Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 03/17 Sunday, June 8, 2003 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2003 Index > Meeting 03/17

Lightning Rods Supreme Championship Qualifiying Round 2 Metro/Fiesta Bangers

The final became a four horse race...

Lightning Rods There was a fair turnout of Lightning Rods for the second qualifier for the Supreme Championships at Arena Essex on June 8, with the newly installed British Champion, Dale Atkins, topping out an impressive lineup of drivers. It proved to be more of a day for the lower grades, however, with Stuart Ruff winning the final after some controversy that eventually saw three drivers ejected from the meeting after the final.

The first heat went to Gary Webb who managed to easily jet away from the pack after the race was delayed mid way, a crash involving Dave Young, Rick Pannell and Steve Jones closing the race up. The second race saw victory for Peter Salter as he fought to stay in front despite much pressure from Vic Bilkey Jr. and, toward the end, Mark Lisowski. The second heat was also delayed following a crash on the back straight when former SuperBanger ace Terry Shelvey was picked up in traffic, turned sideways and crushed into the armco by the pit gate, pretty much ending serious challenges from him for the day.

It was the consolation that saw the first tempers flaring as Michael Sanderson cruised towards the finish only to find the finish came early, Colin Murray and Steve Jones involved in some banger racing on turn three, the reds being brought out when Jones was spun out after some curious tactics, Murray receiving the first load up of the day. Sanderson had easily outpaced Danny Currans by half way to grab the lead, the most promising drive being John Crowther who, had he a little more time, might have caught up to the ex-Ministox driver.

The final started with a crash, sending Webb to the back of the grid as the cars raced away, then slowly became a four horse race as Stuart Ruff grabbed the lead then stuck to the inside line like glue despite all that Chris Chao could do to bring pressure. As the race progressed, Roger Dormer and Paul Hunter also closed up and, but for a quick swapping of places at one point dropping Dormer back behind Hunter, the four front runners raced on ahead, only Lisowski dropping in to stir things up as he recovered from a spin near the race end, a spin that had also involved Mark Mackenzie and consolation winner Sanderson, Lisowski the only one that was left in a position to continue on at that point.

This left the Festival Qualifier, which was to see something of a challenge to everyone as, half way through, the circuit was treated to a cloudburst which slowed the race down to a crawl, though Chao had already managed to grab the lead. The rain saw many a car off, spinning in the slippery conditions, leaving Lisowski the chore of trying to catch up. Lisowski had the skill and speed advantages, but Chao had been motoring hard before the rains hit and this left too much of a margin for Lisowski to catch up on, Chao also making the most of the back markers to slow any challenge down.

Fiesta/Metro Bangers
Neal Gardiner certainly made a good start to his Banger career in the annual Metro/Fiesta Banger Challenge at Arena Essex on June 8 by completing a heat and final double win in a meeting that, while it wasn't the heaviest formula to grace the Purfleet oval, it certainly provided spectacle.

Jack King gets an unwanted passenger...

It was Gardiner that provided the first win of the day, shooting away from the front of the field off the start in the first heat while Sonny Sherwood, currently a the heat of the Drivers' Championship, did his best to grab second from the back. Whilst the race had little contact, what contact there was turned out to set the tone for the day, with the Desert Rat team coming together with the Messers. In the absence of the Runners - Jason Jackson had been planning to race until an accident mid week left him with a broken foot - and the Cream Team, this certainly provided some good wrecks right through the day. This continued into the second heat, though not before the race had to be stopped when day licensed driver Billy Griffiths lost his helmet after being turned sideways down the home straight by the traffic behind him. Craig Hewitt made the most of his position and won out while his car was in one piece - it would finish the day somewhat shorter than it started! Meanwhile Ricky Korpiela did his best to wreck the Rats out of the race and almost succeeded, especially after jacking David Harris after a lengthy war of attrition around the other wrecks, but failed to stop Paul Chapman who used a little crafty driving to escape through the scrapyard and on to a place in the final.

Neal Wells had not been able to restart in the second heat due to a flat tyre, so he had his chance to get into the final in the consolation. He certainly took that chance, though his win was hardly the talking point of the race as it had to be stopped when, following a succession of crashes out of turn four, Billy Kavanagh bounced off the back of the abandoned Andy Swift car and rolled onto its roof, shortly followed by Rob Broughton who failed to steer clear in time and drove into the tailgate of the prone car. Neither driver was hurt, though both looked dazed as they were extracted from their respective wrecks, but more than one person remarked on the likeness of the rolled car, once righted, to an advert concerning remodelling a car with an elephant! This was hardly the last hit of the race; amongst others Simon Turner performed a big t-bone on Bill Wenham by the Tavern, but it was certainly the most memorable.

Colin Voller was the leader at the start of the final, Roy Laybourn already having a scrap while Gardiner decided to try his contact skills on Dan Weller. Laybourn probably never expected to end up where he did, but then it is likely that Jack King never expected it either when Laybourn was firmly mounted on top of his bonnet, the two drivers wrestling their cars for the next few minutes until King finally managed to pull his front end out from under Laybourns' rear end. Voller didn't hang on to the lead though, and dropped out of the result while Gardiner repeated his success from his heat ahead of Richie Ahern and Simon Warner. Possibly the most distressed car by the end had to be Hewitt's half-a-Metro, which had been considerably shortened by the time he ploughed it down the home straight the wrong way to kill it and the oncoming Mark Newman Fiesta, a Boxer Jack contribution.

The wrecking in the Rawlins qualifier got under way early, but Kelly Wilson managed to keep it together for the first past the post award ahead of Andrew Davies who, once the chequered flag went down, spun the Gladiator Queen. Retaliation was inevitable and Wilson took her wreck and gave Davies the Purfleet kiss, killing both cars off while Ian Smith took on Brad Theaker and lost in a final frontal assault, Theaker limping away for the last car award.

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: 317 Brad Theaker

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