Arena Essex 00/37

Meeting 00/37, Sunday, 15th. October 2000

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BriSCA F2 Stock Cars Novice of the Year Championship
Lightning Rods
National Bangers

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BriSCA F2 Stock Cars
This years' BriSCA F2 Stock Car action at Arena Essex this year finished on October 15, the day after Daz Kitson's World Final win at Kings' Lynn, many of the featured novice drivers from that meeting travelling down to Purfleet for the Novice of the Year meeting. The Championship race itself started with a flyer from Robert Mitchell off the front and zoom off, holding the lead for most of the race until, snaking out of the Aveley bend, he hit the shale on the home straight, Steve Grant managing to catch and pass before Mitchell eventually came to a halt inside the pit bend. Grant finished the race ahead of David and Simon Rogers to lift the trophy last won at Kings Lynn by Nick Stubbs who showed up to pass the cup along. Mick Sworder then took the track and with no further hindrance carved his way through the field to win the support heat, Tim Farrell and Simon McNab trailing behind him. McNab had been building a good case for a win until the race was pulled up under a waved yellow after a spun Chris Mitchell started collecting cars on the Aveley bend, the restart seeing McNab valiantly trying to hold Sworder back but with five laps to go and Farrell in close, there was no chance of regaining the lead. Adrian Blackwell took Colin Dimlow early to lead the consolation then stayed out far enough for Chris Roots to run out of time, then Sworder grabbed the lead in the final and stayed there, confirming his local track title for Arena Essex as well with Daniel Rogers a quarter lap behind in second with Chris Roots following on. Rogers had tried hard to gain on Sworder after losing the early lead while efforts by both Chris and Tony Roots came to nothing in the last laps, Tony Roots fading away as his car gave up. Tim Farrell took the Grand National Qualifier after a concerted move by him, Mike James and Chris Roots on Robert Mitchell halfway, also giving Cor Schutter the heave ho in the process while Sworder managed sixth spot from his one lap handicap.

Mick Sworder takes the Arena Essex Track title this year with defending champion Chris Roots and Steve Broomfield in the support positions.

National Bangers
With many big meetings going on, the Arena Essex National Banger meeting on October 15 was fairly light on numbers but still managed to provide some action thanks to good effort from those that attended. The first race was amended to an allcomers' heat, though the winner, Trevor Ballard, was given entry to the Rising Stars final for being the first white top home. His day was pretty good; in this race he pulled away and left most of the field behind, Tony Wade trailing behind in second spot, the best shot being a push war following a head on between Mark Bunting and Mark Chilvers. Wade then upped a gear and while Danny Brown felt the front end of the Bulldog as JP Drummond left his mark behind, Wade ran past Ballard for the win in the final, though probably the best wrecking action was from Elliott Dobson who seemed willing to take on everyone until Roy Laybourn gave him a shot up the diff to calm him down a bit before the red flags flew. The final Rawlins qualifiers were Dobson, who actually rodded for once, and Craig Hewitt who had to finish Neal Wells off to do it.

Lightning Rods
The Lightning Rods lined up for the last time this season at Arena Essex on October 15 with a good turnout which quickly turned into controversy as the crowded circuit, the cars racing in three groups towards the final, became littered with the dead and, at one point, one tribute to the show-jumper Harvey Smith, no doubt a token of affection to the starter as Phil Waite accepted the black flag for contact in the first race which was won by Micky Rosenthal, himself the target of some speculation trackside in the way he got ahead of Micky Thompson, though officially he was given the benefit of the doubt, Thompson keeping second place ahead of long time challenger Colin Moss. Moss was to go flag to flag in the second heat, grabbing the lead from the line then lapping a sizable chunk of the field, Riki Rawlins using Roy's car for a first tryout getting a distant second ahead of Rosenthal, then Thompson (Junior, that is!) made up for his untimely demise in the first heat by grabbing the win by a hairs breadth as he and Rawlins thundered towards the line only to find Dave Young spinning in front of them! The final, however, belonged to Moss who outran the field again, his job made a lot easier when race favourites Darren Ahern and Rob Carr crashed out along with Rosenthal. Carl Wheeler just nipped second on the line from Matt Arnold with Rawlins behind.

Results

1  F2 Novice/Ch  882 Steve Grant      /261/277/704/942/467/60/734/647/504
2  F2 Heat       152 Mick Sworder     /667/67/717/77/553/269/620/770/591
3  Lrods 1 A&B   177 Mick Rosenthal   /29/207/151/108/123/236/170/169/218
4  Bangers        85 Trevor Ballard   /33/6/417/316/597/260/303/119/250
5  F2 Cons       767 Adrian Blackwell /677/676/H29/278/270/181/398/876/219
6  Lrods 2 A&C   207 Colin Moss       /246/177/149/240/105/169/200/167/268
7  Bangers       *** Race cancelled ***
8  F2 Final      152 Mick Sworder     /261/677/667/717/676/553/620/767/H29
9  Lrods 3 B&C    29 Micky Thompson   /246/136/108/236/199/100/155/111/149
10 Bangers Final  33 Tony Wade        /85/420/250/529/248/119/138
11 F2 GNq        667 Tim Farrell      /677/717/676/77/152/620/H29/60/261
12 Lrods Final   207 Colin Moss       /117/236/246/100/136/151/240/118/199
13 Bangers R2Kq  138 Elliott Dobson   /303/575 LCR=345 Craig Hewitt