Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 03/04 Sunday, March 30, 2003 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2003 Index > Meeting 03/04

National Bangers Group A Hot Rods Outlaw Hot Rods

The March 30 meeting at Arena Essex started with the sad news of the death of Dom Tomlinson, a long time fan and participant at Arena Essex. Dom had raced his Group A Hot Rod right up to the end of the 2002 season whenever his health permitted, but eventually lost his battle with cancer. Rob and Alison Tomlinson, in an email sent via Crashnet, thanked the spectators and staff of PRI for the tribute paid at the start of the meeting, which included a minutes' silence as a mark of respect to a brave young person.

The Arena Essex March 30 meeting was a surprise in many ways, with more cars turning up than anyone expected. How much of this was due to recent events, the upcoming memorial meeting or the ongoing wars, nobody was quite sure, but it did lead to an extra race being added to the meeting, with the final changing to a qualifiers only event. Whatever the reason behind so many people making an appearance, the wars continued and the hits piled up right through the meeting, though Mushy's winning streak was about to come to an end.

Anyone that had seen the grand parade, which was laughably small that day, might not be blamed for being somewhat incredulous about the numbers in the pits but the first race, with more than thirty cars in it, was pretty much the norm for the day, even after some heavy wrecking; the pit crews doing their usual job of resurrecting the remains. The day would be made even more interesting as a result of the rumour that the ongoing war between the Cream Team and the Midnight Runners had taken a twist. Earlier in the season, a third team, the Silent Heroes, had taken the Cream side and had bashed the Runners with a will, but it now seemed that the Creams did not want any help. The rumour was that the Creams would bash any other team that interfered, and this rumour certainly seemed to have a basis after the demise of the Heroes in the previous weeks' All-Sierra action. This week, however, it was the turn of the Heroes new second team, still officially nameless, to find out how true this rumour was.

The first race, therefore, saw the opening rounds of this increasingly convoluted war, with the first few laps marked by crashes right round the circuit which left plenty of casualties, including Tony Green who was caught by his back end on the pit bend kerb. This made the bend somewhat narrower, and this was made worse when Paul Whiteman shoved Bernie French into Greig Cheeseman on the fence at the pit end, Tom McGurk pushing Whitemans' tail end skyward with a big hit before Billy Lee put Jimmy Randall round, Terry Watkinson doing unto Randall from the backside. This whole run of hits would be topped off with what had to be the biggest hit of the meeting; a double shunt by Randall and Billy King up the diff end of the Watkinson car, destroying the back end. This would see a load up for King as he started his wrong way run from the safety area. Meanwhile Paul Dobson stayed clear of the destruction for his first win of the year followed by old Squad man Roger Trickett, with Chris Trickett behind him.

Heat two, effectively the extra race of the day, would follow a similar formula to the first. While Simon Smith got another win ahead of Chris Clark and John Randall, the race was remembered for its hitting. Indeed the Runners did well from this heat while the Creams cleaned house, though not all the Hero contingent seemed to be bothering in the war. Certainly Bob Dunn, making a rare appearance trackside, stayed fairly clear of the battle action for now, though there was no guarantee that this would stay that way. The Creams didn't have a lot of luck in this race, with two cars knocked out early on as the home straight, then the second corner turned into a salvage yard, and the third, John Harding, was let down by his car, limping off with barely a mark on it. Almost forgotten in all this was another battle that was played out opposite the Raceway Tavern as Jack Overy and Shane Davies exchanged head ons down to the red flag.

The scheduled second race became a consolation, though a few drivers made the mistake of coming out having already qualified (that's what you get for not going to the drivers' briefing!) Having cleared off the few qualifiers and pulled on the remaining cars that could still make any sort of move, the race got going. Shane Davies took quite a risk in this race, having demolished the front end in his head on battle with Jack Overy in his heat, the remains had pretty much nothing to protect itself in front and was leaking profusely! On he went though. First blood went to Jackson as he crushed the Harding car, with Roy Rawlins also involved, though his car still had life left following this crash, even if it didn't have much in the way of steering. At the opposite end of the circuit there was plenty of wrecking action involving, among others, Tony Green, though Daniel Douglas was to feel the wrath of the steward for attacking the wrong way. Mark Marchant would also suffer this way after a hard attack on Roy Laybourn, but twelve drivers would survive for the final, led home by Andy Ashman.

There seemed to be an air of expectancy in the final. The first three meetings had all seen final wins for Sonny Sherwood, and all seemed set for another Mushy win, but oval racing doesn't work that way. Sherwood never even finished the race, ending up instead in a massive chicane of twisted wreckage at the top of the home straight that had started with a single put in on the fence. The race went on and the pile got higher, including a big jacking for Gary Staples from Simon Smith following a tap from behind by Staples on Ian Smith. With the gap getting smaller, Sherwood missed the gap and swung round, then decided to go for a little light wrecking, getting John Randall at first time of asking. Randall didn't let it go though, ambushing Mushy shortly afterwards, but the race win was out of reach by then, Roger Trickett taking the big trophy this time ahead of Jason Jackson who had made the most of the Creams' distraction and Frankie Skinner, who had more to come that day.

The last race of the day, as usual, was the race we tend to refer to as the DD, more formally known as the Rawlins 2000 Qualifier, though it usually has plenty of wrecking action for those that crave some big contact, and this race did not disappoint. Starting with the inevitable Overy/Davies crunch, the field exploded in a frenzy of destruction, though the action stopped again soon after as Phil Stevens was badly hit. He emerged unscathed but the hit was a big one, and the remaining cars, held off while Stevens got out, decided to dispense with the services of the ambulance and walked from the circuit for attention at the first aid post! The cars restarted, there was no let-up in the wrecking as Simon Warner did unto Green what Green had done unto more than one car in the final while Matt Fuller, Roy Laybourn and Paul Whiteman ended up embedding themselves in each other. The race ran down, Harry Rawlins grabbing the family trophy with Sherwood and Skinner in tow before the destruction started in earnest, though the eventual result of that, a tie for Mushy and Frankie, was fair enough as the pair feebly batted at each other following the expiry of everyone else.

It seemed fitting that the first race of the day at Arena Essex on March 30 was a Group A race following the tributes to Dom Tomlinson, though the racing was as hot as ever. This proved to be Chris Smith's day, his car running well after a couple of weeks' attention following its problems in its first showing, though the Groom Motorsport team had plenty to celebrate too, and not just in the A's!

With the usual white top squabble, the first race got under way with Ian Jardine making a dash for the front as the field rounded the first bend. That was about as good as it got for Jardine, though, as he spun off half a lap later with Billy Groom right behind him. Dave Brown took over at this point and made a good race of it, eventually losing out to Steve Gooch but retaining second place, Gooch winning what was a gruelling heat. Jason Griffiths was passed by Gooch mid-race but held on for third while Dave Lamb made up for his disastrous exit from the second meeting of the year with a fast run from the back to fourth.

Lee Hall started the second heat with an enormous drift. This is obviously something he will need to sort out, as drifting in Hot Rods isn't a particularly good idea and, seemingly with continued difficulties controlling the car, he eventual spun off and out of contention. It was down to Paul Haralambou to show the most promise, his own cornering technique in question at the previous time of asking but now showing marked improvement as he controlled the majority of the race, though he would eventually succumb to Chris Smith. A crash on the back straight would claim Darren Read, who had done well for himself at his first outing of the year, meeting with Nichola Bearman, both unhurt but effectively out of the race, though Bearman would recover for the next heat and even take a few points away with her. Smith eventually made up the gap, passed Haralambou and took the trophy with three laps to spare, while Mick Collins had to settle for third spot.

And so to the third heat, and Smith was quickly up again, though Haralambou and Ray Layton made good early attempts at the front. Layton would eventually drop away, the old Fiesta lash up unequal to the task of twenty hard laps near the front which was a pity considering the promising performance otherwise shown by the ex-Ministox regular. Haralambou stayed the course pretty well, letting only Ricky McCatty and eventual winner Smith through, though all three were well spread by the end. The cars behind seemed to be having a war of their own, Bearman clashing at one point with Ian Heffernan while Steve Smith got a warning for his nudges on the cars ahead of him.

Chris Smith would start the final at the back of the blue grade for his double heat winning efforts. He slid off early on and retired soon after; the car would have to be suspected. Ian Simpson and Paul Haralambou made early progress, though Simpson would not stay the pace. An early spin for Carl Steptoe meant that his awful day continued, though he managed to claw back to tenth so that the day wasn't a total loss. With the residue of the previous Banger action all over turn four, everyone had to be careful not to emulate the spin, and this caused a few place changes including the demise of the Maryland Mini and its driver, Simon Simmons, and eventually allowed Jason Griffiths to pass Simpson and jet away, Gooch and Matt Haines following in their own good time, though the way in which Gooch squeezed through Haines and Simpson was what put Simpson out of the race. Dave Lamb was getting used to his new car following the destruction of his previous steed in the last meeting and managed a creditable fourth ahead of Haralambou, a real improvement for the former Rabbit, though the race finished prematurely when Steve Smith drove straight into the wall, totalling his car.

The Groom Motorsport team had been planning an entry into the Outlaw Hot Rod world for some time and when Clinton Groom first drove up for his first meeting, it had been an unremarkable first attempt by the former Group A man, but the improvement in a short couple of weeks was obvious as he took the main event trophy at the Arena Essex March 30 meeting.

The warm up race, however, showed a good performance by the distinctive Puma conversion of Terry Bell. Bell seemed to show quite a bit of power and maybe a little more experience as he picked off the early front runners. The front of the race sorted itself out pretty quickly, though the back end became hotly contested as the race spread out, Wayne Souter dropping out shortly before half way, while Philip Mansell would also drop from the race following a spin out. Bell would win comfortably from Groom, while Dave Hitchen made a mighty effort to get to third and might have done better had he the time.

Dave Fry would probably have loved to repeat his success in the final from the first Outlaw meeting, but had to sit it out. His only appearance on the day was in the practice laps before the meeting during which his engine blew. Quite who we expected to win the final was something that nobody was saying, but certainly nobody expected the Clinton Groom machine to go quite so quickly although, on reflection, perhaps we shouldn't have been so surprised. Groom managed to get past Terry Spooner before jetting away with Bell on his tail, Spooner having to settle for fourth as the Ringwood traveller, Lee Fisher, got past him later on. Most of the action at the front was over before half way, but the battle at the back went right through the race. It was inevitable that some would not last the distance; Philip Mansell found things too rough and ended up going off after one too many spins, while John Stringer, who had not been having a good day, also ran off with problems under the cover. The whole battle settled in behind Fisher, but got no further than that, while Groom sped away from Bell and everyone else for his first trophy in a two litre machine. He certainly seemed pleased about it!

Spooner took the lead early on in the Festival qualifier, the last race of te day for the Outlaws and never lost it, though more than one fancied car ended up in a smash on the home straight including the luckless Mansell and the previous Festival qualifier winner, Julian Scott. Hitchen grabbed second ahead of Alex MacLean, whose third place was his best finish that day.

Where shown below, "NOCR" indicates "No Other Car Running". All results are subject to confirmation by the steward and promoter of the meeting.

Last car: 348 Sonny Sherwood/193 Frankie Skinner

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