STUART GRAY SETS THE PACE IN ROUND 1 OF THE NKRA BLUE CHALLENGE 2026
Having arrived early at Lydd for Round 1 of the NKRA BLUE CHALLENGE, Stuart Gray put in place a rigourous ‘testing programme’, which ultimately paid its dividends.
Achieving Pole position for the Final, Gray set about a scorching pace in the race with only Joey Foster matching him. Mike Bell hung on in the early laps. Several laps into the Final , the weather played its own part with a light drizzle for a few minutes. Bell was the first to pay the penalty, sliding off at the end of the main straight, then came Joey Foster, followed by Leanne McShane and Alex fortune. Phil Waters and Nigel Vickery reacted in time and more than maintained their track position, moving up to 2nd and 3rd respectively. Gray continued un-phased into the lead. Bell rejoined the race as did McShane and Foster. Foster then set about trying to re-close the distance between himself and Gray by setting the fastest lap in the process !
The track had dried out for the last few laps leaving Gray in a clear lead fron Waters, with Vickery managing to hold off Bell on the line. McShane came home home in 5th.
In the end Gray scored a minimum points win in the Championship, with Bell in 2nd place, 6 points behind. Vickery finished in 3rd spot on 8 points, with McShane and Waters sharing 5th place and scoring 9 points.
In the Master sub-group Gray emerged the victor, as indeed he did in every age category ! Bell takes up 2nd position from Vickery, Waters and McShane.
Gray also leads the Veteran section from Vickery, Ron shone, Mark Ellis and Graham Joseph.
The Legend sub-class shows Gray in the lead from Shone, Mark Ellis and Joseph.
The Top Weight section has Waters at the front by 1 point from McShane, Max Gunter holds 3rd spot, with Shone next, 1 point ahead of Alex Fortune.
The Junior BLUE class was dominated, with regard to lap times, by Danny Elson whose times were not that far off the Senior front runners.
Racers now have a little time to organise before the next race, namely, April 25th for the TnT and 2CKC race at the Clay Pigeon Raceway.
For more details and results CLICK HERE
To enter for CLAY PIGEON Click here