Arena Essex 00/30

Meeting 00/30, Sunday, August 28th. 2000

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Rawlins Transport Big Van Championship
Lightning Rods Sierra Supreme Championship
Ministox

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Ministox
The Ministox turned up in good numbers to support the Arena Essex August 28 meeting, the first race finishing short with a driver needing medical attention in the centre green, the race going to Riki Taylor after a good lead fight with Sam Kelly, Scott Lock motoring up well for third. The experts' race went to Ray Layton who did well first to get the lead, then to hold off Anthony Lawrence, then to hold off Lee Smith in a close race which saw Smith pinned down in second while Lawrence had to contend with Lawrence Davey in a scrap for third, Lawrence just managing to do so while Davey went back a place for contact behind Tubbs Butler. The chase started badly when Matthew Williams spun on turn two and collected most of te red tops to stop the race for a complete restart. Mark Wilson then made good progress past Daniel Rosenthal and early leader Daniel Rolfe to pick the winners trophy up, Glen Witherall and Vic Bilkey providing a very close race at the end, both trying their utmost to pass but both failing in the end to settle for second and third respectively. Wilson then made it a double in the final after a close scrap with Layton after both had past Kelly who had controlled most of the race, Daniel Amos grabbing third late on.

Lightning Rods
With a good turn out, the Lightning Rods got a last chance race at Arena Essex on August 28, the first two home in the race going to the back row of the Sierra Supreme Championship final. The day would see plenty of controversy but plenty of good racing starting with Don Anderson who provided a great example of how to use Banger skills to an advantage in wet weather. Anderson was easily the quickest car on the rain soaked track, doused shortly before the start of the meeting and by rain during the night, while Carl Wheeler managed to hang on to Andersons' wake to grab second spot and the other place in the final, Steve Robinson of Incarace just missing out in third place.

The Supreme Championship was well attended, with recent bad boy and current World Champion Darren Ahern starting outside Shaun Mayle, currently leader in the points championship with Vic Bilkey and Dennis Whiteman behind them. Ahern managed to get a flying start, getting to the first corner ahead of Mayle while Trevor Draynor managed to get the better of both second row men to tuck into third spot. Then came the back markers and Ahern made his only mistake, going wide which allowed Mayle to move ahead. Mayle made sure that he didn't make the same mistake so, though Ahern regained second spot from Draynor, the best efforts couldn't get Ahern past Mayle. This was exascerbated when Vic Bilkey, black flagged for contact already, decided to slow right in front of Ahern which gave Mayle a few free laps without pressure. Mayle became the new Supreme champion from Ahern and Draynor while Whiteman managed to get back to fourth after dropping several places early in the race.

A 35 car helter-skelter race followed with a close win for Ryan Murton who had taken the lead from Brian Thomas after closing a big half lap lead, Thomas being unwilling or unable to get past the back markers, but Murton wasn't much better off which meant that many other more capable drivers had a chance to close in, led by John Crowther and Rob Halford. Murton got his win from Crowther and Murton with Thomas in fourth, the race ending with all of the first eight crossing the line together. The last allcomers race saw Thomas repeat his trick in an extended 30 lap schedule, but much scrapping behind allowed him an easy victory this time, Matthew Arnold muscling through for second while Colin Murray held Ahern off with Wheeler for third.

Big Van Bangers
August Bank Holiday means big vans at Arena Essex as Sonny Sherwood successfully defended his title in the Rawlins Van Championship. While Grieg Cheeseman took the smart van award for his Pokémon effort from a Dennis the Menace job by Mark Bunting and a curious "Jacks" design by Clive Killick, "Cheesémon" wasn't going to let a paint job stop him from sticking it in hard, grabbing third place in the first heat behind Killick with Keith Perren putting a good drive in including a devastating trip through Stuart Adcock's van. Race two and business as usual as the points chasers took the top places, led by Tony Wade from Sonny Sherwood, Steve Macklin and Jason Jackson though John Harding provided yet another talking point for those following the Cream/Squad war when he t-boned Ray Sharrod on the back straight safety area, though he didn't let a little thing like disqualification stop him pinning Dean Kingsworth to the pit end wall and taking a chomp on Brad Theaker's loading area. It also provided the best rollover of the day when Roy Laybourn decided to send his Transit over on its roof on turn four, while new British Champion Andrew Davies was thoroughly wrecked by Andy Swift after Jason Randall pinned him down.

There were 44 vans in last years' final, there were 44 this year too. Sonny Sherwood won last year, this year... started with a wrecking for Adcock by Wade on turn two while event sponsor Roy Rawlins received a snapping of his curious looking Transit bus. The home straight now became clogged, and with many vans being killed Tony Abrehart took over the lead from new dad Gary McNeill until Cheeseman decided to clobber him, leaving Sherwood to fight off Jackson at the front which he finally managed to do as Jackson go stuck on the Kevin Elmore wreck. Sherwood retained his title, lapping to second spot which went to Pete Ford with Wade holding Ian Knight off for third. This just left 34 vans out of the 60 plus that had turned up to fight out the Rawlins Qualifier, Jackson eventually winning from Clayton Meffen and Andrew Davies while Mark Amato learned the meaning of the phrase "flame on" and Rob Chiddle, who had been leading at one point, received one in the boot from Meffen on his way home. Sherwood finished his race embedded in a dead van after socking it to Swift, while the DD saw Darren Wolf take on Meffen, Jackson and Mark Bunting. Jackson embedded his rear into Davies and spent a while trying to free himself while Wolf took on Bunting, killing Meffen early. Just as it seemed that Wolf had Bunting too, Jackson freed himself and stuck one of Wolf's nose, killing him off, then bad weather coupled with a feeble nutting session prompted the decision to award the last car award to both surviving drivers.

Results

1  LRods Last chance 115 Don Anderson   /117/28/136/107/101/197/277
2  Ministox 1        510 Riki Taylor    /500/564/502/526/160/519/20/548/555/383
3  Vans 1            402 Keith Perren   /149/312/48/555/403/135/248
4  Ministox 2         16 Ray Layton     /64/129/41/9/599/111/50/66/558/88/90
5  LRods SUPREME     218 Shaun Mayle    /149/272/155/203/170/201/169/245/104
6  Vans 2             33 Tony Wade      /348/72/331/643/547/27/49
7  Ministox 3        599 Mark Wilson    /558/111/50/9/66/87/90/500/88/577/510
8  LRods H/s         150 Ryan Murton    /200/151/107/140/149/217/170
9  Vans FINAL        348 Sonny Sherwood /48/33/490/27/317/10/356
10 Ministox FINAL    599 Mark Wilson    /16/87/500/64/111/9/50/558/88
11 LRods A/c         107 Brian Thomas   /236/203/149/117/272/140/291
12 Vans R2Kq         331 Jason Jackson  /135/47 LCR=331/250 Mark Bunting

Results subject to confirmation by promoter