A massive crowd assembled at Skegness for the British Drivers Championship, in which Paul Hines offered a career best performance to take the title. Hines was one of the few to keep his head during the carnage of the qualifying heats (see separate report HERE), and from a second row start the 259 car was untouchable in the Final. The British Championship Final was lined up according to points scored in the heats, which put Mike Kingston (488) on pole position, Lee Robinson (107) alongside, and Paul Hines (259) on the inside of row two.

When the green dropped, Kingston was away first, but his lead was short lived, as Robinson, already under pressure from Hines, nudged the 488 car wide on the first turn. Robinson led down the back straight, with the 259 front bumper coming into play as they entered the turn. The 107 car was sent off line, and Paul Hines took up a lead that he would not relinquish. Behind him, Carl Pickering (141) got it all out of shape and performed a near 360 degree spin as he was collected by most of the following pack. Andy Smith (1) and Dan Johnson (4) managed to avoid the melee, each gaining about half a dozen places.

Kingston was bundled wide and dropped down the order, before Paul Harrison (2) bumpered Robinson wide and went past. Robinson then returned the compliment a couple of laps later to regain second place. Making a lot of progress in the early stages was defending champion Andy Smith, who after just half a dozen laps had moved from his row 9 starting position into the top five.

A few places behind him, Johnson was swapping places with Frankie Wainman (515), before Wainman fired Johnson into Will Yarrow (22). Just before halfway, Smith (1) moved past Harrison for third place. The second half of the race was calmer as the cars became more spaced out, with few changes to the order of the top 6, which at the halfway was 259,107,1,2,217,390. By now, Hines had a massive lead, which was increasing with every lap.

Johnson briefly took sixth place from Stu Smith (390), only for Smith to send him fencewards. As the lapboards came out, Smith (1) passed Robinson for second place, and that’s the order they finished, with Hines taking a deserved victory. There was a drag to the line for tenth place between James Lund (153) and Michael Scriven (12), but most eyes appeared to be on Paul Hines jubilantly punching the air on his slowing down lap. A memorable end to what had been a sensational meeting.

We asked Paul for his verdict on the meeting.

It’s been quite a night. And not just for me personally but the whole show was superb! The racing was simply brutal. I have never been in a more demanding meeting. Everyone was hitting everyone. I am fairly sure the value of scrap will have gone down this morning as there must be loads of F1 drivers weighing in bent steel after that.

It was certainly a destructive meeting. After winning Heat Five earlier, Paul had remarked that he was just glad to have finished the race with all four wheels on his car. We asked him how the Final had gone for him.

The race for me was the easiest of the night in comparison to the hard hits of the heat races. I knew Lee Robinson was the man to beat and I managed to get by him on the second bend, and just tried to keep calm and finish. It helps if the guys behind battle it out and I could see Paul Harrison, Lee Robinson and Stu Smith Junior hitting each other, and from that I was able to pull away.

So how does it feel to be British Champion?

Feels amazing to win it. I never think I am going to win. I didn’t think I would win this until the last lap. It’s great reward for the team and myself as we put so much time and effort into getting the cars racing.

Paul always goes well around Skegness, and also helps out with promotional work for the track, which made it all the more special.

It was special to win it at Skeg. It’s definitely my favourite track and the racing there is always so good. I think the promotion put on a really good show for races like that too. Certainly makes it all the more special to get a win.

Carl Hesketh