Hello F2 Stock Car Fans.
Aside
from taking the piss out of all and sundry during my Unloaded 7.3 days and
occasional rants on FTooz (that’s the website that once was similar in some
ways to the F2 drivers committee, i.e. it actually had a voice) it has been a
while since I wrote anything about the F2 world.
Anyway, JHo or whatever he’s called
asked me to talk about some F2 stuff, so here we go, let’s talk about some F2 stuff.
As many of you may know I’ve been involved in F2’s one way or another for
around 20 years. Originally I started swapping bumpers and fixing damage for
Drippy Sworder, then moved into the Elite days with ‘the Guinch’ and then the
final run at F2’s with the MTEC posse. Of course, we ended up doing the ultimate
dirty – no, not gardening of the uphill variety, but going racing with those
Spedeworth shitbags and their so called ‘Super’ Stox.
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| Uphill gardeners, really are Super... |
Anyway, the reason for my F2 CV
above is to try and explain that I’m not just another dickhead who likes to drone
on about anything and everything around the F2 world just for ‘shits and
giggles’. Despite how it may appear sometimes, I really do care about the F2
world. If it wasn’t for my ‘career’ in F2’s I’d not be enjoying my day job
which is twiddling knobs and stroking keyboards in the F1 GP world.
So, hells bells. Where on earth do
I start when taking a look at how things are in the F2 world? It’s easy to
throw a simple ‘dogshit’ quote out there, but it’s not as easy as that. I don’t
know much, but I do know there are some really good people working in the F2
world, so to summarise it all as ‘dogshit’ wouldn’t be fair on them. However,
and choosing my words carefully, there clearly are some complete fucking morons
out there that seem hell bent on losing the sport the scraps of credibility
that it’s desperately hanging on to.
The current hot topic is of
course ‘donut gate’ the happened at the Master’s retirement do. It’s a real
shame all of this went on, but with the general panto of it all along with
Billy B berating the kids who were dicking around on the back straight it was
worth the entrance fee alone. I’m sure most of us went away thinking that it
was handbags and Gordon was a bit of a bellend for doing donuts around the
centre green (ok, tarmac), but it wouldn’t go any further. Well of course, the
jungle drums beat pretty loud and I don’t need to tell the story again.
There were loads of chaps booing
the #7 pilot at Mildenhall last weekend. That’s standard these days and of
course with all that has been going on it’s to be expected. Now, sitting on the
fence I’d say that Gordon has done what each and every driver who had a slot on
the semi-final grid would do. And that’s appeal. He did it in time to win the
Gold Cup out in Venray, which he managed to keep despite the Dutch pretty much
atomising his car in a desperate attempt to prove that he really is a cheating
little Scottish fucker. This time it would appear that there was a complete
lack of ‘lucky’ components so all was well with his car. Anyway my point, if
any, is that we shouldn’t be giving Gordon a hard time. It’s the jokers who
appear to be running the show that need beasting.
I speak to lots of F2 drivers,
and all they want is consistency and transparency within the sport. Of course
all disciplinary cases have individual circumstances that have to be taken into
account. But Christ, it really isn’t that hard to enforce the rules. It
shouldn’t matter whether you’re Gordon Moodie, Rob Speak, God Almighty or Kevin
Dick that races a 1000 year old Higgy. If you fuck up and do something wrong,
you should be punished. It’s a simple as that. What use is a suspended sentence
for the #7 pilot? Sure, it means he’s got to chill out and not annihilate
anyone for the next few months, but aside from that I doubt Gordon really gives
a shit. And to be honest, more power to him. If he can do these things and get
away with it then fair play.
As for the #218 pilot, well what
can you say? That BriSCA have stated that they are going to ‘consider’ the
ORCi’s suggestion of a suspended sentence is simply bullshit. What do they need
to consider? How they can expect him to race with the potential of an ORCi ban
over his head is beyond me. Should he choose to fire the #7 up and over the
wall at Cowdenbeath there’s ever chance that it’ll stop him racing in the
tractor World Final and also the race for Silver. Do I think that Robert is
going to race at Cowdenbeath? Well actually, yes, I think he will. I’d like to
think that BriSCA will realise what a pile of shit all of this is, and just
tell him to go race and try to leave a least one bolt on the #7 car not smashed
in half.
There’s a lot of talk going
around that so called ‘fans’ aren’t going to attend the World Final due to the
potential of Robert being there. Well for me, I think that’s a load of old
pony. I’m a big fan of Robert and the thought of him and Gordon going ‘toe to
toe’ around the Racewall is something to be relished, but if he’s not there is
it really going to make the big race rubbish? Of course it’s not. Starting where
he is there’s every chance he’ll get fired into the wall on the first bend
anyway. Robert is good, but he won’t be able to avoid a train of cars pushing
him towards the wall no matter how much of a legend he is.
I guess one question that’s
always asked at this time of year is who is going to win the WF? Well, for me
I’d have to say that unless he gets buried, Bazza Goldin has to be the favourite.
He’s super-fast on tarmac and knows his way around the Racewall. He also knows
how to take one from behind (so to speak) and he isn’t afraid to use the front
bumper either. Aside from him, we all know Gordon is rapid up there, but the
chances of him getting to the front without someone knocking his wheels off
appears to be slim. Bradderz of course is also quick, but he does seem to be
one of those guys who has shit luck. If Robert does decide to turn up you can’t
count him out, but if he wins it’ll be due to a liberal amount of bumper work
and not outright speed. Who would I like to win? Well, after the monstrous
whack he had with the proverbial shitty stick last year at Toytown, I’d love to
see George MacMillan Jnr win the race. He and his team always race (and play) hard
and with the might of Dave Polley in his corner he’s really come good over
these last few years. The heartache his family has had in recent times is
something that nobody should ever have to go through – so if he gets the number
one spot next month I’m sure there’ll be a lot of tears shed. Only from us
Southerners though as we all know that the Scottish are ‘double hard’.
So, what about the rest of the F2
scene? Well from what I’ve seen this year, aside from the insane politics it
seems to be in pretty good shape. Lots of morons out there like to come out
with the old ‘RCE cars are ruining the sport, it’s more like hot rod racing’
bollocks. Stock Car Racing, especially in the F2 world seems to have cycles of
a particular make of car dominating. Back in the day you had HCD’s, Elite and
Randall Motorsport cars whooping arse on a weekly basis in their own particular
eras. The best drivers tend to get drawn to the best car of the time (no shit Sherlock)
and this is why you’ll find RCE’s doing the business right now. Dave knows what
he’s doing when it comes to putting a car together and what with his
supercomputer by his side his cars are super quick these days. But is it
ruining the sport? Is it hell. All F2 cars come with bumpers and side irons. If
people are too scared to use them then they’ve only themselves to blame.
As for car construction, well
that’s a big old can of worms that I’ll save for another day. What I will say
though is some of it really makes me laugh. Limited mounting holes for
suspension pick up points? Comedy. I’ve always thought that this sport favoured
people who don’t have £5k to spend on an engine but do have some knowledge of
how to set up a car. Adding holes when a car is built to allow suspension
geometry changes costs jack shit but can make all the difference if you’re
struggling to get your car around. Anti-squat, anti-dive, anti-Cornwall of
whatever you want on your car is something drivers should be able to add.
Still, some things never change I guess. The on-going madness with a replacement
engine for the pinto seems to have been dragging on for ages. I’m all for a bit
of a development, but they do seem to be kicking the arse out of this one.
Anyway, I’d better stop now as
I’ve just read this through and it’s starting to sound like I’ve got beef with
the F2 massive. This really isn’t the case. As stated earlier, I’ve a lot of love for the sport and all I want is
it to be fair for everyone taking part and not just a select few.
Enjoy your racing folks, and I’ll
see you around.
Ian Bennett
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