A large and appreciative crowd gathered under the warm blue sky for the last Bank Holiday before Christmas, and they were treated to a spectacular day of action from a jam-packed programme.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The opening heat doubled as the track’s White & Yellow Grade Series Final with an impressive 18 cars on the grid.  501 Jason Ward sprinted into an early lead which he built up to a time gap of more than one and a half seconds ahead of 325 Ryan Sheahan and 12 Craig Driscoll.  As Ward looked to be cruising to victory and took the last lap board, up ahead of him 131 Dean Rogers and 109 Tristan Smith tangled on the exit of turn two.  The luckless Ward was first on the scene, and he found himself slewed up as the backmarkers inadvertently dragged him into their tangle.  Ward rode up onto the siderails of Rogers, whilst Sheahan was also delayed as he chose the outside line to try to get past the melee.  In the mayhem, Driscoll was able to nip by to take the lead, and half a lap later the win.  960 Ady Whitehead and 926 Josh Wilson scrabbled through for second and third with the unlucky Ward crossing the line fourth, missing out on the plethora of tyres on offer.  There were 22 cars for the second heat, including every star grade driver in attendance.  870 Bruno Farrell was the early leader before 676 Neil Hooper took over.  Behind, 560 Luke Wrench was closing fast but any chance he had of a last lap challenge ends when Farrell’s engine expired in a cloud of smoke slowing the pace of all out on track.  Hooper thus took the win.  The first attempt at getting the consolation underway was aborted, but when it did get underway it evolved into an incident-strewn race, with an early yellow flag required when 979 Paul Moss clambered on top of 980 Charlie Lobb.  Moss revealed his disappointment by flinging his steering wheel out of the cab.  992 Harley Burns was deposited in the pit bend by 83 Sy Harraway, much to the former’s displeasure, for during the race suspension Burns marched purposefully back up the track to make his feelings known to Harraway.  On the restart, 528 Shane Hector let his overeagerness get the better of him, which he would later come to regret.  With Hector having shot away into the lead, there was plenty of thrilling dicing going on behind, between 667 Tommy Farrell, 27 Kieren Bradford, 126 Jamie Avery, 605 Ritchie Andrews and Harraway.  Places were swapped over multiple laps until Andrews and Bradford tangled on the final bend.  Hector crossed the line first but was docked four places by the Steward, and Avery inherited the win.  The Final saw another great scrap between the star drivers, which once again allowed the lower graders to get away at the front.  828 Julian Coombes was quickly into the lead which he held despite several attacks from Ward.  Each challenge from Ward saw Coombes survive, whilst Ward momentarily drifted out of shape.  Coombes continued and took the flag to regain the Club 21 trophy he had won previously in 2016.  926 Josh Wilson and 960 Ady Whitehead grabbed the other rostrum places, with Ward again having to settle for fourth.  Just when it looked as though Ward would beat his frustration, his lead in the Grand National was halted with a lap to go as Wrench found a way past to take the win and relegate Ward to second.

Saloon Stock Cars

With less than a week before their World Championship in Scotland, the 18 car entry was more than decent.  In the opening race, 7 Pat Lines hit the front.  Further back, 677 Warren Darby was spun by 382 Corey Hunt on the entry to the home straight.  799 Joe Powell and 277 Jack Grandon tangled on the back straight with race leader Lines colliding heavily with Powell, and that brought the introduction of yellow flags.  577 Harry Darby hit the front but was spun out by 84 Carl Boswell who then also spun around with the chasing pack rattling off the plating.  902 Buster Jnr came through the chaos to finish first.  The second heat produced a tremendous battle between the red tops with bumper blows being traded amidst a deluge of swapping places in superb fashion.  A yellow flag for debris closed the pack up and allowed Warren Darby to take up the running.  27 Jason Kingwell found himself embroiled in a series of battles, first with 720 Archie Brown and then with Harry Darby.  The unfortunate Hunt was at the front of a train of cars which railroaded into the plating on the pits bend, the impact of which brought out the yellow flags.  Warren Darby led Brown away on the restart and that was how they finished, whilst Buster Jnr held on to third despite a last bend dive from 760 Joey Reynolds.  The Final saw Boswell swiftly to the front as Brown was involved in a rare spin in the west bend.  With the lap boards out, Harry Darby and Kingwell edged ahead of Boswell, as Darby became the latest holder of the Club 21 trophy.

ORCi Stock Rods

The non-contact racers contested two from three heats to determine grid positions for the English Championship.  Heat one was halted when defending English Champion 909 Justin Washer ran aground on turn four.  914 Callum Faulconbridge sped clear in the lead on the restart, 522 Chris Mikulla picked up a puncture and 351 Rhys Langdown received a black cross for contact which eventually dropped him from fourth to sixth in the results.  944 Callum Hosie won the second heat comfortably finishing half a lap ahead of second place 103 Chris Horwell.  The third and final qualifying heat produced a scintillating hard-fought battle between 231 Simon Bassett, 151 Simon Vincent, Washer and Hosie at the front of the field.  As the pack encountered back-marking traffic, Hosie’s challenge on Washer only resulted in a puncture for the newly crowned ORC Champion.  The lead trio finished in that order, which saw Bassett secure pole position, with 728 Kris Woods joining him on the front row.  At the end of another enthralling contest, the English Championship ended with a controversial finish.  Bassett just hold off Woods in the drag to turn one, whilst Faulconbridge settled into second with Woods in third.  As the race progressed, Hosie climbed up the order, and moved past Faulconbridge with ease to claim second place.  However, race leader Bassett stuck doggedly to his task, and defended first place.  Hosie repeatedly attacked Bassett, invariably looking for a tiny gap on the inside line.  This bunched the lead threesome of Bassett, Hosie and Faulconbridge.  Bassett was resolute, Hosie continued to nibble at the 231 car and in turn Faulconbridge did likewise to the 944 car at which point drivers were warned over the raceceiver radios.  At this stage, it looked as though Woods had been given the opportunity to mount an outside line run on the three ahead.  However, with the laps ticking away, the Hosie attacks became more and more aggressive.  On the exit of turn two, Hosie nudged Bassett, but as Hosie sought to squeeze into the inside line, Bassett slammed the door hard, and Hosie’s car ventured onto the inner kerb, forcing him to back out of the throttle given the lack of a gap.  On the following lap Hosie tried again but this time he did not back out, and spun Bassett into the marker tyres in turn three.  Hosie survived the clash, and just kept ahead of Faulconbridge and Woods.  Crucially, Faulconbridge grabbed second place, for even though the chequered flag fell on Hosie, he was docked for the contact which led to Bassett’s demise.  Faulconbridge was elevated to first place, and he took to the roof of his car to celebrate becoming English Champion.  Woods was second and Hosie was penalised two places to third.

Bangers

The Banger entry swelled beyond the number booked in with a handful of drivers unhelpfully arriving unannounced on the day.  With little flexibility in the race schedule, the all-in format was retained and led to well-subscribed heats which provided plenty of action.  The opening heat saw a large pile-up develop around turns one and two, but 104 Lee Mitchell found a way through only to then embed himself in the heap of cars soon after.  The same then happened for 18 Corey Karkeek which allowed 206 Matt Brewer to take up the lead until he himself was delayed which allowed 230 Tom Shilling to nip by.  Heading into the final bend Brewer nudged Shilling wide and the silver top pipped Cornish Champion Shilling to the flag by the narrowest of margins.  919 Oscar Berry smashed unsighted into 313 Oakley Hayes in heat two, whilst 130 Chris Durrant came through the debris and skirmishes to take the win.  The final was an entertaining affair with chaos around the raceway.  730 Taylor Sealy led but 177 Ryan Miles took over briefly, before he ended up in a muddle on the home straight.  That saw Sealy back into the lead, but he seemed more intent on crashing into 113 Chris Jeanes, as they tangled.  Jeanes was then on the end of more punishment from 451 Nigel Belfield.  662 Jared Roe swept past Sealy, and duly led home Shilling and 198 Owen Nichol.  A Destruction Derby was added at the request of three drivers which brought huge gasps and cheers when 823 Tyler Philips tipped over and on to his roof.  Sealy was eventually declared the winner after he silenced the Jeanes car.  The afternoon was brough to a fitting conclusion with six drivers contesting the Caravan Chaos event.  31 Liam Shipway upended his caravan, and was temporarily jack-knifed in mid-air, before spinning the front wheels to propel himself forward and right the caravan, whilst 455 Shane Kennard saw his caravan disintegrate when he was attacked by 788 Darren Morgan.  It was Morgan who went on to take top honours, as he completed many more laps than most of his rivals, and he completed the race by crashing headlong into a pile of cars in the west bend, much to the amusement of the racegoers at that end of the circuit.