Smeatharpe Stadium - Tuesday 25th June 2013

Report by Jon Wyatt

Weather conditions were nigh on perfect for a most welcome 'racing-on-a-school-night' meeting - and with a good crowd, great atmosphere and some of the top names in the sport in attendance a great evening of motorsport was in prospect. The F2 Stock Car entry looked class, with World Champion Micky Brennan, 218 Rob Speak, 401 Barry Goldin and 647 Chris Burgoyne among the visiting entry - and a certain 886 Chris Bradbury who had won the previous four F2 finals at Smeatharpe this season. Surely, with such competition, there was no way in the world he was going to make it five..............
Also on the 11 race programme were the non-contact (?) Stock Rods and the Micro National Bangers.

F2 Stock Cars

Pre-meeting practise had taken care of the unfortunate rising Cornish star 991 Ryan Hoskin, the youngster suffering a terminal gearbox failure after almost matching the pace of multi-World Champion 218 Rob Speak in the timed laps. Heat 1 featured half the available cars and had World Champ' Brennan, 401 Barry Goldin and 886 Bradbury among the starters. 519 John Scorse was the big surprise in this one though, the white grader leading the pack from the start - and still there at half-distance - though by then 886 Bradbury was already up to 3rd. With 4 laps to run Bradbury had taken over at the front and it was the Winnersh man who went on to take a reasonably easy win, from 401 Goldin and the impressive 519 Scorce 3rd - with 1 Brennan struggling a little back in 8th. All eyes were on 218 Rob Speak in heat 2 and although he did make a cracking start it was yellow grader 290 Jay Tomkins that made his way to the front, followed closely by fellow yellow grade 189 Paul Butcher. With 4 laps to run and as 290 Tomkins got bogged down a little passing back-markers 189 Butcher pounced through turn 4 and simply pulled clear. Meanwhile 218 Speak was charging through the field but even he could make little progress towards the two flying yellow graders at the front, with 189 Butcher recording an excellent win. 26 non-qualifiers made it out for the consolation including ex' World Champion 647 Chris Burgoyne but he could only manage a 3rd place finish behind 315 Justin Fisher and easy winner - the ladies favourite - 302 Dale Moon, the Cornish yougster taking full advantage at the re-start after waved yellows on lap 4 for a problem with the 529 Paul Barker car on turn 2. All 30 qualifiers made it out for the 'A1 Windows and Doors' sponsored final, with the big question being could 886 Chris Bradbury possibly win his 5th Smeatharpe F2 final on the spin ? His case was certainly helped when big rival Barry Goldin sheared a drive shaft on the 401 car while trying to warm-up his rear tyres on the rolling lap. And after a hectic start his chances improved even more when 218 Rob Speak, 890 Paul Rice and 315 Justin Fisher tangled on the exit of turn 4 which saw the Manchester man spin onto the infield and into retirement with a broken exhaust. And talking of broken things, doing his best to cause further damage to his 'borrowed' car was Saloon Stock Champion 67 Eddie Darby on turn 3, while at the front it was another superb show of skill from white grader 519 John Scorse who lead the snarling pack. At half-distance though the vastly experienced 189 Paul Butcher had taken over at the front, perhaps oblivious to the fact that 886 Bradbury was already up into 3rd and before the Dursley driver could get into his stride, and with 6 laps to run, he felt the force of the 886 front bumper going into turn 3 and Bradbury was past and off into the distance taking his fifth F2 Smeatharpe final win in as many meetings. The chequered and red flags came out together as the 430 car of Simon Edwards had caught alight at the end of the main straight, ending a miserable couple of days for the 'Flying Jockey'. So, he had done it, against what seemed impossible odds 886 Chris Bradbury had won again - at the track where the 2013 F2 World Final was to be staged. Now, if I was a betting man......... Take nothing away from 189 Paul Butcher though, he drove a blinder, as did the hugely impressive white-grader 519 John Scorce, taking a remarkable 3rd against top opposition in only his eighth F2 meeting. 270 Mark Gibbs finished 4th, taking some useful points to add to his final winning haul from Sunday. 32 made it out for the Grand National, including 218 Speaky but not 401 Goldin. Just before the cars lined up I mentioned to World Champion Micky Brennan that if he had any hopes of retaining that pretty gold roof he really ought to go a bit faster (really !) and this obviously did the trick 'cos in this race he was almost in a class of his own. I say 'almost' because 886 Bradbury, on a lap handicap of course, was definitely sitting at the desk next to him......... There was a big pile-up on turn 3 at the start which included 921 Jack Aldridge among others but while those behind slowed 1 Brennan stormed through the pack - with handicap man Bradbury almost up with the tail-enders by lap 3. Up until this race 605 Liam Rowe was having a miserable evening but he was certainly going well now, keeping up with the flying Brennan and at half-distance was up to 3rd behind the World Champion. If he had chanced to look in his mirror though he would have seen that it was the 886 car that was behind him and was probably thinking, as I and most of the others in the stadium were, 'where did HE come from.....' At the flag it was indeed a superb win for World Champion Micky Brennan, with 886 Chris Bradbury moving into 2nd a lap from the end relagating 605 Liam Rowe to a still respectable 3rd - with 476 Ryan Wadling getting his best result of the night in 4th. So, the second-to-last starter on the grid takes a win at Smeatharpe - from the last starter on the grid by way of the lap handicap in 2nd. Certainly makes predicting the result of a certain F2 race at this track on the 14th of September a little difficult..............

Stock Rods

40 Rick Cornell was a casualty in pre-race practise when a drive-shaft broke sending the purple Vauxhall Nova hard into the wall and causing terminal damage but a still reasonable entry of 19 cars lined up for heat 1. That entry included visitor 364 Nathan Olden and regular 909 Justin Washer - both back after suspension. 3 Matt Peters took the lead on lap 3 after passing sole white grader 26 Alan Furse and after a good early battle with 83 Adam Ignaczak it was the Teignmouth man that went on to win, repeating what he had done at St Day two days earlier. 730 Brendon Sealy drove well from the blue grade to eventually finish 2nd in front of the 83 Ignaczak. The 'Roll-a-Door' sponsored final again had 19 starters, with 3 Matt Peters again taking the lead early doors and staying in control right to the chequered flag. 730 Brendon Sealy did well once more from the blue grade, moving into 2nd at half-distance, and at the end it was exactly the same top 4 as heat 1. The Grand National raised 18 starters and with 3 Peters on a lap handicap for winning the final a different winner looked on the cards for this one. 83 Adam Ignaczak was the expected early leader - while further back 909 Justin Washer received the black-cross for making contact with 181 Lindsey Jones. 12 Kev Hockings soon moved into 2nd in his super-smart Corsa and by half-distance had hit the front, whilst the only thing 909 Washer had hit was someone else and this brought the wrath of the steward and a black flag. So, with 909 Washer rapidly taking over the 'bad-boy' mantle in the formula from the now retired 34 Glenn Sanders (!) 12 Kev Hockings took the win, from 83 Ignaczak and 151 Simon Vincent. Also in trouble with the steward was, among others, 364 Nathan Olden - come on chaps, there are plenty of 'contact' formulas out there........... 

'Micro' National Bangers

Among the entry of Ford KA dominated baby-bangers were a Vauxhall Tigra for 333 Craig Partridge and a couple of Nissan Micras but car of the meeting was a Vanden Plas Allegro from rare car specialist 303 Nic Saintey. Heat 1 had 15 starters and began with 162 Brett Ellacott unsportingly burying the 303 Allegro hard into the fence on turn 1 - which killed the once top-of-the-range Vanden Plas. Just as this was happening the 333 Tigra of Partridge took over the lead, whilst 133 Terry Hill did his best to destroy the KA of 777 Kyle Darke with a brutal hit on the pit bend. With action at each end of the raceway284 Leon Benjafield's Micra caught and passed the Partridge Tigra and these two had a good battle to the flag - with the Japanese machine the eventual victor. Heat 2 produced another 15 car field, including two latecomers - 'Wrong Boy' 67 Sam Richards and 'Badger' 308 Jamie Wilkie.  An explosive start saw a big pile-up on turn 1 with big hits going in. KA mounted 252 'Boogie' gives the KA van of 239 'Nemesis' one up the chuff on the start/finish straight - only to receive a similar portion from the Fiesta of 190 'Pikey'. Meanwhile 341 'Jonesy' is resuming hostilities with 47 Marcus A'Lee on the exit of turn 3, the two KAs meeting in a stiff head-on, whilst oblivious to it all is 333 Craig Partridge who has taken the lead in his rapid Tigra. The action continued throughout the race with 252 'Boogie' particularly lively and 284 Leon Benjafield doing 162 Ellacott hard over the back wheel on turn 4 - and then attacking 239 'Nemesis'. At the flag it was 333 Partridge who came through all the carnage unscathed to take an easy win in what had been an excellent race. The last race of the evening was the final-into-a-DD and 10 cars lined up on the start/finish straight - with a further 2 parked on the infield for the DD. As the cars started the rolling lap the thought struck me that the sight of 190 'Pikey' in a little Ford Fiesta is just wrong ! At the green it was all action once more, with 133 Terry Hill rolling his KA on turn 1 but ending up back on all four wheels so no waved yellow flags but just as 333 Partridge took up his customery position at the front 777 Kyle Darke rolled his KA at the end of the start/finish straight - ending up against the fence - the yellow flags did make an appearance. 333 Partridge led away the re-start and indeed went on to take the win from 47 Marcus A'Lee but as the green flag came out to signal the start of the DD if you thought the still immaculate 333 Tigra was going to pull off onto the centre you were wrong as instead he just drove flat-out into side of the 190 'Pikey' Fiesta on turn 4 - before taking a huge t-bone from 341 'Jonesy'. Respect !! After some heavy exchanges between the remaining cars it eventually came down to just two, 341 'Jonesy' and the up until now untouched 187 Stu Harrop and with the DWO man's well-used KA lacking any kind of traction on the exit of turn 2 'Jonesy' waved in the 187 Micra and Harrop duly obliged and that was that. A good display from the baby-bangers - which will probably be all Vauxhall Tigras next year !