Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 21st May 2017

The second day of the 2017 Speedweekend at Smeatharpe Stadium saw the weather continually improve throughout the day and the large crowd on hand were treated to a fine showing in the culmination of the weekend from the Saloon Stock Cars in their National Championship, BriSCA F2 Stock Cars Benevolent Fund Trophy and National Micro Bangers Team Championship Final, followed by individual racing.

Saloon Stock Cars

In the Saloon Stock Cars, the heavy Saturday evening action had taken its toll for a few and it had also left 28 points scorers, leaving just two places up for grabs in the Last Chance race which was ahead of the National Championship.   499 David Aldous had debuted a brand new car the previous day and it was already showing more than a few battle scars, but he did was necessary by winning this race with 27 Keiren Bradford, also in a brand new car, taking the other place.  The M & D Plant Hire Sponsored National Championship featured 349 Michael Allard on pole position after consistently high scoring on Saturday with World and English Champion 6 Simon Welton alongside.  The big danger man and surprise package rolled into one 26 Tommy Barnes was on the inside of the second row with 217 Sid Madgwick alongside and the front block was completed by 158 Shane Davies and 149 Jamie Sampson.  Given the action the previous evening, it had been anticipated that there may be a highly chaotic opening lap but this was not to be the case and both Allard and Welton broke away very swiftly and disputed the lead until a decisive move from Welton saw him into the lead.  It was a lead he was never to lose, but it was far from plain sailing for the #6 car.  There was action all the way in the race, with cars spinning on every lap, as is often the case it was difficult to know where to look.  Welton spent the entire race embedded in back marking traffic, which brings its own issues.  Further back, Allard fell back and ultimately went out in a crash, Barnes’ challenge didn’t come to anything (at least not yet) and it was Davies who was giving chase, albeit some way behind the red and gold car.  As the race reached its closing stages and then very last lap, Welton was well clear, he probably didn’t need to challenge the back markers but he did just that and very nearly came to grief and then survived what can only be described as an outrageous lunge from Barnes, who actually missed and heavily collected 641 Willie Skoyles Jnr instead.  Welton survived it all and took the flag to add another title to his tally.  Davies made second and Aldous a distant third from the back of the grid and they were the only ones not to be lapped by Welton.  The decision was taken to run one Allcomers heat and a large 32 car grid made it out and it was another race of high action, but without the requirement of a yellow flag and it was 360 Carl Waterfield who took the win.  The meeting Final, likewise saw a large grid and for the third time in succession here there was no catching 800 Scott Greenslade as he took the victory, but much like Welton’s National Championship win, it was far from simple as he spent the race battling with back marking traffic.  428 Lee Sampson made it through to second and Waterfield was third.  Not unlike the Saturday night meeting, this was again sensational stuff from the Saloon Stock Cars.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The vast majority of BriSCA F2 Stock Cars from Saturday were back for Sunday, with a star-studded line up to contest the Benevolent Fund Trophy, to give recognition to the Fund itself which doubled up as heat two.  This meant that heat one was effectively a white and yellow grade race plus one, and did give the lower graded drivers a chance to have a race without the bigger names.  It was won by 890 Paul Rice.  The grid for the ‘Ben Fund’ Trophy was determined on National Points position from the highest graded drivers present and it put 476 Ryan Wadling on pole position with 783 James Rygor, back behind the wheel of his 2013 World Championship winning car on his outside and 315 Justin Fisher and 846 Ashley England on row two with 542 Steven Gilbert and 111 Lewis Geach on row three whilst right at the back were track championship leader coming into the weekend 38 Dave Polley and National Points Champion, and Saturday night Final winner 7 Gordon Moodie.  Wadling was the early leader as he, Rygor and Fisher disputed the front in the first part of the race whilst further back Moodie simply left his fellow Superstars trailing in his wake and reeled in those battling at the front, but did receive some resistance from Geach who came back at him.  Experienced Smeatharpe hands Rygor and Fisher did prove hard to catch though and when Moodie did so, he had 575 Tom Clark and 935 Nathan Maidment for company at the three-quarter mark.  When Moodie made his move on Rygor, the former gold back came back at the #7 car and both ran wide which allowed Fisher into the lead, but Moodie challenged back and this time it was enough for him to break clear over the last two laps of the race and he went on to win unchallenged.  There was a furious scrap for second though which came out in favour of Clark and a last burst from 101 Kelvyn Marshall saw him take third.   618 Ben Lockwood took the consolation, just fending off a last bend move from Gilbert.  The Ray Tyldesley ‘641’ trophy Final saw a full grid of 30 cars and after an early yellow flag when Marshall found himself stranded on the back straight the race settled down with 245 Nigel Fordham in the lead from his white grade start, a lead he was never to lose to take a surprise, but well driven win, for his first ever and a feature race into the bargain.  Moodie came through to second and Rice third.  The Grand National saw another white grade flag to flag win, this time for 418 Ben Borthwick, to round out a memorable weekend of F2 action, belying the trend at other tarmac circuits.

National Micro Bangers

The National Micro Banger Team scores were carried over from the Saturday to the fourth and final heat and it was very close between the “Cornish Waifs and Strays” and “Bristol Boys” despite the Cornish having won all three heats.  Amid more action, the win went away from the Cornish and a 1-2 from the Bristol Boys with 7 Aaron Charles winning ahead of 27 Dean Quinn was enough to secure them the win, by just two points leaving them on a total of 70 from the CWAS on 68 whilst it was also a tie for third between The Dingles and Reel Steel, whilst the Roughnecks from Wales certainly added the action throughout but failed to score a point.  There were several extras for the individual racing including some of the bigger names in National Bangers and one of them, 162 Brett Ellacott was the winner of the first Allcomers.  This was a heavy race, that included a rollover for 383 Rory Adams and heavy hit for Quinn who required assistance from his car but was thankfully all ok.  There was a further rollover in the second Allcomers, this time for 838 Jamie Peters which actually happened under red flags which had been called for an incident involving 421 Josh Mayo.  74 Adam Hitchcock won the re-started race.  The Destruction Derby to round out the day, came down to a head to head between 45 Anthony Croshaw and 382 Tommy Hutchings, with the latter delivering the last hit to Lips to take the victory.  Not for the first time, the National Micro Bangers had shown their worth with Autospeed.