Smeatharpe Stadium - Monday 25th August 2014

The August Bank Holiday Monday meeting at Smeatharpe Stadium was blighted by atrocious weather, and although it did brighten towards the end, it was too little too late.  The BriSCA F2 Stock Cars were joined by the Saloon Stock Cars and the Autospeed Bangers were back for the first time in over two months, this time for their annual Team Championship.

At the start of the meeting there was a first running of a Saloon Stock Car veteran’s race, for charity in aid of FORDS care and the Devon Air Ambulance.  It brought back several names from the past and was won by Keith White ahead of Sam Sloman and Jon Pearn.  Other names included Barry Jude, Graham Durrant, Andy Pridham and one of the men behind it all, Harry Hartnett.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

With the weather and the end of the busy weekend, the F2 entry fell short of what was anticipated, sitting at 27 cars and the decision was taken to deploy a two from three heat format.   Wet weather expert 254 Richard Beere took heat one and then his son, 954 Jamie Beere, followed that up by winning heat two before 886 Chris Bradbury made the most of a late yellow flag to take heat three.  The Club 21 Trophy Final was led off by 572 James Lindsay who held sway until he was passed by 438 Mike Rice.  However he was under pressure from Richard Beere by then who moved ahead and pulled clear.  Bradbury had a good battle with 126 Jamie Avery throughout and the pair came through the traffic together, but once they got to second and third place, Beere was simply too far up the road and the veteran driver took a good win.   The Grand National was certainly the most spectacular race of the day.  206 Matt Brewer was the long-time leader whilst the one on the move was the recently returned 111 Lewis Geach.  However a tit-for-tat with backmarker 315 Justin Fisher held up his progress and he was passed in the closing stages by Bradbury who then caught and passed Brewer on the penultimate lap.  However, Brewer did gallantly try and come back at the Superstar on the last bend, only to slide wide into the parked 526 Marc Rowe car, leaving Bradbury to take the win.  828 Julian Coombes celebrated his return to racing after injury, by claiming the Bank Holiday Bonus – a brand new tyre for the highest points scoring white grade driver across the St Day and Smeatharpe meetings.

Saloon Stock Cars

The Saloon Stock Car entry mirrored that of St Day 24 hours earlier and the very wet track conditions of the two heats saw the cars struggle somewhat.  However, heat one had its own little piece of history as 698 Danny Colliver headed home 916 Luke Thomas which made it the first Zetec engine 1-2.  264 Nathan Olden then took a flag to flag win in heat two.  The Final saw Olden again lead the way, until passed by 730 Dean Mayes.  677 Eddie Darby was much more into his stride this time and chased down Mayes as the laps ticked away.  When he did reach the 730 car on the last lap, he moved him wide, but Dean came back at him on the very last corner.  They both leant on each other at the run to the flag but Darby just got there ahead of Mayes whilst third was also decided on the last bend move with 401 Steve Webster just getting to the line to grab that rostrum place.

Bangers

The Banger teams saw 10 teams of four, although one fell short and there were also two token entries.  Two teams arrived very late, and if they had been on time, a different format may well have been utilised.  However, the decision had already been taken to open it up for all available cars in all races.  Hence, there was a 39 car field in heat one and the large field, coupled with the wet track made for plenty of action.  This included a roll for 184 Kieren Smith which brought out the red flags.  The complete re-start saw ‘The Cheaters’ team mates 929 Sam Baker, 28 Steve Linly and 372 Jay Matthews battle it out until the latter two went missing leaving Baker to take the win.  Matthews was the leader in heat two, until taken out by 475 Ben Sealy which once again put Baker in the hot seat to take the win which left the Cheaters in the lead from Balls Deep.  The third heat saw Linly and 247 Richard Sparks battle it out until Linly suffered broken front suspension, this left Sparks clear whilst a spat between Baker and 242 Ben Ellacott escalated with both crossing the line to what is permissible in Autospeed Bangers and found themselves disqualified for the rest of the day.  Sparks was the winner and with team mate 416 Ben Borthwick coming second, suddenly their team Sparks & Co were in contention coming into the meeting Final.  The race itself was particularly heavy, again beyond is generally permissible.  A complete re-run was required after 271 James Shepherd took two large poundings, firstly from 331 John Matthews (ironically his own team mate!) and then another from 133 Jody Jeanes.   246 Ryan Sparks got into the lead early on in part two but the Sparks & Co team victory was thwarted by the remainder getting embroiled in a battle with the Gypsy Fury team (who had zero points) which, again, went behind the line in the sand in many respects.  With plenty of other battles going on all around the track, it was a very mixed picture as Ryan Sparks crossed the line for the win.  Was this to be enough for them to win?  The answer was ‘No!’ as third for Linly was enough for The Cheaters to win on 45 points ahead of Balls Deep on 44, Dave Weare on 43 and then Sparks & Co on 40.  All in all, very entertaining, yes, but way beyond the nudge and spin ethos.