UK National Finals, Santa Pod Raceway, England
The crowning of the UK National Champions took place at a slightly surreal final event at Santa Pod Raceway. After the super smooth running of the European Finals earlier in the month, the National Finals started off with a very wet racetrack following on from heavy overnight rain on the Saturday, which turned into a qualifying day which just dragged on and on, as oildown followed oildown, pushing activity deep into the evening with ladders finally decided around about lunchtime on Sunday. The bumper sportsman fields eventually came to a conclusion at dusk on Sunday and capped off another year of growth in the foundations of British drag racing.
MSA Pro Modified Championship
After just falling short of taking the European FIA Pro Modified title a couple of weeks previously, Andy Robinson contented himself with the booty from a dominating performance in the MSA Pro Modified National championship to go with his Swedish National Championship title secured back in the summer. Qualifying on pole with a 6.35, then low ET 6.223/221 in the first round of eliminations and a 6.259/225 in the final round over Bert Englefield secured a healthy end of season bonus to put towards the re-skinning of the RRC Studebaker over the winter break.
Bert Englefield ended up in his second MSA Pro Mod final round this season, following on from a title runoff with Robinson at the Summernationals. Englefield was the only other racer alongside Robinson to run in the sixes (a 6.73/208 being admittedly somewhat distant from the pole) during the abbreviated qualifying. Despite pulling a big holeshot, the final was over by the 300 foot mark as the 38 Ford wiggled a little too much after coming out of tireshake.
