On a warm and sunny Bank Holiday Sunday afternoon, it was a day of one of the biggest, and certainly richest unlimited National Banger meetings of the season, as Crasharama reached its 20th anniversary. Often billed as a day of big names in big cars for big crashes, it certainly didn’t disappoint on any of those levels. The National Bangers were supported by the Saloon Stock Cars and ORCi Ministox.
National Bangers
The headliner for Crasharama XX was a long-awaited return visit of the legendary “Bears” team, once regulars at this event but had not been part of it since 2012, when the meeting coincided with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and the meeting of their great rivals, the locally based “DWO”. Of course, it was not all about these two teams, there were some fantastic cars, many of them well presented. The longest car of the day was a Vauxhall Carlton Limousine from 658 Adam Dorse, which was surprisingly longer than the big Yank Tanks from 66 Darren Geary and 733 Ricky Stroud who never the less won oldest/rarest awards. The feature event was the first race, which had to be moved back a race on the programme as many of the drivers arrived too late for it to be realistically the first event and even then, it was three short of the total entry. Nevertheless, 33 cars took the green flag for the race which doubles up as the Pat Hudson Trophy. The challenge of the Bears appeared to falter in this one, as several of them retired early on. There was a jacking train on the home straight with the Limo of Dorse getting considerably shortened by 771 Michael Pidgeley and then even more so by 122 Mark Cooper Jnr but then the latter himself took a big shot from 27 Keiren Bradford. In the race, it was not too long before 239 Steve Carter relieved 341 Andrew Jones of the lead and it was to be one he was not to lose, despite a little nibble from the back marker 732 Danny Stroud late on in the race went on to win and with it a cool £1,250 in prize money. Team mates Jones and 988 Billy Dennison were the placemen in a definite one-up to the local team and Nemesis made his feelings clear in his post-race interview on the radio mic; “Talk is cheap, they spend longer on the infield and putting themselves in .“ As is so often the case, the first Allcomers race is harder than the main one and with these tensions between the two teams running high and others willing to join in on either or both, such was the case. It featured some huge hits, firstly with one from Dennison on 43 Luke Maynard, which left the latter in obvious signs of distress and medical assistance required for an arm injury. Dennison took no further part in the meeting for when it was deemed that the hit contravened the ORCi rules. The action continued to come thick and fast after the re-start with the battle becoming a war, with the Bears on the receiving end as 521 Ashley Riley had a huge hit over the front left hand wheel from Carter and then a big hit from 162 Brett Ellacott, which necessitated more red flags with Riley shaken, but able to walk away unaided. The resumption saw more, this time Ellacott accounted for 221 Justin Riley although there was retribution from the Bears when 321 Keiron Fry went in hard on Ellacott. It was more red flags, but all were ok. Just four cars were left for the re-start and 99 David Spooner Jnr was the leader all the way to the last corner when Bradford pulled off a successful move to come through and take the chequered flag. After all that action, the second Allcomers was always going to be lighter on cars but with some great pit work from the drivers and their crews, there were 22 cars on track. The big hits in this one came from 733 Stroud on 208 Keiren Barratt, with the latter’s Yank a big mess and then a huge hit – known as a “caging” in Banger terms from Nemesis on 45 Lips, Anthony Croshaw. Not the first time Lips has been on the receiving end from Nemesis at Crasharama. 382 Tommy Hutchings took the win. With £250 winner takes all on the day’s Destruction Derby, there were nine drivers who took to the track, none of them from the Bears, although they did attempt to repair (what was left) of their cars in most cases. There were some big hits and once 74 Adam Hitchcock and Nemesis had seen their cars expire, it looked like Jones had the upper hand, but it was 460 Cliff Friend who delivered the last and decisive hit, typically waved in by Jones.
Saloon Stock Cars
With the Saloon Stock Cars during a run of alternate championship weekends and a busy Bank Holiday, the entry for this was always likely to be below what we had hoped for. But nonetheless, the 12 cars present produced a trio of competitive races for Club 21 day, dominated for fast yellow graded drivers. The first heat saw 27 Keiren Bradford (racing in both National Bangers and Saloons for the day) lunge at 99 Jacob Roff and 199 Phil Powell on the last corner and in the scramble for the line it was Roff that took the chequered flag. The second heat saw Roff and 84 Carl Boswell break clear whilst the battle behind for third was a superb one with at one time as many as six cars swapping and changing places. Boswell held off Roff for the win and then the Final, which was surprisingly the quietest of the three races and although the gap ebbed and flowed between Roff and Boswell, 99 was never able to get close enough to land a strike on 84 and he thus took his second Smeatharpe Final of the month. Bradford, in the sixth of his seventh events of the day was third.
Ministox
Save for a good effort from 506 Bradley Eltham, it was a totally Autospeed/southwest entry in the ORCi Ministox. The first heat saw 870 Stella Farrell lead initially, but she was spun when caught and collected several times and required medical assistance, but thankfully was all ok and raced again later in the afternoon. It was 677 Warren Darby who went on to win after the re-start. 917 Gemma Robbins got the better of the battle with her brother 927 Owen Robbins and the Darby bothers 677 Warren and 577 Harry to win heat two but in the Final 654 Harley Soper got a good break from the blue grade and went on to win the Reg Thomas Shield by a safe distance ahead of 917 Gemma and 927 Owen Robbins.