The Saturday before the World Final was always used to be a nervous time. No more so than in 1994, when the following day, the World Final was to be one of the most controversial of them all.
Now I have a confession to make, I had a small part to play in this incident. It was the start of Uncles Mike and Neil Lampshire's racing career and mostly their car spent an awful lot of time down at my dad's workshop. The month of August saw plenty of race wins and many stood up and took notice. Les approached Mike to set up his ex John Harding car for the World Final, having fallen out with Higgy. So there was a red top car at my house. A red top! The 14 year old Jonny was still a bit excited .
The Saturday before the big day, we were visited by Les and his son, 6 year old Jonathon, who was no doubt thinking off his sherbert dib dab trading empire. As he sat chatting to, not with, my mum and dad, my sister and I finished polishing both the 737 and 24 cars. So in part, I played my part.
With very few foreigners lined up, the re-emergence of Les Palmer (IOM24) gave promoter Roy Goodman another option to give it a more world wide feel. A decision which could have had repercussions later on in the day
So after Speaky dispensed with the world champ Ian King (804) and Bill Batten (167) at Newton Abbot Semi and local form man Peter Gilbert (542) negotiated a tricky semi at Warton, the grid had the makings of a classic.
Sadly, due to a wrist injury sustained following a follow in by Gilbert at Newton a few weeks before, Colin Higman (778) did not take up his position behind the Cornishman. There was talk of Eric "Dink Dink" Brown (175) having a little nudge at the Speak back bumper, and there was the threat of Bill Batten (167), form man, and dangerous from his consolation semi final position.
The World Final got rolling as the green dropped, Speak turned right on Gilbert and drove him into the post and wire. Chaos ensued behind, bringing out the reds and a complete restart. The 542 car was extracted from its wire web and got ready for the second attempt, only for a near carbon copy of the first start to happen. This time, however, it was terminal for "The Undertaker". Speak sped away and got clear, only Bill Batten (167) fresh from his consolation win was catching, and he was miles away. After John Mickel (4) rolled on the infield, the 24 came off the infield and tried, firstly to sideswipe the 218 car. As the track then had no infield marker tyres and was much smaller, it was easier for Palmer to attack from the infield. Black flag was shown, and ignored by the Plymouthian tax exile. Another attempt and this time, he parked up as the Speak beast wouldn't die. Donuts as Speak took the chequered, and then came the revenge. The parked 24 car was rammed not once, but twice in a spate of vengence.
The official result should have read 218, Daylight, 167, 152.
Whether it was right or wrong for Palmer to do what he did, he attempted to do what a lot of people would have done in their wildest dreams. Speak certainly took out his frustration, however probably not advisable to do it in a packed infield. Speak was at the top of his game then, truly unstoppable and he was not going to be beaten there. With title number 3, he entered the Parthenon of greatness, as only 2 others could claim to be a treble world champion.
After the results, Palmer was banned for period, only to have it overturned in the courts. Speak got a 6 month ban for dangerous and unsporting behaviour, which made 1995 very interesting indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment