Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 1998 Index > Meeting 98/21

Meeting No. 21, Sunday, 5th July, 1998 Plastengrave Bangers incl. Ladies Essex Jaguars Qualifier BriSCA F2 Stock Cars John Weston Memorial 1300 Stock Cars

1300 Stock Cars
Three races for the 1300's dominated by Andrew Palmer in a heat and final win at Arena Essex on July 5. Local regular Chris Whiteman improved through the meeting, taking the helter-skelter to prevent a Paddy whitewash with a good performance from Derek Mortimer and Spike Ellis in all three races.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars
The BriSCA F2's had a little stopover at Arena Essex on July 5 on their way to the world qualifier later that day. Nick Smith dominated the racing, winning all three races in the John Weston Memorial meeting while Mick Sworder had a mixed day of it, coming second in the heat before a passing clash with Graham Bunter rounding the Aveley bend inside deprived him of his front offside wheel, allowing Barry Barker second in the second heat. As the race came to an end, Simon McNab rolled his car at the pit gate bringing the race to a hurried end. Sworder and Steve Broomfield were up in arms about the rearranged memorial race itself - the race was brought forward to allow the drivers time to load up and get to the next meeting - an untidy start stranding the red tops almost half a lap behind the field, though Paul Poulter did well to get into a place from the back, getting fourth. Steven Williamson held second place after a good midfield start. Performance awards went to Smith for the blues, Chris Stevens for the yellows and Barry Parker for the white tops.

Plastengrave Bangers
The Plastengrave Bangers at Arena Essex on July 5 featured the last qualifying round for the Ladies in the Essex Jaguars Championship, the race taken by late booking Tracy Worthington in good form. She managed to outmanoeuvre another late booker, Trish Woolner despite having a marginally faster car, with Tina Wade following in third after the previous third place car spun into wreckage. The ladies that have qualified meet up on August 9 for the final.

Meanwhile the men had another round of the nonish-Fords, with the first race going to Darren Graves in his beemer in an unremarkable race which featured a few unusual cars including Mark Want in a Starlet (guaranteed to upset many a Group A hot Rod or 1300 Stock Car fanatic searching for a good car!) and Nicky Marsh in what looked like a Talbot Samba (though I could be wrong about that! It was certainly small anyway). Want started and finished his race by nutting Trigger Rodgers on the back straight which disagreed with the car somewhat. Graves had almost half a lap on second place Howard Martin by the end, with Steve Witherington and Phil Hudson following him, everyone else lapped. The second race was stopped after an out-of-control Ian Horton hit Richard Baker's car. What was odd about this was that the driver that emerged refused to take his helmet and sunglasses off until, at the end of the race, he was called to the steward. You can guess what happened next, but suffice to say that Baker was loaded and now has an uncomfortable committee meeting to face! Meanwhile the restart saw a good drive from Bernie Reid who survived various nibbles from chasers and back markers alike to win the race, Steve Street and Lee Witherington in his wake after a close race at the start, including some close challenges from Stuart Allen on Reid before his car gave out. Horton was to provide another unwitting talking point in the consolation as he was put up the rear of Phillip Harvey by Dave Watson full chat on the home straight, destroying Harvey's immaculate Escort Estate. Current points leader Mark Newman did well from near the back to get to fourth place including a punt on Ken Parrish which eventually led to Parrish bouncing off the inner kerb on two wheels, though the race went to a flag to flag performance by Tom Harding followed by Dom Tomlinson and Ken Knight. The final was put back to allow the BriSCA F2's an early finish, but the race managed another stall when one of Newman's wheels went flying across the track. The restart saw Stuart Allen on pole after a good start to the race but Lee Witherington was soon up to second after Harding tried an ill-advised outer lane start off the order restart, then Witherington went inside Allen for the lead with Reid chasing hard. Witherington won with no further problems however, but Reid took second place only to be taken head on after the finish by John Harding at the gate with Barry Wilsher going in behind. This meant that Reid had no place in the Rawlins 2000 qualifier that followed immediately after that which saw extreme wrecking from the off starting on the pit bend including a Shane Wood hit on Watson while Jerry Foulkes put Horton sideways into the fenced Pete Ford car. The lead changed hands many times as such people as Wilsher and Lee West got stuck in removing allcomers from the race leaving very few cars to cross the finishing line. In fact only Hudson and Luke Radley survived on laps, Dave Armstrong awarded third as the runner with the most completed laps by the end, before the destruction started. Many misses later, Radley and Armstrong finally hit head on before Balders jacked Radley, Knight finishing his car off with a thump on Armstrong on the home straight. Hudson was finished off by Armstrong on turn four with a sizeable t-bone before Radley and Armstrong slugged it out to the end, Radley surviving the final onslaught.

Results

Event                 1st  2nd  3rd  4th  5th  6th  7th  8th  9th  10th 11th 12th 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1   Grand Parade
2   Ladies            483  326   33  396  266  311  284  398  104   13  152  270
3   Banger 1          351   94   28   37  120  295   55  391  110  433   11  107
4   1300 Stx w/u      674  697  658  655  622  619  640  612  686  673
5   Banger 2           22   83  284  418  164  104  558  544  331  130  237  266
6   BriSCA F2 1       151  152   28  183  302    2  553  500   67  641
7   1300 Stx FINAL    674  655  697  658  622  686  612  673  640  619
8   Banger Cons        13  366   43  401  142  101   90  123  317  160  281  398
9   BriSCA F2 2       151  641   28  174  302  266  553  628  446  468
10  1300 Stx h/s      655  674  658  612  697  686  673  640  770  610
11  BriSCA FINAL      151  500    2  174  641  302  152  553  266  808
12  Banger FINAL      284   22  101   13   43  418  104   83
13  R2000 q/r          37  356  544  LCR=356
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All results subject to confirmation by promotion.