Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 30th September 2012

Report by Steve Linfield

It may have been chilly for the penultimate Smeatharpe meeting of 2012, but at least it remained dry, which has of course not always been the case this year.   With four formulae on the programme, it was always going to be a busy one and it turned out to be every bit as spectacular as promised too.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

There were 32 BriSCA F2 Stock Cars in the pits for racing, and this meant that for only the second time this season for  a ‘domestic’ meeting the traditional full-format could be deployed.   With some new faces appearing, and others said to set to follow hopefully this will bode well for 2013.    The first heat saw two yellow flags, including a one lap dash, but 886 Chris Bradbury had already done the work and went on to win.  676 Neil Hooper, who came into the meeting having basically sealed the track championship for the second year in a row, took heat two.   The consolation saw a huge rollover for 756 Richard Thomas in the closing stages.  Richard was racing the ex-Chris Mikulla RCE car for the first time and hit a marker tyre.  Thankfully he was all okay.  It set the scene for another one lap dash and 991 Ryan Hoskin held off 596 Ritchie Mead for the victory.    The Final was lead off by 245 Paul Milsom until there was a yellow flag at the quarter distance when 189 Paul Butcher and 538 Chevy Mills tangled up.   This bunched the pack back up and as Milsom continued to lead at the re-start, 352 Dave Sansom delivered a huge hit on Bradbury.  This failed to dislodge him though as 886 moved closer to the front.  Sansom was then involved in another tangle swiftly after this when he came together with 126 Jamie Avery who hit the inner marker tyres on the pits bend and become the second big rollover victim of the day.   By now it was 476 Ryan Wadling who lead off the re-start but Bradbury was not far behind and looked a good bet for the victory with still well over half the race to go.  However, just as he was able to challenge he retired, later diagnosed as a blown differential.   Further back Sansom put the bumper in hard on both Hooper and 315 Justin Fisher and the fall out of this actually ended up happening half a lap later when 315, 352 and 302 Dale Moon all ended up hooked together on the pits bend to bring out another yellow flag.   Wadling continued to lead at the latest re-start and as the laps ticked off Hooper made it through to second, with a resurgent 167 Bill Batten matching his every move.  Hooper took the lead with three laps to run and it was this point that he managed to get a break from himself and Batten, as Bill lost time getting past Wadling.  He was not able to quite get close enough to land a last bend hit on Hooper, as he took the victory, but never the less it was a stirring drive from Batten, one of the most iconic drivers in the history of BriSCA F2.   990 Paul Rice got Wadling for third on the last corner.   The Allcomers/Grand National saw 605 Liam Rowe come through to win to continue his recent good run.

Saloon Stock Cars

16 Saloon Stock Cars, for ‘Club 21’ day with plenty of good travelling efforts once again, but it was to be a day dominated by the southwest drivers on home turf….. or concrete.     The first heat saw 995 Ben Goddard emerge as the winner whilst, many eyes were on an intriguing battle between the ‘big two’ of 1 Eddie Darby and 120 Shane Brown which culminated in Brown performing a successful last bend move to grab the fourth place. The second heat saw plenty going on.  This included a big fencing from 916 Ross Thomas on 11 Richard Parris, the latest in their protracted feud and 30 Barry Hollett receiving a black flag for turning 199 Phil Powell ‘inside out’ into the plating.   314 Jason Barraclough got into the lead early on and looked set to hold on by some way, but having broken off the advances of Brown, Darby chased him down and went in for a last bend move.  It did not quite come off and Barraclough held on for what could have been his first victory in the Saloons.  However it was deemed that he jumped the start and was thus docked two places and Darby inherited the win.  The ‘Devon Grand Prix’ Final saw 298 Ian Elms lead until he was joined by Goddard, Thomas and Barraclough in a great four car battle for the lead.   This later became a seven car battle when Powell, Darby and Brown al joined in.  But, it was Thomas who forged ahead and went on to take a good victory ahead of Brown and Darby, which will take their battle for the track championship into the final meeting on October 21.

National Bangers

For the National Bangers under 2 litre it was ‘Teamarama’ 14 and whilst, yes, it did not command the entry it once did, the total of 21 cars present across seven teams did their best to entertain.   To add to the potential score of a team there were extra points for booking in early, arriving before midday, being in matching colour schemes, having a non-Mondeo and/or rear wheel drive. The best presented team of the day were “Easy Parts” consisting of 50 Neil Rogers, 71 Scott Stevens, 222 Justin Herbert and 311 Simon Rogers.   The formidable team to beat were naturally defending title holders “DWO” although they had a 50% change from their victory last year with 162 Brett Ellacott and 190 Steve Bailey on holiday, they were replaced by 341 Andrew Jones and a guest (?) slot for 452 Anthony Sleeman.   Certainly car of the day was a ‘Land crab’ hearse for Team Toilet’s 371 Paul White.  It did not last too long in race one, but he did not go down without a fight, and that was really the theme of the day.   The rest gave as good as they got from ‘DWO’ with the ‘Easy Parts’ certainly going in on them, and they actually maintained their lead after the first encounter.  However, with 239 Steve Carter winning that and then the other two races too, a successful defence was never really in doubt and they run out the winners on 91 points to EP’s 51.  It was a first team win for Sleeman though, the others all having either won with the ‘Midnight Runners’ and/or ‘Posh Wash’ in the past, and for Carter in-particular a fourth win in a row.   The DD proved to be a bit of a brutal affair, which is often the case with the solid Mondeo’s.  There were two stoppages, the second when 79 Adam Brocks signalled that all was not well unfortunately caused it to be abandoned as it was necessary to remove him from his car.   Thankfully after a hospital check over teenage racer Adam was later discharged with a clean bill of health.

Stock Rods

The Stock Rods had their last appearance of the season at Smeatharpe and a 21 car entry which include a few new faces and some visiting interest once again.  83 Adam Ignaczak picked up from where he left off at St Day by leading the heat race comfortably away.  However two yellow flags, firstly for the spun car of newcomer 701 Gail Davies and then soon after for a small fire on 778 Dave Horwell’s car brought the pack to his tail end.  251 Lee Ribbans came through to challenge, but suffered mechanical issues with just a lap left and this left the white top free to win.  The Final saw Ignaczak again open out a big lead, but as her came across the back marking traffic in the second half of the race 624 Ady Taylor caught him.  However, once he did so he was unable to make the pass and therefore it was to be a heat and Final double for Ignaczak.  730 Brendon Sealey made it through for third.   The Grand National saw a coming together between 437 Lewis Trickey and Ribbans, which resulted in Trickey against the plating and Ribbans disqualified.    624 Taylor held the lead until he retired and then 54 John Tait took over.  He then found himself under pressure from 136 Steve Gooch who went on to take the win, and with it the 2012 track championship.