United Downs Raceway basked in Spring sunshine for the 2026 opener with four formulas on the card, a good crowd in attendance and some first-class action on the track. 14 events were completed in just under four hours.

2 Litre National Bangers

The entry of 21 National Bangers included a visiting group of four cars from the Ringwood Cheetahs raceway as well as many of the Autospeed regulars.  The opening heat was minus one of the south coast visitors, but 20 cars served up a heavy race.  959 Justin Payne was bouncing along the back straight plating early in the race and 562 Jayden James abandoned his race lead to blow him up in style.  Elsewhere, 666 Ricky Pippet was done by 208 Kieran Barrett whilst James attempted to extract himself from the back of Payne.  The two just got separated just in time for 40 Ben Reeder to arrive and nail James hard with 846 Jacob Read then blasting Reeder flat out before a race stoppage curbed things.  The restart saw 59 Mike Hamley left in the turn three fence after a spin on 97 Craig Deer backfired on him.  Deer went on to bury 503 Ajay Bray hard into the empty car of Read with 50 Joe Mulladay and 166 Luke Gillbard both joining the train in turn blocking the corner completely which caused 648 Jamie Smith to use 286 Sophie Fasey as a battering ram to open up a gap.  186 Lewis Fasey was the winner.  The second heat featured 13 cars, some fairly straight and some not so straight.  James opened the action by picking up and burying 271 Jordan Coleman whilst Mulladay ran Payne around the wall before Payne escaped the scene.  This left Mulladay a sitting target for Gillbard sparking another wrecking train with James and 266 Scott Gillbard both joining the back of the queue.  286 Sophie Fasey was the winner of this one.  The dozen in the Final was a 50:50 mix of racers and those still managing to fix for another crash.  Barrett got some target practice on Mulladay but the revenge hit a lap or two later definitely gave Mulladay the victory in that particular bout and he went on to give Hamley a hard time as well but didn’t manage to put him to the wall.  Lewis Fasey was on the top step of the podium with Jamie Smith and gold top Johnny James filling the places.  The DD still had one-third of the original entry and after some early spins, things picked up with Barrett nailing Luke Gillbard and Deer firing James into the turn one plating leaving the latter to be finished off by Barrett.  Barrett went on to nail Gillbard leaving both of them stuck in soft ground and were it not for Deer accepting their pleas to be shifted, they would have been marooned helplessly there would have been nothing more.  Deer hit them both, which helped to free them, but as it was, Barrett and Gillbard only proceeded to finish each other off again and leave Deer as the winner.

Stock Rods

The 20 Stock Rods in attendance ran a two-thirds format.  In the opening heat, 666 Jem Tidball made the most of starting as pole white top and led for a decent number of laps.  Others making notable progress in the first half of the race were 285 Martin Walker from yellow and 728 Kris Woods from blue.  911 Harrison Bryant had a mid-race tangle with 415 Sean Gillett that took the latter out of contention and further contact between Bryant and Walker later in the race saw the 911 car encounter further problems.  Walker then lost his rhythm and shed three places in the closing laps whilst Woods continued to progress forwards to take a race victory built on plenty of overtaking on the outside line.  Heat two saw early gremlins for 144 Ashton Worthington who missed a couple of laps on the infield before rejoining the race, but the main interest took place in the mid and later stages of the event.  51 Aiden Vincent picked up a black cross for contact on 220 Richard Short which saw the latter with understeer that turned to oversteer on the exit of turn four as he came perilously close to wiping out 231 Simon Bassett.  314 Jason Barraclough ended up crashed on turn four which resulted in Bryant hitting 151 Simon Vincent who lost a lot of pace when taking avoiding action to miss the stricken car.  Aiden Vincent later received a black flag after a second incident, this time pushing on Bryant who ended up clattering the home straight fence.  At the front, 761 Kyle Williams had disappeared off the front row of the grid to win by a comfortable margin.  287 Mark Hatch was the early leader of heat three but a couple of incidents of running wide in the corners firstly saw him lose the lead to 814 Max Barraclough before dropping to fourth on track with a further drift in turn one just before half distance in the race.  Other notable moments included 617 Christina Sillifant taking an excursion onto the turn one grass after a tap from Woods which resulted in the loss of places for the 728 car and a late engine blow up in dramatic fashion for Richard Short.  Barraclough stayed at the front to win this one.  The outside line had lost grip by the time the Final was run which favoured the lower graders.  Gillett was once again in the heat of battle and took a trip across the infield to rejoin the race after contact from Bassett although in the second half of the race, Bassett ended his race with front end damage on turn four.  Also in the wars for the second time in the meeting was Jason Barraclough who glanced the turn one plating before ending up over the kerbs onto the relative safety of the grass.  This time it was Worthington who took the top honours ahead of Tidball and Walker in a low-grade lock-out, with Sillifant finishing as best blue top in fifth and Aiden Vincent top red as far back as ninth.

Ministox

The ORCi Ministox entry numbered 15 cars.  The fortunes of the white tops in heat one were very different with 476 Jack Wadling leading a lot of laps whilst 607 Bonnie Weston lost a fair bit of ground being bounced around in the traffic.  313 Charlie Weston fared much better and flew through the field from the blue grade to take up the lead on lap seven and he went on to win the race with Wadling losing a couple more places later in the race to end up in fourth.  511 Lexi Crosbie didn’t score in this one having misjudged an attack on 132 Rowan McAleer which saw her spin out after the contact.  117 Max Starr led the first lap of heat two before Wadling came through to take up the running.  McAleer got boxed out of the inside line and track and dropped through the order until a clash with Bonnie Weston saw him veer into the home straight plating nose first and then spin around and go in backwards as well.  McAleer was unable to get the car mobile again and a lap eight race suspension was required.  The restart saw midfielder 575 Caden Clark get bundled wide by the traffic and drop down the places with the white and yellow tops filling the first three places soon succumbing to the pace and experience of 475 Mason Sealy who came through to lead.  A cracking tussle over third place saw 114 Charlie Lomas and 257 Kieran Hibbard exchanging blows and positions a few times before Lomas span to decide the outcome.  The race winner was also decided by a spin, in dramatic fashion, with Charlie Weston launching a last bend attack on Sealy.  That resulted in Sealy being left looking at where he had just been and Weston looking at the chequered flag.  The Final saw Starr take the early lead, but he held it much longer in this race and also rode out a hit from Wadling just before half distance in the race to stay at the front.  Clark took a trip into the wall after a clash with Bonnie Weston with Wadling continuing to pursue the leader and finally getting ahead of Starr with the lap boards being shown by the starter.  Feeling the pressure of the red tops behind, Starr then ran wide at the start of the last lap dropping to fourth position.  However, the story wasn’t over with another last bend sort-out seeing Sealy launch Hibbard wide and Starr kept it tidy to cut back up the inside line.  The order at the chequered flag was Wadling from Sealy and Starr.