Birmingham Wheels Saturday 8th March 2014

After a very wet Winter it was time for The Spectator to emerge from hibernation and get his backside trackside again in 2014. I hadn't visited Birmingham Wheels for 2 years but on a clear cool Saturday night a good looking meeting on paper tempted me to head into the heart of the country's second biggest city.
11 races were scheduled with 4 for National Hot Rods, 4 for V8 Hot Stox and 3 for Ministox with a start time of 6.30pm.
For the first time visitor to Birmingham Wheels Raceway they must wonder where they are going as the raceway is located down one of the less salubrious roads in Birmingham and barely a mile or two from the city centre. Once inside though the oval is a great place to watch racing from with steep terracing around three sides of the track providing a good view of the action.
National Hot Rods are one of my favourite formulas on the short ovals and always provide hard but relatively clean racing. The "Nationals" had 3 heats with a 2/3rds format with every driver getting 2 races before the 35 lap final. Kym Weaver won both his heats and went on to win the final.
V8 Hot Stox are Rover V8 powered machines that are similar in appearance to Brisca F1 cars but cater for the driver on a budget. Interesting to note the appearance of Phoebe Wainman who won the second heat. Daughter of Frankie Wainman Jr, the Wainman name is one of the most famous in stock car racing and looks to be in good hands for the future.
Mini Stox provides entry level racing for the youngster who wants to progress into Stock car racing when old enough. Contact is allowed in Mini Stox and I've seen some frightening accidents over the years as teenagers tend not to have any fear.....Driving standards on this evening were very good and the quality of racing was excellent.
All in all a very good meeting to start the season and I always come away from a Short Circuit meeting thinking I must get to more tracks and meetings but I never do. My first memories of spectating were from sitting on my dad's Ford Cortina Estate roof (in a custom made chair bolted to the roof rack!) watching banger racing at the local dirt track. The pluses of watching oval racing are that you can see virtually everything and overtaking is the norm rather than the exception rather than circuit racing. Interesting to spot BTCC ITV commentator David Addison in the crowd and he has been known on occasion to call races on the ovals.
Admission on the night was £14 and a programme which covered all the Incarace/Spedeworth meetings on the weekend was £1.50.


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