Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 6th September 2009

National Bangers (unlimited cc)

With four places available, the Last Chance Qualifier to see who would make it through to the back of the World Final grid, the opening race was always going to be lively. The pit bend saw the most action as 313 Tom Cattell put 741 Alex "Boris" Waterman against the fence and was then duly blitzed by 127 Peter Wake and 55 James Ogborn one after the other. The red flags were deployed at the half way stage, and from the restart 199 Jamie Wyatt led the race to the chequered flag.
The World Championship Final was next on the track for the National Bangers, and 34 cars formed the grid. Destruction was not on many drivers' minds as they drove to their best ability to win the coveted trophy. 188 Matt Fuller made the most of his front row start, to lead for many laps, but he was reeled in by 190 Steve "Pikey" Bailey and 239 Steve "Nemesis" Carter and they took up the running. All around, there were pockets of action, with much of it surrounding 341 Andrew Jones, who used his Lincoln Continental to cause plenty of havoc and damage - 266 Ian "Tiggy" Meaker's DS420 Limo taking a pounding at one stage. With only a few laps remaining Pikey was well in the lead, but he then encountered old foe, 260 Keith Reynolds, who tried all he knew to remove Pikey with an all-out attack in the pits bend. Reynolds took Pikey to the pits bend wall, but ultimately the challenge failed to remove the leader. Thus Pikey won the right to wear the gold roof for the next 12 months as he was duly crowned the National Bangers Champion of the World. Some way back, 208 Jimmy Randall took second, with 158 Shane Davies third and 199 Jamie Wyatt (who had made the grid via Last Chance) was fourth.
The first Allcomers race was again a livey affair with Rob Speak leading for most of the time until he was buried by 188 Matt Fuller into the inner marker tyres. Hit of the race was by 45 Anthony "Lips" Croshaw on Oggy as 158 Shane Davies took the flag. The second Allcomers saw the heaviest action of the afternoon as on the pit bend end, 517 Scott Weldon was buried by Lips who was duly blitzed by 7 Jamie Charles and then Boris. As Boris moved away from the wreckage, Jonesy duly took up the opportunity to drill in to the back of Charles. Jimmy "The Finger" Randall was leading with a few laps to run until Jonesey, who was trying to take out Speak, missed Speak and collected The Finger head on, thus stopping him from the victory which in turn was taken by Nemesis.
Nine cars made it on to the track to end the day with a King of Crash/DD which was won by Jonesey, after a truly spectacular jacking train had formed on the back straight.

Stock Rods

A fine turnout of 28 Stock Rods attended for the chance to win the West of England Championship and a 2 from 3 format was deployed to determine the final grid starting positions. BriSCA F2 Stock Car National Points Champion, 886 Chris Bradbury took to the wheel of Colin Higman's Nova but a broken driveshaft ended his chances of winning in two separate formulas on the same day. All of the heats were very fractious as the eager drivers, all vying for a final position, caused too much contact for the Steward's liking and thus numerous drivers were pulled up and docked for poor driving in the non-contact formula. The heats were won by 916 Luke Thomas, 565 Andy Giles and 858 Nick Taylor. Taylor relieved pole sitter Thomas of the lead in the final and a battle ensued before Taylor found some daylight, and took the flag and the West of England title.

BriSCA F2

A small turnout of 24 drivers meant that all cars competed in all races. The first heat saw Stock Car racing at its finest, for in the closing few laps, 676 Neil Hooper; 886 Chris Bradbury and 783 James Rygor kept swapping places with hit after hit to move each other out of the way. Hooper duly took heat one, after some thrilling closing laps. The next two races were dominated by Bradbury as he first won the heat and then took his first final victory at Smeatharpe since May. 464 Matt Linfield won the Grand National from Hooper and Bradbury, who from a lap down, made it all the way back to third. The St John Ambulance Brigade white top trophy went the way of 909 Andy Cattell, who was thus rewarded for making the long trip to the south west, from Leicestershire.