A glorious beautiful if not blustery day befell the Mendips Raceway for the annual “Pink Day” for Cancer Research. In the fun before the meeting proper, the Junior bike rice was won by Will Chiplen, and the adults by Jon Palmer. In the centre green, Mike Cocks took the title of the “Biggest Tosser” in the Tyre chucking championship!
A season best turnout of 34 cars all came out for the Pink Ribbon Trophy. Whilst pink was the uniform colour, the trend showed it was yellow, as the B graders took all the race wins.
Heat 1 saw Easter winner Paul Rice (890) see the race home, coming under pressure from Paul Butcher (189). The Second heat saw an early collision for Paul Moss (979) and Neil Langworthy (740). Come the restart Nathan Maidment (935) sped away. Behind a scrap for second between Steve Gilbert (542) and George Macmillan (100) went right to the wire, with the Cornishman coming out on top. With enough for a consolation, it was Dave Sansom (352) who took a third win for the yellow tops.
Following a pre race prep talk from Andy Maidment, the Pink Ribbon was paraded by his daughters Jessica and Charlotte, and the race was already to go. The early laps were led by Butcher, with future son in law Maidment for company. Sansom then joined to make a trio and Maidment then started to pull away. However with three laps remaining, Rice and Sam Weston (468) came together on the exit of turn 2, Maidment’s lead was eradicated, and now the reds were in tow. Maidment sped away, whilst Dave Polley (38) passed Sansom for second. Sansom then reclaimed 3rd on the penultimate bend from George Macmillan (100), which also curtailed Butcher’s race. However, it was Maidment who took the chequered and the Pink Ribbon Trophy - raced in his mum Lesley’s honour, for the second time.
The Grand National saw an aborted start which saw F2 Debutant Ben Goddard (895) leave with a broken bone, however it was Lee Morgan (745) who continued the lock out for the yellows with a near flag to flag victory.
There were 10 teams ready for Crashmania, and there were split into 4 heats, with two in each heat. With the heats counting for points towards the final it was all about points accumulation.
Team Red & Gold’s duo of Dan Rice (138) and Kev Styles (38) took a faultless 1-2 in both their heats (1 and 3), with Ben Styles (83) taking Heat 4 and a hefty score for their team. Heat 2 was a scrap to the line with Ben Styles and Sam Hollins (41) joining veteran Martin Dalton (58), with Hollins taking the win. The B Final for the bottom teams saw a win for the Scrap Rats B of the Pearces Rich (271) and Sarah (281), Ben Mayo (124) and John Quinn (242).
Then it was all eyes on the final, and with Red and Gold with a near unassailable lead, all the cars continued, however it was a faultless drive from Kev Styles (38) to put the cherry on top of the cake.
A busy if not calamitous day saw a fair amount of damage in what is supposed to be a non contact formula. Sam Bartlett (91) and Mark Johns (35) sped into a fair lead only for engine problems to curtail the race for the white graders.
Following a late incident, it went down to a last lap shoot out, which Dan Latimer (720) took the win. Heat 2 was a similar affair with Johns and Bartlett speeding away, but at the end it was a frantic last lap which saw Dene Howard (41) take the win on the last lap. Stuart Garland (556) led Heat 3 until the lap boards came out when Jason Horseman (136) and Les Brice (700) scrapped it out with the former taking the win.
In the final, Bartlett sped away again only this time not to be caught, Brice and Andy Howard rounding off the podium
All eyes now turn to the Bank Holiday weekend, with Under 1400 National Bangers, and Caravandalism XVI being the highlights! See you then!
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Heat 1 - Dan Latimer 720,244,5,43,41,45,51
Heat 2 – Dene Howard 41,35,91,700,701,136,85,556,993,784
Heat 3 – Jason Horseman 136,700,43,701,304,85,7,993,108,556
Final – Sam Bartlett 91,700,43,85,556,701,7,35,304,91
Heat 1 – Daniel Rice 138,38,715,199,366,258,677,129,614,619
Heat 2 – Sam Hollins 41,58,109,29,83,362,69,773,54,
Heat 3 – Daniel Rice 138,38,258,619,170,199,366,271,614,129
Heat 4 – Ben Styles 83,677,109,284,58,527,69,124,242,771
B Final – Rich Pearce 271,124,771,242,775
Grand Final – Red & Gold 38,83,109,138
All Blacks 29,58,129,258
Scrap Rats B 124,242,271,281
Heat 1 – Paul Rice 890,189,676,38,522,797,24,606,111,828
Heat 2 – Nathan Maidment 935,542,100,127,528,126,468,315,745,750
Cons – Dave Samson 352,328,303,174,460,762,516
G.F. – Nathan Maidment 935,38,352,100,127,676,315,126,797,328
G.N. – Lee Morgan 745,522,315,890,100,328,38,24,468,828
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