The second running of the hot-rod world championships saw a collection of 34 hot-rod racers descend upon Leominster in Hereford on 12th November 2006. Sponsoring the meeting were Helger Racing, TM Factors, Manic RC Cars, Kamtec and AK Modelsport.

The event was initially cancelled due to a lack of entries, but a great effort from the Hereford club enabled the meeting to take place at a later date, all be it with a disappointing number of entrants.

The 2004 champion Mark Stiles returned to One twelfth oval racing to defend the title he won 2 years ago. Joining him on the entry list was Bryan Lee; the only other finalist from the 2004 event in attendance. The absence of several top racers surprised many people; these included recently crowned national champion Steven Westbrook, multiple former national and British champion Keith Smith, the 2004 runner up Roy Calver, and fellow finalists Darren Potter and Simon Cleaver. Despite the apparent lack of quality in the entry, the event saw appearances from several respected drivers from other classes. These included top national touring car driver Chris Kerswell and 12th circuit stars Mick Farrell and Nigel Hale, all of whom had cars prepared for them by Mark Stiles.

The pre-event favourites looked to be Mark Stiles and national regular Chris Bottle, but with so many newcomers from other classes, some thought the winner could come from elsewhere.

Qualifying

In round 1, defending champion Mark Stiles set the early pace with 90 laps, with late entrant Terry Brindle almost 2 laps behind in 2nd. Junior driver Sam Gray was 3rd with 87 laps.
Round 2 saw improvements for most drivers as they got to grips with the track and their car setup. Once again Mark Stiles was quickest in the round, improving his score to 91 laps. Terry Brindle was 2nd once again, this time only 0.5 seconds behind. Oval newcomer Chris Wilkinson from the Southampton club showed good pace to set the third fastest time so far with 90 laps.
Early in round 3, Chris Wilkinson raised the bar to 93 laps, and the only driver who could respond was Mark Stiles, who also scored 93 laps in the same heat, but with a slower split time. Terry brindle moved into third place with 92 laps, just 1 lap behind the pace setters. The highest placed junior driver at this stage was High Wycombe based driver Tom Hill, who was well placed in 5th overall.
Once again the top 2 positions remained unchanged after round 4, but local superstar and one of the pre-event favourites Chris Bottle moved into 3rd place with 92 laps. Chris was relieved to be on the pace after struggling in the early rounds. At this stage the top ten drivers had all posted 90 laps or more, so it looked as if a score of around 90 would be required to make the grand final later in the day.
Round 5 proved to be one of the days quickest, with several of the top drivers posting their fastest lap scores. Chris Wilkinson improved his score by a massive 3 laps to 96, just missing the track record, set 2 years ago by Mark Stiles. Chris Bottle also improved, posting a score of 94 laps to move in front of Mark Stiles, who was still 3rd with his 3rd round time. Sam Gray moved into 4th place to take the top junior spot.
Round 6 saw Mark Stiles initially regain 2nd spot overall, improving to 95 laps in a fast split time, which put him around 2 seconds behind the tq time of Chris Wilkinson. Late in the round, Chris Bottle improved his score to pip Mark by just 0.35 seconds. Kamtec owner Keith Dowsett put in a good run to take 4th overall on 93 laps.

After qualifying had finished, each drivers’ best 4 scores from the 6 qualifying rounds were added to determine the seedings for the quarter finals. This meant that the final qualifying list looked somewhat different to the tq listing, and some of the more consistent drivers moved up the order. The top ten positions were as follows;

Quarter Finals
The quarter finals were seeded so that the 1st, 5th, 9th etc… qualifiers were put into quarter final A. The 2nd, 6th, 10th etc… qualifiers were put into quarter final B and so on… The top 4 drivers from each quarter final (irrespective of lap scores) would go through to the semi finals.

Chris Wilkinson dominated quarter final 1, winning by almost 3 laps. The battle for second place was won by Mick Farrell, who just piped Nigel Hale and Brett Hope. All three of these drivers were on the same lap!
The second quarter saw the shock exit of defending champion Mark Stiles. Mark led the first few laps of the race, but suffered a broken body post after getting caught up in an accident. This left his shell rubbing on his rear tyres, meaning his lap times slowed considerably. Despite passing many cars during the remaining laps, Mark was unable to recover from a 3 lap deficit, and finished in 5th place, just 0.8 seconds behind 4th. James Cann won the race with Tom Hill, Terry Brindle and Philip Price rounding out the top 4.
Quarter final 3 saw a victory for Chris Bottle from pole position. He was followed by 3 junior drivers; Rob Llewellyn-Jones, Kyle Bouston and James Harrington. Chris Kerswell was the second major casualty of the meeting, and was knocked out after having body shell issues following a crash.
Sam Gray won the last quarter, just 1 second ahead of Keith Dowsett, with Anthony Wyper 3rd. Touring Car racer Graham Douglass piped Bryan lee (a grand finalist 2 years ago) into fourth place by just 1 second.

Semi Finals
The semi-finals were seeded in a similar way to the quarters, to try and ensure an even spread of pace across the two races. With the defending champion out, it looked to be a fight between two drivers at this stage. Chris Bottle and Chris Wilkinson were significantly quicker than everyone else who still remained, and it showed in the semi finals.
Sam Gray won the first semi with 91 laps, and was looking to be emerging as the hot favourite for the junior title. However, he would have to go faster in the final to challenge for the overall honours. James Cann, Terry Brindle and Brett Hope were the three other qualifiers for the final from this semi.
The second semi was the faster of the two, with Chris Bottle winning the race by just 1.5 seconds from Chris Wilkinson. Both of these drivers posted 95 laps, and were 5 laps clear of Kyle Bouston who was third. The last qualifier for the final was Graham Douglass.

Grand Final
The final grid was sorted according to each drivers lap scores from the semis, with the fastest qualifiers starting at the front. Before the race got underway, there were some very nervous looking faces on the rostrum; for some of the drivers this was the most important race they had ever been involved in! The junior title was still up for grabs as Sam Gray and Kyle Bouston had both made their way into the final race of the day.

Final Grid
In a race like this, the last thing that the pole-sitter really wants to do is crash at the first corner, but despite this Chris Bottle still managed it! The slightest of scrapes from Chris at the first corner allowed Chris Wilkinson into an early lead. Sam Gray hassled Chris Bottle for the opening laps, and while this battle was going on, Chris Wilkinson Started to ease away from the pack. Further down the field there were several battles going on for the minor positions, and at times the race got a bit scrappy. It was this that played into Chris Wilkinson’s hands though, as he consistently managed to lap slower cars without losing too much time, and also avoid the major incidents. Chris Bottle matched him for pace, but just wasn’t lucky enough in the traffic to make up for his first lap mistake. After a strenuous 5 minutes for the drivers, Chris Wilkinson crossed the line to become the 2006 hot-rod world champion, with an advantage of just over one lap over Chris Bottle (not a lot when you consider that average lap times for the fastest cars were below 3.2 seconds!). Sam Gray took a well deserved 3rd place and the junior title, despite being 4 laps behind the leader. The final positions were as follows;

Congratulations to Chris Wilkinson for becoming the new world champion; a superb performance when you consider he had only been racing hot-rods for 3 months before the event! Chris was a deserving and popular winner with many people; hopefully it won’t be the last time we see him on the ovals in the UK!