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IMSD Racing took a narrow but ultimately vital win at Whilton Mill yesterday to secure their second consecutive championship and cement what has been a perfect year for the team.
After taking a convincing lead in the championship at Ellough Park two weeks ago, the team came here knowing that they needed another good result to keep HB Racing at bay. The general consensus, however, was that the championship would go down to the wire…
The race started with some controversy as HB Racing started 10 places further up the grid than they should have done. This prompted an appeal by IMSD with Stephen Deuchar and Eddie Hall having to lodge a complaint with the officials. The appeal was over-ruled and HB were not penalised for their starting infringement.
It mattered little as Eddie quickly caught Stuart Brierley after the first pitstops and passed him on track. By the time of the first changeover the team were running fifth with a pitstop in hand over the leading four.
From here on in it was just a case of driving conservatively but with enough speed to keep HB Racing at bay. By the half distance mark, the trio of Hall, Wilson and Deuchar had established themselves in a net first place, with HB trailing behind.
Supported in the pits by the other team driver, Ian Miller, the pitstops all went without a hitch, which would end up playing a huge part in the outcome of the race.
When Eddie came in after his second stint the gap was just over 13 seconds to HB. As at Ellough Park two weeks ago traffic became a crucial factor. HB did a better job of carving their way through the back markers in the last 45 minutes and managed to get the gap down to just over half a second at the flag. A relieved Stephen Deuchar crossed the line to take a memorable victory.
All parties left the circuit convinced that the championship was still open. On paper it seemed that IMSD still needed 50 points to clinch the championship. However, it later transpired that once the drop scores came in to play (it is the best 8 out of 10 results that count), the team already had 55 point in the bag from their lowly 10th place at Glan-Y-Gores. A surprised but delighted team had taken the Inters championship at their first attempt!
Team captain, Stephen Deuchar was obviously delighted with the team's 2005 performance.
"Winning this championship is a superb achievement for the team. I think the chief reasons for our success have been the cool, reliability and steady speed of all the drivers, our clever strategies, and demon pitwork. I shouldn't really single anyone out for particular praise, but I would say that Eddie Hall, our youngest driver, has been getting quicker and quicker all year and is now one of the acknowledged stars of the whole Inters field. We're all looking forward to moving up to the Clubman's class in the Premier championship next season, but meanwhile we've got some celebrating to do........" |
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