Arena Essex - ae0227

Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 02/27 Sunday, August 18, 2002

Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2002 Index > Meeting 02/27

Lightning Rods Rawlins Transport Supreme Q/R 3
BriSCA F2 Stock Cars
National Bangers

In Brief

A scorchingly hot Sunday at Arena Essex on August 18 saw some great action on the Purfleet tarmac, including double wins in the BriSCA F2's, extra action for the Lightning Rods as the last Rawlins Transport Supreme Qualifier proved popular enough to add a race and the Bangers included a blast from the past and the latest round of the Cream/Runner war.

There was a surprisingly good turnout for the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars given the number of meetings around the country, and whilst Peter Hobbs managed to get a double win with a heat and the Grand National qualifier, Mick Sworder went one better by winning the other heat and final. Andy Maynard also took a lap of honour at the start of racing following his Isle of Man victory. Possibly the most promising performance of the day, however, was David Polley who led the most laps of the day, despite not getting a victory - second being his best result behind Sworder in the second heat.

It was a day of surprise wins and crashes in the Lightning Rods, with Martin Cookman and Martyn Jones grabbing heat trophies whilst Mick Thompson, betrayed by his car in his heat which he almost won, had to settle for second in the consolation behind Chris Garry. The biggest surprise was left for Dave Meningen who was awarded the trophy for the final after Paul Harris, who finished first, was docked a place for avoidable contact, one of three drivers to suffer this penalty in a meeting that wasn't short of a few crashes - John Christie and Paul Hollands were both sent to the wall during the meeting as was Rob Deville and Chris Chao. Mick Mulcahy took a win in a helter-skelter race at the end of the meeting.

If team wars have become popular at Arena Essex, it has to be a result of team wars gone by, and if we expected to see the Cream Team and the Midnight Runners have it off, we certainly did not expect to see a Suicide Squad car on the track, but that is exactly what we saw as Den Whiteman made a now rare outing in colours, only to be trashed in a head-on from Shane Davies of the Creams. However, with the blast from the past out of the way and Whiteman unable to get his lump going, it was business as usual with the best shot of the day coming from Paul Whiteman, though credit would possibly be given to Frank Skinner who picked Whiteman Jr. up and pushed him full speed down the home straight, right up the tailpipe of John Harding who was totally unprepared for the shunt, exchanging shots with Mark Newman at the time. Having said all that, the events were full of good contact, and some good racing too with Sonny Sherwood returning to winning ways with a close race in the final, winning over Bradley Hampton and Paul Eve, with heat wins to Mick Bradbury and Jimmy Randall. Sherwood also won the Rawlins 2000 qualifier before the DD produced a four way wrecking session which was won by Len Brinkley.

Results

1. Lightning Rods Heat 1	238 Martin Cookman	229	225	187	195	272	118	166
2. Lightning Rods Heat 2	232 Martyn Jones	161	299	212	245	170	201	107
3. BriSCA F2 Heat 1	8 Peter Hobbs	152	134	38	657	15	277	154	628	30
4. Bangers Heat 1	308 Mick Bradbury	345	57	462	348	383	23	72
5. Lightning Rods Consolation	144 Chris Garry	167	169	233	266	153	231	121
6. BriSCA F2 Heat 2	152 Mick Sworder	38	277	657	261	134	8	154	237	628
7. Bangers Heat 2	208 Jimmy Randall	597	19	163	129	203	253	49
8. Lightning Rods FINAL	170 Dave Meningen	225	229	161	169	266	272	233
9. BriSCA F2 FINAL	152 Mick Sworder	261	134	38	657	8	30	154	511	237
10. Bangers FINAL	348 Sonny Sherwood	341	163	203	23	169	345	193
11. Lightning Rods H/S	229 Mick Mulcahy	237	225	161	212	166	187	299
12. BriSCA F2 GNq	8 Peter Hobbs	657	261	154	38	15	362	30	152	511
13. Bangers R2Kq	348 Sonny Sherwood	32	247

Last car running: 169 Len Brinkley

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Crashnet Photos

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Also don't forget to see Matthew Bull's website for more photo action from this meeting! Click here