With 19 days to go, its time to remember of a time when the charts had Men in Black at the top, from the film of the same name starring Will Smith. Greg Rusedski became the fastest serving tennis player, with a rocket of a ball at 141 mph. Then the World's eyes were on a tunnel in Paris where Princess Diana was killed. World Final 1997. A Scottish one, as Cowdie played host for the 2nd time.
For Jonny this was a first ever trip to Scotland. I had heard in wonderment about this mystical place called Cowdenbeath where they race every Saturday, and as I was old enough, and stupid enough, we set out to travel the umpteen miles from Cornwall to Scotland for the 3 day meeting. At around 6am on the M5 just past Bristol, we saw en route to the Racewall, Mark Green aka Trav, with his Formula 2 and his dad, and we passed sweets from car to van at 70 mph.....
For the Westcountry, our sacrificial lamb to the Speak Altar that year was Tim Farrell (667). Never one lacking self confidence, Timmy won his semi on the unfamiliar shale surface of Mildenhall. Speak had the somewhat easier task of negotiating a rather sodden Smeatharpe, in what proved to be one of Trevor Redmond's last F2 meetings, as the hat wearing promoter passed on in the following month.
With the cauldron of the Racewall ranked up a notch, fans were behind their adopted son Rob Speak, who's father in law (at the time) happened to be the promoter, with Speak being an almost regular at the Scottish track. 3 other Scots were a fair way down the high street, Steven Paterson (532), Robin Drysdale (464) and Stuart Gilchrist (477), probably due to the fact that the semis were at Mildenhall. History repeating itself???
So with a fair amount of no shows, including previous years runner up Mike James (717), the grid made its way out. Legendary Scottish commentator Chris John led them out and described the action, and it was go time.
The first start saw 2 massive rollovers on the first bend. No sooner had legendary Racewall commentator Chris John called his immortal catchphrase "clean and green", than console guru Lee Guinchard (258) and Lancaster Bomber Dean Mason (658) flipped over, bringing the red flags out for the restart.
With many of the main rows obliterated they lined up again. Scot, Steven Paterson (532) was now in a reasonable position to launch and assault, as also Barry Goldin (401) , but it was Farrell and Speak who led them away, to the strains of "Fanfare of the Common Man"
Murray West (NZ98) was by far the slowest car out there. A token entry from New Zealand, he was one of the Kiwi's top drivers. However with limited experience of the UK tracks and the Russell Taylor car, he struggled to get to grips. So it was little surprise that Speak was soon on West's back bumper. However West was not going to move easily. He caused Speak to slow, which allowed Farrell and the chasing pack to catch. West was soon dispensed with as spun around up the top corner. however the car was roll back into the racing line which brought out another yellow flag.
With 10 laps remaining, Speak took the cars on one of his trademark slow warm up laps, as they exited turn 4, Speak seemed to miss a gear, and stuttered at the start. Farrell, Paterson, Luscombe and Gilbert moved to swoop on the 218 car, but normal service was resumed and the Manchester based driver sped away into the distance again. A real battle then developed for the remaining places between Farrell and Paterson.
Title no 6 for speak, and for those so looking forward to someone else winning, they were to be disappointed. For the Scots, some hope in a quiet period with Paterson's third. However, more hope was to come towards the end of the next season, as a big Scottish hero was just around the corner, a certain G. Moodie.
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| Durable for any occasion, Avon Tyres. Heh Gordon, this is where you do donuts! |
The Full Result
218 Rob Speak, 667 Tim Farrell, 532 Steven Paterson, 642 Dave Luscombe, 542 Peter Gilbert,
732 Daz Kitson, 622 Darren Bingley, 335 Mark Woodhull, 273 Rob Fountain, 344 Phil Woodhull
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