BriSCA F2 Stock Cars World Qualifier/Jock Lloyd Trophy
National Bangers World Qualifying Round 2
Lightning Rods Supreme Championship Qualifying Round 1
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Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 1998 Index > Meeting 98/07
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Meeting No. 7, Sunday, 19th. April 1998
BriSCA F2 Stock Cars World Qualifier/Jock Lloyd Trophy National Bangers World Qualifying Round 2 Lightning Rods Supreme Championship Qualifying Round 1 |
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Lightning Rods
With Easter gone, the Lightning Rods lined up for there
first crack at points for the Supreme Championship at Arena
Essex on April 19. Crack was right as a pile-up on turn one
caused a restart in the first heat, Kevin Howsgo continued
where he left off on the restart with Nick Wiseman hot on his
tail. Wiseman faded a bit from there but when Howsgo snaked
off the track after half way, it was Wiseman that took over
at the front, a position from which he would not be shifted.
John Clarke came home second with Mick Thompson third but
fourth place was hotly disputed when Steve Holding barged
John Beaumont into the armco on turn four. Beaumont, out of
control, bounced straight back into Holding who spun into the
wall by the finish post where he sat out the rest of the race
fuming. The end was not long coming as the steward decided to
call the race at that point. The second heat saw plenty of
black flags and a problem for John Crowther as Vic Bilkey
tried to insert the nose of his car through Crowther's back
window, one of many odd manoeuvres made that day. Keith
Marshall also lost a wheel on the back straight while a
promising charge by Roy Rawlins was brought to an end by a
black flag for spinning Geoff Bowen. It was left to a
brilliant drive by Lee Page to wind up the race, with Howsgo
following in second and a big battle for third won by Paul
Harris from Darren Ahern. Howsgo started well again in the
final but was denied when Harris dumped him on turn four.
Though the finish became a battle between Harris and Bilkey,
both were doomed to penalties as Bilkey was judged to have
jumped the start, both receiving two place penalties, the
trophy going to John Crowther ahead of Beaumont with Bilkey
awarded third. The race was further decorated by a bizarre
lock up between debut man Tony Bates and Rob Carr, who ended
up inserted in Bates' offside rear wheel arch. Bates had had
cornering trouble throughout the race, especially in the
slippery conditions that dogged the end of the meeting as the
rain started, added to oil left by other formulas.
BriSCA F2 Stock Cars
It was first time out for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars at Arena
Essex on April 19 for another World Championship qualifier,
having met up the previous night at Mildenhall in a very
soggy meeting that was dominated by Bert Finnikin. Bert was
away at Skegness presumably, but Craig flew the flag for the
flying Fin, while Chris Roots made his Arena debut in an F2
after shifting from National Superstox in which he was very
successful at Arena, as was Nick Smith who also showed up
today. Another notable was 68 year old Roy Goodman who
finished well in the consolation but came to grief in the
final in a meeting with Karl Turner and Bryn Thomas which
left him minus a wheel. The first race of the day however
went the way of Stephen Day who had had a good year in this
formula at Arena last year and seemed to want to get the year
off to a good start. He took the lead late on after dumping
long time leader Colin Dunford who came hoe second ahead of
Mick Sworder who made a good charge from the back but ran out
of time in his quest for his first Arena win. The second heat
saw Mark Guinchard fly away from the pack, making up a lead
that even the defending World Champion Rob Speak was unable
to close. Speak had to settle for second with Jim Bamford in
third. Karl Turner took the consolation with former junior
Ministox World Champion Mathew Sayer settling for second
after Turner dived past him on the last corner, Sayers' car
seemingly worse for wear. The final was stopped when Kevin
Walker mounted Sayer, Stan Green charging in to make the
whole collision worse. With the mess cleaned up and the
Goodman incident also sorted - that happened in the melee
that accompanied the suspension of the race - Guinchard took
off into the distance from pole. but this time Speak had time
to get through which he did with all speed to take over the
race five laps from home. Ian Serpell had his best finish of
the day in second with Guinchard following them, while a late
charge from Smith gave him fourth. Sworder and Roots were
both effectively out of the running after early race spins
but Sworder was able to claw back to tenth. The Grand
National qualifier doubled for the Jock Lloyd Trophy, and was
won by Roots ahead of Speak and Thomas in very slippery
conditions as the weather deteriorated, compounding the
problem of oil dropped in earlier races. Grade awards for the
day went to Bryn Thomas for the blue grade, Ian Serpell for
the yellow and Mark Guinchard for the white grade.
National Bangers
The second World Championship qualifier for National Bangers
at Arena Essex on April 19 started with a fairly crash free
first heat, the biggest casualty being the round one heat and
final winner Chris Whiteman who was stuffed out by Roy
Bramley, not to return that day. Two visiting Wacky Racers,
Ray and Mike Sharrod, made good starts but also suffered
though Ray Sharrod threatened early race leader Dave Edwards
for a while, even taking the lead for a lap or two until
eventual winner Brian McGuiness came through, Edwards hanging
on behind for second. With that, both Sharrods were reduced
to wrecking though another visitor, Shane Davies, managed
eighth. Davies had had a mixed meeting the night before at
Mildenhall, winning in one race, getting totally wrecked in
another, but showed plenty of guts in coming out in this race
and two subsequent races. It seemed that we had been
transported back to the latter part of the 1997 season as
Russ McAngus sliced through the field then took advantage of
a sloppy corner by Don Anderson for a win in the second heat,
Anderson finishing ahead of Phil Stevens. Dean Bateman had
been leading in the early stages of this race but an argument
with Sean Collin on the first corner left him dead and
flaming. Bateman was able to blow the flame out but was
effectively finished for the day. Anderson went on to become
the only non-team car in a sea of yellow related cars that
packed both the final and its result, finishing sixth. Stuart
Wilson did for Ian Ardley who had been leading for most of
the race while John Harding finished Peter Salter and Allan
Trickett gave Paul Haralambou a bump that removed a rear
wheel. Mark Griffin also took a hand by attacking Davies, but
that was done on the Aveley end safety area, so he now awaits
further penalties. It was Allan's dad Roger Trickett who
emerged as victor in this race though he had to fight off the
attentions of European Champion Dave Barwick to do it,
Barwick settling for second with first heat winner McGuiness
in third. Bramley made a rare attempt at racing in the
Rawlins 2000 qualifier and actually won it from Stevens and
Phil Hudson while Davies swapped head-ons with Ken Knight who
had lost most of his front to Bramley in the first heat.
Hudson had tried to win late on but an outside pass attempt
left him scraping the back straight armco before Anderson
spun him out. The last car running was Barwick after
disposing of Bramley and Anderson only to have to deal with
Hudson who had been trying desperately to free himself from
the back of the dead Davies car which he managed to do just
as Bramley conked out.
Results
Event 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th
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1 Grand Parade
2 LRod 1 217 140 167 113 149 111 136 122
3 BF2 1 235 85 152 124 151 500 202 121 677 558
4 BF2 2 183 218 302 900 181 15 67 613 616 411
5 Bangers 1 14 19 37 114 546 88 418 158
6 Bangers 2 21 15 53 91 38 415 429 145
7 LRod 2 123 135 225 149 220 210 216 217
8 BF2 Cons 390 301 553 369 308 69 800 711 122 365
9 Bangers Final 145 91 14 418 53 15 160 7
10 BF2 Final 218 613 183 151 900 558 202 500 302 152
11 LRod Final 200 113 111 225 290 123 122 359
12 BF2 GN 677 218 900 151 152 302 235 15 183 2
13 R2000 126 53 37 LCR = 91
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Abbrevs: LRod - Lightning Rods/Cons - Consolation/R2000 - Rawlins 2000 Qualifier
BF2 - BriSCA F2 Stock Cars/S/GN - Grand National (Jock Lloyd Trophy)
NOCR - No other car running/LCR - Last car running
All results subject to confirmation by promotion.