Saturday 19th July 2008 saw the Legends descend on Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich, Damian's "home" ground, and the title being contested this time being "British Championship". Damian came 3rd in this event last year, was he destined to go any better this time round?
Heat 1 was OK, Damian finished 5th after starting mid-grid, and was then bumped up to 4th when the race winner was disqualified for an in-correct wheelbase measurement. The Legend series is based on identical cars, with almost every aspect subject to tolerances that ensure the only distinguishing feature between drivers is skill, not how much money they can throw at the car or how "creative" they can be in the pits. The car has to be 100% setup correctly or they're out!
There was only a 2nd heat to decide final placement, not enough cars to warrant a 3rd, so Damian just needed a good finish in this to bag himself a decent grid position for the final, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. He bumped another car in mid-race, lost his front bumper and was disqualified (those rules again!).
So the final, and Damian's first heat finish was enough to get him to 12th on the grid, but it was always going to be an uphill struggle with some very quick drivers in front. However as always Damian put on a spirited performance, with a couple of spin-outs in front of him (how he missed being taken out in the one of them God only knows, watch the video for the Final and tell me how car #64 flying across the track in mid-air in front of him managed to miss him!) he managed to bag himself a respectable 4th. Not enough for a trophy, but not bad considering the disaster in heat #2. With a decent grid position he could've been a real contender for this race.
All in all though, another great night's racing, Damian perhaps feeling the pressure a little as so many family and friends were there to cheer him on, but a solid performance on the night, we just need a break now, and some consistant heat results to get in with a shot at winning something.
Well the new season has started, at the same circuit last season ended, Birmingham Wheels, but this time things didn't go quite according to plan.
The good news is the car looks superb with it's new paint job -> click here <- but the race itself was a washout, literally!
The heavens opened as soon as we arrived, and just got worse as the evening wore on. Damian didn't even complete the first heat as he had no grip on the wet circuit, and although he made it through the second heat after several adjustments to the set up he decided the Final wasn't worth participating in. Although most other cars came out for the Final it was a case of who could stay out of the puddles which by now were small lakes!
We returned home drenched to the skin and writing this event off as something to forget in a hurry.
Last night Damian Wright arrived at Birmingham with a points lead in the Birmingham Championship and a possible shot at the Triple Crown. The Birmingham Championship might have been on the cards, but standing in the way of the Triple Crown were Steven Dakin, Northampton Champion, and Ian Hales, Hednesford Champion, both on more points, and both consistently quick drivers. A tough task even for the young pretender!
What's more the evening didn't get off to the best of starts, shunted from behind in the practise laps he found himself replacing a bumper and a spring and the spares cabinet was looking pretty empty should further problems present themselves.
After starting mid-grid in both heats Damian came a respectable 4th in both, with an aggressive drive in the 2nd heat to claw his way past some tough and committed competition. The car however was now really starting to show the battle scars and Damian found himself lining up 5th on the grid for the Final with both wings and front grill holding each other in place with some strategically placed cable ties. Everyone in the pits had everything crossed and Damian knew he had a mountain to climb.
The stage was set, 5th on the grid but with the mighty Ian Hales right next to him. Off to a flying start Damian fought his way to 2nd and stayed there with an aggressive performance whilst Ian was stuck back in 5th/6th for most of the race.
The chequered flag saw Damian storm in 2nd, enough to not only take the Birmingham Championship but to also overtake Steve and Ian to take the coveted Triple Crown!
For photos of this event click here. Unfortunately not many on-track shots as my camera is pretty rubbish at taking pictures at night!
Update: Trackside photos from Pete Thompson, the official Oval Track Legends photographer, have been added to the Gallery (those with Damian in them, more are available on the Oval Track Legend website)
At Birmingham last night, 37 Legends cars poured into the pits - a record number for the Wheels Raceway. So, unusually, the race format was organised into a four heat plus a last chance qualifier. Damian Wright, from Ipswich, stole the show in an impressive performance by taking a hat trick, including the Midland Championship title.
This article is a shameless rip from Oval Track Legends website plus we've helped ourselves to pictures from their gallery of Damian and the car at Birmingham which you can view here:-
We're busy uploading some movie clips of Damian racing to the site, so they can be viewed in place rather than having to upload to, and link to, YouTube. Besides which YouTube have a limit on size of 100Mb and 10 minutes max, we have some clips that are larger and longer than that.
Check out the new Movie page where we'll be uploading as many as we can find ( Damian has loads but has "mis-placed" most of them, so he says )
To view these movies you'll need to download and install the DivX web player. It's quick and painless and is a very nice in-browser movie player, so give it a go If you'd rather not install a plug-in, you can get all these movies from the Downloads sections as regular ".avi" files for easy downloading to your PC.
Be aware though that these movie files can be quite large, so it may take a while before playback starts, or download completes (possibly a long while if you're on a slow connection).
To test converting digital video taken on a handheld camera and uploading to YouTube here's Damian winning at Foxhall Stadium, his home circuit, in his first season racing Legends. In case you're in any doubt he's the red Legend #114.
The screams in the background are his friends and family cheering him on as he takes the chequered flag and does the "doughnut" at the end.
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plus we've helped ourselves to pictures from their gallery of Damian and the car at Birmingham which you can view here:-
If you'd rather not install a plug-in, you can get all these movies from the 
