Smeatharpe Stadium - Sunday 13th August 2017

Racing returned to Smeatharpe Stadium on a pleasantly warm summer's afternoon with a full programme of events from the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, Saloon Stock Cars, Ministox and 2 litre Old Skool Bangers, all culminating in a spectacular caravan race, as watched by a large crowd.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

With it being the time of year, it was not unexpected that numbers took a slight dip from what we are used to at Smeatharpe regarding the BriSCA F2's but with the change in format it meant that there was always a good grid of cars on track, and more importantly the feature Final was still the largest race of the day.  542 Steve Gilbert won heat one after early leader 740 Neil Langworthy was reeled in.  Gilbert then found himself involved in a big crash that also left 522 Chris Mikulla shaken in heat two and 536 John Ferguson took no further part in the afternoon.  It was 745 Lee Morgan that went on to win after the re-start.  Heat three saw victory for 418 Ben Borthwick.  The feature Final was for the annual Roy Goodman Perpetual Trophy, with Roy, 1963 F2 World Champion and the former builder, owner and Promoter of Smeatharpe Stadium on hand to present the trophy.  127 Matt Stoneman had been second in both of his heats and after 762 Mike Cocks and 303 Chris Horwell had been the initial leaders of the Final, once Stoneman had moved past the competitive blue grade it always looked likely that he was headed for the victory and indeed it was the case.  He was comfortably clear of Borthwick at the finish whilst Mikulla, suitably recovered from his earlier crash made third.  The first attempt at the Grand National got off to a spectacular start when 398 Ian England rolled on the home straight.  The re-run saw Horwell lead for a long while until caught and passed by the impressive Borthwick who took his second win of the afternoon.

Saloon Stock Cars

Six days away from their World Championship at Cowdenbeath and it was good to see that the 15 car entry included four World finalists, including pole sitter and current Track Championship leader 158 Shane Davies.  On the back of a hat-trick at the previous Smeatharpe meeting he came through to continue that trend in heat one, although as late as the halfway point it looked unlikely but with a characteristic late burst he came through to lead just prior to starting the last lap, having joined a great battle going on between long time leader 902 Junior Buster, 276 Ben King and 78 Jack Thompson.  The second heat was more straightforward with King opening out a good lead on his way to the win and whilst Buster Jnr was the early leader in the Final, 214 Tom Yould moved ahead.  There had been little to suggest that Yould would dominate this race from his showing in the two preceding races, but he did just that keeping a safe distance from second placed 93 Stu Sculthorpe whilst more late moves came from Davies, and that saw him come through to third.

Ministox

The 11-16 year olds in the ORCi Ministox were competing for the annual Reg Thomas Shield and featured a healthy grid of cars.  The opening heat saw 943 Hannah Esau make light work of her yellow graded start but for the remainder of the meeting there was simply no catching 958 Zak Carnell who took his first ever win in heat two and then did what so many do, by following it up with another straight away by winning the Final too.  927 Owen Robins took his best result to date with second and on a day when the star graded drivers were locked out of the trophies in each race, 980 Charlie Lobb made third place in an unbelievable photo finish with 667 Tommy Farrell; the electronic timing system giving Lobb the verdict by just four thousandths of a second.

2 Litre Old Skool Bangers

Once again there was a good entry of cars for the 2 litre Bangers in Old Skool format and such a busy track there was always something going on in heat one and it was 938 Ash Rice who came through to win.  122 Jesse Ashley looked like he was heading for the win in heat two until his BMW ran sick and this allowed 333 Craig Partridge into the lead and he went on to win.  With everything back on song Ashley comfortably won the Final with 246 Ryan Sparks second and 718 Adie Brown third.  Once again, the grid for the Allcomers race was frustratingly low and whilst there was a case that some were saving their cars for the caravan race, it does still leave the debate about the viability of this race at the Old Skool meetings open.  207 Darren Bradford headed home 907 Cameron in a father-son 1-2.

Caravans

There were 14 combinations for the aforementioned caravan race and to no great surprise there was a big early pile on the bottom bend, which brought out an early red flag.  Things settled down at the re-start with some memorable moments including 912 Simon Rees flying over the (now) trailer of race leader 366 Pete Warren and almost landing on top of the 366 car.  Shortly after Warren had 79 Brian Edmond almost do the same and 154 Barry Pike launched his car over Edmond's caravan remains and was left perched on him, the trio in a fine piece of auto sculpture.   This only left Rees, who was two laps (or more) behind.  With the 79, 154 and 366 cars apparently still mobile but just stuck, the decision was made to halt the race and unhook them and at the same time 372 Jay Matthews was freed from the pile on the bottom bend.  The re-start was minus Rees, who had lost all his gears and Pike failed to re-start too.  Warren soon retired which left a head to head between Matthews and Edmond with 'Messer' winning it the old fashioned way as the last car - and caravan - moving.