Carl H

1 and 555 will not be racing this weekend.

1 and 555 will not be racing this weekend.

Current booking list. 1 Frankie Wainman Jnr 3 Chris Fort4 Dan Johnson16 Mat Newson25 Bradley Harrison48 Shaun Webster55 Craig Finnikin70 Aaron Leach73 Rob Cowley84 Tom Harris101 Tristan Jackson103 Richard Masterson183 Steve Whittle196 Murray Jones207 Ben Hurdman212 Danny Wainman217 Lee Fairhurst219 Jacklyn Ellis249 Jonathon Gibson259 Paul Hines268 Richard Woods287 Sean Willis308 Stephen Malkin Jnr422 Ben Riley460 Chris Cooke462 Scott Davids464 Luke Davidson483 Wayne Marshall501 George Elwell512 Michael Steward518 Stuart Shevill Jnr555 Frankie Wainman JJ

Current booking list. 1 Frankie Wainman Jnr 4 Dan Johnson 16 Mat Newson 25 Bradley Harrison 48 Shaun Webster 55 Craig Finnikin 70 Aaron Leach 73 Rob Cowley 84 Tom Harris 101 Tristan Jackson 103 Richard Masterson 183 Steve Whittle 207 Ben Hurdman 212 Danny Wainman 249 Jonathon Gibson 259 Paul Hines 268 Richard Woods 287 Sean Willis 308 Stephen Malkin Jnr 422 Ben Riley 460 Chris Cooke 462 Scott Davids 464 Luke Davidson 483 Wayne Marshall 501 George Elwell 512 Michael Steward 555 Frankie Wainman JJ

Admission Prices are as follows : (Cash or Card at the turnstiles)General Admission £18.00Concession : (65 years & Over) £16.00Concession : Children (5-14yrs) £7.00Programme £2.00

From Buxton Raceway F1 World Qualifying Round plus National MiniStox, Open Rods, Heritage F1, and Micro F2 First race 12.30pm Buxton Raceway sees the return of the mighty BriSCA F1 Stock Cars on Sunday 21st May with the main meeting starting at 1pm, we are expecting a top line up of drivers with it also being a world championship qualifier, an early week driver list will be posted up here on Tuesday 16th May. Pay on the gate, we also accept card payments at the turnstile. ADULTS: £18.00 Inc Programme OAP £16.00 CHILDREN - 9YRS TO 15YRS £7.00 CHILDREN - UP TO AND INC 8YRS FREE TRACKSIDE PARKING £8.00 EXTRA PROGRAMME £1.00 As the last few meeting preview threads have produced a fair amount of discussion (and no problem with that; it is a discussion forum!), then from now on, anything not directly related to the meeting in question will be split off into a seperate thread. So if you post something in here and it seems to have disappeared, don't worry, it's most likely just been moved. This is so that all the relevant info about this meeting is in one easy to find place, and not buried among discussion. Your co-operation is appreciated. And mandatory.

F1 plus National Hot Rods and Superstox. Start time 6pm. No other details, including the booking list, are available at the moment. They will be added to this thread as and when they are released. If you see any info online about this meeting that isn't mentioned on this thread, feel free to post it yourself. As the last few meeting preview threads have produced a fair amount of discussion (and no problem with that; it is a discussion forum!), then from now on, anything not directly related to the meeting in question will be split off into a seperate thread. So if you post something in here and it seems to have disappeared, don't worry, it's most likely just been moved. This is so that all the relevant info about this meeting is in one easy to find place, and not buried among discussion. Your co-operation is appreciated. And mandatory.

It's capped at 65 according to Speaky in the BSCDA Press Release. Must admit, I can't fault his logic. It’s a big BriSCA F1 stock car racing weekend at Skegness with the first major championship of the season. The seaside track hosts a World Championship qualifying round on Saturday night with the big event of the weekend, the UK Open Championship, taking place on Sunday afternoon. Promoter Rob Speak has limited the number of cars attending to 65, the biggest car turnout this season, to avoid diluting the racing with too many split-field races. “I’ve limited it to 65 cars because I don’t want two consolations and two Grand Nationals,” said Speak. “It dilutes the racing too much and the crowd don’t like it. “I want good races with full grids. When I was racing, me and Frankie Wainman Jnr could be getting at it in the final, we would both rush into the pits, both mending our cars – with his fans around his car and my fans around my car – and there was a great atmosphere. The crowd would be looking forward to the National. “What the crowd wouldn't like to see is both getting back out on the track only to discover, because they are so many cars, they have split the National so that I would be in one and Frank in the other. “By doing that, you’ve absolutely killed the night. It doesn’t matter if the rest of the meeting had been brilliant, because all the crowd would talk about then is how the end of the meeting was a let down. I don’t want to go down that road.” And so fans can expect a festival of F1 stock car action, and with so many competitive cars on the grid through all the grades, Skegness has a habit of springing surprise results. None more so than at last year’s UK Open, which was won by Neil Scriven. Starting from yellow, 33-year-old Scriven won a heat before holding on to the lead in the UK Open while the big guns behind held each other up. It was only his second-ever final victory, and totally unexpected. “I’ve never really done that well at Skegness, and had never won a race there,” Scriven said. “Something was obviously right that day, but I don’t know what!” What made the win all the more remarkable was the fact he had major problems with the Tarmac car leading up to the weekend. “Last year I had no end of trouble,” Scriven said. “The engine went wrong at Birmingham, so I didn’t race at Hednesford, then spent the whole week swapping over engines, putting the shale engine into the Tarmac car. “I then went to Northampton, more as a practice as we were working on the car right to until the last minute, and the gearbox let go. “So I went to Skegness without any testing, with the shale engine in the Tarmac car, really just for the Saturday night to get some World Championship qualifying points. It went alright, but nothing special and that was the first proper meeting I raced at last year.” The Skegness weekend is the first event of the season where drivers line up according to the latest grading points. Stuart Smith Jnr, after his record-breaking start to the season from star grade, now starts further down the grid as a superstar, while the other new superstar, Craig Finnikin, misses the event. Conversely, European Champion Dan Johnson and Mat Newson move further forward on the grid from superstar to star grade, and will be two of the favourites to win the big race. Drew Lammas and Ben Hurdman line up on Saturday with a fresh lick of red paint on their aerofoils, both starting as star drivers for the first time. Hurdman began his stock car career at Skegness in 2011 and is looking forward to his new status. “My aim at the start of the year was to get to blue and to keep blue,” Hurdman said. “But it just happened I got to red and I hope I can keep it for a bit. That would be great.” “I’ve had more success on Tarmac, so I’m just pleased I managed to persuade my boss, Hoss Fernihough, to buy me a Tarmac car! Without it it would have been a pretty depressing season. “We did, however, do a lot of work on the shale car before King’s Lynn and I won a race there – the first one I’ve won all year.” Skegness is one of Hurdman’s favourite tracks. “I really like it and it’s good to see they are doing a lot of work there,” he said. “It’s nice to see somebody putting something back into the sport. “When I went to New Zealand, the promoters there really reinvest heavily back into the facilities. That’s why they get such good crowds and it looks like Rob’s doing the same at Skegness. “It’s the same at King’s Lynn. When we go there it gets a little bit better every time and Buster Chapman deserves to earn some money out of the job for what he has done there. “You’ve got to speculate to accumulate and I think Rob’s putting a lot of money into it and I think it’ll reap rewards in years to come.”

Nice touch - providing he doesn't drink all the beer before anyone else gets to try it! I think that's unlikely.

Press release from Skegness Stadium...

Sounds like #13 Kelvin Hassell is looking forward to it...

You're a day early, Paul! 1 Frankie Wainman Jnr 2 Paul Harrison 3 Chris Fort 4 Dan Johnson 9 James Tucker 11 Neil Scriven 13 Kelvin Hassell 16 Matt Newson 25 Bradley Harrison 36 Jordan Falding 45 Nigel Harrhy 48 Shaun Webster 56 Graham Moulds 57 William Fenwick 70 Aaron Leach 73 Rob Cowley 84 Tom Harris 101 Tristan Jackson 166 Bobby Griffin 175 Karl Hawkins 183 Steve Whittle 186 Todd Jones 196 Murray Jones 197 Ryan Harrison 207 Ben Hurdman 212 Danny Wainman 217 Lee Fairhurst 220 William Hunter 238 Richard Bryan 249 Jonathon Gibson 259 Paul Hines 268 Richard Woods 278 Paul Hopkins 280 Colin Nairn 283 Alex Wass 284 Sam Wass 287 Sean Willis 300 Paul Carter 303 Karl Whiteman 308 Stephen Malkin Jnr 325 Richard Davies 337 Dave Willis 372 Colin Goodswen 390 Stuart Smith 401 Steve Webster 415 Russell Cooper 422 Ben Riley 445 Nigel Green455 Matthew Armstrong 464 Luke Davidson 468 Danny Colliver 474 Steve Booth 478 Shane Geary 483 Wayne Marshall 495 Richard Howarth 501 George Elwell 512 Michael Steward 518 Stuart Shevill Jnr. 541 Steven Holgate543 Drew Lammas 545 Neil Hooper 555 Frankie Wainman Jnr Jnr H77 Wesley Schaap H380 Christiaan WeyenburgH400 Roy Maessen H917 Gary Grattan

I try my best with every meeting! It's a magnificent turnout, and much higher than I was expecting. Also great to see that some of our Dutch friends will be making a visit for the first time in a fair few years.

Off the record, and you never heard this from me, right? 37 at the moment. Bear in mind that it's still a whole week away. They've got until sometime on Friday to book in, and quite a few are notorious for leaving it to the last minute...

Yes, I know.

Debatable... Ratings from http://www.stoxnet.com/driver-of-the-day.phpand attendances from http://points.f1stockcars.com/attendances.htm

I'm wondering if starting this preview thread so early was a mistake. It's far too early to have any kind of definite idea of the booking list, as drivers will still be trying to get their cars ready, etc. Anyone looking for somewhere to stay for the weekend, have a look at this thread :- Caravans and cottages available for the Skeggy speed weekend

As soon as any information becomes available, I post it on here. It's UK Open Championship on the BSCDA fixture list. The 'open' means anyone can enter, unlike other championships, such as the World, that you have to qualify for, and the British, which is (or used to be) a restricted entry.

Statement from Startrax We note the comments with regard the track being on the base on turns 3 and 4 - although to be absolutely fair, on many occasions that is quite normal dating back to 1999 - It was however 'smooth' - We are however scratching our heads a little. All that said it's 'stock car' racing not supercar racing! A lot of it is to do with track watering and with rain forecast in the morning we 'held off' and then sudddenly it turned quite hot and dried out fast, it has to be 'damp' to bind and I didn't want it over watering F1 wise which makes 1/2 a race 'bog monster' racing and cars just spinning out! Our track man controlled the dust well it has to be said, shale racing is difficult to master in such conditions. The second element is specific to F1's and the characteristics of the tyres over the last 2/3 years - You will notice at King's Lynn, Stoke and Coventry how the shale 'piles up against the fence' like a ski ramp - it didn't use to - That does not happen with any other formula, effectively they scarify and 'strip' the track and when it's dry, it's worse, it's not as noticeable on rope and post fences. The last F1 at Stoke, we had to have a teleporter to shovel it off - 16 races and 170 + Bangers last Saturday, no build up of shale! There is plenty of shale on both tracks. We have put on around 100 tonnes of shale at Belle Vue this year. Quite a lot of this was from Coventry and we are now thinking that this was 'light' in composition and not enough clay content in the mix as there is already a lot of limestone in the mix. We are therefore ordering another load for Whitsun with a much higher clay content. I must re-iterate the track itself was smooth. A lot has been invested in Belle Vue in the last 12 months, the considerable work last year in new drainage etc has however perhaps altered the shale/clay mix with limestone. I personally only saw the F1 Final & GN which from where I stood, I would rate a solid 7/10 cannot speak for the heats, however the elephant in the room is 'car numbers' which leads to people looking at other things. I believe 26 raced and thank you to every one, the numbers are something, frustratingly I cannot do anything about, shale is on a slow start this year, I do not believe we can do any more until more drivers surface. The sport has moved to the Midlands / East /South Midlands over the last decade is one reason as far as the driver base is concerned, Sunday's and Monday's are never as popular as a Saturday night due to work the next day with drivers or distance spectators - it is a conundrum. Rightly or wrongly, F1 fans are the biggest critics, discussion about numbers of formulae as an example, there are currently not enough F1's to contemplate dropping any! Mondays show lasted exactly the same as King's Lynn Saturday with 4 more races, on a Bank Holiday Monday we have to attract 'families' to 'watch cars crash' and the hard work 'promoting' paid off with the one of the best holiday crowds since 1999, in part Caravans [NOT F1's - sad fact of life ] I personally thought the F2's were excellent, Ministox on par and don't really understand John B re Bangers, saw the last race and plenty of cars still on track. I understand if your only interest is F1's then none of that may be of interest to you, but a sad fact of life, to 75% of the attendees it is, F1 just ain't as big as it used to be and at the moment we have to get behind it. Personally I find it all rather dispiriting at the moment F1 wise as I do agree it is all about cars on track. With 25/26 we did what we believed was best for drivers ie 2/3rds - perhaps we should have just shoved them all in ? I begin to feel we just cannot win, for hardcore F1 fans who vote a rather insulting 4, that's disingenuous to the drivers, the 'other' [no longer support] formulae,, staff and ourselves for the effort put in. F1 has changed, the driver base has changed and demographics - I could go on for pages being passionate about F1 about 'how' it needs to change and adapt, but you read some of this and the passion evaporates quite quickly, which is quite sad really as it was a really good event with positive feedback from a considerable number of new attendees - who may read this! Perhaps, if it's all about car numbers, to protect ourselves from much of the critique we should simply 'drop' the formula and promote the 'support' ? I could go on but reading much in recent weeks the more i write the more negative I will become - its infectious which is something we should all bear in mind! We have received a number of e-mails regarding both events over the weekend in the vein of one I copied below, the only negativity seems to be F1, let's just step back a minute and think that we don't bring about a self fulfilling prophecy. Thank you to the drivers for their support Steve Rees. Hi there,can i say the Stan woods 2017 has to be the best £18 i have spent, my bangers days started with mike Parker promoting hell drivers at white city in the seventies so i have been to a few.The organization and turnout of cars and spectators all contributed to night of fantastic racing,its a shame that i have to wait another year. Well done startrax.NICK.SMITH

So you can return to your car between races for refreshments, your medication, or just a sit-down. You might be able to stand up for the entire duration of a meeting with no problems, Harry - but not everyone is young, energetic, and in perfect health.

Press release from Skegness “The Boys are back in town” We look forward to our first Speedweekend of the year, and welcome back to three stock car formulas of Brisca F1, Brisca F2 and National Mini Stox. We welcome back to Skegness Stadium after an absence of a few years, a contingent of Drivers from Holland. The drivers add a new dimension to the race track and we welcome the fans that come along with them. Add to that what is always a large turnout of UK based F1 drivers, this weekend is shaping up to be a cracker!!! Saturday night is a WCQR for the Brisca F1s and Sunday the UK Championship in its 28th year, with 21 of these Championships being held at Skegness, the current holder is 11 Neil Scriven. The races on Sunday qualify for the UK Championship which will be run in graded order. The UK is sponsored by “The Kaleta Family” long standing members of the Skeggy officials team Eddie, Helen, and Richard. Admission is all pay at the gate, card payments can be accepted at the turnstiles only. Two Day Ticket Adult £40 Senior £36 Junior £14 Saturday only Adult £20 Senior £18 Junior £8 Sunday only Adult £22 Senior £20 Junior £8 Turnstiles open at 3pm on Saturday. Pitgate & Camping area opens at 2pm Saturday (PLEASE do not arrive before that time) Camping, caravans, motorhomes are only allowed to stay over on Saturday night and this is all through the back gate into the farmers field, £20 per unit, sorry but there is no camping, caravans or motorhomes allowed to stay on the carpark overnight. We appreciate your patience while our continued improvements to the Stadium facilities are carried out. There are bars & catering on site and a large covered Grandstand if the weather is a bit iffy, where you can see all of the racing at all times. Trackview parking is available where you can watch the racing from the comfort of your vehicle, just pay normal admission at the pit gate entrance and it’s an additional £12 for a car, £17 for a 4 x 4 & people carrier. Sorry we are not able to pre book spaces or have Transit sized vehicles or Motorhomes on trackview.

Wasn't Harry van der Spuij the first ever "foreigner" to win a Final when he won the Trophy at Harringay London ? I think he was the first driver from outside the UK to win a final while on a visit. That was 1971. The first ever meeting staged was at New Cross on Good Friday 1954, and the final was won by a French chap called Chevalier D'Orgeix.

Tonight's programme.

Another superb program by Stoxs Graphics, which covers the banger meeting at Stoke tonight and Belle Vue on Monday.