United Downs Raceway - Sunday 24th April 2011

The annual Boneshaker meeting served up plenty of action for the large Easter Sunday crowd who lapped up the late April sunshine at the United Downs Raceway.

National Bangers

239 Steve Carter successfully defended the Boneshaker title, on a day of plenty of hard hitting action from the 2-litre National Bangers.
The final tally of 43 cars was only marginally less than the 2010 event, and all races featured plenty of crashing.
162 Brett Ellacott won the opening heat, which unfortunately saw Entertainers' League leader 205 Alex Ganter suffer a leg injury when inadvertently collected in the driver's door.
Heat two was won by 190 Steve Bailey, whilst 341 Andrew Jones made his mark, dishing out a selection of heavy hits.  648 Dan Smith also landed a thunderous blow on 861 Paul Wright towards the end of the race.
Non-qualifiers were added to the rear of the grid for the Boneshaker final, which had to be stopped after four laps, when 494 Karl James needed assistance.  James had been involved in a turnstile bend crash which saw Bailey, one of the pre-race favourites on the receiving end from 185 Matt Cusens.  Just half a lap before, Bailey had been heavily bundled into the pits bend fence by 178 Mike Davies.  After those hectic opening exchanges, just ten drivers made the restart, and Carter saw off a gallant chase by 47 Marcus A'Lee to build a big lead.  147 Phil Purdy edged his way into third, and the race ended explosively when 719 Chris Storey ran in 55 James Ogborn, who was then heavily blitzed by Jones.
Carter followed up his victory with another success in the Allcomers.  Just four cars went the distance, with 142 James Herman taking quite a bit of punishment.
Five cars emerged for a relative short, sharp DD, with 714 Paul Smaldon taking the honours.

Saloon Stock Cars

A magnificent showing of 21 drivers contested the Western Championship.
Heat one went to 120 Shane Brown, but will be best remembered for a spectacular pits bend incident in which 382 Danny Hunt rolled over.
The second heat was settled on the last bend.  103 Chris Horwell tracked down long time leader 611 Adam Low, and shoved the young Scotsman wide on the final bend.
Low was then involved in a particularly scary incident in the final.  His car burst into flames, and was on fire for a good half a lap before Low was able to pull on to the infield.  Low frantically tried to extricate himself from the car, as marshalls attacked what was now a raging fire, with extinguishers.  It took much effort to bring the fire under control, whilst medical staff rushed to Low's aid.  In the restarted race, 31 Ian Low was clattered around the fence by 2 Paul Tuppen, and he too required assistance from his car.  Eventually, the race went to its conclusion, with a compelling last lap.  English Champion 48 Shaun Webster dived at race leader 30 Barry Hollett on the last bend.  Hollett just held on, and squeezed Webster towards the infield in the run to the line.  Hollett just got there first, but was then docked two places for a jumped start right at the very beginning of the race.  That handed Webster the win, with 618 Stuart Shevill promoted to second, and Hollett officially placed in third.

Ministox

The youngsters in the Ministox produced a trio of exciting races, which each yielded a different winner each time.  First to take the chequered flag was 910 Tom Cadby, which was actually his maiden Ministox victory.  In heat two, 315 Tristan Claydon made his overnight journey from Cowdenbeath a worthwhile one, as he came out on top in a battle with 991 Ryan Hoskin.  Yellow graders 932 Sam Moore and 935 James Flint led the way home in the final, finishing first and second respectively, with Claydon in third.