As the finest Stock Rod drivers in England gathered at Northampton International Raceway to do battle for the 2012 English Championship; the heavy and persistent rain of the last couple of days showed no signs of abating and it was a very wet track and pit area that greeted the drivers, teams and fans who braved the awful conditions.

The first heat saw Spedeworth's Tyler Collison on pole in the 74 Nova but it wasn't long before Incarace's Lewis Clark took over in the 876 Corsa and broke away to put a reasonable gap between himself and World Champion Stuart Smyth 447 who had moved up to second from his grid 5 start. As the laps wound down, it all went wrong for Clark when he spun entering turn one. Smyth took full advantage of the opportunity to take victory in the race with pole-sitter Collison in second place and the unfortunate Clark finishing back in 9th.

The second heat saw the grid reversed from heat one and it was Incarace's John Bowring 101 and Stephen Gooch 136 who took the front row for the all-important race. Defending champion Andy Sturt started in grid position 8, having finished in sixth place in the first race, and he managed to take the win on the last lap from the 136 machine.

Following the two heats it was old rivals Sturt and Smyth lining up on the front row with defending champion Sturt on the inside. Incarace's Mark Barber 755 and Spedeworth's Dean O'Dell 171 formed row two. It didn't take long for the race to come under caution as the stricken 394 car of Mike De Paiva was collected on the back straight by the 151 car of Luke Oliver - both cars looked decidedly second-hand but both drivers were fortunately ok. Following the restart, the Sturt/Smyth rivalry resurfaced and as two of the sport's finest drivers battled for supremacy, it was Dean O'Dell who took advantage to sneak up the inside of both 168 and 447 to take a lead that he would not give up for the remaining three quarters of the race. Both 168 and 447 were docked for the respective misdemeanours against each other which saw Smyth dropped from second place to fourth. This elevated Barber to second and Tristan Jackson to third.

A cracking day's Stock Rod racing despite the weather conditions and our congratulations go to Dean O'Dell on his first major championship win in the formula.