Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 16th June 2013

Report by Steve Linfield

After a three week break, it was back to action at Smeatharpe and after some lovely summer weather enjoyed during the intervening weeks, sadly the forecast was poor.  However, as we have seen before, it actually ended up being better than anticipated, although far from as good from a summer’s afternoon.  There was a packed pit area with the Autospeed Bangers having their biggest domestic date of the season with the 2013 British Championship, the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars were back at their World Championship venue and the Saloon Stock Cars were back for the first time since the beginning of May.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The F2 entry was one shy of 40 cars, which was very good with a few southwest drivers and regulars missing whilst there were two big name visitors with 7 Gordon Moodie making an (unscheduled) trip from Scotland, to deliberately face the damp Taunton track head on in his preparations for the World Final and 401 Barry Goldin also made the journey, this time from the northwest of England in his own WF prep.  Also racing was 67 Eddie Darby on a surprise return to F2, driving Bill Batten’s car after ‘The Master’ himself was injured at work.  It was a busy day for the Saloon Stock Car World Champion, as he was on double duty racing in those too.  In what were still wet conditions, the first heat was a very good race and won by teenager 991 Ryan Hoskin and then  954 Jamie Beere took the second and the yellow grade domination continued in the consolation with 76 Chris Rowe winning.  Moodie again appeared to struggle in the wet, but, Goldin and 886 Chris Bradbury who both run RCE chassis for example looked a bit better.  With the Final far dryer the speeds increased.  Moodie was an early retirement however, as he encountered problems with his brakes.  Bradbury was the pick of the star men, as he looked for his fourth Final in a row at the track this year.  However the quick yellow grade were again away with 596 Richie Mead looking like he had got away.  A midway yellow flag brought the pack close and Bradbury was able to pounce in the last quarter of the race and went on to win.  His form both here and Bristol this season really ought to pick him out as the World Final favourite.  The battle for second was decided on the very last corner when 676 Neil Hooper dived down the inside of Mead, only for the two to tangle.  Hooper went up and over Mead and in doing so lost time which allowed 522 Chris Mikulla to come through for second and Hooper scrabbled across the line for third.  The GN saw 32 cars on track and the now totally dry conditions suited Moodie and he came storming through the pack to lead by the fifth lap, after a yellow flag.  However a lap later Gordon’s throttle appeared to stick on turns three and four and he went thundering into the plating and at quite an awkward angle too.  It later transpired that it was a problem with his propshaft that injured the Scotsman, who then missed braking at the end of the straight.  As the battered #7 car came to a halt on the exit of turn four, it was immediately clear that he was in trouble in the cab and the race was very quickly brought to a halt.  Gordon was swiftly dealt with by the highly trained Autospeed track staff and St John Ambulance for what appeared to be a very bad cut to his lower leg.  He was moved to Hospital in Taunton where he spent the night, ahead of surgery to repair on Monday and then returned to Scotland on Tuesday where he is now recovering and is hoping to return to racing as soon as possible.  From the lows of Stock Car racing came the highs as the re-start saw one of the races of the year.  It all started when it became apparent that the fellow star men were no going to let Bradbury step away and get a double helping of points and a fantastic proper Stock Car battle ensued between him, Mikulla, 921 Jack Aldridge, Goldin and 605 Liam Rowe with bumpers storming in on each bend and places swapping and changing.  Alas this battle was always destined to end in tears and it was Goldin who was spat out of the pack and into the plating on the home straight to bring a yellow flag.  189 Paul Butcher had been away and gone at this point and then to his credit fended off Bradbury all the way to the flag – again keeping in theme of the quick yellow tops.

Saloon Stock Cars

The Saloon Stock Car entry was disappointing at 15 cars, with the number of southwest drivers present and racing still too low.  However, once again it was boosted by some great travelling efforts with a track debut from East Anglian teenager 220 Casey Engelstone for instance, joining several other of the long distance trippers.   The first heat was in the wet conditions and 995 Ben Goddard held off 30 Barry Hollett all the way to the flag.  However, from then on with the track conditions improved Hollett was never caught as a driver of his experience and calibre is simply under graded at yellow.  1 Eddie Darby battled his way up to second on both occasions but couldn’t catch Hollett at the front.  There was some very good racing amongst the mid and lower places which kept the entertainment up whilst on Club 21 Day, where there were lots of trophies on offer with the 1-2-3 in each race it was nice to see 620 Aryn Triggs return to Scotland with some silverware as he took two third places in heat two and the Final.

Bangers

67 Bangers raced with drivers from all over the southwest of England with some very smart new cars on display and nine of them were picked out for an award.   The process was the same as in 2011 and 2012 with the drivers racing in two of five heats and then the points scored from these going through to determine a Semi Final grid position.  The exceptions were those who top scored in the two qualifying rounds earlier in the season, these drivers were invited to stick or twist and either go through their heats, or progress straight to the Semi where their grid position number would be drawn.   The first heat went to 320 Dan Abbot before 83 Ben Styles took heat two, 372 Jay Mathews heat three, 451 Micky Reed heat four and 91 Iain Blight heat five, just.  The first Semi Final saw Matthews lead for much of the way from pole position but one of those who had opted to go straight through, 916 Luke Thomas caught and spun him to lead late on and went on to win.  The second saw another who went straight through, 247 Richard Sparks actually get pole position and he duly pulled well clear and looked set for victory.  However a yellow flag for a car stuck on the racing like changed all that.  622 Jason Spry, who had been showing up well all day went for the move on Sparks at the re-start and this triggered off a large battle between them, 654 Mark Pope and 186 Leon Fasey.  Sparks was a major loser and Pope went on to take the win.   The toss to decide which Semi Final had the inside line on the grid for the British was won by Thomas.  However at the flag it was second row starter and defending title holder 246 Ryan Sparks who shot through to lead and from then on he simply never looked back on a supremely dominant victory.   There was a good battle throughout for second between Thomas, Pope and 475 Ben Sealy which was ultimately settled in favour of the latter, but half a lap behind Sparks who successfully defended his title.  929 Sam Baker made third.   The 32 car Allcomers saw a red flag and complete re-start after a complete track blockage.  Sealy went on to win the re-started race.