Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 19th July 2009

National Bangers

Six teams contested this year's annual Big Banger Teams, with The Steam Team being the furthest travelled team, with their full complement of four drivers - 160 Shane Windsor, 321 Andy Newton, 536 Annette Nicholls and 537 Martin Brunson - all having travelled from East Anglia.
Eleven cars made it on the grid for Heat one, and in very wet conditions the drivers found it hard to find any grip. That said, it did not stop 341 Andrew Jones burying 249 Darren Brock on the pit bend exit only to leave himself wide open for a huge hit from 741 Alex "Boris" Waterman. 190 Steve Bailey won the heat from the restart for the Midnight Runners, with 179 Stu Nightingale second, and 341 Andrew Jones third.
Heat two was held in similar wet conditions, with 536 Annette Nicholls winning and also avoiding a mammoth follow in from 45 Anthony "Lips" Crowshaw on her team-mate 537 Martin Brunson on the Honiton bend.
Heat three was by far the livliest for action and the heavens opened as the race began to add even more chaos. On the first lap 341 buried 321 Andy Newton in to the pit bend, and just for good measure 190 Pikey then piled in to 321. Jonesy then created his own train as he pushed 407 Chris Croshaw and 537 all around the plating, and when 407 moved out of the way, Jonesy put 537 in to the Honiton bend fence. At the half way point, 45 "Lips" was only just in the lead but was spun aside as he tried to overtake the back marker of 341. This opened the way for 820 Martin Perkins to take up the lead which he held on to take the chequered flag.
Just as the chequered flag fell, 537, who had decided that the plating was the safest place to drive circling the track continually soaking the crowd as he sent the rain up over them, picked up 45 "Lips" and buried him in the pit gate only to leave the back of his car a prime target for 741 "Boris" to jack him.
The Steam Team won the meeting by 2 points from Team Elite, and they were also presented with the award for the Best Presented Team.
Unfortunately, the King of Crash/DD was cancelled owing to the amount of damage received on track, with only 190 Pikey and 407 coming out on take part. The two drivers were offered a caravan each to join in the end of day Caravan Chaos which they duly accepted.

Saloon Stock Cars

Fourteen drivers attended the last meeting to score points before the grids are made for the European Championships to be held here at Taunton over the annual SpeedWeekend of 1st and 2nd August.
The last time the Saloons were at Smeatharpe, it was 186 Todd Jones who scored a maximum.  This time, it was his brother, 176 Murray Jones who took heats one and two.  Murray clawed his way through the lower grades to take both heat wins from 490 Ian Jarman and Todd Jones, although in the second heat he was helped by 12 Gary White spinning in front of the pack - thus slowing them down.
The final nearly followed the same format as 176 managed to find his way up to second place but he was unable to find enough grip on the wet track to catch 199 Phil Powell who had led for most of the race.

Bangers

64 Bangers turned up including two visitors all the way from Belgium, 24 Bert Valgaeren and 99 Steevie van Goethem.
Heat one saw 456 Ian Blight take up the early lead with 991 Ben Hale attacking through the traffic to catch 456 and with a few laps left, 991 took the lead to win.
Heat two was again a similar story with 188 Paul Power leading from early on only to be gradually hauled in by 113 Chris Jeanes who pounced as the half way flag came out and he held on to take the win.
In Heat three 156 Kev Gooding took over at the front with one lap to go and thus took the win from 458 Tony Bevan. On a very wet track, 60 Andy Bulled won the consolation.
The final looked like being a close race with 188 leading from the start only for 42 Dave England to pounce at half way with 604 Kev Hookway and 113 all running close. 42 was then spun twice in the closing stages as he battled with 113 but didn't lose much ground, so as 113 crossed to take the flag, 941 Hannah Creed, all the way from the back of the grid nearly made second place but was pipped by 42.
Over thirty cars made it back on track for the Allcomers which was won by 282 Steve Hunt who led from his son 382 Danny Hunt who himself was held up on the last bend by 99 as he battled for the win.

Caravan Chaos

Eight drivers attended the annual Caravan Chaos as they served up the usual carnage and destruction that the crowd had come to expect.
From the outset it was car against caravan as 190 Steve Bailey powered in to 438 Dan Rice's caravan, and 88 Tim Wood ploughed in to a static caravan parked on the back straight. 341 Andrew Jones then destroyed the caravan of 303 Nic Saintey, as 407 Chris Croshaw did the same to 369 Gary Holmes. A pile up on the old pit bend left little room to get past, and after 341 had finally removed 303 out of his way he duly dispatched 438 to the crowd's excitement.  This left only 88 Tim Wood as the remaining moving car so he took the chequered flag to win the Colander Trophy for 2009. There was one twist left though, as before the red flag was shown, 341 Jonesy had managed to free himself and in true National Bangers style he completed a full lap before burying himself in to the back of 190's car, with Pikey waving him in just as the sun came out to end the day.