A good sized crowd braved a chilly evening to enjoy an action packed series of races under the floodlights at Smeatharpe.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

Although 30 cars arrived, regrettably 988 Charlie Lobb failed to progress beyond the practice session after his car came to a crunching halt against the plating, the car hitting with such force that the youngster required assistance to exit the race car – a stuck open throttle being the prognosis.  A two from three heat format was deployed with heat one doubling as the track’s White and Yellow grade series Final featuring 15 cars.  232 Dan Abbott led the opening stages, however he was soon caught and passed by a rapid looking 605 Richie Andrews.  With the lapboards out, third placed 828 Julian Coombes was a little over-eager to make a move on the lead two, resulting in his car spinning sideways on the pit bend and being collected by 35 Charlie Fisher who had been making good progress up to that point.  The incident saw Coombes retire and 390 Jessica Smith promoted to third with the top three finishing in that order to pick up the plethora of tyres on offer.  Heat two, by necessity, featured all the remaining star and superstar drivers but they struggled to catch the repaid lower graders, as yellow top 210 Tristan Claydon hit the front.  320 Matt Hatch and 251 Craig Driscoll tangled on the Honiton bend, and as Hatch rejoined, he then latterly spun out at the opposite end of the circuit.  Out front, Claydon eased out a slender advantage over 398 Ian England for the win.  The third and final heat saw 302 Dale Moon and 844 Jack Prosser tangle early on as England took up the running at the front.  667 Tommy Farrell was the quickest driver on track but his hard efforts to climb up the field come to nought when he tangled with 915 Jamie Jones on the pits bend, dropping him down almost a full lap.  England led into the final lap and looked a surefire bet for the win but that did not account for Driscoll who launched an audacious attack heading into the final bend.  For a moment it looked like England would spin out, but he managed to regain enough control to hold on for the win.  The Final featured 27 cars and after an extra few warm-up laps to improve track conditions following the Banger Final, the race got underway only to come under caution within the opening couple of laps.  Half a dozen cars including Abbott, Driscoll, Hatch and Fisher along with 928 Lauren Stack, had all tangled in the west bend.  On the restart, Claydon hit the front with former British Champion 542 Steven Gilbert quickly into the top six and then on into second.  Behind, Farrell and 24 Jon Palmer enjoyed a fierce battle which did little to aid their progress but was hugely entertaining to watch.  Towards the end of the race, 606 Andrew Palmer put all his shale expertise to good use on the slippery track from the earlier Banger race, to progress to third and he was closing on Gilbert, but the laps ran out with Claydon continuing the run of yellow grade successes.  Claydon’s win netted him the Steve Rich Trophy.  The Grand National saw 881 Jamie Ward Scott as the sole white top on the grid, needing to secure 3 points to overhaul Abbott for the annual St John Amubance Brigade Shield.  He led until a stoppage was required for 948 John Brereton who had ground to a halt on the outside line just past the starter’s rostrum.  184 Aaron Vaight made rapid progress to the front of the field on the restart, and that was where he remained heading into the final lap whereupon Jon Palmer took a long dive heading into the final bend.  Vaight refused to be shifted and held on for the win, whilst Ward-Scott finished tenth and thus it was Abbott who received the shield and a bonus of a new tyre for his achievements.

Saloon Stock Cars

The National Series rolled into town for the third round of the competition, with all but 26 Tommy Barnes appearing.  The nine drivers on duty were presented with a tyre each courtesy of Neil Truran Motorsports, one of the National Series sponsors.  With a few missing from the original booking list, the format was modified to four straight races.  The action came thick and fast in the opening heat, with bumpers being traded amongst the NS entrants in particular which allowed 677 Warren Darby to escape at the front.  Indeed, the young star grader’s advantage was such that by the latter stages of the race he was lapping some of the NS racers, Darby bravely spinning around World Champion 131 Timmy Barnes on his way to the win with Scottish NS entrants 618 Stuart Shevill Jnr and 600 Barry Russell escaping their fellow competitors to finish in the runner-up spots.  Behind, English Champion 428 Lee Sampson mounted an attack on 399 Cole Atkins, which saw Atkins hitting the wall on the entry to the home straight with some force.  The field looked impressive as it got up to full speed under the lights in the second heat and the action reach new heights of ferocity with action at all corners of the raceway.  Darby was quickly targeted and spun around on the home straight.  10 Frank Little Jnr, who had briefly held the lead, mounted a high speed attack on 28 Ian Govier heading into the pit bend which also saw 799 Joe Powell involved and in some discomfort which required a caution period.  On the restart 161 Billy Smith appeared to slow allowing Shevill through, the Scotsman then being spun around at speed by Smith on the pit bend.  The race was then brought to a halt, this time for Little who had come to a crunching halt on the entry to the back straight.  The restart saw another explosive opening charge into the pit bend with a number of the NS entrants involved including 126 Harry Barnes and 389 Ryan Santry, but in the melee it was 199 Phil Powell who came off worse, the car exiting the pit bend with both front and rear metal work severely damaged.  Powell eventually came to rest against the infield tyres and the safety marshals were quickly on the scene as the race was halted and after a few concerning moments it was a relief that Powell was able to exit the car and walk to the ambulance before proceeding to the local hospital for a precautionary check.  The action continued on the restart although Santry was delayed when he was hooked around at the end of the back straight before the field have even passed the start line.  Sampson streaked away at the front to take the chequered, but Smith found himself piledriven into the pits bend fence by 672 Simon Paris to conclude a brutal race.  The Final unsurprisingly saw a depleted field amongst the non-National Series entrants with local Banger racer 186 Lewis Fasey leading the race in the early stages until he was overhauled by Darby.  Harry Barnes and Shevill both went around on the pits bend.  When H. Barnes rejoined a lap down, he took Darby around and out of the race which allowed 349 Michael Allard into the lead.  The ORC and British Champion remained there to the flag, as 84 Carl Boswell and 902 Junior Buster completed the top three.  After the earlier race action just 11 cars, including all nine National Series entrants made it out for the Allcomers, only for white grader 418 Mitchell Driver’s car to fail to start.  Darby as the only non-NS entrant broke clear to hit the front but it was far from uneventful behind with Shevill being sent spinning early on by H. Barnes, and then shortly after T. Barnes and Allard were sent spinning around on the back straight.  Shevill then despatched the World Champion in ferocious style on the pit bend; the UK Champion retiring in the same incident which saw and the yellow flags introduced with the gold top’s car stranded across the entry to the home straight.  Darby made a good start with Allard benefiting from the stoppage after his earlier spin to move up to fourth just behind Santry and second placed Sampson heading into the last lap.  It was clear to all those watching that the bumpers would fly at some point and sure enough they did, heading into turn three, with Allard succeeding in moving up to second, as Santry dropped back to fourth to conclude a hard but highly entertaining showing from the heavy metal brigade.

Back 2 Basic Bangers

Close to 50 cars resulted in two half car heats.  17 Tim King led the opener until being spun around whereupon 18 Steve Soper picked up the lead until he encountered a car-strewn Honiton bend which delayed him enough for 133 Jody Jeanes to strike and spin him out.  Jeanes duly hit the front, where remained to the flag.  Heat two was led by 303 Josh Jones until he was dispatched by 930 Jordan Lobb who was in turn caught by 693 Lee Knight in his smartly turned out VW Beetle in the distinctive Herbie style colour scheme.  However, Knight’s challenge came to an end when he was spun out in amongst backmarking traffic, and for good measure he then found himself crunching into a parked car, which allowed Lobb a clear run to the flag.  The largest grid of the night was for the Dave Weare Trophy and quite frankly that led to some splendid chaos around the raceway with cars spinning in all directions and pile-ups developing at both end of the track.  Recent Ministox graduate 577 Harry Darby took up the lead, but he also fell victim to the pile-up on turns one and two, and that opened the door for 185 Richard Coaker to grab the lead.  He was spun out on the pits bend though his lead was sufficient for him to rejoin, still in first place.  However, Coaker lost momentum, and was eventually reeled in by 154 Barry Pike who headed the field home in a great race from the Back 2 Basics Bangers.  In contrast, the Chained Pairs race failed to live up to expectations with just a trio of Pairs taking to the track.  One Pair quickly expired with Pike and 79 Brian Edmond left to cruise to a straightforward victory.  The DD was a much livelier event with close to 20 starters.  The pits bend saw much of the early action though the event was halted temporarily with a flash fire on the home straight and a driver requiring attention in the pits bend pile up.  The battle eventually came down to 211 Adrian Coles, 654 Harley Soper and 113 Chris Jeanes, Coles being sandwiched by the other two coming on opposite directions on the pits bend.  Soper eventually managed to reverse out and slowly circulate round the track in the opposite direction to cheers from the crowd as he made one final hit on Jeanes to take the win.