Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 31st October 2010

The curtain came down in style on the 2010 season at Smeatharpe, with an action-packed day from the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, the National Bangers and the Ministox.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

Track Champion 886 Chris Bradbury again showed imperious Smeatharpe form to successfully defend The Ladies Trophy.
467 Rob Batten won a thrilling last bend shoot-out with 152 Mick Sworder to take the opening heat.  Bradbury swept impressively to heat two, which saw a spectacular clash between brothers 276 Murray Jones and 286 Todd Jones and a bout of prolonged silence when the two retired to the infield within a couple of laps of one another.  218 Rob Speak showed the rest a clean pair of heels in winning heat three, after reeling in long time leader 916 Luke Thomas.
Speak was an early casualty in the meeting final.  He went airborn in his attempts to bash his way through a west bend pile-up, and nearly found himself upended by Bradbury.  Damage to Speak's car prevented the former eight times World Champion from taking part in the re-run.  Bradbury swiftly cut through the pack to charge clear, and late on 676 Neil Hooper robbed second place from Sworder.  254 Richard Beere completed the top four.
The day's F2 action, indeed F2 action in the south west, concluded with the Allcomers race that turned into a two-way battle between Speak and Hooper.  It looked as though Hooper had Speak in his sights, but both dived deep into the final bend, and in the drag to the finish line, Speak just held on.
At signing-in, the F2 drivers were invited to each donate £1 towards the Torbay Breast Cancer Unit.  All drivers generously did so, and when this was matched by Autospeed, £60 was collected for the appeal fund.

2-Litre National Bangers

35 drivers, spread across 12 teams, contested this year's Teamarama.
With the revised points scoring system, several teams let themselves down with a failure to paint all cars in team colours and/or by simply turning up too late.
Just three cars earned bonus points for not being Mondeos - the Vectra of 112 Mark Wilson (Team Cheese) and the Cougars of 162 Brett Ellacott (Daves) and 714 Paul Smaldon (Midnight Runners).
Race wins were recorded by Ellacott, 239 Steve Carter (Midnight Runners) and 158 Shane Davies (Condoms A).
Going into the third and final heat, Condoms A were eight points clear of the Midnight Runners.  However, despite the win going to Davies, none of his fellow Condoms racers could add to their points tally, and with 190 Steve Bailey finishing fourth, Smaldon sixth, Carter seventh and 341 Andrew Jones tenth, they took the title by a slender margin of just a single point.
Some heavy crashes during the day saw meaty damage for 89 James Touhey, 99 David Spooner and 310 Gary Keen in particular.
Sufficient cars were available to run an Allcomers race, but that was a rather processional affair, won by Ellacott who overhauled Smaldon on the last lap.
In stark contrast, the 10-car DD was immense, with some devastating hits.  74 Adam Hitchcock, 191 Ashley Kemble and Jones took some fearful punishment, before a head-to-head showdown materialised between Bailey and Carter.  It was Bailey who landed the final hit, which looked to have silenced Carter, and the red lights came on to end the contest just seconds before Carter somehow managed to find a last flicker of life in his car.  By then the result had been awarded to Bailey, but the real winners were the racegoers who had stayed on into the late afternoon of winter darkness to enjoy a truly brutal event for which all drivers deserve considerable praise.

Ministox

Another fabulous showing from the youngsters in the Ministox this time saw 24 drivers in action, racing to the 2 from 3 format, with an all-in final.  Heat wins went to 124 Ollie Skeels, 991 Ryan Hoskin and 935 James Flint, before the feature race saw Skeels clinch a second victory, as he held on in a close finish that saw Hoskin closing on him just as the flag fell.  156 Georgie Boult took third.
The day's results confirmed Hoskin as Track Champion at Smeatharpe for 2010.