Ladies Race 2008 Group Photo.

The annual Ladies Race was staged at Belle Vue on Sunday 12th October, with Heidi Coleano keeping a cool head and avoiding the carnage to take victory. After a few false starts, the race got underway with Anita Smith (91) racing away from the front, with Kay Fitton (249) passing Kay Blackburn (337) on the opening lap and Vicki Whalley (198) bumpering Erica Morris (257) wide. Anita was soon into the backmarkers and dishing the bumper out, with Jade Plumbley (393) and Ailsa Haigh (69) on the receiving end. But Anita couldn’t shift Jane Neachell (322), and Vicki Whalley (198) went past to take the lead.

Dawn Lockwood (398) ran wide and ended up in the turn two fence, as Kay Blackburn passed Anita to take second. Vicky Brickley (246) span it coming out of turn four, and was hit by Jane Murtagh (30) before Vicki Whalley and Sarah Oliver (294) piled in, blocking the track. This brought out the yellows, and as they lined up for the restart, race order read Vicki Whalley still leading, from Kay Blackburn, Jane Neachell, Sharon Harris, Anita Brown, and Kay Fitton.

When the green dropped, Vicki got off to a flying start and was soon among the backmarkers. Jane Neachell moved past Kay Blackburn into second, but when Kay mounted a challenge her front bumper got hooked up onto the 322 car. This slowed them both down, and with Sharon Harris getting quicker every lap, the 84 car was soon in second place and slowly gaining on race leader Vicki Whalley, giving Erica Morris a big hit on the way.

Also getting faster by the lap was Sam Wainman (515), and as she came up behind Kay Blackburn and Jane Neachell she didn’t hesitate and delivered a big hit. This separated the 337 and 322 cars, which came to a stop in turn three and were then hit by Erica Morris.

Up front, Sharon Harris was slowly getting closer to Vicki Whalley, and with 2 laps left looked close enough to challenge. But Vicki was ready for it, and threw the car sideways coming out of turn four. Unfortunately, Sharon then hit the nerf rail and both of them came to a stop on the infield. This left Heidi Coleano (177) in the lead, and after keeping out of trouble for the whole race, she led the final two laps and took the win.

Well done to all the girls taking part, and especially Kay Blackburn for once again making it all happen and raising some cash in the process.

Carl Hesketh. (originally published on Carls Hard-And-Fast website)