National Bangers World Championship Round 4/Martin Symes Memorial
Group A Hot Rods
PRI Hot Rods
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Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 1998 Index > Meeting 98/22
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Meeting No. 22, Sunday, 12th. July, 1998
National Bangers World Championship Round 4/Martin Symes Memorial Group A Hot Rods PRI Hot Rods |
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PRI Hot Rods
A six car PRI Hot Rod field raced at Arena Essex on July 12
in three races which started with a wet track rolling start
as the weather conspired to make things difficult for
everyone at the start of the meeting. Alex Maclean got his
first ever win in this formula driving the Tony Woodroffe
car, holding Paul Simmons back well during the last few laps.
Simmons was relegated to fourth after the race for contact
when he had nuzzled his way past Tony Allard early in the
race, Allard promoted to second as a result with Tom
Springett getting his best finish of the day in third. The
track had dried by the time they came back out for the
rearranged main event which was easily won by Allard from
Simmons while a scrap between Maclean and Adam Scott for
third was won by Maclean, shutting the corners down well to
give Scott too much to handle. The Rods came back for a
helter-skelter race at the end, a close start seeing Maclean
hit the front only to be taken by Dave Hitchen followed by
Simmons, Scott and Allard, the race then becoming a
procession until the last lap when Allard, in third at that
point, tried a bold outside passing manoeuvre which failed to
come off, letting Scott in to third place behind Simmons and
winner Hitchen.
Group A Hot Rods
It was very wet for the Group A Hot Rods as they took the
track at Arena Essex on July 12, the heats starting with a
rolling lap after early rain had soaked the track. Lee
Radcliffe took the lead in the first early on after an early
scrap with Paul king and Jason Villa, but his cornering was
suspect in the rain and he lost a lot of time, allowing the
trailing pack to close right up. A promising charge by King
was brought to an end as he trailed off with rear end damage
while a front end battle between Gary Christie and Gary Finch
was won by Finch who went on to win the race ahead of
Christie. Third across the line Matt Leadbetter was dropped
to fifth for contact, promoting Michael Vitulli to third. The
second heat was easily won by Vic Hope who took the lead
after an outside pass on Darren Sawyer who had managed to
take the lead early after a scrap with Wayne Shackleford had
ended with a flat for Shackleford. Pete Read chased to second
by was unable to improve on that while Gary Rouse managed to
outpace Glen Salmon for third. The early part of the
consolation was a hotly contested battle between King and
Leon Burgess but the track was drying out by that time which
favoured Burgess in the more conventional setup rather than
King's Mini. Burgess pulled clear of King short of half way
to take the race ahead of King and Steve Mills, but the best
action followed back in eighth as Shackleford held off
Charlie Benjamin, Steve Holmes and Barry Hughes to take the
final qualifying place. Shackleford continued his blocking in
the final, taking the lead early on and holding it for most
of the race until he spun spectacularly into the first turn
under extreme pressure from Mills, Rouse and Finch. With
Mills ahead and Christie close up, Rouse tried an outside
pass with pressure behind him and it paid off, Finch
following a couple of laps later. With the finish in sight,
Finch tried the same move on Rouse but it proved too much to
do in the space allowed and Rouse held on to win from Finch,
with Mills in third. The day finished with a helter-skelter
on a now dry track and Sawyer had a good race up to half way
when Richard Haines went around him and disappeared into the
distance to claim the trophy. From there it was backwards all
the way with many cars colliding including Jim Richards and
Finch, Finch ending up hitting the abandoned Villa car which
had been evacuated after it was spun on the home straight and
stalled, then hit by Holmes. Haines won ahead of another good
drive from Christie and Vitulli in third.
National Bangers
The fourth World Qualifier for the National Bangers at Arena
Essex on July 12 was hit early by rain which made things a
little difficult for them early on, Mike Sharrod finished yet
another race on the receiving end of a hit, this time from
Mark Want who took te lead off him before halfway, Want then
losing the lead to the eventual winner of the race, Brian
McGuiness, though Want held a healthy enough lead to avoid
being caught by Dave Greenstreet who came in third. The
second race started with a dash for the front won out by
Bernie French inside Den Catmore from Pete Salter who managed
third after Roy Bramley started putting about him, though
probably the best action was back in fourth as Don Anderson
battled with Phil Hudson, Anderson ahead of Balders by the
end. The allcomers final was another epic with 37 cars
starting but only four finishing. The race was stalled early
after Paul Haralambou got into trouble on the home straight
though French must have been kicking himself, having got away
from everyone in an amazing start which saw Ray Sharrod muff
a hit on French only to collect the field, allowing French to
escape with a quarter lap on any competition. The restart saw
Bramley press French hard, finally dumping him out on the
back straight, though the action was all on the pit bend
where Greenstreet had started trying to take the win the hard
way with hits on Anderson, Salter and Andy Burrough among
others. The hit on Burrough might have been a mistake, but he
made Greenstreet regret it by turning on the home straight
and steaming Greenstreet with a full chat steak on the pit
bend as Greenstreet tried to set himself up for another
victim! Balders was also getting involved with a jacking on
Anderson and repeated hits on Sonny Sherwood. Meanwhile in
the race, Kev Wilsher had caught up with Bramley and took an
inside line to pass. Bramley tried to come back but Wilsher
held on well despite more than a tickle from Bramley to win,
with Russ McAngus, the defending Martin Symes Memorial
champion, following Bramley in third, Ken Knight the only
other remaining runner. It was not so surprising to see a
lighter field in the Rawlins 2000 qualifier after that, but
many drivers and mechanics did well to get something ready to
race, though Shane Davies' race was over early as he drove
his car up the snoot of Burrough, both cars expiring on the
pit bend. McAngus seemed to have caught the bug again and
sliced through the field to win the race section from John
Harris and Phil Stevens, while Wilsher provided the most
spectacular hit by sending Jock Parker sideways across the
infield on the pit bend through the sleepers, then hit him
again as he bounced back onto the track! McAngus and Sherwood
retired after that leaving the destruction to Wilsher,
Bramley, Harris and Louis Starkes. Starkes sustained damage
after a series of hits from Wilsher and Bramley before he was
finished off by a sandwich smash from Harris and Bramley.
This also finished Harris, leaving Bramley to scrap it out
with Wilsher. Wilsher opened the account with a head on then
finished it with a t-bone, killing the Bramley car and
getting him a last car entry into the final on October 18
along with McAngus.
Results
Event 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Grand Parade 2 Group A 1 65 83 89 94 174 175 5 90 3 Group A 2 100 2 63 7 168 110 93 91 22 66 4 PRI HR 47 6 27 51 119 29 5 Bangers 1 14 116 59 53 96 348 88 429 6 Bangers 2 23 4 250 15 37 21 391 418 7 Group A Cons 25 27 23 122 12 20 73 148 8 PRI HR Final 6 51 47 119 3 27 9 Group A Final 63 65 23 83 94 89 13 93 10 Bangers WQ Final 96 126 21 43 NOCR 11 Group A h/s 94 83 89 63 5 13 73 18 12 PRI HR h/s 3 51 119 6 47 27 13 R2000 q/r 21 418 53 LCR=96 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All results subject to confirmation by promotion.