Following in the footsteps of his famous father Diggy Smith, Billy Smith can now legitimately claim to be very much his own man as the 19 year old showed a previously rarely seen maturity to take his first major title in the Superstox when he claimed the British Championship at Aldershot Raceway this past Sunday.

As the cars entered the arena, the drivers were perched on the back of their steeds to choose their grid position by way of a random draw. It was pleasing to see 3 Scottish drivers make the long trip south and these included 35 Chris Stewart, 100 George MacMillan Jnr and the defending champion 177 Stuart Gilchrist. The 28 entrants all received a warm welcome as they circulated the track as part of a grand parade from the large crowd at the Claycart Road venue.

Phil Proctor 279 drew pole position - judging by Phil's expression it would seem that this would not have been his chosen position. Billy Smith drew grid position 2. Stuart Gilchrist was the last car on track and was left with grid position 27 - if he was going to have any chance of defending his title he was going to have to do it the hard way!

As the race got underway the inevitable big push came from the middle of the pack and this put paid to the chances of the current national points leader 376 Steven Jackson who was unable to take part in the race when it restarted as well as multi-champion 482 Jason Cooper. The pile up also seemed to put paid to any lingering hopes of a successful defence for Stuart Gilchrist as his car seemed to suffer from steering issues on the restart. It was Billy Smith who took full advantage of his favourable grid draw to leap into the lead and he powered away to enjoy a relatively comfortable lead in the early stages. Todd Jones had also made a good start and eventually tracked the 161 car down. World Champion Nick Smith had made an excellent start but came to grief when a stricken Liam Lambert attempted to find the safety of the infield. Jones managed to push the 161 car wide at the turnstile bend but Billy managed to maintain momentum and regained the lead following a big push on the pit bend which ended Jones' chances in the 186 car. From this moment on Billy Smith had a relatively comfortable run to the chequered flag while European Champion Shaun Brooker's late charge put the 69 machine in second with East Anglian Champion 123 Dave Miles Jnr third in what was a fantastic race for the Superstox.

Following the main race there were 3 split heats for the Superstox. Following their clash at the British Championship weekend last year at Lochgelly the almost inevitable clash between 177 Gilchrist and 161 Smith happened in the first of these heats when 177 battered 161 into the fence on the turnstile bend - a hard enough hit for the Steward to load Gilchrist for the day. With the scores possibly being perceived as 1-1 in their personal battle - who will gain the advantage the next time these two drivers meet?

Jason Cooper won his two heats in the new 482 machine - perhaps hinting at what might have been in the British Championship if he hadn't experienced electrical issues. Luke Hamilton won the other heat in the 58 machine.

It was a truly fantastic day of Superstox racing - thank you to all who participated (particularly those who made long distance journeys to be with us) and thank you to all who attended.