Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 04/10 Monday, May 3, 2004 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2004 Index > Meeting 04/10

PRI Banger Team Championship Round 2 1300 Stock Cars SuperBangers

Prior to the May 3 meeting, respects were paid to Mick Kavanagh, who was fatally injured in a working accident recently. A member of the Bad Company team, he leaves his partner and two children. The team and other drivers, as well as staff at Arena Essex participated in a minute's silence as a mark of respect to Mick.

PRI Banger Teams
In the last meeting for the PRI Banger Teams at Arena Essex in April, the Gladiators were ahead by one point from the Midnight Runners following an alteration to the result in the final which left the holders, the Condoms, in third spot ahead of Bad Company.

The meeting on May 3, however, would prove somewhat different to that previous meeting. For one thing, it suffered torrential rain which slowed everyone down. For another, it did seem as though some of the teams had changed their agenda since the first round. Certainly things were looking up for the Cream Team with a double for Mark Want, starting in the first heat. In fact it was somewhat ironic that the "Full Wanty" came in ahead of Phil Stevens, a long time Cream Team member who is this year racing for the Condoms! Anthony Oak, racing for Team No Mush, spent much of his time wrecking anything that came his way through this race which saw plenty of wrecking action as well as a full field of qualifiers and a four way tie in the points. This theme of former team mates continued in the second heat as Paul Hunter, these days racing for Bad Company, denied Jason Jackson a win in a race that saw a lot of damage around the pit bend. Rob Farrington won the third heat, a habit he seems to be getting into at these team meetings and something that did his Mushless team no harm at all, though the race did need a restart after Gary Tannahill needed to be retrieved from his wreck at the bridge end. The Creams managed another win in the consolation, this time Charlie Shanahan winning in a race that was typical team consolation fare with plenty of damage to be had, especially the Runners who had either sacrificed themselves or were the victims, including Paul Whiteman who had been taken out of his heat head on by Mark Bonfield and was being liberally spanked about in the consolation. Want didn't rod the final, he did stick in the odd shot including one on Matt Fuller as the remaining Runners appeared to be singled out, almost as if the war of previous years had restarted. However the points mounted up for the Cream Team, Team No Mush benefitting from a second place finish for Gary Brown and would have done better had Farrington managed to maintain his lead in the final - he was taken out in the closing stages first by Dawn Raider Gareth Brett who pinned him to the wall, then by Martin Scully who slammed him from behind, whilst the Condoms had been quietly pulling points in from the lower places to win the round overall and take the lead in the points with one round to go.

The solo Rawlins 2000 event at the end went to Jason Jackson as the Runners got some measure of success from what had been a trying day, though the last car running award went to Darren Nash who outlasted the rest of the field on only three wheels!

1300 Stock Cars
May 3 at Arena Essex was a real task for the 1300 Stock Cars to deal with, the rain making it very difficult to get any traction, not to mention the occasional soaked engine. The first race, a warm-up race, needed restarting after Paul Griffiths and Chris Hunt came to grief in a crash on the home straight that saw Griffiths unable to take any further part although initially he had seemed OK. However the story of the whole meeting was a clean sweep for Barry Radcliffe, winning every single event. Mike Reilly had led most of that first race but was erratic in the wet, eventually asking too much of what grip he had and ended up in the wall, leaving Radcliffe ahead for the first time that day with an easy ride home, while Colin Thorndyke sneaked through past Alec Mortimer to take second place on the line. Reilly again led in the main event by some considerable distance, but Radcliffe reeled him in slowly until, with three laps to go, Radcliffe spun out the front man and took the race. This time Thorndyke had to stay behind Mortimer, mostly as a result of a hard hit which Thorndyke delivered which killed his engine - though he did manage to coast across the line, but they both had James Radcliffe in front of them, making the final a Radcliffe one-two. The lead changed hands a number of times in the helter-skelter, Mortimer and James Radcliffe scrapping over the lead at one point before Barry Radcliffe moved through after Mortimer took a wrong turn. It looked at one point as though Thorndyke moight have won this as he spanked the leader hard into one corner, briefly getting ahead, but overcooking the next bend to fall back again to the second place that he would eventually collect behind Radcliffe and ahead of the other Mortimer, Derek, who had managed to squeeze through to take a late part in the scramble for position.

SuperBangers
The SuperBangers had just as many problems as everyone else keeping it on the racing line as they struggled with the atrocious weather conditions at eh May 3 Arena Essex meeting, each race marked as much by spins and slides as by any real attempt to make something of the race. The first race was led for much of the time by Rob Sterling but was taken close to home by Steve Davies ahead of Lee Morrow. Sterling improved on his place in the sprint race, but he couldn't catch the winner, Phil Butler, as the cars behind managed to get a better piece of each other. John Byrne, in from Belfast to try out the formula, led the final away, but the track was now suffering not only with water but from other deposits from previous races and mistakes were made with cars spinning and colliding around the circuit, especially out of turn four as Lee Morrow took the lead short of half way. Davies tried to catch the lead pair, but ran out of time and had to settle for third behind Butler with Morrow winning, surviving what was a scramble at the end as Malcolm Browne got involved first with a pile up, then got onto Morrow, almost costing him the race but for the gap that the leader had made for himself.

Last car: 203 Darren Nash

Penalties

• B524 Disqualified from meeting for attacking on safety (event 5)
• B480 & B273 Disqualified from meeting pending further penalties for attacking on safety (event 8)

Points after meeting 04/10

Please note that the points shown are unofficial and are given as a guideline only. For the official standings, you should consult the monthly newsletter or contact the PRI Office during office hours on (01708) 867728.

Also see Matthew Bull's website for more pictures from this meeting!

© 2004 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways