United Downs Raceway - Sunday 2nd November 2014

The short oval racing season in Cornwall reached its conclusion at St Day with a momentous final meeting of the year at the United Downs Raceway, which had so many things riding on it.

Stock Rods

Seventeen Stock Rods appeared throughout the meeting, and their first event was the Grand National Championship.  Pole sitter 776 Simon Jones led the early stages, but 306 Neil Truran swiftly overcame 22 Wayne Belcher to move into second place, and over the next couple of laps, the race developed into a two-way contest.  Truran then made his move on lap five, to edge past Jones with a clean pass on the outside line.  The two stars raced very fairly with one another, and there was little between them even though Truran had got ahead.  However, around the midway point, Truran extended his lead, and he went on to romp home to victory, with Jones clear in second, and 909 Justin Washer comfortably clear too, in third place.  Heat two featured 148 Wayne Shackleford.  The leader of the National Championship Series, Shackleford had journeyed down from Surrey.  However, he was distracted by news from home of an illness in the family, and after trailing in eighth in that one race, he opted to head off early for the long journey to the south east.  Unspectacular as his first ever visit to St Day had been, Shackleford left secure in the knowledge that he had achieved his goal, of winning the National Championship Series, and thus he earned the right to wear the gold stripe on his roof.  It was 437 Lewis Trickey who won heat two, and a late charge by Truran saw him claim second, which put him 9 points clear in the Track Championship.  In heat three, very late arrival 68 Levi Robinson took to the grid for his first race of the afternoon.  There was a landslide win for 3 Matt Peters, but second place for Simon Jones saw him clinch the Points Championship, and draw level again with Truran in the Track Championship.  Thus, it was all to race for in the meeting Final: whichever one of Truran or Jones, would score the best finish in the Final, would thus take the Track Championship.  740 Nigel Stuart made the running from the front of the grid, whilst Trickey led the chase to hunt him down.  Jones has made an excellent start from the star grade.  He was some way clear of Truran, and at the halfway stage, Jones was up to fourth.  The laps ticked away and still Jones was some distance ahead of Truran.  With five laps to run, Trickey and Stuart briefly tangled.  Trickey eased clear, and took over the lead.  Belcher moved into second and he had Jones for company.  As Jones cautiously looked to hold on to third place, Truran (in a style similar to Saloon Stock Car ace David Aldous – who never seems to know when he is beaten) surged back into contention, and closed the gap on Jones.  Trickey was away and gone, but the battle raged for second place.  Belcher held firm, with Jones on his tail, and with just three laps left, Truran got alongside Jones.  However, he could not make the move stick, and fell back again.  With two laps to go, Truran tried to mount another challenge, and as the one lap board appeared, Truran had again drawn up to the outside of Jones, who was still tailing Belcher.  The three cars stormed down the back straight, and into the turnstile bend.  Belcher was unmoved, Truran kept faith with the outside line, and in the drag to the finish line, Truran just got ahead of Jones with just a few metres to spare.  Trickey had won, Belcher was second, and Truran stole third by a slender margin from Jones, to win the Track Championship by just two points.  Sportingly, Jones and Truran exchanged congratulatory hand gestures on the slow down lap.  Jones had lost out on the Track Championship, but he had clinched the silver roof for the first time.

Ministox

The entry of Ministox included 902 Junior Buster, for his debut appearance.  Heat one saw 987 Ethan Pope make the most of a good start to score his first win since Easter.  In heat two, 931 Jack Manhire forged his way to the front, and like Pope, he too grabbed a first victory since Easter.  The final came down to a thrilling last lap.  Manhire held the lead, but was chased by 986 Sophie Fasey, who had just worked her way past 667 Tommy Farrell who had been revelling in the wet conditions.  Fasey tracked Manhire down the back straight, and landed a perfect last bend hit to send Manhire wide, and grab the inside line.  Fasey won the drag to the line, and duly took the chequered flag.  However, an alleged infringement on the Fasey car was noted, which brought about the suspension of all of the day’s Ministox results.  A subsequent enquiry to the ORC Ministox Sub Committee confirmed that the infringement rendered the 986 car as illegal, and Fasey was then removed from the results for the day.

Bangers

Similar technical problems occurred with the Bangers, which were to result in the Supreme Championship being declared null and void.  After 242 Ben Ellacott had won the Last Chance qualifier, 29 drivers set off in the Supreme.  Not for the first time, the race was an enthralling one.  Pole sitter 612 Lee Pink led early on, but was overhauled by 45 Mike Reed.  Into the closing stages, 246 Ryan Sparks closed on Reed, and he perfected a last bend challenge.  Sparks got to the flag first, with Reed second and Pink third.  However, post-race, every single one of the first nine finishers who were subjected to checks, failed.  With no cars having passed the scrutineering checks, the only possible outcome was to void the race.  Thereafter, 642 Nigel Thomas took the consolation; 28 Steve Linly won the meeting final, from Sparks and Reed; and Linly also took the Allcomers.  The upshot of the day’s races was that Lee Pink took the Autospeed Points Championship, whilst Steve Linly secured the St Day Track Championship, and just about all of the Bangers were reminded to be much more thorough when reading through the rules.

Ministox 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
Heat 1 987 917 907 667 951 180 943 999 902 931
Heat 2 931 907 917 667 180 951 902 943 911 987
Final 931 667 917 907 943 951 902 988 nof
Stock Rods 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
GNC 306 776 909 22 437 3 9 49 354 40
Heat 2 437 306 909 740 9 22 705 148 181
Heat 3 3 776 40 354 68 nof
Final 437 22 306 776 909 3 9 49 354 740
Bangers 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
L Chance 242 406 153 3 130 207 816 117 331 nof
Supreme V O I D
Consolation 642 73 735 113 416 912 196 53 nof
Final 28 246 45 242 612 912 735 185 938 911
All Comers 28 912 242 372 246 735 153 816 91 847
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