United Downs Raceway - Sunday 5th July 2009

Mixed weather was the order of the day for the sizeable crowd which was attracted to St Day for the annual World Championship qualifying round fixture for BriSCA F2 Stock Cars.  As the first part of three rounds in four days, the F2s duly appeared in record numbers.  There was good action from both the Bangers and the Ministox, as both support clases also appeared in their best numbers at St Day this year.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

Car numbers in the F2s were outstanding.  Indeed, the F2 brigade excelled themselves, with a 64-car turnout.  That easily eclipsed the 45-car showings for the corresponding fixture in 2003 and 2004.  The entry was truly cosmopolitan, and included five drivers based in Scotland and 403 Mike Dignan, currently based in Germany.
Pit area space was at a premium, and the start to pre-meeting practice was delayed by the weighing of all F2s, which took place on the infield.  After the Drivers’ Briefing came the Grand Parade.  Inexplicably in some cases, 13 drivers did not take part (some with genuine reasons), but the 51 who were involved each received a commemorative mug from meeting sponsors, Neil Truran Motorsport.  Several drivers made an effort for the parade, including 270 Mark Gibbs, who was dressed as Elvis.
Three heats were needed, and these proved to be very exciting. It was also something of a surprise that westcountry drivers accounted for each heat.  The first to do so was 126 Jamie Avery, as he claimed a first win of the season.
In heat two, 162 Richard Swales set the pace early on, but it was 877 Eddie Darby who charged through to take command, and he won, from 7 Gordon Moodie, with Swales a fine third on his track debut.
Heat three was led for much of the way by 954 Jamie Beere, but again, a runaway white grader was caught by a blue top, as 105 Ross Rowe took the honours.
Having been warned at the Drivers’ Briefing that the consolation would be chaotic, drivers took to the track, and proceeded to form a 30-car grid.  There was a race suspension when Dignan indicated he was in trouble in the turnstile bend, after which 393 Chris Cuming marked his return to racing with a win, and duly completed the set of south west wins in all four qualifying races.
An initial attempt at the final quickly saw a red flag as 101 Kelvyn Whalley and 968 Mickey Brennan clashed on the racing line at the pit gate blocking the racing line, whilst assorted drivers in the yellow and blue grade, had taken a wild ride around the pits bend plating.  During the red-flag period the weather intervened to throw drivers’ set-ups into disarray, and in contravention of the rules regarding the carrying and use of tools, 935 Nathan Maidment, 832 Kane Moore, and Ross Rowe were excluded from the restart.  31 Simon Bassett took up the early running but saw his lead eradicated when Avery and 339 Stuart Kelly were amongst a big parking lot of cars in the turnstile bend.  Bassett made good use of the lapped Bill Batten behind him on the restart and initially opened up a small gap, but with National Points Champion 886 Chris Bradbury and the attendant red-tops in hot pursuit it was only another few laps before the inevitable happened.  Bradbury took the lead a lap past half-way.  Credit where it’s due though and Bassett clung on gamely for a sixth place finish.  In the later stages, the track began to dry visibly, and Moodie really picked up the pace.  He moved ahead of 721 Graham Kelly, and started to eat into Bradbury’s lead.  However, time was against Moodie, and thus Bradbury won, with Moodie second, and Kelly followed him over the line for third but was excluded from the result for an infringement of the track width rule.  In turn, that promoted 401 Barry Goldin to the final rostrum place ahead of 606 Andrew Palmer, whilst the first “local” home was 76 Chris Rowe.
Cuming also ended the day with the chequered flag, as he took the Grand National, which had been led for almost the whole of the race by 954 Jamie Beere.

Bangers

Numbers were very good in the Bangers, with just under 50 drivers present – the best yet at St Day for this season.  Four drivers made their debut in the class, including 054 Sarah Sear, who thoughtfully added a comedy ‘shopping list’ to the signwork on her driver’s door.  With so many drivers in attendance, a full format meeting was deployed.
On his debut appearance, 137 Nigel Manhire, flipped upside down on the back straight, early in heat one.  The restarted race brought a career first win for 604 Kev Hookway, as he led all the way from flag to flag.
It was a similar story in heat two, which saw 441 Dan Sutherland score a convincing win, for his first success of the season.
820 Ian McNaught led the consolation, until 210 Mike Johns took over, whereby his running mate, 141 Toby Tiddy, duly spun him aside on the home straight to rack up his first victory of the season.
Sutherland proceeded to follow up his heat win with victory in the final, but only just.  Sutherland looked very much in the clear, but a nightmare last lap saw him fall into the clutches of 804 Treve Wills.  However, no matter how hard Wills tried, he just could not get to spin Sutherland around.  Hence, Sutherland held on and that double glory was enough to book him an upgrade to star.  Wills was second by a narrow margin, and 242 Ben Ellacott completed the top three.
Wills was initially credited with the win in the Allcomers event, but a subsequent check of the charts showed that Ellacott was the rightful winner.

Ministox

The youngsters in the Ministox produced their best car count at St Day so far this season, including three newcomers to the grid, with one of them, 994 Kirstin Stone really making her mark when she rolled over during pre-meeting practice.
Using the ex-Lee Porter/Katie Dawe car for the first time, 961 Gary Sillifant swept to victory in the opening heat.
Sillifant repeated the trick in heat two, to make it back to back wins.  The race also saw 911 Josh Smith make his debut.
There were some exciting exchanges in the final, between Gary Sillifant and 991 Ryan Hoskin.  They battled hard, and exchanged blows in the pits bend, with Hoskin getting slightly better of the contest.  However, he could only manage third, behind 971 Jason Cox, but it was 907 Ben Sillifant who marked his debut outing with a win in the feature race.