Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 1st August 2010

The first of three race meetings at Smeatharpe in the month of August, featured a jam-packed pit area, with in excess of 120 drivers spread across the three formulas on duty.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

Despite an impressive car count in the pit area, which nearly totalled 40 drivers, a small number failed to make it as far as the day's quintet of races.  In comparison to some of the recent Smeatharpe fixtures, the racing was rather ordinary at times, although stalwart 214 Les Palmer did his best to liven up proceedings with a chaotic, yet most entertaining display.
14 Mike Priddle charged clear to win the opening heat, which had numerous caution periods.  Heat two was more routine, with 886 Chris Bradbury speeding to victory.  126 Jamie Avery won the consolation, which ended with a boisterous exchange between Palmer and 954 Jamie Beere.  The Roy Goodman Perpetual Challenge Trophy final was twice stopped on the opening lap.  Firstly when 276 Murray Jones and 605 Liam Rowe tangled in the west bend.  Then, on the re-run, 909 Andy Cattell and 696 Adam Hooper hooked up together on the exit of turn four.  In both instances, the two tangled drivers were sighted as the cause of the stoppage, and rightly excluded from the re-run, as detailed in Chapter 6 of the 2010 rulebook.  Regrettably, some racegoers (drivers and spectators) failed to comprehend the rule which, considering the season has now entered its sixth month, is most puzzling.  At the third time of asking, 31 Simon Bassett led the way for many laps, but Bradbury was in scintillating form, and sped comprehensively to victory.  He won the magnificent trophy, which former World and National Points Champion Roy Goodman presented to him.  467 Rob Batten followed him through for second, with white grader Bassett in a fine third place.
Bassett led much of the Grand National too, but late on, 254 Richard Beere edged past for victory.

Ministox

Another superb showing of more than 21 Ministox brought about the two from three heats format.
The star graders failed to make much impression, as heat wins were shared amongst 979 Paul Moss, 989 Joe Marquand and 986 Sophie Fasey, whose victory was her first ever, and she duly celebrated with an air punch upon crossing the line.
Inspired by that maiden win, Fasey went on to add a second in the Club 21 Final, as she held off a late charge by Marquand to win by a narrow margin, with 942 Steven Gilbert completing the top three.

Bangers

The Bangers again appeared in very good numbers, with 72 drivers competing throughout the afternoon.
There were heat victories for Cornish Champion 246 Ryan Sparks, 56 Dan Burton and 526 Dan Morefield.  The consolation brought a first ever race win for 717 Donna Cottrell.  In a hectic and, at times, controversial final, Burton kept his head to calmly record a second victory, and earn an instant promotion to the star grade.  Sparks was the runner-up and 458 Tony Bevan completed the top three.  Over 40 cars gridded for the Allcomers, which barely went a lap before a rollover for 318 Sam McGall.  In the re-run race, 42 Dave England made a late challenge to grab the chequered flag, ahead of 154 Barry Pike.