Report by Alistair Oxby

United The only race action for the month of October at the United Downs Raceway went ahead with four formulas in action.  Sadly, the damp drizzly weather meant that the crowd was a bit thinner than usual although the drivers coped very well with changing track conditions to put on a decent show for those that turned out to see it.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

A total of 17 drivers competed in the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars with the Final carrying the impressive silver Old Motor Cycle Club Trophy that had cost £100 back in the 1950s.
All 17 cars started Heat One where 267 Robbie Batten took the early lead ahead of fellow white-grader 870 Bruno Farrell.  Farrell held this position until lap three when 194 Luke Johnson moved ahead of him along the back straight and, on the next lap, Farrell ran wide again off Turn Two and dropped away to fifth position.  Johnson continued to charge hard in the damp conditions and reeled in Batten to pass him on the entry into Turn One on lap six to take the lead.  128 Jake Ralfs followed Johnson into second position a lap later.  The battle for third proved to be worth following with Batten falling away down the places but leaving 828 Julian Coombes in the position.  890 Paul Rice caught and passed Coombes on the way into Turn One on lap nine, but Coombes fought back and the two raced hard for the position for another four laps until Rice got through again in Turn Three and made good his escape.  In the meantime, 206 Matt Brewer had suffered a Turn Four spin and dropped out of the points.  Johnson motored on to a convincing victory whilst 667 Tommy Farrell attempted a last-bend hit on Coombes which resulted in a spin for Farrell, and he had to scramble over the line to salvage eighth position.
Heat Two featured 16 cars with 530 Reece Bowden making the grid but then failing to start the race.  The remaining two white-tops made a very strong start in this race with Batten, in particular, stretching out quite a lead ahead of the rest of the field.  Farrell held on in second place until lap five when 194 Johnson got better drive on the exit of Turn Two and made an easy inside pass along the back straight.  468 Sam Weston span out on the back straight a lap later and got clattered hard by Brewer as he rejoined near the pit gate.  At the half-way point of the race, Farrell dropped another place from third to fourth by drifting wide off Turn Two allowing Rice through.  Despite a good run, Batten lost the lead on lap nine to the flying Johnson and Rice was also soon up with Batten to pass him coming off Turn Two.  Batten tried to get the place back at the other end, but the move didn’t work out as he would have wanted.  Last lap action saw 418 Ben Borthwick retire with a puncture and 505 Owen Geach make a more dramatic exit into the Turn One plating.  Johnson took his second win of the day.
The same 16 drivers contested the Final where Farrell got the better of Batten at the start and led until the start of lap three when Batten came through on the way into Turn One.  However, Batten drifted wide on the exit of the corner and Coombes seized his chance to go to the front.  Just a lap later, Batten lost out in the same place on track to Johnson who moved up to second place.  At the other end of the track, Brewer suffered another Turn Four spin and 979 Paul Moss was delayed and then got collected by 572 James Lindsay before the cars cleared.  The race settled for a few laps until Rice tucked inside Ralfs at the start of the back straight to beat him to the other end of the track and move up to third.  Rice set off in pursuit of Johnson which took another seven laps to accomplish, and the passing move was textbook stuff with a tap on the exit of turn four putting Johnson wide and leaving the track clear for Rice to blast down towards turn one.  Two laps from the end, Rice had got to the back bumper of Coombes and a push into Turn Three was enough to gain him the lead.  The race ended that way with Rice taking the trophy ahead of Coombes and Johnson.
Before the Grand National, the Old Motor Cycle Club theme was celebrated with a demonstration race of two classic Triumph sidecar speedway bikes.  They certainly provided some lovely sights and smells and the Formula Two link was provided by Paul Moss who gallantly took the role of pillion passenger on one of the bikes!
14 cars started the Grand National which was also for the Trackscene by Crispen Trophy.  Conditions were wetter for this race which had a major bearing on the outcomes.  As early as lap two, a tap from Johnson on Brewer saw the latter go in on Turn One where Coombes also found the fence and the result was that Batten made a sharp getaway from the rest of the traffic.  However, the full-wet pace of 667 Tommy Farrell was impressive and by lap four he was able to make a clean pass into Turn Three for fourth.  Two laps further on, Farrell passed Moss at the other end of the circuit for third.  Batten managed to hold on to an ever-shrinking lead but by lap 12 this was very small and Farrell was also on the heels of Johnson in second place.  Farrell made the move on the exit of Turn Four at the start of the next lap and made a clean pass along the home straight to go second and a couple of laps later, the lead was his entering Turn Three.  Johnson swept past Batten on the back straight on the next lap and it all fell apart on the last lap for the 267-driver when a punt wide in Turn One from 542 Steven Gilbert saw Batten moved off line and the pack streamed through dropping Batten to sixth, with Tommy Farrell the convincing winner.
A damp but decent close to the BriSCA F2 season in Cornwall.

ORCi Ministox

The Ministox drew an entry of 20 cars including 257 Kieran Hibberd in his last ever Mini fixture before reaching retirement age whilst 505 Louie and 550 Callum Herzig were also in their last Autospeed outing although in principle they still have time to race again in Scotland.
Running issues sidelined 476 Jack Wadling for the opening Heat which 19 cars started.  This also doubled as the Dash For A Tyre event.  Both the white and the yellow grade made excellent starts in the race which meant that the race was already four laps old when Callum Herzig was close enough to challenge the back yellow for a position.  His hit on 218 Rory Pearce into Turn One was resisted the first time, but the place was conceded after another attempt.  As the red grade started to come through the pack, 132 Rowan McAleer got some air-time after being spun into the marker tyre and kerb at the end of the home straight by Hibberd bringing McAleer to an abrupt stop.  Five laps from the end, four of the six white-tops were still in the top four places and a spin behind them a couple of laps later helped to slow the chasing pack, as Pearce and 770 Delilah Farrell crashed out together on the home straight.  The result was a white top lockout, with 117 Max Starr claiming a maiden win ahead of 235 Kaitlin Harris and 836 Olly Oldham.
The assorted sponsors had assembled 7 tyres on the race which were distributed as follows:

117 Max Starr – 3 tyres, 2 as winner and 1 for top white-grade finisher
235 Kaitlin Harris – 1 tyre as runner-up
836 Olly Oldham – 1 tyre for third
114 Charlie Lomas – 1 tyre as top charity fundraiser for the day
990 Billy Rice – 1 tyre as best yellow-grade finisher despite him being last in the race.  The rest of the grade wiped themselves out in the latter stages of the event.

All 20 cars started Heat Two which was more of a battlefield.  The first stoppage came on lap three after Farrell span Oldham into the Turn One kerb leaving him stranded.  A frantic restart saw Louie Herzig bundled around in the traffic and Harris and 575 Caden Clark crashed out in Turn One again and were unable to get clear, resulting in another race stoppage on lap five.  Starr led the restart which saw 313 Charlie Weston quickly move from outside the top five into third position.  Callum Herzig passed Starr within a lap of the resumption for the lead, whilst Weston made a move on Starr coming off Turn Four a couple of laps later to move up to second.  Starr then got trapped on the outside line which allowed 522 Jacob Mikulla and Lomas to move through over the course of the next lap.  More incidents saw Wadling spin himself on Turn Three to take an excursion over the grass bank and 182 Mickey James and Pearce also had a tangle.  Weston passed Herzig for the lead with five laps to go and got away from the chasing drivers, but this set up a cracking race for second position.  Mikulla moved to second on Turn Three two laps from the end but then ran too deep at the other end of the track allowing Herzig back through.  Mikulla tried again in Turn One on the last lap and made it to second position again, but Herzig went for a last bend lunge that changed the result entirely.  Weston won, but with both Herzig and Mikulla wide in the last corner, Lomas nipped through neatly for second and Mikulla salvaged third.  Hibberd also sneaked through to fourth leaving Herzig with a lowly fifth place for his efforts.
18 cars started the Final after an initial stall by Oldham saw the first attempt at the race aborted.  Oldham opted not to take the grid for the second start.  77 Ed Geach was the early leader of the race whilst 151 Ryan Hookway took an early spin out of fourth place in Turn Three.  With no stoppages, the race followed a similar pattern to the first Heat with the drivers in the lower grades getting some good track time towards the front.  The main interest was the ‘last knockings’ of the retiring drivers which saw Louie Herzig spin 475 Mason Sealy with both of them finding the turn two fence and Hibberd later spinning Herzig on the home straight to leave the latter beached on the crest of the drop down to the lower infield area.  The race was decided over the last three laps with Geach still leading but catching the recovered Hookway who was now a backmarker.  Geach hit Hookway on the way into Turn Three but lost momentum allowing Starr to push Geach on the exit of the corner and take the inside line on the home straight.  The move didn’t quite work but another push into Turn One saw Geach skim the plating and then pull to the infield to retire from the race.  Starr went on to complete his heat and Final double ahead of Clark and Callum Herzig.  A scramble for places four to six saw three cars side by side off the last corner with Farrell just holding onto fourth position ahead of Lomas and Pearce.
A cracking day from the Minis and it wasn’t over yet, because…..
The day for the Minis ended with something that was billed as a Mum’s race but ended up as a Ladies race with sisters of drivers taking part and even the Chief of Staff from the Donut van!  7 drivers started the race which included 27 Amy Rabone - special mention to the team who brought the car to the track solely for this race.
From the off, 182 Aimee James roared around the outside line from fifth on the grid to be second on track by the exit of the first two corners and by the end of lap one she was leading the race.  However, the other drivers got into their stride and by lap three 511 Donna Crosbie was shoulder-barging up the inside of James in Turn One to go to the front.  A lap later, 77 Jade Priestley-Smith repeated the move in Turn One to lean on James and go up to second place.  However, this didn’t go down too well, and James responded with a wayward burial of Priestley-Smith at the other end of the track.  The latter dropped to fourth place but continued despite the big hit and then staged a comeback.  First victim was 257 Jemma Oldham who was spun aside in Turn Three and then Priestley-Smith caught James entering Turn One.  We didn’t know what to expect, but actually the pass was a very polite one and the remaining laps ticked by without incident.  Crosbie won ahead of Priestley-Smith and James.  Lively stuff for what was supposed to be a non-contact race but none of the drivers were bothered in the slightest by the on-track antics.  Do we really have to wait a whole year for another one?

Back 2 Basics Bangers

Another excellent entry of 33 Back 2 Basics Bangers assembled for their last Cornish outing of the season.  
30 drivers started the opening Heat where 163 Ryan Fuller was an early spinner and found himself hitting the wall backwards just before the starter’s rostrum whilst 15 Tristan Barrett and birthday-girl 312 Leeta Rawling-Aldridge crashed out together in Turn Three.  466 Ruby Parkin attacked and removed 241 Alfie Tiddy down the back straight whilst 279 Liam Reed and 988 Ryan Thomas crashed in Turn Two.  Reed ended up a bit further down the back straight where he called for red flags due to bashing his foot.  A complete restart was run with the available cars with 961 Thomas Ball running in fourth for a while before living up to his nickname of ‘Dizzy’ and spinning on the home straight.  992 Alfie Walsh detonated his passenger side curtain airbags but carried on regardless whilst 482 Caitlin Kevern met the spun 998 Kris Gillespie on the nose before continuing only to get wound out by 141 Toby Tiddy.  404 Jake Curtis-Stevens was the winner.
There were still 29 cars for Heat Two which saw a case of family misfortunes as 269 Brian Gilman-Hill met 094 Mike Gilman-Hill head-on in the home straight.  717 Rebecca McArdle span out 741 Harry Bishop at the start line, leaving both cars stranded there in the fence for the remainer of the race whilst Toby Tiddy took out 405 Liam Curtis-Stevens at the end of the home straight.  Parkin was bundled into the turn one marker tyre by the traffic scattering a shower of water and mud as she piled in.  The backmarking Thomas attacked the leading 386 Ryan Wagstaffe which didn’t go down well so Waggy stuffed Thomas away at the end of the home straight although the latter bounced back to take out 696 Jago Carveth.  Waggy won in his unusual Chevrolet Lacetti Estate whilst 232 Dave Thomas continued the general drivers vs Ryan Thomas theme by stuffing him into the empty car of Walsh on the last corner.  Dizzy Ball then ran into the Walsh car as well.
22 Bangers started the Final where 311 Simon Rogers was an early spinner whilst 255 Phil Killone got caught up on the back straight with 404 Curtis-Stevens resulting in Mike Gilman-Hll piling into him.  311 David Brush attacked the much larger Vectra of 412 Aaron Graham and piled the latter into Rogers on the nose sparking more chaos around them and a red flag to get Rogers safely from his car.  Brush stalled on the restart and had 989 Saul Campbell punted into him by Jake Curtis-Stevens whilst Liam Curtis-Stevens took out Dizzy causing a pile up in Turn Two where Dizzy was joined by Carveth and 775 Josh Collings.  The reds came out again for Collings although whilst this was going on, Rawling-Aldridge was in need of attention on the infield, and the race was abandoned whilst she was extracted from the car.  Liam Curtis-Stevens was the winner ahead of Dave Thomas and Toby Tiddy.
Six cars took part in the King of Crash where Barrett met Carveth on the nose allowing 129 Charley Ross to turn it round and nail Carveth in the back wheel.  Walsh then ran up the back of Barrett as 775 Callum Congdon piled into the back wheel of Ross.  Walsh continued to hassle Barrett and stuffed him into Congdon before switching his attentions to the limping Graham who had completely lost his steering.  Comical moments then followed as Graham somehow managed to deliver a few hits to both Walsh and Ross despite having little control over where his car was heading and he emerged as a very unlikely winner of the event.

Special Rods

Lastly, a total of 10 Special Rods made the long trip from Mendips Raceway for their annual guest appearance at St Day.  Conditions were far from ideal for the rear-wheel drive cars but a few of the drivers managed to find better lines to put on some good racing.
Heat One saw 118 Iain Truman pass 112 Rich James for second place in the early stages, but Truman then lost it on Turn Four and James came to a complete stop to miss him.  60 Tom Bristow tried an inside-line pass on 445 Niki Loader for second place, but this didn’t work out and Loader then got away from him again as the laps went on.  Further spins for both Truman and James didn’t upset the rest of the field and 199 Phil Powell took a flag to flag victory ahead of Loader and Bristow.
Heat Two was probably as good as track conditions got all day.  James made a slow start and dropped straight from second to fourth position, but he then managed to get ahead of Loader who had perhaps tried something different with his tyre pressures.  Whilst he was drifting beautifully, he didn’t have as much pace as the first heat.  By halfway through the race, 278 Andrew Bressington had arrived from the back of the field, and he tried to pass James on the inside of Turn One, but James held on around the outside line.  Bressington then switched to the outside line and passed James for third and then Truman for second.  Three laps from home, Bressington found a gap into Turn One and moved ahead of Powell for the lead with 270 Alex Bressington also moving up to second soon after.  A late clash on the home straight saw Bristow and Truman retire with damage.  Alex Bressington managed to beat Andrew in a side by side battle over the closing moments of the race.
The Final was very wet and suffered as a result.  Truman was a spinner once again and Andrew Bressington made good progress again getting up to third place before also spinning out on the exit of turn four and dropping to seventh position.  Powell won again, to claim the Cornish Championship, ahead of Alex Bressington and Loader.
Entertaining stuff from the Special Rods.  Hopefully they will be back in 2027 and in dry conditions to show what they can really do.