Smeatharpe’s second race day of the 2026 season was a four formula affair with national formulas at the centre of the action.  The British Spring weather continued to surprise and disappoint us with chilly weather turning to drizzle later in the day that made track conditions tricky.  The race action may have slowed a little, but it certainly didn’t suffer.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

A cracking entry of 45 Formula Two ran a full format meeting with 22 cars taking part in heat one.  The two white tops had very different fortunes.  770 Austin Farrell dropped quickly to sixth place but fought back to fourth with a well-timed hit that forced both 828 Julian Coombes and 464 Matt Linfield wide.  Farrell then ran wide with a driving error of his own in the next lap and fell to the bottom of the top ten.  The other white top, 509 Jordan Butcher, led a few laps but then left a gap up the inside of turn one on the fifth lap which 654 Harley Soper was quick to go through.  Soper was chased by 501 Jason Ward who used a bit of bumper to move Soper off line on the same lap and Ward then pulled clear to a comfortable victory.  The remaining interest in the race was the charge from the back of 127 Matt Stoneman who again found a gap to pass 207 Alfie Flecken two laps from the end to finish in second place.  Heat two featured the other 23 cars and had white top 262 Charlie Cocks making the early running.  None of the yellow grade got close to him and it was a charge from blue that settled the race with 727 Luke Syrett-Barsby, 2026 sensation 220 Freddie Hunter-Johnson and 405 Josh Hamstead all coming through the field in convoy.  Cocks was moved wide and surrendered the lead to Syrett-Barsby when a telling hit came in and despite best efforts, Hunter-Johnson was unable to get close enough to his former National Ministox colleague to challenge for the victory.  Syrett-Barsby won with superstar 213 Tom Bennett making a late dash to get amongst the convoy of blues and finish third ahead of Hamstead.  24 of the 25 eligible cars returned for the Consolation which started in scenes of chaos.  185 Jessica Ward crashed out in turn three at the drop of the green flag and was collected hard by 890 Paul Rice whilst 828 Julian Coombes went spinning in the dense field of yellow graders on the home straight and was hit several times.  728 Jack Bunter went skyward off a marker tyre as he took avoiding action.  Medical assistance was required to safely get a shaken Coombes from his car, and a complete re-run of the race was ordered.  The restart was equally fraught with 128 Jake Ralfs pirouetting down the home straight plating on the opening lap to be hit by 359 Gary Wrench bringing out yellows.  Farrell led the restart but left a gap for 234 Tom Shilling on lap three and by the next lap 542 Steven Gilbert was already on the scene using a great push to move from fifth to second in one corner.  By half way, Gilbert had passed Shilling to lead but a lap ten hit from 890 Paul Rice was enough to hand Rice the lead which he converted into race victory.  As the damp weather really set in, there were two non-starters in the Final which gridded 28 cars.  Gary Wrench was the first of many to misjudge the level of grip and put himself around the turn three plating in the very early stages.  Butcher once again had a turn at the front but this only lasted until the third lap when 464 Matt Linfield passed him and pulled clear to build up a decent lead.  Butcher held second until just before halfway when he left a space that 979 Paul Moss couldn’t resist on the inside of the pits turn.  Moss continued to reel in Linfield and grabbed the lead four laps from the end with Flecken stealing second a couple of laps later.  Moss held on at the front despite Flecken gobbling up the gap between him and the leader as the track dried, but that was how they finished at the chequered flag.  Linfield was penalised for a blatant jump start, which promoted 194 Luke Johnson to third place and Butcher to fourth.  The 29-car Grand National was the biggest grid of cars of the day.  Flecken was an early back straight spinner whilst 560 Luke Wrench found the wall hard in turn three and retired with a damaged bumper catching the front wheels, after a clash with 12 Craig Driscoll.  The early leaders were a repeat of the Final with Butcher giving way to Linfield after four laps.  Further behind, a fierce battle between 355 Aidan Grindey and 27 Kieren Bradford spilled over when Grindey launched Bradford so hard into the pits turn that both ended up hitting the plating hard and Grindey ended up facing where he had just come from.  Bradford then got tripped up by the conditions on the next lap, running very wide, where he collected Grindey bringing out the yellows for a race caution.  On the restart, Shilling and 468 Sam Weston crashed out together and Driscoll span trying to avoid them.  Linfield stayed at the front until the lap boards were showing but was then moved off line by 736 Josh Weare who survived a spirited attack from Ward at both ends of the track on the last lap to take the victory.  A great day of Formula Two action, as Smeatharpe always is!

Saloon Stock Cars

The entry of 16 cars included a travelling party of three from Lincolnshire and West Norfolk, who had brilliantly embraced the lucrative Early Bird series.  A late appearance on track from 28 Ian Govier meant all drivers contested the opening heat although Govier only managed a couple of laps from the back before parking up and loading his car for the remainder of the day with running issues.  111 Thomas Ruby led for a while but was soon passed by 759 Taylor Whitford.  Most of the race seemed to concern the battle for third place with 178 Kieran Bowman and Ruby swapping this position back and forth for a couple of laps before Bowman then got away from Ruby only to enter another battle with 370 Rowan Venni which also saw the two switch a couple of times.  The more decisive action came from 577 Harry Darby however as he clattered Venni to take the place and then really didn’t take kindly to a big hit from behind from 202 Cody Bradford.  The return hit from Darby was in no way polite and 799 Joe Powell moved aside to let Darby take second place setting the race up for a cracking last bend finish.  The expected outcome was Darby burying Whitford for the win.  The actual outcome was quite different with Darby making a mess of the hit and sending himself into the inside marker tyres leaving Whitford to gather up the car and take the chequered flag.  Only Govier was missing for heat two where the yellow grade hung back at the start giving 112 Rich James a massive lead that he was able to conserve for a good number of laps.  The charge of Darby was halted in this race when he was turned left by 84 Carl Boswell on lap six.  James held on at the front until lap ten when Venni finally got to him and James made no real defence of his position.  Venni went on to win with James validating his decision to be sensible by scoring a ‘safe second’.  902 Brad Compton-Sage came home third after a lively late battle and plenty of hits exchanged with 720 Archie Brown.  Also noteworthy was an unplanned clash between father and son pair 199 Phil Powell and 799 Joe Powell which saw both lose time on the back straight.  The Final still had 15 cars on track and a change of conditions meant that spinning seemed to be the preferred tactic above hitting the opposition wide.  Amongst the exchanges were Boswell taking out Whitford, Brown clattering the front wheel of the spinning Ruby and 677 Warren Darby sending Phil Powell dizzy.  Once again, James led a good number of laps before handing control to Joe Powell who was in turn moved wide by Boswell on lap eleven, before further hits from 382 Corey Hunt and Harry Darby saw Joe Powell fall through the order.  Traffic played a part in the result of the race with Boswell losing a bit of time spinning Venni out of the way which set the race up for another last bend finish.  Harry Darby piled into the back of Boswell and Brown came underneath both of them to win with Boswell using the wall to hand on to second and Darby following him across the line.  A solid start to the season in the westcountry.

2 Litre National Bangers

The National Bangers featured 20 cars including a five-car showing from Team Extreme who were also smartly presented with 222 Ricky Walters, 462 Nico James and 562 Jayden James having three of the four fresh cars at the meeting.  The opening race was a Wild Card event offering a place in the PRI World Final later in the year at Mendips Raceway.  The entire field survived the opening lap before 198 Owen Nichol buried 17 Billy Taylor on turn one with 648 Jamie Smith then weighing in hard on 198 Bodger leaving the latter facing the traffic.  This provided a perfect obstacle to start a fine wrecking train with 97 Craig Deer rattling 222 Cleetus around the wall to rest him against Bodger.  Deer escaped the scene leaving Cleetus to be blown up by Smith with 562 Bear, 775 Callum Congdon and 266 Scott Gillbard all joining the train in quick succession.  Congdon and Gillbard both got going again leaving Bear to take more punishment from 97 Mr Yarp who was then folded up big time by 462 Nico whose hit was probably the shot of the race.  216 George Baker took a flag to flag victory with 186 Lewis Fasey and 362 Johnny James in the podium places.  15 cars returned for the Spring Open Championship where Bear ran in 620 Steven Brice leaving the latter to be collected by 687 Mark Cross.  Smith lost drive in turn one and was destroyed by a fine shot from Bear, 687 Crossy also scoring on Bear as he rejoined the action.  The rest of the race was quieter with 205 Alex Ganter just keeping enough of a gap to avoid a last bend lunge from 362 Drifter to take the win and Lewis Fasey coming home in third.  15 cars again for the last race of the day where Crossy made an early exit after spinning and taking a shot in the back wheel from Baker whilst 271 Jordan Coleman stopped on the back straight and was blasted by 59 Mike Hamley.  A quiet middle section of the race was awoken again by Scott Gillbard running in Bodger, the latter losing a front wheel in the crash with Smith then burying Hamley just behind them.  262 Buddy James arrived to further blow up Bodger with Gillbard scoring a cheeky but none-too-fierce hit on Hamley.  Baker had already taken the win.  Six drivers contested the King of Crash where Bodger was sent spinning early on by Smith leaving Buddy James to go in through the back wheel of Bodger.  Smith then toyed with Brice for a while, but this left him a target for James, the latter continuing to push James into the back of the waiting Bear.  Cleetus then arrived with the big shot to silence Smith leaving three Team Extreme cars to take on Brice.  The latter did very well to outlast Cleetus who blew up and then finish Buddy in a head-on encounter, but Bear eventually landed a telling hit on the front wheel of Brice to claim the win as last car running.  Brice was rightly awarded Top Trier and Bodger got the verdict of Most Wrecked.