17 July 1993 - Birmingham Wheels, Report by Anne Sayell

July 17th saw the Grand Prix Midgets debut at Birmingham wheels with a seventeen car field taking to the tight oval. The results saw three different winners and no less than fifteen of cars scoring points. John Calladine and Gary Bonner took the fifteen lap heats whilst Harry Sayell made use of the extra laps to win the final.

The first heat saw Peter Hunt away first from the white grade chased hard by Calladine, Gordon Pooley and Bonner. The battle for supremacy amongst the red graded drivers saw Calladine, once in front, pulling out a substantial lead with Sayell, Eddy Ricketts and Stuart Haynes all suffering spins whilst John Salter emerged from the pack to chase the leader. Fifteen laps was not enough however and Calladine took the flag from Salter, Pooley and Neil Clarke.

Heat 2 followed a similar pattern but Bonner took the early lead chased hard by Pooley. Sayell was making better progress this time however and passed Pooley on the final lap to finish second behind Bonner.

The final saw the fastest time of the day with Sayell the eventual winner lapping in 14.70 seconds compared with the National Hot Rod record of 14.47. The race was stopped after 4 laps when Clarke and Dick Loseby and came together on the top bend. The restart was in graded order over the full twenty five laps. Bonner, again the early leader, was demoted by Sayell around half distance but stayed in contention until he spun it all away at three quarter distance. This left a fierce battle between Calladine and Haynes but this also ended in disaster when the pair collided leaving John Weston to pick up the second place trophy followed by Loseby and Ron Elliott.

Sayell is now comfortably ahead in the Kent Cams/George Polley Championship with 156 points. Haynes is second on 103, Weston third on 92 followed by Steve Piggins, Loseby and Ricketts.