Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2000 Index > Meeting 00/10

PRI Banger Team Championship Q/R 2 Lightning Rods

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PRI Banger Teams
With expectations high after round one, Arena Essex welcomed a big audience and teams galore for the second round of the PRI Banger Team Championship on Mayday, not least drawn by the rumour that former Stinkbridge and Suicide Squad member Stuart Cummings was to make an appearance in yellow. However, despite Dino registering up as a Squad member, he ended up at Ringwood that day after Saturday at Mildenhall, hence the Squad featured its usual line up as the war of the yellow cars continued.

Indeed things looked hopeful in the first heat as Billy King and Steve Davies of the Condoms took on Stuart Adcock and Ray Sharrod of the Squad, leaving Phil Stevens of the Creams and Tony Wade of the Rabbits to squabble over other matters such as the lead of the race, Stevens taking that much, his points along with a seventh spot for Stuart Wilson getting the Cream's score going after a poor start in the first round, second spot for Wade doing the Rabbits some good also. The Gladiators did well in the second heat with Danny Oliver managing to get a win to boost their cause while Tommy McGurk jacked Brian McGuiness out of the running with a big hit. Frankie Holmes decided to stick one in at that point, but was too slow to do it, Colin Everett of the Rabbits spotting the turn and getting his hit in first. Frankie had a very hard car, however, and it showed in the number of hits needed to stick him out; Andy Davies tried to squash the Mk.III Cortina out, no use. Frankie then nutted Roy Bramley before Scotch Tommy repeated his party piece to finally silence Frankie. The Midnight Runners, pipped out of the win in the first round, and the Menace, traditional also rans, also picked up well in this heat, each picking eight points up for their two finishers including ex-Plastengrave champion Mark Newman and Ian Knight, second and third behind Oliver. The Runners also did well out of the third heat with a win for Jason Jackson, though curiously no Squad came out for this race. It did get stopped halfway when Dave Seago rolled, Wooster Smith showing that even during team events, the safety of a fallen driver is more important than a few points by blocking until the red flags had done their job. Actually, it seemed to all that this would be a close race, Boxer Jack leaving his spin of Darren Stern until the last corner, then only just recovering enough to beat Cowboy Garry Deacon to the line by inches. The absence of yellow cars did not mean an absence of big hits either, Dan Reid sticking it to Kev Rust early on being the biggest. But then there was strategy at work here.

The absence of Squad in the last heat meant a five car showing in the consolation, the yellow folk trying to shift into the final mob handed and with little opposition. It didn't work. Though few of the Condom, Rabbit and Cream teams were able to show up for the consolation, there were enough of them to take on the Squad, not to mention a number of helpful hits from the other drivers in probably the biggest hitting consolation of the season so far. This included Chris Whiteman boning Everett with what was left of his car after being hit by more than one car by the pit bend, John Randall suffering the same fate from Charlie Plaster for the Unamed and suicide shots from McGuiness and Adcock. Only four cars emerged from the race, led by Paul Eve for the Nads, while John Roofer and Paul Russell got second and fourth for the Gladiators, putting them in a dominant position in the round.

This of course meant that the final again was Squad-less, and with the Dunno team also a little tame after their big success in the previous heat when they snatched a huge points tally in the final, it was going to be interesting to see what they could do this time with only three qualifiers. The answer was not much, the whole race being dominated by Condoms, Creams and the Unamed team, which was made up of drivers previously better known by their exploits at Mildenhall or outside the team structure, though former Rainham Chap Sonny Sherwood almost managed to carry off the win before Andy Davies tapped him sideways to leave him second, team mate Billy King running through as Davies got stuck in wreckage to get the win. King and Davies did well to grab twenty-eight points between them, but twenty-four points to Sherwood and fourth place Richie Ahern plus a final round surplus against the pink team meant that the Unamed ran in as round winners by three points over the Condoms, while the Cream team shared the second spot with a three man finish led by Tony McDonald from Harris and Stevens.

Overall, the big score by the Unamed and the poor finish by Team Dunno means that the overall shape of te championship changes drastically, with the Buzz Boyz dropping out of the first eight and Team Dunno dropping dangerously close to the dividing line too after leading the first round having only taken seven points in total from round two.

As usual, the whole meeting finished with a Rawlins qualifier and, to most people's surprise, Chris Whiteman pulled out for a last go. Nobody was surprised, however, when Roy Bramley and Stu Brooks destroyed the car, while a t-bone on Garry Tannahill by Steve Witherington on the home straight meant a stoppage and a complete restart that Whiteman could not take part in. One person who did was John Harding who makes a habit of collecting trophies in this event. However, unable to beat out Tony Wade to the win, coming home second, Harding was unsuccessful this time Wade and Darren Jones finally turned on Harding before Wooster Smith turned and wiped Harding out. Jones and Wade had to fight it out at the end, Wade's car proving to be the least wrecked as Smith, who had been disqualified by this time, pinned one on Jones to leave Wade as the last car winner.

1  Bangers Teams 1      53 Phil Stevens  /33/99/116/266/41/7/94/49/420/268/26
2  Bangers Teams 2     423 Danny Oliver  /401/490/574/47/418/462/193/13/34/71/104
3  LRods 1 - A&B       217 Nick Wiseman  /151/115/269/218/203/149/155
4  Bangers Teams 3     331 Jason Jackson /101/348/597/427/403/510/160/301/27/121/8
5  LRods 2 - A&C       200 John Crowther /269/169/201/115/245/170/217
6  Bangers Teams Cons  163 Paul Eve      /434/560/143 NOCR
7  LRods 3 - B&C       218 Shaun Mayle   /149/203/169/200/290/155/199
8  Bangers Teams Final  49 Billy King    /348/47/99/27/418/53/301
9  LRods Final         149 Darren Ahern  /218/269/201/155/115/170/217
10 Bangers R2Kq         33 Tony Wade     /160/47 LCR=33

Banger Team Championship - After 2 rounds

Team             | Round 1  | Heat 1 | Heat 2 | Heat 3 | Cons   | Final  | Total |
-----------------+----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
Unamed           | 23 4th   |  6 ( 6)|    ( 6)|  6 (12)|    (12)| 24 (36)| 59  ^ |
Condoms          | 20 5th   |  1 ( 1)|  4 ( 5)|    ( 5)|    ( 5)| 28 (33)| 53  ^ |
Gladiators       | 11 =9th  |  1 ( 1)|  8 ( 9)|  3 (12)|  8 (20)|    (20)| 31  ^ |
Midnight Runners | 24 3rd   |  1 ( 1)|  8 ( 9)|  8 (17)|    (17)|    (17)| 41  v |
Cream            |  8 11th  | 10 (10)|  3 (13)|  2 (15)|    (15)| 18 (33)| 41  ^ |
Dunno            | 30 1st   |  6 ( 6)|    ( 6)|  1 ( 7)|    ( 7)|    ( 7)| 37  v |
Rabbits          | 17 6th   |  7 ( 7)|  5 (12)|  4 (16)|    (16)|    (16)| 33  = |
Vange Destroyers | 25 2nd   |    ( 0)|    ( 0)|  6 ( 6)|    ( 6)|    ( 6)| 31  v |
Ant Hill Mob     | 15 7th   |  5 ( 5)|    ( 5)|  1 ( 6)|    ( 6)|  2 ( 8)| 23  v |
-----------------+----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
Nads             |  5 12th  |    ( 0)|  2 ( 2)|  2 ( 4)|  6 (10)|    (10)| 15  ^ |
Wrekin Krew      | 11 =9th  |    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|  4 ( 4)|    ( 4)| 15  = |
Buzz Boyz        | 13  8th  |    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)| 13  v |
Cowboys          |  2 14th  |    ( 0)|  1 ( 1)|  7 ( 8)|    ( 8)|    ( 8)| 10  ^ |
Menace           |  1 =15th |    ( 0)|  8 ( 8)|    ( 8)|    ( 8)|    ( 8)|  9  ^ |
No Hopers        |  4 13th  |  3 ( 3)|    ( 3)|    ( 3)|    ( 3)|    ( 3)|  7  v |
Icelanders       |  1 =15th |    ( 0)|  1 ( 1)|    ( 1)|    ( 1)|    ( 1)|  2  = |
Elite            |  0       |    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|  0  = |
Suicide Squad*   |  0       |    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|  0  = |
Convicts         |  0       |    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|    ( 0)|  0  = |
-----------------+----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
Heat Points: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 then 1 point per qualifier.
Cons Points: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 then 1 point per qualifier.
Final points are double heat points, first eight finishers only.
Top eight after three rounds go through to Eliminator round, rest to Playoff.
All results are subject to confirmation by promotion.
POINTS AMENDED 16-May-2000 AFTER CHANGE TO MEETING 4 (ROUND 1) CALCULATION