Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 1999 Index > Meeting 99/32

PRI/ORC National Banger World Championship Lightning Rods Supreme Championship

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Lightning Rods
After a controversial exit from the final of the British Championship, Darren Ahern was to have a mixed time of it in the Supreme Championship finals at Arena Essex on September 19. He had an easy time of it in the main race pulling an early lead out to three-quarters of a lap to win the Sierra Supreme title ahead of Bryan Whiteman and Roy Rawlins, though poor Roy was unable to exit his car on finishing due to his back! Ahern managed eighth in the allcomers race some time later as Richard Spavins took the trophy in a restarted race which saw Whiteman exit after catching the spun out Micky Rosenthal car head on along the home straight. Spavins got the trophy after finishing behind Steve Pitcher who was docked two places after the race for avoidable contact. The biggest surprise was in the last race of the day, a sprint heat that was severely hit by a very slippery fourth turn. With Spavins out with a flat, Fred Moss took the lead only to see Ahern take the lead coming into the last lap. To everyones' surprise, however, Moss not only kept up but held the tight line around turn four in sight of the line then dived toward the line to find that Ahern had gone wide on the mess and couldn't hold on! Moss first, Ahern second and yet more thrills and spills surrounding the young Ahern, who said in an earlier interview that he would give himself at least another year in the formula. No argument here!

National Bangers
World Championship No. 29 at Arena Essex saw a complete change to the set up to the oldest of the gold roof specials, with a reduced line up for the PRI drivers coupled with a drawn grid being the two biggest concessions to the BBA. The last chance races still provided two spots at the back of the grid; the first was taken by local driver Kerry Goldstone in the middle of some good wrecking action that saw nine out of thirty cars finish, then the second last chance race went to RDC and TSR regular Davey Cox in an even heavier race that saw only three finish from thirty-two. The World Final would prove to be something that would spark debate for days to come. Forty-four cars lined up, for the race and, breaking the trend of the last couple of years, seven finished in one of the heaviest hitting events of the year. With achievement awards handed out and Dave Greenstreet and Shane Davies picking up smart car awards, they set to. Mick Bradbury was an early victim, finding Alan Tarn of NIR up his diff while Steve O'Sullivan had home problems as Stuart Wilson sent him spinning. Dave Tuffin, twice a runner-up in this event when he was a PRI regular, was an early leader but had his troubles fighting off Shane Brown of Autospeed, while Tuffin's stablemate, Andy Davies, got wrecking early with a t-bone to Steve McEvoy down from the Midlands. Kev Wilsher was also crushed early, and used his crushed car well after that to pursue the oncoming Squad/Custard scrap when he took Greenstreet on the nose full throttle by the pit gate while Alan Reed made sure that John Harris wouldn't be winning any back-to-back World Final victories. By this time the fourth corner was getting pretty clogged, with Carl Overy moving up to take the lead before getting stuck on the pit bend. It was at this point that the controversy began as the pit bend became entirely clogged, and local driver Phil Hudson decided to avoid the clog and drive around the safety track to take the lead. It was after three laps of this, with Overy and eventual third place driver Sonny Sherwood following once on the shale that the infield marshall finally directed the traffic onto the clearing pit bend where Neil Herbert lay in wait for the remaining drivers. Though Herbert did get a chunk of Overy, he was eventually to have no effect on the result, especially after last chancer Davey Cox fired into him close to the end. The result stood as Hudson, Overy and Sherwood despite some clamour from the crowd, though the drivers accepted the result; I'll say nothing about Balders' accident with the trophy!

All that was left was the support and another blocked turn by the Tavern in the consolation as only five survived, led home by ex-1300 expert Mark Want from Dean Bateman. Whatever Spike Dray said to merit a double blitzing by Brian McGuiness and Gareth Brett, it must have been pretty dire! The wrecking continued in the final starting with a big pile up courtesy of an early shot on Phil Stevens by John Golden while John Broad felt the wrath of Barry Simpson at the other end before Jason Hughes, down for the day from Bristol, unleashed a monster on Trackstar veteran Pete Winter, Shane Brown following up the hit. Other notable hits would be Mark Deacon sniffing the Graham Hayward diff, Hayward also getting some in with a reverse hit on John Randall. The hitting and piling went right through to the end when leader Alan Tarn got stuck in the middle of the pit bend scrapyard with the rest of the field closing on him. He eventually shook off a nutting from Lee Witherington however to cross the line first ahead of Want. The smallest field of the day was the Rawlins 2000 qualifier which went the way of Paul Whiteman in a race that still had its share of wrecking, including some from Billy King, out for his first run! The last car award went the way of Mr. Mess, Andy Davies, after a one on one with Whiteman was settled by a head on cap smasher.

1  Banger L/C 1     546 Kerry Goldstone /284/23/258/102/384/34/311/597 NOCR
2  Banger L/C 2     719 Davey Cox       /537/53 NOCR
3  -
4  LRods SUPREME    149 Darren Ahern    /156/245/201/177/216/118/167/170/215
5  -
6  Bangers WORLD     37 Phil Hudson     /617/348/745/719/117/07 NOCR
7  Bangers Cons     116 Mark Want       /130/61/564/9 NOCR
8  LRods Allcomers  351 Richard Spavins /170/295/167/120/245/104/149
9  Bangers GN Final 294 Alan Tarn       /116/284/158 NOCR
10 LRods h/s        215 Fred Moss       /149/200/199/201/104/170/118
11 Bangers R2KQ      01 Paul Whiteman   LCR = 147 Andrew Davies