Smeatharpe Stadium - Easter Monday 21st April 2014

Report by Steve Linfield

Coming at the end of the busy weekend of racing, the Easter Monday meeting at Smeatharpe naturally is always at the mercy of what has preceded it, but, thankfully there were no issues with the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars and Saloon Stock Cars in good numbers and there were more Autospeed Bangers that had actually booked.  All of which was in very welcome Spring sunshine after the rain on Easter Sunday.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The BriSCA F2 Stock Cars celebrated their 400^th meeting, 40 years on from its opening in 1974. Several drivers in the 39 car total of 39 cars present were in their third meeting of the weekend after Northampton and the World Championship qualifying round at Bristol, others in their fourth if they took in Skegness on Good Friday evening and in the case of the intrepid 979 Paul Moss his fifth as he took in Cowdenbeath on Saturday too.   In terms of results though, he was out of luck on this occasion.  935 Nathan Maidment came through to win heat one and then fresh from a 50 point maximum at Bristol, 886 Chris Bradbury took heat two although had to work hard to fend off 522 Chris Mikulla.  The consolation saw a career first win for 428 Tyla Keveth.   The Final was a fast and furious encounter that, relatively unusually for Smeatharpe, went all the way from the green flag to the chequered flag.   437 Danny Withers was the leader until the halfway stage when he was passed by 476 Ryan Wadling.  The star men did make progress as the laps ticked off with plenty of hard bumper work going in and it was 676 Neil Hooper who emerged as the pick of them but he was unable to catch 991 Ryan Hoskin who made second whom in turn couldn’t do anything about Wadling who thus took his career first Final win, and became the 106^th different feature race winner in the track’s history.  If the Final had been spectacular, the Grand National was ferocious with a particularly epic star man battle between Hooper, Bradbury, 783 James Rygor and 921 Jack Aldridge.  All of which was behind the lead battle which was eventually won by 605 Liam Rowe, on his first appearance of the season.

Saloon Stock Cars

23 Saloon Stock Cars included several of the long distance travellers who had included St Day in their itinery plus a few extras which all amounted to a fine and cosmopolitan line up.  With the big names at the back putting in big hits all meeting long, each race followed a similar pattern with capable yellow and blue graded drivers simply getting away.  The first heat had 176 Murray Jones in the lead until 220 Casey Engelstone moved past, only for Jones to come back at him and spin him out and he went on to win on what was his first appearance of 2014.   The second heat saw an early yellow flag when 402 Shaun Webster was in trouble after he found himself in a crash with his brother 401 Steve and 677 Eddie Darby.   The resumption did not go for much further when several got together on turn one and were joined by 176 Jones who was then collected heavily, and at a bad angle by 995 Ben Goddard.  This put the latter almost on top of the 176 car which did significant damage to the roof of Jones’ car, and it was a big relief to see him emerge okay from the crash.  The re-start saw 186 Todd Jones try to fend off World Champion 618 Stuart Shevill, which he was unable to do and the Scot went on to take what is a rare win at Smeatharpe for him.   The big hits and battles at amongst the star men went on in the Final, but just as at the previous meeting, albeit this time in the dry rather than the wet, it was 93 Stu Sculthorpe who emerged as the early leader and it was to be one he wasn’t to lose to make it two Finals from two.  186 Jones couldn’t get hold of him and therefore it was his second Final runner up of the weekend, following Northampton on Friday and 460 Cliff Friend made third.

Bangers

57 Bangers appeared for their first outing at Smeatharpe for 2014 which was significantly more than had booked to attend and with many of them also arriving fairly late, there was no time to change the programme and thus the two from three heat format remained in place and it lead to some busy heats, but, by the same token they had bigger grids than the Final when the reverse should be the case.  The first heat reached a dramatic conclusion when long time leader 612 Lee Pink got caught up on the last lap.  This allowed 459 Dean Blight into the lead and whilst Blight did come back at him, all he was able to do was spin 459 across the line, but still as the first car and so it was the win for Blight.  60 Andy Bulled charged through to win heat two whilst a very spectacular heat three, which also featured a rollover for 194 Alastair Buchan, saw 935 James Flint take the win.   The Final was for the annual and long standing Easter Hop trophy, and was presented by Gus Garrett. It was a quiet race in comparison and led from flag to flag by 612 Pink.  He was chased home by 185 Richard Coaker whilst 247 Richard Sparkes was the first star name in third.   The Chained Pairs event rounded out the day and from such a large entry, the fact that only six pairs took part was disappointing.  It is to be remembered that Autospeed Bangers are intended as a fun formula.  Never the less, it was still highly entertaining which started off with 862 Darryl Cock and Pink getting it wrong which resulted in Cock’s car rolling over.   The re-started race saw the Sparkes brothers in 246 Ryan and 247 Richard master the tricky art well, just as they have in the past and took a clear win whilst the duo of 154 Barry Pike and 79 Brian Edmond were the only ones also left circulating at the finish, as the others had got themselves into various states of disarray.