The promised sunshine never materialised, but never the less the action went on, and the thoughts turned to Cancer Research with all three formulae involved in fund raising efforts in some way. For the National Bangers, the annual Crashmania for Filo where the lead up to the event featured the ‘Bang on Track’ tour where a group of the mad and keen set off around the country, and indeed beyond on a road trip. They took in 49 tracks in the space of eight days, including a trip over the Northern Ireland and also to Belgium too.
That is an incredible undertaking and £5,800 was raised which was very impressive.
Prior to the start of the meeting, Andy Maidment had his back waxed, which appeared to be every bit as painful as it sounded (there will be a clip on youtube soon) and Mr Starter Andy Chant went into the stocks to have wet sponges duly thrown in his direction. Colin White was present with his new bus, and tours were given for a donation and a stand selling with proceeds also going towards the charity.
There was not as good an entry in the National Banger teams as we have seen in the past few years, but never the less those that were present all fielded the full quota of four cars apiece.
The Best Presented award went to the “Allsorts” whilst the oldest and/or rarest car of the day was the Mk4 Cortina of 379 Adrian ‘The Worm’ Clifton. The first heat looked like being a 1-2 for the Cornish based “CBW” team, but 862 Darryl Cock retired with just a lap remaining which left his team mate 511 Dan Crosbie clear to take the victory. 162 Brett Ellacott was second and then followed that up with a win in heat two. These scores put his team, “Team Brett” and “CBW” well clear of the rest going into the Final.
In the event it was 68 Steve Stockley of the “Allsorts” who took a flag to flag win, but with 162 Ellacott making second and 452 Anthony ‘Lurch’ Sleeman third it was enough for Team Brett to take the overall win on 47 points. CBW were second on 30 and “Contenders A” on 24.
As if to prove a point, Ellacott then held off 862 Cock all the way to win the Allcomers and then outlasted them all to win the DD, although did divide opinion by ploughing hard into the vacated car of 190 Dominic Gumbleton having been declared the winner.
With clashing meetings taking away a few of our regulars, it was good to see a healthy southwest presence in the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars. The white and yellow grade race saw 76 Chris Rowe win at a canter.
The three heats saw the trio battling for the track championship have one each with 676 Neil Hooper taking the first, 886 Chris Bradbury the second after 76 Rowe was docked two places for jumping a re-start and then 921 Jack Aldridge the third.
The Final needed a complete re-start after a lap when 783 James Rygor went into the plating hard. 76 Rowe soon got into the lead when the race got going and pulled clear. Bradbury and Aldridge were locked into battle, which resulted in the latter being planted in the plating. 886 made up a lot of ground over the closing laps but run out of time to catch Rowe who took the win, for the Pink Ribbon Trophy. 522 Chris Mikulla was third.
Bradbury then took his second win of the afternoon in the Grand National and came away with an increased points lead as he looks for his fourth consecutive track title.
The Hot Rod numbers remained below what they really could and should be, but it was good to see a welcome return to 780 Mike Loosemore who these days concentrates his racing in the NHRPA Hot Rods. He duly won heat one, just keeping 718 Colin White off. White then took the second heat before the Final was lead for a long time by 258 James Griggs.
White looked the fastest on track, but lost a lot of ground in a clash that pushed him back down the order but he fought back and took the lead with five laps to go. He went on to win with 282 Steve Hunt second, having put up a gallant fight and Loosemore was third.
RESULTS - 24.07.11
F2:-
Rookies Reward - Chris Rowe 76,438,797,954,707,245,14,544,550,104
Heat 1 - Neil Hooper 676,438,76,921,886,522,990,126,605,290
Heat 2 - Chris Bradbury 886,797,76,522,438,189,605,783,315,830
Heat 3 - Jack Aldridge 921,676,783,315,954,14,126,290,544,707
G.F. - Chris Rowe 76,886,522,14,315,126,954,505,797,544
G.N. - Chris Bradbury 886,676,921,14,315,126,797,76,544,245
BANGERS:-
Heat 1 - Dan Crosbie 511,162,68,198,379,862,384,190
Heat 2 - Brett Ellacott 162,452,511,198,190
Final - Steve Stockley 68,16,452,511,198,144,363,162,190,49
A/C - Brett Ellacott 162,862,452,45,27
DD - Brett Ellacott 162
Teams
1 Team Brett 47
2 CBW 30
3 Contenders A 24
4 Allsorts 21
5 Contenders B 16
6 Sixbolt 11
HOT RODS:-
Heat 1 - Mike Loosemore 780,718,282,205,18,35,578
Heat 2 - Colin White 718,282,18,780,578,205,258,35
Final - Colin White 718,282,780,18,258,205,35,578
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