Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 1999 Index > Meeting 99/23

PRI Hot Rods Diment Brothers Memorial Pocket Rocket Legends Group A Hot Rods Supreme Championship Q/R 3 SuperBangers

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SuperBangers
The SuperBanger returned to Arena Essex on July 25 for the first time since the Festival and immediately threw up a surprise when new boy Matt Fuller shook off the field with a series of quite spectacular moves to finish in first place in heat one, almost half a lap in front of veteran Banger man John Alder. Heat two belonged to current champion Jamie Dyckhoff who managed to dump his way to first past Dave Kingsmill with a couple of hundred yards to go. During the heats there was a little bit of contesting by Dyckhoff with Nigel Hepburn, the Festival winner, who had fenced Dyckhoff that day in the closing stages of the race, and Dyckhoff paid Hepburn back many times through the meeting. Another name from the Festival, Lee Morrow, made himself felt as he won the third heat, dumping all before him on his way to the line. This prepared the way for the end of day final race. Graham Powell was first away and held the lead through the early laps, but the question would be how long before Dyckhoff and Hepburn got through to the front. Hepburn ended up in a tangle with Steve Jones and TJ Hook, and Dyckhoff was too late to stop Morrow from completing a heat and final followed by Kevin Kings' V8 SD1 which had sounded meaty at the start of the day, though increasingly ropey by the end.

Group A Hot Rods
It was the last Supreme Qualifier on July 25 for the Group A Hot Rods at Arena Essex after their tour of recent weeks, and plenty turned up to fix a spot on the final grid. Race one could have turned out to be a Bearman one-two had Nichola held out from Gary Rouse, who came second after a rousing drive by former champion Terry Bearman in the Tango special. Race two was far more fraught with two penalties and a load up for Pete Read which was reversed after appeal in time for the consolation. The second heat saw plenty of hits including the one that finally stopped the race two thirds of the way in when Si Bailey spun on Read for which Read was disqualified and for which he received the rescinded load up. Chris Fuller had led up to that point, holding off Lee Follett well; at the restart, Follett barged inside Fuller to take the lead only to be docked two places for contact and jumping the start which gave new bug Andy Beverton another win from Fuller. One noticeable feature of the consolation was the high number of star grade drivers in it that had suffered from large fields, hot weather and bad luck. Such a one was defending champion Gary Finch who died on the start in his heat. He now made it look easy as he pulled his way through the pack, leaving Dave Imber to struggle past Si Bailey to get second.

The final was just as hard raced, with cars spinning and blowing up all the way to the last few laps, when Carl Steptoe drove right through Jim Richards on the back straight to earn a load up, the race restarted in last line order. The racing before and after the stoppage was dominated by the race for the lead between Follett and Northampton champ Wayne Shackleford, who were joined a few laps from home by Imber, but Follett held his ground and took the final trophy. The helter-skelter also stopped short when Steve Holmes snaked the back straight before destroying himself on the armco wall, the lead again being addressed hard, this time with Shackleford holding off Finch after another good early showing by Nichola Bearman. This time the challenge worked out with Shackleford leaving the inside line open for Finch to slip through to win.

Legends
It was rather disappointing that the Pocket Rocket Legends were dropped from the first scheduled appearance at Arena Essex, more so when they did finally appear on July 25 to provide some good, fast racing. Trevor James managed to get in front in the first race with current championship leader Derek Hales pressing outside, finally picking up the lead on the Tavern turn which James seemed to have problems with, though he kept second ahead of John Hyatt. However few could forget the antics of Des Chandler at last years' events and this year he was back, donuts and all, following his fifth place up in the first heat with a win in the second which Hales tried to catch up from a back of the grid start, getting to second ahead of Ian Hales, Chris Pye getting fourth in both heats. This put Hales and Chandler at the front of the final grid. However if Hales thought that he was going to scoop more points in this, he was sadly mistaken as first he went airborne after clouting Chandler, then spun on the Crossing turn. Chandler finally gained total control by half way, however, and sped away, with Arthur Bright chasing. By the end, Chandler had no opposition, though Bright had to hold off Pye to keep second spot. Hopefully we shall see more of the Legends at Arena Essex next year.

PRI Hot Rods Another unlucky day for Adam Scott as he blew up spectacularly in practice at the July 25 meeting at Arena Essex, the Diment Brothers Memorial for the PRI Hot Rods. Andy Brown also had a dubious outing in his new Peugeot 306 special, though it was the Alan White 306 that stopped the first heat early when a wheel came free at the end, Simon Smith holding off Dave Fry for the first win. The main race was very closely fought at the start with Gary Andrews and Stu Hammond fighting for the lead. Hammond finally found a good line inside to take the lead from where he was not to be taken while Andrews tried hard to hold on to second only to go wide on turn four to let Julian Scott through with Rick Fray and Dave Fry in tow, which is how it ended, though Scott tried his best to get past Hammond by the end. Scott got his win however in the last race, a helter-skelter which saw quite a few cars starting to die in the heat and the exertion of the day including early leader Smith and Andrews as well as Paul Simmons who had been pressing hard in the early laps.

Results

1  S/Bangers 1     170 Matt Fuller    /40/242/27/60/89/87/58
2  Gp. A 1          91 Terry Bearman  /63/119/18/174/94/108/133
3  Gp. A 2         176 Andy Beverton  /190/48/92/28/70/12/100
4  PRI HR w/u       10 Simon Smith    /20/8/21/44/51/9/77
5  Legends 1         8 Derek Hales    /7/49/88/213/59/5/69
6  S/Bangers 2      36 Jamie Dyckhoff /52/60/82/233/58/30/498
7  Gp. A Cons       65 Gary Finch     /64/123/5/83/120/49/148/93/90
8  PRI HR Final      8 Stu Hammond    /77/21/20/44/9 NOCR
9  Legends 2       213 Des Chandler   /8/59/88/49/69/7/5
10 S/Bangers 3      40 Lee Morrow     /242/173/89/170/90/275/347
11 Gp. A Final      48 Lee Follett    /148/64/190/83/63/93/119
12 PRI HR h/s       77 Julian Scott   /21/51/71/9/8 NOCR
13 Legends Final   213 Des Chandler   /5/88/69/49/2/59/6
14 Gp. A HR h/s     65 Gary Finch     /148/119/73/64/93/91/94
15 S/Bangers Final  40 Lee Morrow     /89/36/27/60/52/313/347