Round 5,6 & 7 - Rockingham

Grindrod leads championship after double win at the Rock

Nic Grindrod took the points lead in the oval championship table following two wins in appalling conditions at Rockingham Motor Speedway for rounds five, six and seven of the LINE-X Pickup Racing Championship on Saturday.

The Selly Oak driver certainly made the most of a clear track in front of him as his rivals behind all struggled with plenty of spray. It was a busy day for the teams with an extra free practice session immediately preceding the regular 20 minutes of qualifying followed by two heats and a Grand Final, most of which were hampered by the weather.

Former champion Steve Dance started Heat One from pole and took the lead from the start, but Nic Grindrod had already got the better of his comrade by the end of the lap to take up the lead and put himself ahead of the spray, courtesy of heavy rain. A lap later Dance had slipped right down the field as he was keen to find himself some visibility, leaving Grindrod’s #22 truck ahead of Phil White and Simon Carr. One driver not struggling with the conditions was Michael Smith in the Off Shore Fuels truck, he was flying and moved up from eighth to fourth by lap three just ahead of Team Rockingham’s Antony Hawkins.

On lap seven Phil White must have been worrying that his race was over as his #63 truck sounded extremely unwell. It proved to be a displaced exhaust manifold which fortunately did not hamper his performance, a fact backed up on lap 18 as he took the fastest lap of the race. Places stayed fairly status quo throughout the race, but Grindrod was not being allowed to pull away from White, who was to challenge for the lead briefly on lap ten.

Michael Smith was closing in on Simon Carr’s LINE-X liveried #15 truck and passed the Yorkshireman on lap 16 while Antony Hawkins was to follow suit just half a lap later. It looked as if Hawkins would go one better in the dying stages of the race too, as Nic Grindrod and Phil White were assured first and second at the chequered flag, the Team Rockingham driver just missed out on the podium by half a truck length on the line.

Brands Hatch podium man Lee Rogers was pole sitter for Heat Two, although Antony Hawkins managed to get the slingshot from the start to take up the initial lead ahead of the 60kg ballasted Phil White. But with the rain falling once again and on an extremely slippy track, it was White who was the leader next time round having brought Michael Smith with him past Hawkins. On lap three Nic Grindrod was not letting his 40kg of ballast stop him and was into the mix slipping into second before taking the lead from White just a lap later.

Although extra caution was being taken for the conditions, the rain had done little to dampen the drivers’ competitive spirit with less than a second covering the top six in the first half of the race. Dave Longhurst, having missed race one whilst he put the finishing touches to his new Duratec engine, was on a mission and was the bump drafter of the day to move through the field from the back to take fifth place on lap nine. He was also to place Antony Hawkins under extreme pressure a lap later, although the Sutton Coldfield driver hung on to his fourth place.

Simon Carr had other ideas though and on lap nine passed Hawkins before closing in on Michael Smith. On lap 13 he made his move to displace Smith off the final podium spot before setting his sights on taking Phil White’s second place, which he successfully did on lap 15.

Antony Hawkins reclaimed fourth place on the penultimate lap as he passed Michael Smith, while Phil White got the better of Simon Carr heading into the final turn before the chequered flag to take back second place. Nic Grindrod had safely secured his second win of the day, although only by 0.231 seconds ahead of White with Carr on the third step of the rostrum.

The Grand Final signalled a change in the weather with the rain having finally stopped and a drying track was to make things more interesting over the course of the 35 laps. Nic Grindrod was the brave man to come in on the warm up laps to change to a mix of wet and slick tyres with everyone else sticking to full wets.

Once again pole man Lee Rogers was swarmed by Antony Hawkins, who’d got a great start from row two to take the lead. By lap three though race two podium man Simon Carr had moved into the lead leaving Hawkins second just ahead of Michael Smith.

Lap five saw an anxious Phil White, also carrying the maximum 70kg ballast, forced to pit with a puncture while Dave Briggs had also disappeared from proceedings at turn two with a gear box problem.

On lap seven Smith was past Hawkins’ #98 truck and into second and then began to chase leader Simon Carr who had already given himself a clear gap of five seconds by lap 15. Dave Longhurst was one of very few who was getting the best out of his tyres on the drying track to draft effectively on the back of 2009 champion Pete Stevens before making his move on lap 17 for fifth place

Places remained the same with Nic Grindrod really now the only man gaining any. Having been last following his tyre change before the start he had moved to sixth by lap 20.

Lap 23 saw Smith begin to struggle on his tyres and Hawkins was beginning to close the 7.4 second gap. It seemed as if there would not be enough laps to catch the Hartlepool driver and it would only be Longhurst who would gain another place past Grindrod on lap 31.

But Hawkins did have just enough time as between turns three and four on the final lap he got enough drive to edge past Smith and make up for just missing out on a podium in Heat One by securing second place with Carr having taken the chequered flag 2.9 seconds ahead of him for his first win at Rockingham since 2004.

With Grindrod moving top of the oval championship, Michael Smith has managed to put himself on top of the overall table. The LINE-X Pickup Racing Championship will be back in action for another oval round, this time at Mallory Park on June 13.

Thanks to Sarah Carnell for editorial, David Swan, Stan Loam, Graham Holbon for photographs