Smeatharpe Stadium - Monday 30th May 2011

A miserable morning of weather threatened to blight the annual Crasharama fixture, but pleasingly things brightened up later in the afternoon, and the large Bank Holiday crowd were treated to some action-packed, fun-filled races from the National Bangers, with supporting action for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars and the Ministox.

National Bangers

Just shy of 40 National Bangers contested the big money Crasharama 13 fixture, the first date for unlimited cc National Bangers at Smeatharpe since last September.
Amongst the entry, three drivers were rewarded with Oldest/Rarest car awards - 266 Ian Meaker for his P4 Rover, 371 Paul White for a P5 Rover, and 842 Jack Perkins, who had an AMC Ambassador which also won the Longest Car competition.
Best Presented awards went to Meaker, 47 Marcus A'Lee, 146 Steve Voss and 207 Michael Woodward.
First up was the Crasharama 13 event, which was placed at the start of the programme to ensure all drivers had a crack at the title.  After 989 Dean Arm and 28 Neil Osborne had led the early stages, 521 Ash Riley moved to the front.  A huge jacking train on the home straight formed, which accounted for more than half a dozen drivers, but at the front of the field, it was Ace Ash who continued to lead.  The damp track certainly made racing difficult, as drivers struggled for grip, and as the race neared its closing stages, it was evident that 702 James Dodge was edging ever nearer to race leader Riley.  Dodge shook off the attentions of 747 Liam Martin, and closed on Riley, and as the leading pair took the last lap board, Riley clipped the parked car of 266 Ian Meaker on the start-finish line.  Riley was sent out of shape, and Dodge was able to pounce.  Dodge duly saw out the last lap of the race to clinch the victory, whilst Martin was second, Osborne third and Arm finished fourth.  Like all of the day's race winners and award winners, the first four finishers in Crasharama received some cider to take away with them, courtesy of event sponsors, Tricky Cider.
There was some impressive heavy crashing in the west bend during the first of two Allcomers races, which then left just four cars running at the end of the race - 221 Justin Riley taking the win.
In the second Allcomers race, the pits bend was the centre of a massive track blockage, which had drivers wading in one after the other in spectacular fashion.  Some time was given in the hope that a clear route through could be chiselled out by the pushing, shoving and shunting, but eventually time had to be called with the track in gridlock.  A few cars were able to re-grid, including Dean Arm, who gallantly tried to race on with extensive rear end damage (including punctures on both back wheels).  360 Jack Reynolds took the honours in the restarted race, which also saw Osborne blast around the track in reverse, as forward motion was impossible in view of his own front end damage.
Eleven drivers managed to make it out for the DD at the end of the meeting, and Osborne successfully saw of Justin Riley and 133 Karly Day to take the win, and also put the seal on being voted the Entertainer of the meeting.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

676 Neil Hooper continued to exert his vice-like grip on the current westcountry F2 sence, as he grabbed his second feature final win of the spring Bank Holiday weekend.
There was a disappointing showing of F2s, with numbers much lower than at any other stage at Smeatharpe this season, and that resulted in the deployment of the two from three format.  On a damp circuit, 254 Richard Beere took the first heat, and 14 Mike Priddle scored his first win of 2011 in heat two.  The track dried noticably during the course of the excellent third heat, and having lost the lead to 290 Jay Tomkins, sixteen year old 124 Ollie Skeels brilliantly fought back to regain first place in the closing stages.
Two caution periods in the feature final saw the grid closed up, and that negated the early advantage which Skeels had created for himself.  Into the restarted race, it was not long before Hooper stormed to the front, and he won from fellow south west stars 522 Chris Mikulla and 783 James Rygor.  The victory saw Hooper net the superb Ermington MOT Centre trophy.
Skeels won again in the Grand National, to complete an excellent first F2 outing at Smeatharpe, in only his first month of BriSCA F2 competition.

Ministox

After a relatively poor run of form, 907 Ben Sillifant bounced back with a fine haul of 29 points from a possible maximum of 30, courtesy of his first two race wins of the season.
Sillifant was victorious in both of the heats, leading home 935 James Flint in the first of them, and 198 Brandon Osborne in heat two.  However, it was East Anglian visitor 121 Marcus Skeels who took the honours in the final, as he swept to the chequered flag, ahead of Sillifant and 991 Ryan Hoskin.