As dress rehearsals go, this one was pretty much perfect for Newmarket’s Chris Haird who looked in remarkably fine fettle just two weeks before he defends his National Hot Rod World crown at the same Foxhall Heath raceway, writes Kevin Wegg.

The “Thunder 500” event has effectively become unofficial practice for the season’s major dog-fight with drivers from overseas also taking advantage of precious track time and once again a strong showing by drivers from Northern Ireland gives Haird a timely reminder that his defence will be far from easy. Glenn Bell in particular looked razor sharp in taking heat two and twice left Haird standing at the start of the main event albeit he wasn’t quite able to make a pass from front row outside stick. John Christie was highly tipped for the world title last year only to fall foul at the pre-race weigh-in and once again he looks a good bet having taken heat three with fancied “dark horse” Jason Kew also showing up well.

Malcolm Blackman was the other to enjoy victory lane on the night when securing the opening heat which played out with a few spots of rain in the air but remarkably it stayed dry all night despite the forecast. Gavin Taber realised a life-long dream by making his debut in a formula where highs and lows are all part of the journey as demonstrated by Luke Armiger in the opener when he blew his new-on-the-night £15,000 engine. Haird signalled his intentions as early as heat two when outside passes helped get him up to third in just a handful of laps whilst further ahead Matt Simpson left a big inside gap for Bell to snatch what turned out to be a winning inside pass.

The most spectacular spill of the night came when Terry Hunn just slipped the back end of Colin Smith in heat three which in turn caused him to clip Shaun Taylor. In the resulting chaos Smith slammed in to the armco wrecking his car; Taylor injured his hand and Christie literally ended up wedged underneath race leader Kym Weaver. Sadly the latter was unable to continue although Christie was undaunted.

A not dissimilar spill involving Mark Paffey and David Brooks on the very first corner of the feature final curtained Brooks evening and brought about a restart. Despite those lightning starts by Bell on both occasions he couldn’t get ahead of pole-sitting Haird who eventually pulled away to post the most ominous of statements for his would-be challengers over the weekend of July 2/3.

The annual visit of the V8 powered Brisca F1 Stock Cars is always eagerly anticipated and both the sight and sound of these largely Northern and Midland-based cars is always a treat. A modest entry of twenty-seven cars meant they were “all-in” with clear winners in three of their four races, Tom Harris taking the opening heat and after saving his best tyres, the all-important final. Their best race of the night was heat two as Lee Robinson powered his way through the field and landed the classic last-bend punt on race leader Ian Brickley.

He added two runners-up places to ensure a profitable night, the last of which came in the Grand National event. Although Mick Sworder was a comfortable winner, another last lap lunge by Robinson again paid dividends and also allowed Chris Cowley to take third which was no more than he and his team deserved after they had removed the entire back end of the car to replace the diff following a big pile-up in heat one.