The Fairhurst team decided to travel down to Northampton on Friday evening rather than Saturday morning and this turned out to be a wise decision as the team bus suffered not one but two separate blow outs enroute, with them finally arriving at the track at 1 am rather than the expected ETA of 10 pm.
Saturday World Final Day
The team were pitted close to the pit gate and also alongside both Maynard’s and Willis’s so they could all help each other out during the weekend. Lee signed many autograph cards during the build up and also gave out sweets to the kids (and big kids).
Consolation Semi-final
The consolation semi final race was always going to be a tough race but Lee got stuck in and quickly moved up from 18th to 10th after the first lap. Lee eventually finished 3rd behind Matt Newson and Ed Neachell, just missing out on the top two guaranteed places at the back of the World Final grid.
Result - 16-321-217-37-153-34-141-191-246-422
However WF qualifier 434 Ivan Pritchard blew his engine in practice and was unable to source a replacement car for the big race and had to withdraw. As Lee had finished third in the consolation semi, this now made him first reserve and he was now in the World Final, starting on the back row behind AUS 1 Shane French.
World Final
At the start of the World Final Lee got caught behind Shane who failed to set off at a decent pace and Lee was already on the back foot from the outset. Lee started to make his way through the field however and was very lucky to avoid being collected by the out of control car of NZ3 Peter Rees as he piled into the turn 3 fence due to being unconscious. Towards the end of the race Lee had moved into 13th place which is the position he held for the last five laps of the race and his final finishing position.
Result - 2-4-1-259-390-84-16-21-H22-22 (217 -13th)
Consolation
After finishing in third place in the consolation semi final, Lee should have been already qualified for the meeting final, but since he was then added as first reserve into the World Final where he finished outside the top 10, he was informed that he would have to go out in the consolation race. A fine second place was achieved in the consolation event which qualified the 217 car for the meeting Final.
Result - 460-217-51-484-321-300-392-161-126
Final
Five minutes before the 217 car went out onto track, Fairhurst team member Jack mentioned that it had been a good night so far with no damage. The rest of the team gave him grief as he had probably put the kiss of death on Lee for the final.
Sure enough, part way into the race whilst holding 8th place, Lee got hooked up with another car and both headed for the infield. After managing to separate the cars, 217 rejoined the race but pulled off again after a lap as it was apparent that the front end had sustained some minor damage, so Lee had to retire from the final.
Grand National
The car was quickly repaired and Lee lined up in 12th place for his final race of the night. By lap 7 Lee had climbed up 2nd place behind 12 Michael Scriven. The 217 car was flying like it was on rails and on lap 9 he took over the lead of the race. A win was on the cards as nobody was able to maintain the speed of the 217 car. This lead was however short lived when on lap 10 the unimaginable happened. Whilst going up the inside of H36 Paul Hermkens to lap him on the back straight, the unsighted Dutch driver decided that he was going to pull out of the race as he must have had a problem with his car. Without warning he abruptly turned hard left onto the infield. Lee was alongside his car at the time and had nowhere to go but onto the infield himself and to try and avoid getting hooked up or having an accident. This immediately dropped the 217 car down to 6th place after he rejoined the track. Over the last 6 laps, Lee managed to claw his way back up to 3rd place, but it should have been a win but for the Dutch driver taking him out whilst leading.
Result - 12-462-217-55-126-53-484-22-411-H477
Report Chris has sent to the press
Lee claimed his second major championship title of his short BriSCA formula one career, when he won the UK Open championship at Skegness stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Only a month into his third season in the sport, Lee has go to grips with the tarmac car which was totally rebuilt over the winter and he is now happy with the cars set up which he and the Fairhurst family run team have been fine tuning for the past month.
20 year old Lee, who next month completes his motor mechanic apprenticeship at Gordon's Ford in Bolton, got off to a flying start with a race win on Saturday night, which set him in good stead for Sunday's championship event.
Lee qualified well for the UK Open final
with a 5th place finish in his first heat despite having a punctured front
tyre for most of the race and followed that up with 3rd place in his second
heat. This was enough to give
him a place on row 8 of the grid for the final, lining up behind title
favourite Tom Harris.
Tom and Lee both quickly worked their way to the front in the early laps of the race, with Harris leading and Lee giving chase in the second half of the 20 lap race. Lee was closing the gap to Harris but with 5 laps to run, Tom's differential failed and his car ground to a halt, allowing Lee through and into the lead of the race.
The Harwood racer just had to keep the car under control for the remaining laps on a now very slippery track, due to the dropped oil from Tom Harris's broken differential and also fend off a challenge from second place finisher Matt Newson.
With the UK Open title under his belt, Lee now turns his focus to trying to regain the European championship at Northampton raceway in July, a title he won in 2009, as well as qualifying for the World championship final which is also being hosted at the Northamptonshire track in September.
The debut of the long awaited new self built
shale car had to be delayed due to some mechanical issues with the teams
transporter which needed to be repaired before work could continue on
the new car, but the teams attention is now on getting it ready so that
Lee can get some valuable experience
racing on the loose surface to further his racing career.
The Fairhurst team are still looking for
assistance or sponsorship to help them with the fuel costs of attending
the meetings each week and would like to hear from anyone who may be able
to offer help.
