Smeatharpe Stadium - Monday 5th August 2013

Report by Steve Linfield

The second of this summer’s weeknight meetings at Smeatharpe saw 14 races giving great value for money and was strategically placed to follow the BriSCA F2 Stock Car World Championship Semi Final meeting at Bristol the previous day.  As a result, many of those who raced there, were back in action with the enhancement of the 2013 running of the Young Guns and Teen Sensations titles.  This was all ably backed up by the Vintage Tin Night in the National Bangers and there was action from the 11-16 year olds in the ORCi Ministox.   And despite a very wet afternoon in the southwest, the forecast was for it to clear, and it did leaving the racing dry and that bit more atmospheric under the floodlights.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

There were 41 BriSCA F2’s present including reigning World Champion 1 Micky Brennan who looks set to be defending his title from or towards the rear of the grid next month after crashing out of his Semi Final.   There were also track debuts from two more long distance travellers in young Scot 3 Liam Rennie and from Yorkshire 618 Ben Lockwood, whom both made use of staying over from Bristol to be part of the Young Guns and Teen Sensations.   These two events were run as stand-alone races prior to the main programme and saw ten drivers line up and 921 Jack Aldridge the defending title holder of both.  The Young Guns saw them line up in reverse National Points order, thus with Rennie on pole position such has been his barnstorming first season where he has pretty much wrapped up the season long Novice of the Year title.  However his race was to end after just a lap in this one when he tangled with 991 Ryan Hoskin and suffered a broken half-shaft which left him stranded across the track to bring out the yellow flags.  Aldridge had the lead from the outside of the front row but was challenged by 124 Ollie Skeels after the re-start and the pair had a good battle, which was resolved in favour of Aldridge who retained the title whilst 302 Dale Moon, like the two ahead of him will be a World Finalist next month, was third.  Shortly thereafter the Teen Sensations lined up, with the grid this time in closed grid National Points order.  979 Paul Moss and then 797 Dan Moss were the early leaders until Skeels went past with Aldridge giving chase.  This time Jack could do nothing about the East Anglian who went on to take the win.  Dan Moss made third.
The first heat of the full format saw 886 Chris Bradbury pick his way through the traffic to catch erstwhile leader 734 Glenn Sanders in the closing stages and then in the second heat Skeels continued his good run by taking the victory.  In the consolation 605 Liam Rowe was first across the line but was docked two places for jumping the initial start and it was 270 Mark Gibbs who took the win, on another trip from his Staffordshire base.  Thus set the scene for the Mills Engineering sponsored Final, the first really under the lights in 2013 and with sparks flying from underneath of some of the cars, particularly on the back straight it just added to the spectacle.   It was Sanders who headed the 29 car field away with Moon not too far back in second once the race settled down and Rowe and Skeels the pick of the blue grade.  Behind there were some very hard battles going on with places swapping and changing – nothing sanitised about the F2 racing at Smeatharpe….  Bradbury battled past both 522 Chris Mikulla and 676 Neil Hooper to head the charge of the stars and then both he and Mikulla had what is probably best described as a kamikaze attack from 352 Dave Sansom.  The latter was never going to make the bend at the speed he entered it and Mikulla (especially) and Bradbury both did well to ride out the hit.  Sansom spent the remainder of the race broadside, towards the outside of the Honiton bend.  Meanwhile at the front, which was still significantly ahead of Bradbury, Moon took up the running and Rowe moved to second place and that is how they remained for several laps until Rowe made his move on his fellow Cornishman with two laps to go.  However by now Bradbury was looming large on both, but was it close enough for him to land his record breaking seventh successive Smeatharpe Final?  He moved past Moon but for Rowe it came down to a last bend lunge, and mindful of the fact that the stranded Sansom was sat there, it made it all the more difficult.  But, he timed it to perfection and was able to slip through on Rowe to grab the win on the run to the flag.  This was an excellent race with smiles all round, and likewise for Moon for third.  The Grand National necessitated a complete re-run when 315 Justin Fisher, 890 Paul Rice and 935 Nathan Maidment came together in a heap on the home straight.  The re-run was not too many laps old when Brennan suffered what appeared to be a stuck throttle on the Honiton bend and went thumping into the plating, in an eerily similar crash to Gordon Moodie in June, against the same piece of plating.  The World Champion was very winded and given time to extricate himself from the car.  290 Jay Tomkins led the re-start until he was caught and passed by Mikulla who went on to take a good win, Bradbury made it back up to fourth and his lead in the track championship is now looking unassailable.

Ministox

The Ministox were sponsored by City Camper Hire Ltd, and the entry was swelled by some visitors making use of the school holidays with 321 Marcus Skeels joining his brother on the trip from East Anglia, there were track debuts from 252 Izzy and 252 Will Jackson from the Midlands and 360 Jacques West from the southeast.   The races followed the same pattern with 916 Keiran Bodie leading off from the white grade and being reeled in by new Cornish Champion 986 Sophie Fasey.  She took both the heat victories but in the Final the outcome was in doubt right to the end in what was a very good race.  Bodie opened out a bigger lead than he had done in both of the heats and thus took more catching.   Fasey did so with two laps to go but had 907 Cameron Lawrence all over her by then, and she very nearly spun under the pressure on the exit of turn two on the last lap.  This allowed Lawrence to get alongside, yet Fasey spun him which took him out of the hunt but in doing so allowed Bodie, 931 Jack Manhire and Skeels on to terms and they headed for the line together.  In a blanket finish Fasey held on to complete her hat-trick by just 00.296 seconds from Bodie and Manhire.

National Bangers - Vintage Tin Night

Vintage Tin night has never seen a large entry; it has always been intended as a fun night in old/rare cars.  After the National Banger meeting last month, for the all Japanese car meeting when things simply went awry of what is, was, and can be in a ‘National’ meeting and with certain drivers appearing not to take each meeting in its own particular context, Autospeed felt that there was little choice but to slightly tweak the rules for this meeting, this time and outlaw ‘flat out’ hits and ‘follow ins’ and move it to what it is intended; fun.  It is appreciated that the move did not please all, and it was with regret that some big name drivers opted to stay away – but it is emphasised that they were not asked to.  Eight drivers raced and all were rewarded with a DVD from sponsors, D T Videos.  Amongst the cars, the most modern being a Sierra, which in itself is now over 20 years old…. The rest were a lot older with Triumph Toledo’s, Wolseley, Austin A35 being some of the examples.  99 David Spooner took the first race, which was designated the Final in his Mk4 Cortina ahead of 842 Jack Perkins and 266 Ian ‘Tiggy’ Meaker.  Yes – he really was third.  The second race saw 99 ‘Bam’ again well out front and despite the engine coughing and spluttering he held on for his second win.  The third race was highly entertaining with plenty of spinning, changes of lead and general action.  Much of it was generated by Spooner who took on a “tho shall not pass” mantra with his ailing engine.  123 Charlie Dwyer, in a very rusty Austin A35 was highly entertaining, and took on any and had the lead at one point, only to get spun and rolled on the back straight by 303 Nic Saintey in the Morris Minor, to curtail the race with a lap to go, leaving 293 Adrian Broadway as the victor.  The DD saw a return to full contact rules and Saintey was again good value in his Moggy and ditto Dwyer again in the A35 and again he went upside down, this time caught fire into the bargain too which left Tiggy as the last car moving and thus the winner.  The action in the National Bangers had been plentiful, without being extreme, and Vintage Tin Night was full of fun and smiles.