A rare Saturday afternoon fixture heralded the 2025 Southern Motorsport sponsored ORCi Stock Rod World Championship, being held at the track for the second time in its history, whilst the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars contested their final meeting of the season in Cornwall, and a good entry of Bangers completed a busy programme.

ORCi Stock Rods

The afternoon’s proceedings commenced with the final stage of determining the grid positions for the top 12 seeds from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland via two time trial sessions. The first session determined rows 4 thru 6 on the grid and included the defending World Champion 216 Cameron Doak from Scotland, whilst at the other end of the experience spectrum he was joined by fellow countryman 16 year old 307 Lewis Dickson.  There was disappointment before the timed session began as another Scot, 900 Lee Smart was not able to pass the pre-racing weight check and was therefore excluded from the time trials.  However, the “block” qualification method at least ensured he would start no lower than 12th place.  By the end of the first time trials session, it was perhaps a little surprising that Doak and Dickson had locked out row 4, ahead of the home drivers of 835 Matt Westaway, 728 Kris Woods. and 231 Simon Bassett.  Wood’s cause had been hampered by a stuck throttle, and he gamely deployed on-off tactics with his ignition to tackle the problem.  In the case of Bassett, he had shown supreme commitment to make it to the event after finding his return flight home from holiday being cancelled, and therefore having to rebook onto a different flight that only got him on home soil about 10 hours prior to the meeting commencing!
The top seeds then entered the arena for the commencement of their four minute time trial and after an enthralling opening minute where the fastest lap changed hands between most of the drivers, it was the Scottish Champion 83 Michael Bethune who locked out pole position with another Scot in the shape of 165 Jamie Dawson securing second place on the grid.  Local hopes 522 Chris Mikulla and English Champion 944 Callum Hosie took third and fourth with 16 Samuel Montgomery and 918 Calyn Peoples representing Northern Ireland on the third row.
There was a final opportunity for four drivers to secure a place on the rear of the World Final grid via the Last Chance qualifier.  An all-English grid saw 320 Matt Hatch speed away at the start being chased hard by original pole sitter 286 Martin Walker Jnr.  149 Dan Curtis held third, and that left a raging battle behind 151 Simon Vincent was caught in an enthralling contest with 131 Stephen Cock.  As Vincent tried valiantly to get by on the outside line, 862 Darryl Cock came to join them.  Up front, Walker Jnr did eventually get past Hatch to regain the lead.  Curtis withdrew to the infield, and Vincent leapt from fifth to third.  Stephen Cock held on to the vital fourth place, thereby grabbing the last place on the World grid.
With the skies overhead darkening, the Grand Parade of the 30 World Finalists took place with a festive atmosphere which became more pensive as the grid started to form.  Front row start Dawson’s team had to effect last minute repairs to get his car running and he became the last driver to grid at the front.  Thereafter, the grid completed one rolling lap to ensure everyone was running, and clear on the timing system, before a clutch start.  The green flag dropped and there was drama from the off as pole sitter Bethune suffered a puncture as the front two seemed to come together.  That ended Bethune’s race before it had even really begun, much to his dismay.  The incident had also delayed Dawson and thus by the end of the first lap it was an English one-two across the line with Mikulla leading Hosie, followed by Montgomery and Dawson.  The two Englishmen were in a very close battle with the Northern Irishman closing fast.  With 8 laps completed, the major talking point of the race took place, as the cars came around the fourth bend towards the home straight, and in a flurry of activity Mikulla was spun onto the infield as a result of some kind of connection between him and the chasing Hosie.  On his next time past the rostrum, Hosie was shown a black cross indicating that the Steward had noted an incident was requiring further investigation.  Montgomery was hot on Hosie’s heels but over the next few laps as the leaders navigated the heavy back marking traffic, Montgomery’s challenge began to fade.  Now, as Hosie pulled away, it was gold top Doak who was closing in fast in third.  As the race entered its last third, Doak moved past Montgomery into second just over a second and half back from Hosie.  With five laps to go the gap seemed to come down in a jump and there was now just a second between the first two.  Further back, Dawson had now grabbed third.  As the final lap board came out Doak was within a car’s length of Hosie and a quite remarkable outcome was on the cards, but Hosie managed to hold off a challenge to cross the finish line first with Doak rueing the lack of another few laps.  Dawson recovered to third after the opening lap mishap and Montgomery was a creditable fourth. After initial celebrations and congratulations between the top three there then was an anxious period where a Steward’s enquiry was announced.  A group of officials, representing multiple promotions, reviewed the video evidence from the static cameras which had been put in place for the occasion.  The tension ramped up further after it was announced that a further review of the race footage from the DT Videos footage was to be examined.  It was upon sight of this that the reality of the lap nine incident became clear.  Hosie had managed to get cleanly up the inside of Mikulla coming around turn four, only to find his path narrowing resulting in connection with the unfortunate Mikulla.  With this view, the decision was that the result would stand and much to the delight of the local crowd, Hosie was finally able to be declared the winner.  Doak, after a tough season, was justly proud of his attempted defence of the title, whilst Dawson was left reflecting on what might have been at the end of a typically dramatic but ultimately high quality World Final.  The respectful manner in which Hosie, Doak and Dawson conducted themselves was to be commended.

The rest of the meeting saw drivers contest two out of three heats to contribute to the grid for the following day’s West of England Championship at Smeatharpe.  22 cars for the first heat saw Bethune once again suffering a puncture after contacting the car in front.  The Scotsman was understandably frustrated and deciding to draw a line under proceedings and commence the long journey back North of the Border early, having already informed the promotion that work commitments were going to prevent him from competing on the Sunday.  The race came to an exciting and dramatic conclusion when Hatch defended up a tremendous challenge from Dickson on his track debut, the Englishman only just holding on for the win.  Amidst a scramble to the line for the minor places, 287 Mark Hatch jumped on the brakes very early, and that caused a ripple effect with the luckless Mikulla seeing his day worsen as he ended up against the plating in a heap of cars on turn one after the chequered flag.  A busier grid of 29 cars for heat two saw 220 Richard Short taking over from 777 Nathan Congdon at the front.  Smart was running well in second until he shot to the infield on the back straight in a clash with Walker Jnr, but subsequent checking noted that Smart had already encountered a drive shaft issue.  There was a very close battle for position amongst Hosie, Doak and Dawson for the minor places as elsewhere in the pack 285 Martin Walker went for a wild ride down the home straight and onto the infield as he took avoiding action for a slowing 73 Terry Gallagher.  Short avoided any such dramas to take a comfortable win.  By the time of the third heat, the rain which had been forecast to set in much earlier had finally arrived with a vengeance and whilst Smart and then 314 Jason Barraclough had taken up the lead all eyes were on 914 Calum Faulconbridge who was finding speed and grip like no other driver on track.  Faulconbridge was lapping more than a second faster than Barraclough at the front, but even so it was breathtaking as he pounced for the lead with an audacious dive to the inside of back marking Walker Jnr as the more measured Barraclough went round the outside.  The move sealed the win for the 914 driver and ended a memorable day.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

The destination of the 2025 Track Championship was determined in large part by the absence of 126 Jamie Avery who, going into the meeting was just 3 points behind 418 Ben Borthwick.  As a consequence, Borthwick’s only other challenger 980 Charlie Lobb needing to outscore Borthwick heavily which he failed to do.  There was plenty more up for grabs despite the underwhelming 21-car entry.  The opening heat saw just nine entrants take to the grid for the prize-ladened White and Yellow Grade Series Final.  572 James Lindsay streaked clear at the font, with the chances of a few dashed by a back straight clash which claimed 510 Matt Stone and inflicted damage on 605 Richie Andrews.  Lindsay stretched out his lead at the line with 895 Ben Goddard running home on second but on the final bend fourth placed 206 Matt Brewer knowing what was at stake connected with the rear of 464 Matt Linfield sufficiently to destabilise Linfield’s car.  However, Linfield managed to hold on for third in the scramble to the line.  Heat two saw the remaining drivers join the fray with 16 cars on track including National Points Series protagonists 183 Charlie Guinchard and 7 Gordon Moodie as the chase for the silver enters its final stages. Lindsay repeated his winning ways in heat two with 127 Matt Stoneman unable to catch him having climbed up through the field.  A lot of the focus, however, may have been watching Moodie and Guinchard down in ninth and tenth spot trading bumper blows and places on successive laps in an excellent (and respectful) display of Stock Car racing.  Guinchard eventually seized the advantage to come home seventh with the World Champion following him across the line. Heat three saw a similar battle with the duo up to sixth and seventh by half distance.  Up ahead, Lobb led Stoneman onto the final lap, but Stoneman made his move early striking the rear of Lobb’s car entering the first bend.  That sent Lobb into a spin, as Stoneman sped by to claim the victory.  Prior to the final for the Old Motor Cycle Club Trophy, there was the annual demonstration of motorcycle and sidecars which used to form part of the programme of events at the old Cornish Stadium at St Austell.  After a false start, the feature final got under way with spits and spots of rain beginning to dampen the track.  Once again Lindsay set the pace, but it was Guinchard who was demonstrably the quickest driver on track, and with three to go, he moved into the lead with Stoneman coming home in second.  Lindsay completed a fine afternoon’s racing by finishing third.  Just 12 entrants braved the Grand National with the rain now falling heavily.  663 Bryan Lindsay became the first victim of the tricky track surface by spinning around.  With his rival starting from the lap handicap, it was Moodie who closed on the race leaders Brewer and Andrews.  The race points advantage looked to swing in the direction of the Scotsman, as Guinchard was stuck for a long time back in tenth place.  However, there was a significant change on the last lap.  Andrews held on to win, Moodie was the runner-up and further back, Guinchard launched a final bend attack on 315 Charlie Fisher to steal seventh at the flag.

Bangers

Just over 40 Bangers took part in a full format meeting.  The opening heat saw a pile-up developing on turns three and four before a caution period was called with 268 Kerry Birch stranded driver’s door onto the traffic on the back straight.  Once the race resumed, 814 Will Trevorrow and 247 Alfie Blight came together on the pit bend, as 390 Alfie Tomkins took the win.  The second heat also saw a caution period for debutant 17 Ian Hooper and 457 John Blight who finished nose to nose on the pit bend.  At the restart, 451 Nigel Belfield sped off into the distance to win.  There was a pause to allow a number of latecomers to join the consolation grid, and for 816 Josh Taylor to be removed from the grid after inexplicably looking to race the car his brother 24 Matt Taylor had already raced to a qualification place for the meeting final.  78 Max Weare hit the front, taking over from 826 Lewis Martin to head the field as Hooper and 161 Anton Ferris crunched to a halt on the pits bend.  Soon after, Alfie Blight struck the 17 car sending him onto a spectacular rollover.  Weare held on for the win after the restart with a fine battle between 196 Phil Chapman, 786 Grant Harris and 459 Dean Blight for the minor places.  28 starters for the final saw 808 Damian Thomas the initial leader as 290 Jay Tomkins was spun on turn two.  352 Carl Belfield was spun towards the plating at the starter’s rostrum, whilst 747 Nicky Seery and 11 Grubby Frankson came together broadside on the home straight creating a chicane for the remaining drivers.  It was Alfie Tomkins who once again streaked through to take the win, as 551 Jack Belfield and Nigel Belfield filled the other rostrum places.  A very wet Allcomers race saw Frankson being shoved around the track by Jack Belfield as 511 Dan Crosbie took over the running at the front until Tomkins relieved him of the lead.  However, on the soaked track, Nigel Belfield came to the fore, showing good pace to pounce on Tomkins in the closing laps and secure his second win of the afternoon.