Arena Essex 01/18

Meeting 01/18, Sunday, 17th June, 2001

Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2001 Index > Meeting 01/18

BriSCA F1 Stock Cars World Q/R
BriSCA F2 Stock Cars British Championship
Ministox

Next meeting | Last meeting

In brief

Barry Goldin wins this years' BriSCA F2 Stock Car British Championship in a packed meeting at Arena Essex on June 17. Bill Batten puts in a storming performance to get second spot while World Champion Daz Kitson prangs his car on the wall which sees him out of the running before the final

This years' appearance for the BriSCA F1 Stock cars on June 17 at Arena Essex is dominated by Frankie Wainman Jr., who scoops the win in this round of the World Championship qualifiers while Rob Speak clears up the rest of the trophies.

Ministox in big numbers for the June 17 Arena Essex support meeting with heat wins for Michael Outen in the novice race, Scott Lock and Ray Layton in the other heats and a final win for Sam Warner.

Full report

Ministox

The June 17 Ministox started at Arena Essex in a premeeting race that was somewhat controversial as Michael Outen got another win on the season, beating out Mindenhall regular Michael Williams in the usual early meeting novice race. The meeting would produce bigger talking points after the Experts' race was curtailed after a rollover from Colin Thorndyke by the pit bend, his car seemingly hard to handle after spinning out on turn four on the immediately preceeding lap. At the front, Scott Lock had successfully pressured early second place Steve Laybourn then got past Danny Rosenthal to put in a big lead while the pair that he had passed continued to battle over second, a rather dodgy sounding Sam Kelly car also putting in a challenge though Kelly would eventually have to settle for sixth as other cars came up to make a challenge before the stoppage, which left Lock, Rosenthal and Laybourn on the pace car in that order. Daniel Moulton put a good race in during the chase, only mucking it up after getting turn four wrong close to home, while bonehead play of the day had to be David Burton's fencing of Kerri Witherington, Burton having been the leader at that point which left Ray Layton in a surprise win position ahead of Steven Willis and Vic Bilkey. That just left the final which was led early on by Paul Brown, before a crash on the home straight took Danny Rosenthal out of the race and the whole thing had to come back for a second go. Scott Lock would not improve on the day, luckily nobody could hear his language as he tried to berate the steward from the centre green following his disqualification for spinning out Mark Burroughs, but Brown did well to hold the race until after halfway, eventually having to yield to Sam Warner with Vic Bilkey in hot pursuit. Paul Brown would be one of several beneficiaries after the race when a post race scrutineering failure for fourth place Gary Brown meant his disqualification and the promotion of Michael Williams and all behind him.

BriSCA F1 Stock Cars
Last year at Arena Essex the BriSCA F1 Stock Cars had to battle with the elements as well as each other, but on June 17 this year they had a good surface and if the weather threatened on a few occasions, it never let go. This meant that the number of BriSCA F1's that attended had unimpeded use of the Purfleet circuit, and the predominantly red and superstar grades wasted no time putting their throaty V8's through their paces, although the meeting was cut by a race due to some no-shows. This gave us two all-in races, a final for the valuable World Qualifier later this year and a Grand National qualifier. It was no surprise that Frankie Wainman Jr. would put in his usual push to the front, his only real opposition on the day coming from ex-F2 supremo Rob Speak, the pair sharing the spoils on the day although things got close between them, especially in the final two laps. Alan England seemed to be the dominant early leader, making a good start in each of his races and, but for the length of the race giving Wainman and Speak time to catch and pass him, might have been the winner of the final. In the end, however, Wainman and Speak shared the heat wins, Wainman tucked in behind Speak as the pair passed the field then poached the lead off an unwary Speak in the final, Speak making do with the Grand National qualifier trophy for his second on the day. Grade awards were given to Rob Cowley and Alan England, while ray Scriven and Derek Wass tied for the White top award.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

Starting grid

Arena Essex hosted this years' British Championship for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, the meeting pulling in the biggest number of hopefuls to date including a few that would normally give tarmac a miss. Notable attendees included 2000 World Champion Daz Kitson who had not graced this circuit since before his win at King's Lynn last year and Bill Batten who first won this trophy back in 1975 and appears on the trophy five times, more times than even Rob Speak.

The meeting was a four heat affair, the grid to be decided by points over two appearances within the four heats, Steve Lawrence taking the early lead in the first race. Chris Roots would provide the first waved yellow caution of the day as he got into a mess by the pit gate while Geoff Coleman provided an aerobatic display on one of the inner kerbs, just avoiding a roll. Tim Farrell was moving through the field very fast with a brace of red tops nipping at his heels, meanwhile Gary Ellis was given a refresher course in the hardness of the Arena Essex armco courtesy of Kitson and Barry Goldin gave Neil Hooper a spinning which collected a number of people behind him including Kitson, Graham Bunter and Ian Thompson Jnr. Farrell was worrying Mark Simpson by the end with a lapping, Goldin and Chris Lindsay following home. Heat 2 was all about Batten and Mick Sworder. The pair had met here before, the last meeting seeing Sworder getting the upper hand but Batten grabbing some glory too, and the pair were at it again now, carving through the field and giving each other some grief too as they went, the pair exchanging places more than once. The lead red, however, was Daniel Rogers who had assumed the position early on, leaving the rest to squabble behind him but losing out mid race, though the battle between Batten and Sworder meant that they were less involved in racing than some of the others, including Bryn Tootle who would not only win this race, but his second heat too. Batten would also lose out here as Sworder got his way to third. However Sworder would not have much more luck than that as, at the start of heat 3, his car gave out on him which allowed Batten to close up on points. The talking point here, however, was Kitson who had not had the best of days. Things took a downturn as Simon McNab locked up with Barry Steven, the stranded Steven then ending up with Kitson diving into the wall, slamming into the fence at the roadway end of the home straight. Tootle would win this race after snatching the lead from early leader Peter Hobbs who held the front for much of the race, Hobbs settling for second ahead of James Thackra. The fourth and final heat was mixed up well due to a spin and stall by Scottie Scotland on the pit bend, whilst Goldin had to try and provide a good placing from the very back after Gordon Moodie sent him into Graham Kelly at the start. Goldin did just that, and if Craig Finniken and Mike James did finish ahead of him, his performance seemed to indicate that he was only denied by time. Certainly it provided him with outside front on the final grid, next to Tootle, and he made the most of that position. The first casualty this time was Kitson whose car was still not right after his crash in the previous heat whilst a crunch seemed inevitable when Graham Fagin got the roadway turn wrong and started collecting. Indeed the fastest car on the circuit had to be Bill Batten who, starting from the tenth row, had beaten up many a driver including Sworder to eventually grab second place while Tootle was rewarded for a consistent days' racing with third place. However there was no getting to Goldin who seemed pleased even as a group of rival fans started to berate him from the start line for his win. There would be no repeat glory for Batten today as he repeated his second place in the Grand National qualifier - another trophy with Battens' name on it many times - this time behind Steve Broomfield, though he left Sworder for dead, as did a number of other drivers before the final chequered flag of the day went out.

Results

Race	Event	Winner	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
0	Ministox 1 W&Y	539 Michael Outen	388	509	564	500	519	527	577	532	502	580	783
1	BriSCA F1 1	515 Frankie Wainman Jr.	318	146	21	51	391	247	293	10	82	155	110
2	Ministox 2 WBR	564 Scott Lock	577	527	532	516	500	587	571	517	177	588	566
3	BriSCA F2 1	667 Tim Farrell	401	210	732	901	622	28	67	747	696	265	467
4	* Race cancelled *
5	BriSCA F2 2	600 Bryn Tootle	99	152	362	553	324	717	12	261	154	512	998
6	Ministox 3 WBR	516 Ray Layton	566	543	592	426	584	177	509	588	201	587	208
7	BriSCA F1 2	318 Rob Speak	247	515	51	21	391	73	H21	33	39	82	155
8	BriSCA F2 3	600 Bryn Tootle	8	324	12	99	167	261	270	667	339	677	622
9	BriSCA F2 4	955 Craig Finniken	717	401	28	512	239	721	998	467	901	15	871
10	BriSCA F1 Final	515 Frankie Wainman Jr.	318	391	146	73	21	51	33	293	10	174	155
11	Ministox Final	571 Sam Warner	543	519*	388	509	516	500	592	532	584	566	201
12	BriSCA F2 British Ch.	401 Barry Goldin	167	600	324	12	622	901	23	339	239	512	717
13	BriSCA F1 GNq	318 Rob Speak	146	21	174	73	293	10	H21	515	155	283	110
14	BriSCA F2 GNq	553 Steve Broomfield	167	324	667	152	955	677	512	622	28	717	901

* Driver disqualified for failing post race checks. All results subject to confirmation by promotion

Pictures from Crashnet

Click on picture to see full size