Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 27th December 2015

With a pit area packed to near enough overflowing, and with a good number of racegoers on the spectator bankings too, Banger Bonanza 3 served up a veritable feast of action from the trio of Banger classes on duty.  The poor weather of the morning gave way to a dry and mild afternoon, even though the track was wet, slippery and hard going for drivers throughout the course of the day.

National Micro Bangers

Just less than 40 National Micro Bangers produced some ferocious hard-hitting action, and their four events each had a different winner, underlining how wide open the racing was.  45 Anthony Croshaw took the first heat, after 210 Lewis Hart had led the early stages.  The race had to be stopped early when 741 Alex Waterman’s Ford KA went on fire.  Waterman had thundered into 923 Ross Turley, but then took an enormous blitz himself, from 360 Jack Reynolds.  Amongst plenty of action in the west bend, track debutant 165 Graham Middlewood rattled in 133 Terry Hill.  Heat two for the small cars was initially awarded to 114 Liam Lake, but after an inquiry into the result, 195 Reece Marsh was correctly noted as the winner.  The luck of the draw had favoured 190 Steve Bailey, who looked set for victory, but he triggered a mammoth pile-up in the west bend when he ran in Reynolds.  Just prior to that, 239 Steve Carter had landed a monster hit on 102 Paul Tew at the pit gate.  Amidst the chaos of the west bend, Marsh edged ahead of Lake, but that was only noted on the second check of the charts.  The chequered came down on Lake, whilst the action concluded with 282 Zak Heckford blasting 67 Sammy Richards into the wrecked 102 car, with 838 Jamie Peters joining in for good measure.  The Banger Bonanza 3 Final for the Micro Bangers had a false start, when 292 Sam Betteridge caught ablaze on the rolling lap; officials quickly extinguishing the fire.  Bailey swiftly hit the front, and swept to victory from Croshaw and impressive track debutant Heckford.  The day ended with a fantastic DD, that had action galore, with 209 Jack Saunders receiving more damage than most.  Heckford added to his growing reputation for entertainment, when he rolled over, after clipping 23 Gus Atkinson.  Just four remained for the restart, and just when Croshaw looked to have delivered the telling blow on 71 Scott Stevens, both Stevens and 988 Billy Dennison limped into action.  They then met for one last head-on, to leave the result as a dead heat.

2 Litre Old Skool National Bangers

A disappointing sprinkling of no-shows from amongst the seeded entries for the Supreme, rendered their opening race as just a heat in the meeting proper, with ten places up for grabs in the meeting final.  614 Chris Hide led all the way to the lap boards, but then 45 Mike Reed took over and he went on to win from 426 Chris Gill and 515 Sam Fowler.  Just 22 drivers gridded for the Supreme, and in comparison to last year’s fantastic contest, this was rather mundane.  The reason for the ordinariness was the dominant display by pole sitter 27 Kieren Bradford.  He was pressured in the very early stages by defending Supreme Champion 910 Katie Dawe, but once he broke clear, he simply extended his lead with each passing lap.  Bradford went on to win comfortably, with 133 Terry Hill and 138 Dan Rice joining him in the podium places.  A particularly frenetic consolation race saw just nine of the 32 starters go the distance, with 74 Adam Hitchcock victorious.  The final was won with a flag to flag victory for 912 Simon Rees.  131 Sam Hill gave chase, but could not get on terms and 83 Ben Styles completed the top three.  Plenty of action ensued in the Allcomers race – run to National rules.  113 Jack Gill, in particular, was especially entertaining, as he and 133 Terry Hill combined to wreck 11 Grubby Frankson.  760 Joey Reynolds had built up a huge lead, and even though Hill hunted him down, Hill was a lap down, and could not make up the ground.  Just the two of them finished.

Unlimited cc Old Skool National Bangers

Such were the numbers of the big cars, that a two from three heats format was deployed.  High praise was also in order for a selection of genuine ‘old skool’ cars, and for some fantastically presented cars – with the BMW of 246 Ryan Sparks, the Mk2 Granada of 114 Nick Courtier, Omega of 278 Shaun Brokenshire and 710 Nipper Gould’s Mk Granada Estate the pick of the bunch.  It was Sparks who stormed to victory in the opening heat.  His brother, 247 Richard Sparks, gave chase, but could not land a telling challenge.  Rich Sparks had to settle for second place again in heat two, after a great contest with Gould, who just got ahead in the closing stages.  396 Scott Mowlam took the honours in heat three, with another fine drive, leading home 99 David Spooner.  Courtier was uncatchable in the final, as he scored a faultless win, with 362 Johnny James and Rich Sparks the runner-up and third place finisher respectively.