The third round of the Pro-trak On-road Club Challenge was held by us at  the Warehouse on Teesside on Sunday 14th January   2001.

This round saw Longbenton enter another team but Teesside could only manage 3 teams again. Our club members seem to be put off by competitions. However the 2 leading teams from the first 2 rounds, Teesside A and Durham still had strong teams, even though David Snee was unable to race.
The track was our usual large fast layout totally on carpet. Grip would be the deciding factor again, but for totally different reasons. It would take a brave man to go flat out with a serious wind of motor. Some tried but for most a reasonable motor was in the realms of 14 turns or more.

The format of the racing was the same as before, with 5 rounds of racing, not qualifying. Each team would have one driver in each race and it was up to the team captain who to put in each race. The only stipulation was that no driver could race in more than one heat per round.

First round was run staggered starts to give everyone a better chance of settling in better. Then the following rounds were run with line starts, as proper races.  The usual first corner crashes were still in evidence but fortunately did not become too troublesome. At times the drivers had to be reminded that it is a non-contact sport as passing became a dangerous maneuver at times.
After that things did settle down but the racing was very close.

This time Teesside "A" were showing their familiarity with the surface and were hardly out of the first 2 places for the first 3 rounds. Durham were keeping in touch but their overall points lead was being whittled away. 10 points went in the first round, 6 in the second and by the time the last round started the lead was only 2 points.
Longbenton A were having a close race with Teesside B, aided extremely well by their new driver Chris Clarke who must have eventually got his new on road car, having been waiting most of 2000 for it. He was a clear TQ leader, eventually ending with a 24/310.66, a lap ahead of Chris Roe on 23/311.05.
However Teesside B were slightly more consistent and ended 30 points ahead of Longbenton A, and indeed finished strongly to overtake Durham on the day.
Longbenton B, South Shields and Teesside C  were also close with Longbenton B just ahead of Teesside C with South Shields in 7th.

It all came down to the final round. Teesside A started as in the other rounds with 2 wins, Durham having a 6th and 4th, putting Tees A in the lead. However 3 second places for Durham with Tees A having 2 breakages and a 3rd, last and 5th gave the advantage back to Durham. In the final heat Adam Darcy recovered from a burnt motor in round 4 to take victory with Phil Haines coming in 4th.
This was the ideal result for the series as it left both Tees A and Durham level on points at 213 after 3 meetings. Everything to play for in round 4 in a months time.
Teesside drivers:-Glenn Atterton 12, Chris Bakos 17, Colin Blades 10, Ian Craig 13, Peter Craig 5, Alex Curry 18, Liam Davies 25, Adam Darcy 17, Alfie del Aquilla 29, Tony Doyle 27, Jason Harrison-Young 18, Alex Inglis 24, Cameron Maclean 31, Richard Norris 12, George Paradelis 21, Dimitris Katsanis 9, Chris Roe 5

I had booked each driver in separately instead of as a team. This helped keep FTQ more reliable but with drivers still moving around it was not foolproof. However again it was points at stake and some drivers had easier races than others, just doing enough for the points. (That's their excuse anyway). The points table is on the points page.

We again arranged fun finals after the main event and most drivers stayed. The format was for straight finals from FTQ rather than 1st in each team in one final, all 2nds in another etc. I think this made for better racing.
Sorry no photos this time. I have never officiated at a meeting that needed my concentration constantly as much as this one. I will try and get help next round.
The next round is to be at Teesside on 25th February 2001, doors open at 9.00am. If you could get teams to me before then it would help greatly.