After Spring Sunshine two weeks ago, meeting number two of the 2026 campaign at St Day was shrouded in a mist that only settled lower and more damp as the day went on.  Despite the track becoming more greasy as the programme of racing proceeded, all formulas coped admirably with the changing conditions and the result was some excellent racing from each of the four formulas on show.

ORCi Stock Rods

24 cars attended but only 23 raced after 131 Stephen Cock probably shouted his surname at the car after it deleted the cam belt during practice.  As the only formula to have now raced twice at United Downs this year, the race format remained the same as the outing two weeks ago with driver racing in two of the three heats and all available cars contesting the Final on a drawn grid within grades.  The heats fielded 15, 15 and 14 cars.  The opening race featured an early incident in turn one where 112 Rich James tapped the back corner of 666 Jem Tidball getting the latter well out of shape but not taking him out completely.  James received the black cross and was penalised two positions in the eventual result.  The Tidball and James incident opened up the door for 814 Max Barraclough to go to the front of the pack and despite the top five cars remaining closely bunched for much of the race, it was Barraclough who held on to win.  Top marks in this race to 51 Aiden Vincent who braved the outside line from lap 12 through to lap 16 to come from outside the top ten to finish in a hard-earned seventh place.  Heat Two saw Barraclough start from the back of the white grade and he dropped a place early on as 285 Martin Walker made a surge from yellow.  As Walker moved ahead of 287 Mark Hatch for second place, Hatch was left on the outside line and quickly fell to fifth place.  The most notable incident was the battle for seventh place which saw 314 Jason Barraclough find a gap up the inside of turn one to pass 204 Georgie Polley who replied with a sharp tap into the corner at the other end of the circuit to bring the black cross out for the second time of the day.  Tidball won the race from pole with a fine drive whilst best use of the outside line this time went to 914 Callum Faulconbridge who made it up to sixth place the hard way.  The Final heat saw 728 Kris Woods on the outside line in the early laps making his way from pole blue top to fifth place although he later dropped back down the places slightly.  572 James Lindsay went spinning and trapped 151 Simon Vincent in the wall on the exit of turn four resulting in no score for Vincent from this race.  A very late charge from 231 Simon Bassett saw him make it to third place for the chequered flag behind winner 144 Ashton Worthington and a much better second place from Mark Hatch.  22 of the 23 cars contested the Final where turn three saw most of the early incidents with 275 Jeremy Hatch doing some cross-country rambling and 779 Ross Sweetland facing the traffic for a while before finding a gap to reach the safety of the infield.  Bassett came to a stop on the outside of turn two but then moved to the back straight in a more perilous position forcing a brief stoppage under waved yellows.  On the restart, 77 Tom Larcombe was black crossed for his part in in Worthington spinning out on the home straight and this was later changed to a black flag when 415 Sean Gillett was sent off course by further contact.  Aiden Vincent gamely was making the best use of the outside line getting from sixth to third place over the space of three racing laps.  Four laps from home, 835 Matt Westaway went spinning into turn one after a clash with Faulconbridge.  That left the running order as Max Barraclough, Aiden Vincent, Faulconbridge, Walker and Jason Barraclough.  Max Barraclough still led down the back straight for the final time, but it all got a bit crowded in the last corner and Faulconbridge reached the line first.  A lengthy review of the static cameras footage followed, and Faulconbridge was dropped to third place for his part in the demise of Westaway and Barraclough and Vincent therefore took the top two steps of the podium.

Back 2 Basics Bangers

24 drivers raced in the Back 2 Basics with the usual mix of cars broken up by a couple of more notable machines which were the Mini One of 244 James Turner and the Mazda 2 of 195 Lee Gregory.  22 cars made it out for the opening heat which turned out to be a pretty good race for any formula.  687 Rob Toms attracted most of the attention coming under fire from 255 Phil Killone and Gregory who took him around coming off turn four.  Turner got to the front in the Mini but never got far way from 241 Brayden Hawkins who nudged him wide again to take back the lead five laps from the end.  Turner nudged the wall coming off turn four giving himself steering damage but still managed to take out 811 Paul Birch in the remaining laps.  Hawkins meanwhile lost out to a fine last bend hit from 404 Jake Curtis-Stevens who took an impressive victory.  18 cars for heat two where 169 Joshua Hewitt took out 241 Alfie Tiddy early on and 58 Zak Orchard removed Turner in the Mini.  Tiddy parked up soon afterwards catching out 18 Steve Soper who got stuck behind him.  A pile up formed in turn one with 756 Troy Hooper collecting the stranded Curtis-Stevens allowing 53 Chris James to blow up Hooper well but the red flags were needed soon after as James continued only to catch fire.  Just five cars remained for the restart which was an easy win for Killone.  16 cars contested a lively Final where Hewitt was run in by 118 Kevin Mulliner and a pile up formed in turn three which saw plenty of hits dished out.  Amongst them, 222 Cody Blight nailed Mulliner and Killone blasted Hewitt before 690 Tristan Clement piled into Orchard.  Killone did another lap and went into the heap hard again as the leading 491 Charlie Fulbrook also got planted into the melee by Clement.  Killone then took to the infield with a very large fire under the bonnet which was quickly attended to but still took a fair effort to extinguish.  Not many cars survived for the restart where the leaders all piled each other into the turn three heap again on the last lap.  Best hit was Clement nailing 154 Blazej Szczygiel.  232 Dave Thomas, returning after a seven year absence, won ahead of Soper and Orchard.  Nine cars returned for the King of Crash/Destruction Derby event where Birch ran into 312 Leeta Rawling-Aldridge and was nailed in turn by Soper whilst Clement blasted Curtis-Stevens before a brief stoppage came about to allow Rawling-Aldridge to exit her car to safety amidst unfounded concerns that it was on fire.  Four cars started the remaining part of the event with Soper killing himself off by hitting Curtis-Stevens who also got done by Orchard.  It came down to Clement and Orchard with the highlight of their exchanges being Orchard firing Clement hard through the wreck of Curtis-Stevens.  A last shot putting Orchard into the back straight wall settled the event in favour of Clement.

Ladies 1600 Bangers English Championship

The Ladies 1600s made their debut appearance at St Day in fine style with the entry of 27 drivers making them the best attended formula on the day.  The entry included some epic travelling efforts including about a dozen from East Anglia, the Morphet sisters from Cumbria, 185 Hannah Macneal from Lancaster and some from the South East and Birmingham areas in addition to those from around Weymouth, Bristol and more locally.  Two particularly smart cars worthy of note were the Mk5 Astra of 185 Macneal and the Mk6 Fiesta of 268 Kerry Birch.  All 27 drivers started the English Championship with a drawn grid putting local Mrs Dippy on pole with Norfolk’s 257 Anna Beard alongside.  717 Donna Cottrell went around straight away entering turn one with 406 Kerry Slater also getting taken out by the pack early on. On the back stretch, 686 Eleanor Morphet came to a stop and was collected by 101 Caroline Warr with 682 Bethany Morphet joining the train in turn.  Elsewhere, 611 Carly Geeves was getting stuck into 502 Becca Bitson into the corners whilst 471 Megan Perry wound out Slater again. The latter getting inadvertently collected near the door by Beard as she recovered. A pile up consumed quite a few cars on the back straight adding to the mayhem.  385 Danielle Ellis was leading and daughter 85 Jade was also in a podium spot.  However, Danielle lost time in a turn four tangle with backmarker 721 Carley Gabriel and Jade then got spun out on the home straight.  The race was settled on the last lap with 881 Caitlin Emery punting Danielle wide in turn one to take the lead and then hitting 87 Tania Smith in the last corner as a cushion from any lunge coming from behind.  Emery won to keep the new title in the Westcountry with Danielle Ellis second, 216 Jodie Mather third with Jade Ellis recovering a distant fourth.  21 cars for the first support race where Bethany Morphet suffered a repeat of her Warton engine misfire from last month and was taken out by Mrs Dippy whilst 96 Abigail Finnie wound out 566 Ellie Pallett down the back straight. The leading Geeves then threw a back wheel away in turn three, spinning out and causing a red flag to recover the stray wheel.  The restart saw 153 Rhiannon Tavender launch 566 Lippy Zippy up the turn three plating as she made her way to the front of the field as more Anglians came unstuck with Beard going out in Turn Four and Mather being despatched to the dirt off the home straight.  Mrs Dippy also took a trip to the same dirt courtesy of Danielle Ellis in the scrap for fourth place as the rapid Emery came from the back of the grid to pass 153 Bam Bam for the lead four laps from home and record her second victory of the day.  22 cars for their last race where the leading 240 Courtney Warr took a wrong turn from turn two early on and went for a romp over bits of banking and infield. Macneal went airborne over the same bit of bank soon after.  809 Megan Trevorrow came to a stop mid track coming off turn four and was there for more than a lap before getting collected by Cottrell with Warr also piling in to cause a bit of a blockage, Slater only just getting through on the inside by asking the car to breathe in heavily.  Yet again, 881 Emery was on a charge from the back firing Finnie wide in turn one to move to third on track. 137 Zoe Williams had broken down before the start and had been sitting quietly on the home straight run-off area but things suddenly got louder as Eleanor Morphet span 232 Sammy While into her and then Jade Ellis turned Bitson into White.  Bam Bam had been leading for much of the race but Gabriel was about to change another race outcome.  Bam Bam went in with a hit to move Gabriel out of the way but lost momentum and that allowed Beard to come through for the win.

JBA Junior Bangers

Also making their St Day debut, the Junior Banger entry of 26 drivers was mainly locals and Spedeworth South drivers with just a couple of Anglians mixed in and one from the former Incarace territory.  25 of the 26 raced in heat one which was actually pretty quiet.  677 William Thomas led for most of the way but lost ground late in the race when an attempted spin on another car in turn four put him very wide and cost him speed. 182 Mickey James came through to lead and survived the attentions of the backmarking 279 Elliott Stroud to take the chequered.  24 cars in heat two where 134 Charlie Ferris went in early on turn three as Thomas took up another lead.  The battle for places behind was frantic with 11 Shane Rowe getting up to second with a tight line down the back straight but dropping to fourth by the time the car returned to pass the start rostrum.  117 Max Starr span out into a dead car on the infield, and another local demise befell 511 Lexi Crosbie who went in on turn three.  Up front, things got nervy for the leading Thomas who lapped 618 Stanley Gill and narrowly escaped getting put in on turn one by the slightly irritated red top.  East Anglian battles saw 339 Jack Garrod take out 257 Jenson Fish whilst Gill went on to be black flagged for turning 470 Vinnie Thomas-Nelson left at the end of the home straight.  Late chaos saw 11 Rowe, 269 Buster Hutchings and 62 Philip Stevens all excluded from the result and the remainder of the meeting for excessive hits and retaliations.  Thomas disappeared somewhere in the melee and James came through for win number two.  21 for the Final where 470 Thomas-Nelson missed a gear and was collected by 737 Charlie Finnie as Thomas caught novice Ferris and tangled leaving both of them briefly stuck together at the start of the home straight.  77 Dylan Perry took up the lead but was reigned back in by red flags when the 406 car of Freddie Curtis-Stevens caught fire on the back straight.  The restart was relatively short-lived as 677 Thomas collected the empty 406 car after a couple of laps and rolled catching a driver’s side pillar on a post at the top of the plating.  The driver was perfectly OK but took a while to emerge and was a bit wobbly walking to the pit gate after his dramatic crash.  The restart saw 475 Mason Sealy put himself in attacking 138 Braydon Rice with 113 Beau Jeanes coming from third on the restart grid to lead with three laps remaining.  Late action saw Gill fire in Starr and Fish park himself broadside at the end of the home straight, but nobody battered him.  Jeanes led home Garrod and Perry for the podium positions.