The first meeting of the season at Arena Essex got under way on March 14 in atrocious conditions, the rain having soaked the track. It continued to do so right through the meeting, making handling difficult for the Lightning Rods and Non-Ford Bangers alike, over 140 cars in total showing up on the day, including a few unexpected visitors.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the Lightning Rods were dominated by Banger ace Jack Overy, but the results hide the fact that he had to work hard for every point. Though each race could hardly be called fast given the conditions, they were certainly close, with Mick Collins putting in some stunning performances through the day that eventually earned him the win in the Helter- Skelter, whilst Rick Pannell got the better of Lightning Rod rookie Matt Bull, he of the photography, to grab the initial heat. Matt himself probably could have picked a better day for his debut, but he did manage to stay ahead of the field for a sizeable chunk of the first race before he was passed and eventually spun himself on the home straight, a trick he repeated in the consolation which was won by Gavin Cocks. The lions' share of the points and a grade promotion, however, went to Overy with a heat and final win plus third place in the Helter-Skelter from the back of the field.

The Plastengrave Non-Ford Bangers, however, made the most of the weather, especially in the Rawlins 2000 Qualifier when over 40 competitors did their best to clog the home straight. It seems that the banger folk were certainly eager enough, with three heats full of promise including some interesting material including Paul Korpiela and his MG hard top and the Hillman Minx of Luke Radley. The MG faired indifferently, and the Minx was a tad slow, though it did put in a few tries on stuff that was even slower - not that fast but built like a tank! Heat wins went to Anthony Oak, Andy Crawford and Mark Want while Paul Ruskin returned to do his bit in the consolation, Gary Brown picking up the final ahead of Jason Jackson who had an interesting day of it, winning the Rawlins qualifier before his teammates conspired to give his rear end a thorough jacking! Possibly the performance of the day came from Charlie Cumber who slammed Kevin Lee in the rear on turn three in his heat only to be squashed later in the meeting into something close to half the size it was at the start.

Plastengrave Non-Ford Bangers

Yokohama Tyres Lightning Rods