The mirage team made their way to Sheffield in South Yorkshire to compete in Round 4 of the BIWS series. A sunny, yet cold day greeted the racers as they made their way to the Don Valley Stadium for an early start.

Another new track layout was designed by the creative pairing of Adam and Ian Howe, who prepared an exciting and challenging track for all the classes racing.
Ian also did a great job of organising the practise session, where every competitor was given two opportunities to test their car and equipment. The race director, John Freeman, then conducted an informative driver's briefing.

The drivers proceeded to get their cars ready for Round 1. As usual with the Don Valley meetings the atmosphere in the pits was very good, the competitors even put up with Alistair Graham's music.

Round 1 started with the usual low grip track conditions. The following drivers took provisional TQ with the track warming up all the time.

Stock - Thomas Daley
19t - Matthew Cook
Mod - Jonathan Aird

Round 2 then commenced, with the grip level gradually increasing the lap times started to decrease.

Stock - Darius Walker - Xray
19t - Chris Clark
Mod - Ben Cosgrove

Round 3 can be a do or die round for many, as this was their last chance to qualify, with the grip levels now at their peak this could be the fastest round for many racers if they could hold their nerve. Alistair Graham’s music had got even worse by this point, even the Vengaboys were unfortunately heard playing! This did not however put off Jonathan Aird who took his second qualifying top spot, to claim pole for the Mod Final. The final qualifying positions for all the classes were as follows:

Stock
1 - Darius Walker - Xray
2 - Matty Tuplin
3 - Richard Binnersley

19t
1 - Liam Brooks
2 - Chris Clark
3 - Matthew Cook

Mod
1 - Jonathan Aird - Xray
2 - Ben Cosgrove - Xray
3 - Alistair Graham - Xray

Concourse

Concourse was held between qualifying and the finals. Ben Cosgrove's great looking shell won, painted by Ninja Graffix who seems to be clearing up the Concourse competitions all over the country recently.




Finals

Stock A Leg 1
Darius Walker took his TQ performance into the final and lead from the front romping home to win it by around half a lap. Richard Binnersley and Matty Tuplin were battling hard for the 2nd place position, Matty eventually came out on top with Richard 3rd.

Stock A Leg 2
Matty Tuplin put his foot down for this one and had a great battle for the first part of the race for top spot. He managed to break free and take the 2nd leg win convincingly taking the overall win.

Stock Overall Positions

1 - Matty Tuplin
2 - Darius Walker - Xray
3 - Jordan Howe - HB
4 - Richard Binnersley
5 - Gareth Preece
6 - Adam Howe - Xray
7 - Paul Boult
8 - Josh Castle
9 - Sion Wedley
10 - Andrew Gregory - Xray



19t A Leg 1
Chris Clark managed to make his way past Liam Brooks in this first final. Chris Bosomworth took the 3rd spot from Matthew Cook in the early stages but a crash involving a number of cars shuffled the pack. Eventually it was Chris Clark who took the win from Liam Brooks and Matthew Cook.

19t A leg 2
Liam kept hold of his 1st place position as Leon Morrelly was working his way through the field. After some Ferrari style team orders, Leon won the final with Liam 2nd and Matthew Cook 3rd. Consistency did the trick for Liam as his two 2nd places gained him the win overall. Leon managed to snatch 2nd overall with a 4th and 1st place, with Matthew Cook in 3rd.

19t Overall Positions

Liam Brooks
Leon Morrell
Matthew Cook
Chris Clark
Chris Bosomworth - Xray
Matt Dunning - HB
Luke Humphrey - Xray
Richard Boult
Scott Dowsey - HB
Darren Wood



Mod A Leg 1
The first Mod leg turned out to be a great race. Ben Cosgrove from the 2nd place spot on the grid immediately put Jonathan Aird under pressure. Ben was latched onto Jonathan's bumper for nearly 3 mins showing amazing skill to race that close to Jonny. Ben had a visibly quicker car down the straight and he decided the 1st corner would be the place to overtake due to his extra speed on the straight. After much defending, Ben pulled an excellent overtaking manoeuvre on Jonny. The race finished with Ben 1st, Jonny 2nd and Ali Graham 3rd.

Mod A Leg 2
Ben once again overtook Jonny after a good battle for the first few laps, his speed down the straight was simply too much. Jonny then made a mistake which dropped him back so Guy Thornton took over the 2nd place spot. Guy kept this place until the last lap when he started to dump, Phil Chambers had been catching him throughout the race and on the final straight where Guy was crawling along to finish, Phil was at full throttle. With the speed of these mod cars, Phil didn't even see Guy until he hit him. The resultant crash allowed Elliott Harper through to 2nd so the finishing order was Ben 1st, Elliott 2nd, Guy 3rd and Phil in 4th.

Mod Overall Positions
1 - Ben Cosgrove - Xray/Nosram
2 - Jonathan Aird - Xray/Nosram
3 - Guy Thornton - Xray/ Nosram
4 - Alistair Graham - Xray/Nosram
5 - Elliott Harper - Xray/Nosram
6 - Phil Chambers - Xray/Nosram/Orion
7 - Stew Noble - HB/Nosram/Orion
8 - Adam Richardson - HB/Nosram
9 - Luke Thompson - Xray/Nosram
10 - Andy Murray - HB/Nosram



A great result for the Mirage team with total domination of the mod class! EVERY car in the A final was either the Xray T2'008 or a HB Moorespeed Cyclone. With all motors either Nosram or Orion, and EVERY speed control was Nosram!!!!

Thanks to John Freeman for a well run and organised meeting, Adam, Ian Howe and the Don Valley club members for the excellent track design and preparation.