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Outlaw Hot Rods British Championship Open SuperBangers Group A Hot Rods

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Outlaw Hot Rods
The British Championship Open meeting for the Outlaw Hot Rods at Arena Essex on August 27 was a great success with a number of visitors turning up to swell the field including the return of Ricky Hunn who was often to be seen previously in Group A and National Hot Rods in the early 1990's. It was a regular, Julian Scott, who picked up the first race after fighting Stu Hammond off on the start to build a good lead which was threatened by another returning driver, Nelson Love, until with a couple of laps to go, Love fell foul of the infamous Arena second turn, smashing into the armco. This released Dave Fry to chase the leader but far too late, Scott winning comfortably. It was then Hunn's turn to show that he had not forgotten the track, outrunning Mark Lisowski by half a lap by the end while third spot went to Gary Andrews who drove the race of his life to stay in contention, shutting Paul Simmons out. Hunn would have repeated the feat in the third and final heat had he been less rough about passing Simmons who was eventually awarded the win after controlling most of the race. The points left Hunn on pole position in the final but with barely half a lap gone he pulled off not to return, leaving Simmons ahead with Fry chasing. Des Stainer was also making his move when Love again suffered in the wall, this time hitting the abandoned Andrews car sending it rolling driverless across the track, a complete restart the result. Simmons and Fry again took to the front while third driver Scott was eventually to retire after his engine started smoking and then blew out altogether. The race was all about Fry and his attempts to get to the front in the end, and though he almost made it on more than one occasion, Simmons just kept hanging on to deny Fry the win, and clocked up a new thirty lap record in the process (7:53)! Stainer stalled his progress through the ranks at third with Lisowski behind him after Hammond got stuck outside.

Group A Hot Rods
It was a close day at Arena Essex on August 27. The weather was close and muggy, eventually changing to rain after the meeting, the Group A Hot Rods were close in the points, the first three places separated by as many points and the finishes were close. Race one went to Dave Lamb in a close four way finish from Carl Steptoe, back on a temporary license, Lamb winning by half a car. It was shortly after the race ended that it was announced that Dave Lamb was now a father; his wife gave birth to a 9lb boy at 2.20pm, during the race! This amazing course of events was followed by an even closer second heat which saw Dom Tomlinson drive out of his skin to hold off five other cars to win flag to flag. Like a veteran he held off amazing pressure right through the race from Steve Mills, Darren Christie and others. Christie had been close to pulling past until a loud thud from the car prompted him to pull off in a hurry while Mills had to drop a place at the end due to a hit on Christie early in the race, Andy Beverton getting the second spot. Rob Singleton won the consolation race after Jason Griffiths lost a promising start when he suddenly died coming out of turn four early on, Singleton grabbing the lead from Keith Simmons soon after. Christie got second while Terry Bearman finished third after a gritty outside line drive. The day got no better for Mills in the final, his trip into the armco on turn two wrecking his car, also taking Christie out. The pair had been scrapping hard for the lead spot since early on, Christie grabbing the lead early from Bill Witherall with Mills following later after negotiating the shuffling cars in front of him. This left Gary Rouse in the pole position in an ordered restart with Clinton Groom and Darren Clement behind him. Rouse's season has been picking up since he reverted to Starlets a few meetings ago, but he still had a fight of it on the restart, Groom sticking close until one pass attempt took him to the outside line, Clement dashing through for second place while Rouse extended his lead to finish first. Groom held third while Lamb outran Bearman at the last minute to grab fourth. A good number came out for a final helter skelter race which was won by Matt Leadbetter with Clement second again from Rouse, with some illegal scrapping at the back getting disqualifications for Trevor Ledwith, Mark Browne and Karl Wareham to end the day with a little controversy.

SuperBangers
Terry Shelvey won the warm up race in the SuperBangers at the August 27 Arena Essex meeting, though the race was more remembered for the full bore shunt into the wall of Jumbo Kingsmill by Chris Whiteman, destroying the former, leaving the latter loaded up with penalties to follow. Shelvey's win was also a new record, 4:35 for 15 laps, which meant that all SuperBanger records were held at that point by Terry or Tony Shelvey. This didn't last long, however, as Lee Morrow sliced Graham Powell aside then kept well out of Shelvey's reach to set a new 20 lap record (6:09) and win the main event. Shelvey seemed in with a good shout in the helter skelter but Roy Laybourn took a hand and spun Shelvey out by the pit gate. Shelvey got a measure of revenge but was well down the places as Riki Rawlins won comfortably from Nigel Hepburn and John Alder.

1  Outlaws 1        77 Julian Scott    /20/8/259/21/140/5 NOCR
2  Group A 1        82 Dave Lamb       /120/63/33/38/197/27/108
3  Group A 2        17 Dom Tomlinson   /176/23/135/148/67/58/64
4  Outlaws 2       639 Ricky Hunn      /22/44/51/29/77/277/259/140/47
5  SBangers wu      87 Terry Shelvey   /60/167/6/347/188/58/68
6  Group A Cons     85 Rob Singleton   /84/91/49/190/93/71/119 (174)*
7  Outlaws 3        51 Paul Simmons    /639/319/20/22/21/44/8/24
8  SBangers Final   40 Lee Morrow      /87/58/60/89/167/188/153
9  Group A Final    63 Gary Rouse      /197/135/82/91/174/67/33
10 Outlaws BRITISH  51 Paul Simmons    /20/319/22/259/8/21/140/5 NOCR
11 Group A H/s     174 Matt Leadbetter /197/63/91/135/82/176/190
12 SBangers H/s     58 Riki Rawlins    /68/60/40/89/188/87/347

*Change to result, putting 119 eighth rather than originally announced. 174 was allowed to participate in the final, however.

Results subject to confirmation by promoter