Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 6th July 2014

Report by Steve Linfield

Thankfully the forecast rain showers mainly stayed away from Smeatharpe Stadium on this occasion and the good sized crowd on hand were treated to a highly entertaining and busy afternoon of racing from the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, Saloon Stock Cars, 2 Litre Old Skool National Bangers, culminating in the annual Caravan chaos and Ministox plus a couple of demonstration runs from the new for 2014 Micro F2’s.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

With some regulars absent, including a couple chasing World Championship qualifying points at Barford, there was still a good entry on hand, just one shy of 40 cars for the annual Roy Goodman Perpetual Trophy, and on a day which featured a trophy presented by one of the legends of the sport it was apt that another, 167 Bill Batten, made his first appearance on track in over a year.  Last year’s winner of the trophy 886 Chris Bradbury was amongst the absentees, having had to withdraw from the meeting due to an injury sustained at work 10 days prior.   The first heat saw 676 Neil Hooper come through to take victory whilst heat two featured a big coming together with the pits bend plating for 76 Chris Rowe, after he suffered a stuck throttle.  A few spits of rain were in the air after the re-start and it caught some out more than others, and it was 189 Paul Butcher who used all his experience to cope the best to take the win.  302 Dale Moon got the better of a good scrap to win the consolation – a real old fashioned scramble of a race amongst many low graders battling to qualify for the feature race.  The Final was a typically ferocious Smeatharpe affair with bumpers flying in at every opportunity and plenty going on.  Returnee 667 Tim Farrell was in the midst of it, and actually held up Hooper’s progress and it allowed World Champion 783 James Rygor to get away from the rest of the star men.  However, for the first half of the race it looked like none of them were going to be able to do anything about 734 Glen Sanders who had opened out a big lead from his white graded start.   Had it not been for a yellow flag, when 683 Bryan Lindsay signalled he was not happy sat in the position on the track he had found himself, it is probably fair to say that Sanders would have held on for victory.  But what it did do was set up an explosive second half of the race.  Sanders lost out to 605 Liam Rowe at the re-start who seized the opportunity nicely whilst 315 Justin Fisher moved up to second, Rygor moved to third.  He found both Rowe and Fisher,  both of equal (and more experience) very tough nuts to crack and after he found his way past them both, they came bounding back and wrestled back the lead, and it left him to fight back for it in a thrilling scrap.  It ended with Fisher being sent spinning and Rygor got the better of Rowe to take the win, but it was certainly one he had to work hard for.  Rowe was an impressive second and Hooper made up a lot of ground late on to the third.   31 cars for the Grand National and another hurly burly affair and again Sanders was thwarted by a yellow flag and it was ultimately Hooper who came through for his second win of the day.

Saloon Stock Cars

With the Skegness Speedweekend, which has become a pivotal part of the season for the Saloon Stock Cars only a few days away, and the dynamic of the formula at present in the southwest, the numbers were never going to be vast for the Devon Championship and as it was there were 11 cars present.  This did include a trio of East Anglian visitors though which we were very grateful for in 93 Stu Sculthorpe, 214 Tom Yould and 420 Ivan Street.    As is the tradition for the Devon title, it was the first race of the programme.   87 Paul Lawer headed the pack until just after halfway when 677 Eddie Darby took over and went on to take the win.  199 Phil Powell was second and 995 Ben Goddard just beat 460 Cliff Friend to the line for third.  103 Chris Horwell took the first Allcomers race, which was fairly tame.  In marked contrast, the second Allcomers race came down to a highly dramatic conclusion, as Lawer had led all the way until two from home when he was caught and passed by Horwell.  However, Lawer came back at the 103 car but in having their own battle they allowed Darby to close.  Eddie went barrelling in with a huge last bend lunge on both.  He spun himself in doing so and both Horwell and Lawer were sent hurtling into the plating.  Horwell recovered the first to scramble across the line first, whilst Darby made fourth and the luckless Lawer coasted across the line seventh.   Entertaining stuff and proof that huge fields are not always necessary.

2 Litre Old Skool National Bangers

The National Bangers’ latest round of the 2 litre Old Skool series had a total of 33 drivers present including a trio who were only there for the Caravan race.  The first heat came down to be concluded on the last lap when 341 Andrew Jones challenged long-time leader 284 Leon Benjafield, only for ‘Noddy’ to come back at him and spin the 341 for car, but in all this it allowed 133 Terry Hill through to take the victory.   The second heat saw Jones get into the lead and whilst he was caught by 131 Sam Hill, the latter collected the stranded 335 Albert Hughes car and this allowed Jones clear and to win.  The Final saw Sam Hill get into a lead he was never to lose and he was clear of 912 Simon Rees at the chequered flag and 246 Ryan Sparks made third.   With several giving the Allcomers a miss for the Caravan race, there was only a small field of cars and 929 Sam Baker took the victory, whilst Jones and Terry Hill were good value for their wall-riding efforts.  The Caravan race had all the usual thrills and spills and featured a red flag after 938 Ashley Rice ploughed through some wreckage and rolled.   After the re-start 158 Sean MCarthy opened out a good sized lead, whilst the entertainer was 341 Jones who at one point performed a full barrel roll and then carried on.  When McCarthy put himself out after collecting a stricken caravan it put Jones into the lead, and he went on to take a very popular and spectacular win, it what was widely regarded and agreed as one of the more spectacular Caravan races in recent times.

Ministox

There were 19 Ministox on hand which included 117 Lauren Overy and 219 Harry Steward from the east of England.   943 Hannah Esau took a flag to flag win in heat one and then she opened out a good lead in heat two early on too.  However, when 667 Tommy Farrell found himself stranded across the track at the Honiton end it brought out the yellow flags.  This eroded Esau’s lead and she was caught and passed by Steward who had 986 Sophie Fasey for company.  Fasey went in for a last bend move, but Steward had it covered and took the flag.  However, both the top two were docked two places each for being judged to have made avoidable contact with novice cars showing a ‘X’ on the rear.  This promoted 907 Cameron Lawrence to the win.   The Final saw the star grade get embroiled in their own battles and it held up their progress.  Fasey was the only one to break free and give chase, but the white graded Esau and 912 Sam Rees proved to be too fast to be caught and that is how they finished.