Three Sisters September 2004

Heat 1

Early morning rain had left the track wet for the first set of heats.

Ian Walmsley had pole for heat 1, Vanessa Murphy alongside, with Dave Targett 3rd and Andy in 4th.
A clean first corner followed a clean start up front, although Murphy outbraked herself, drifting wide and allowing Andy through. By the end of lap 2 Andy was already into the lead and made a gap between himself and Walmsley in 2nd. Andy took the win by 3.5 seconds, with Walmsley 2nd and Paul Hooper taking 3rd from grid 6. Murphy eventually DNF’d on lap 2 due to a collision.

Heat 2

14th was Andy’s grid slot for heat 2, and as the race began, he followed Luke Johnson through the field until they were in 5th and 6th positions. At this point Andy made a move on Johnson at the hairpin, and held the line as Johnson tried to outdrag him down the dummy grid straight.
On the last lap Andy put a spectacular late move on Alistair Curry at the hairpin, and claimed 4th place at the flag. Anthony Rainford took the heat win from Paul Phelan and John Halliwell.

Final

Andy was on pole for the final for the 2nd time in a row, having also done so in July. The track was completely dry by now and all the drivers had changed to slicks.

Andy made a fantastic start and comfortably lead into turn 1, as Rainford lost a place to Paul Hooper, Johnson, Walmsley and Phelan. Andy quickly made himself a gap and the battle was going on for 2nd place behind him. John Halliwell put on a charge to come through from 7th position to 2nd, whereas Phelan, Rainford, Hooper and Johnson were swapping places every lap. At the line it was Andy with an easy 5 second win, with Halliwell 2nd, Hooper 3rd, Andy Woodvine 4th after a late charge, Rainford and Johnson fading to 6th place, out of the award positions.