West Norfolk driver crowned national points champion

Willie Skoyles junior ensured that West Norfolk racing fans had something to celebrate by being crowned two-litre stock car national points champion.

The championship was reformatted for 2018 and Skoyles took full advantage of the new system.

He will now be the proud bearer of the silver roof when racing for the saloon stock cars resumes in March.

A delighted Skoyles junior said: “I can’t believe I have won the silver roof, it’s an amazing feeling.

“Since I woke up I wasn’t able to get the final meeting out of my head and had been working out what I was going to do.

“I just hoped that after leading the points from the start I was not going to fall at the last hurdle.

“It was awful when I suffered damage and couldn’t continue in the final.

“For 18 laps I was sat on the middle and there was nothing I could d0, I just had to hope Diggy didn’t get what he needed and, thankfully for me, he didn’t.

“The national series has been a brilliant competition and the racing from all drivers has been fantastic.”

Previous seasons had seen the champion being the driver who scored the most points nationwide throughout the season.

But over recent years it was not seen as being a real competition as, generally speaking, only one team would have the funds and time to attend all meetings across the length and breadth of the UK.

Other premier formulas have amended the way their season-long champions have been decided over recent years.

Included in the system is a play-off system involving the top points scorers over the season competing to be declared the champion.

The two-litre stock cars went down this route with the top 10 drivers in the sport competing over a series of National Series Shootout rounds across the country to determine the champion.

The series kicked off at Lynn in September where a dominant showing by Skoyles gave him a commanding early lead in the series and, since then, he hasn’t looked back.

The double points finale took place at Ipswich last weekend.

Four drivers had a mathematical chance of winning the title but in reality it was a two-horse race between Skoyles, who had a 24-point advantage over experienced European Champion Diggy Smith.

With 80 points up for grabs it was going to be a nerve-wracking night.

The heats saw Skoyles come home in seventh with Smith coming in fifth place.

Smith seemed to have his car set up the best for the quick Ipswich oval and he was showing the best pace of all the shootout drivers.

Come the final, Smith had to finish five places in front of Skoyles to force a tie and race-off, or do better than that to win the title.

When the green flag went down Skoyles moved past Smith, who retorted with a massive hit which took out virtually all of the shootout drivers and created a mini pile-up.

There was a big cheer when Skoyles was the first to emerge from the chaos but it was soon evident that he had picked up major damage and he was unable to steer as he limped onto the centre green.

Smith also got back racing but was well down the order.

He managed a tenth-place finish which crowned Skoyles the champion.

Saturday was also a great night for Lee Sampson who was a heat winner and took home plenty of points which helped him into a third-place finish in the series.