sifleet was up to 3rd with D. Bury in 5th on the heels of Perkins in 4th. As the flag fell it was all change 1st A. Sifleet, 2nd L. Sifleet, 3rd Plain,4th D. Bury, 5th Perkins, 6th Whyte.
Heat 2 – Plain once again took the initial lead until lap 2 when L.Sifleet took over at the front leaving Plain to stay ahead and fight a charging A. Sifleet, D. Bury, Perkins and Fowler off. Fowler and Perkins were dicing with the latter being the dominant and regaining his 5th place. A. Sifleet was then seen to battle it out with D. Bury and Perkins. 1st L. Sifleet, 2nd Plain, 3rd A. Sifleet, 4th D. Bury, 5th Perkins, 6th Fowler.
Heat 3 – Fowler led the pack around the first corner until L. Sifleet took command. It was now down to Fowler to fend off any unwanted advances from Plain, A. Sifleet Perkins and Sloane. Laps 4 and 5 saw movement between the top 6 Plain, A. Sifleet and Perkins relegated Fowler to 5th. D. Bury then passed Fowler and Perkins to claim 4th, whilst L. Sifleet stretched out the distance between himself and 2nd place man Plain. 1st L. Sifleet, 2nd Plain, 3rd A. Sifleet, 4th D. Bury, 5th Perkins 6th Fowler.
The Grand Finale and what a final it was!! Throughout the heats it had really been fast and furious, to really appreciate the speed, clean racing manoeuvre , one really needed to be there, words cannot do this write up enough justice!! The first 3 laps of every race so far saw the field complete with little or no gap between 99% of all competitors. The race for Midland Champion was not going to be any different. The final grid saw Father (L. Sifleet)sat alongside his son (A. Sifleet) with Plain completing the front row. D. Bury and Perkins hosted row two. What a start! Plain and A. Sifleet were off the line together with A. Sifleet just managing to keep hold of the inside line to head the pack very closely followed by L. Sifleet, D. Bury, Whyte, Perkins and ten more in hot pursuit. Lap 3 saw a slight entanglement between Plain and L. Sifleet promoting D. Bury to 2nd, leaving Plain in 4th. Perkins got ahead of Whyte to claim 5th. On the next lap L. Sifleet had regained composure and was up to 2nd. At midway distance Hopes, Fowler, Sloane, T. Bury, Stone and Hancock were all dicing for 6th place. Cox (N) and Shepheard (N) were repeating moves on each other from the last meeting and passed each other at least 4 times but this time it would be Shepheard with the edge. At the front L.Sifleet was really hassling his son for 1st place they swapped places 4 times in the next 4 laps. D. Bury was in 3rd, Plain 4th Perkins 5th. Nothing separated the top 5 not seen in a very long time. On the last lap disaster hit L. Sifleet as he found a box of neutrals allowing Plain and D. Bury to pick up another place.
As the flag fell A. Sifleet came in victorious, Plain after swarming all over the back of A. Sifleet came in 2nd only 0.00.14 behind. 3rd D. Bury, 4th L. Sifleet, 5th Perkins, 6th T. Bury who’d come up trumps from the midfield battle, 7th Hancock, 8th Stone, 9th Hopes and Sloane completed the top 10. Well done all!
