Matt Stock Car Racing @ Birmingham Wheels

A birthday gift with a bit of a difference saw Matt travel up to Birmingham Wheels Raceway for a day of stock car racing. With 37 competitors and a batch of Stock Car race prepared Vauxhall Corsa's it was going to be a fun day and a chance for Ethan to provide race instruction to his dad.

We explict instructions of no contact the 37 drivers were split into 3x groups. I was in group C so got to watch the carnage of the first 2 groups during their practice laps and 2x heats. With cars rolling, 1x back injury, 2 wheels coming off after contact with the armco and multiple spins it looked more like a destruction derby (or Honda cadet at Forest Edge) than racing.

Taking car #11 I decided to test the level of grip in the practice session with only 3 laps to use - entering the first corner the answer was obviously - no grip! lots of understeer and frantic steering got me through and up the straight at 60mph to see how to get round the next. We went straight into the heats where I was lined up in 6th on the grid. A decent start saw me take 4 in the first lap and set off after the leader. With only 8 laps per heat there was a lot to do as the cars were quite evenly matched. I managed to sneak up the inside with 2 laps to go and cross the line 1st, only to be docked a place for exceeding track limits to gain a place! Just like karting!!

Straight into heat 2 I lined up 7th this time and after two laps had got up to 3rd. The car in 2nd was hugging the inside line and the leader had cleared off so I spent a few laps trying to find a gap. Eventually a half gap appeared and i took it, sliding up the inside the other car kept trying to close the door and he slide sideways - i jumped to the outside, drover around him as he corrected and took 2nd at the flag.

The points from the heats grouped us all for the group finals with the top 2 from each group going into the grand finale 5 lap shootout. The lap scorer missed my 2nd heat results so I lined up 4th in the Group C final. Ethan gave me his instructions for the start and which line to take so i headed back out onto the oval.

Back in car #11 i had a decent start and got to 3rd but the leader decided to swerve all over the track to try and keep 2nd place behind him, 2 laps in, he overcooked it, collected the guy in 2nd who i then hit hard in the back but managed to keep going and grab first only for the race to be red flagged. Lining up on the grid again, i lost the gearbox and had to quickly swap to another car. Car #4 had a great gearbox and pulled a lot better in 1st and 2nd and I was able to use this to quickly grab the lead on the restart and take the chequered flag 8 car lengths ahead of the the rest.

Word in the pits and from Ethan was that car #15 was the quickest and grippiest out there so as the grand final drivers chatted and got their helmets on i sneaked over and jumped in! My results from the earlier heats and group final put me on pole for the final and I was feeling pretty confident in the 'fastest' car. It was quick in a straight line but had absolutely no grip in the corners, but I was able to lead from lights to flag, finishing 3 car lengths ahead of 2nd.

At the trophy presentation I was lucky enough to pick up a trophy for my group final win, a trophy for the shoot out win and the trophy for the highest points scorer of the day - not bad from a field of 37!!