Smeatharpe Stadium - Monday 31st May 2010

A huge crowd of racegoers packed into Smeatharpe for the annual Crasharama fixture for unlimited cc National Bangers, and despite a smaller than expected car count and a host of scrutineering issues, there was little shortage of action from the revamped format, as Cornish Wrecker 47 Marcus A'Lee enjoyed his finest hour, by capturing the coveted Crasharama title.  

National Bangers

With a shortfall in cars, the usual two heats/consolation format had to be revised.  The National Bangers duly completed the pre-meeting Grand Parade and prize giving, and then waiting for two BriSCA F2 Stock Car heats before all cars gridded for the Crasharama XII final.  Unbelievably, the race barely went one lap, as the pits bend turned into a huge parking lot.  Drivers battled their way out of the pile-up, to tear once around the track and storm into the heap.  With no way through, and a complete stalemate log jam, the race was red flagged, and declared Void.  The track was cleared, and after another F2 race (and considerable repair work in the pit area), the National Bangers lined up again for a second attempt at Crasharama XII.
This time the race did go the distance.  265 Stu Foster was on course for victory, but could not resist blasting 331 Jason Jackson.  In a scramble for the lead, Marcus A'Lee came out on top.  All around him, the rest of those still mobile fell by the wayside, and at one point, A'Lee was more than two laps ahead of his nearest challenger.  However, it was just as well that A'Lee had built up such an advantage, because in turn two, 421 Nutty Nigel Riley was lying in wait for any who dared to pass.  Riley pulled out of a pile-up and blocked the clear route through, thereby stopping A'Lee.  180 Mark Foster unlapped himself once, as A'Lee shunted back and forth to get moving once more, and by the time he had pushed a way past Riley, he was still in the lead by more than one lap.  Only three laps of the race remained.  Foster overtook A'Lee again to get on the lead lap, but A'Lee saw out the closing stages to clinch his biggest ever victory.  Foster was second and 99 David Spooner completed the top three.
Just three cars went the distance in the Allcomers, which featured more heavy action.  A'Lee won again, leading home 384 John Golden and 842 Jack Perkins.
A good number of drivers made it out for the DD, which served up some huge hits in the west bend.  With just a few cars running, 268 Luke Fairey attacked Nigel Riley, who returned the favour.  Foster and 207 Michael Woodward also fell by the wayside, and it was left to A'Lee to finish off Riley to crown a remarkable hat-trick of victories.
127 Peter Wake had Car of the Day for his outlandish stretch limo, complete with a most unusual fibreglass body kit styled like an old Gangster car from the 1930s.  Five other drivers scooped Oldest/Rarest car awards, and there were six drivers honoured in the Best Presented class.
A quartet of drivers failed pre-meeting scrutineering.  190 Steve Bailey and 714 Paul Smaldon (fresh cars) and 239 Steve Carter and 262 Buddy James (in cars that had previously raced elsewhere) presented their cars at scrutineering, but these cars were not permitted to race in the meeting, after failing a chassis spiking examination.  

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

Just shy of 40 F2s contributed greatly to the day's action, with five high speed races.  Heat wins went to 676 Neil Hooper and 886 Chris Bradbury, before 315 Justin Fisher took the consolation.  An incredible meeting final was full of incident, and having tangled early on, Hooper and Bradbury made the most of two caution periods to work their way back up the order.  Even so, they had no answer to the remarkable speed of 783 James Rygor, who saw off the challenge of fellow yellow grader 276 Murray Jones, to win convincingly. 
Rygor claimed the Ermington MOT Centre trophy, with Hooper pipping Jones for second in the late stages.  Bradbury won for the second time, when he took the GN, but only after debutant 835 Matt Westaway had led all the way to the very closing laps.