Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 05/04 Monday, March 28, 2005 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2005 Index > Meeting 05/04

PRI Banger Team Championship Q/R 1 SuperBangers 1300 Stock Cars

PRI Banger Teams
The Gladiators started their defence of the PRI Banger Team title at Arena Essex on March 28, though the gossip was more about the threats of war that were to possibly consume the meeting. A lot of new teams made their first appearance, whilst a few old teams were merged, for example the Cowboys were now racing in Cream colours. There was also a minimal Condom presence following their victory at Mildenhall on Good Friday.

Danny Brown finished first in the truncated first heat, cut short due to a loose tyre. There was plenty of wrecking action on turn four as Jason Jackson and Jimmy Randall foughht off the combined attentions of the Rats, the Desert Rats and the Gigglers; the two Runners managed to survive, although they didn't pick any points up, though the team that benefitted most was the Cream Team, thanks to the efforts of the Deacon brothers. The second heat was stopped as well, though it was restarted in order following an awesome t-bone of Guy Edwards on turn three by Paul Whiteman and a number of oncomng cars from the back straight. Whiteman recovered to put the former holders in the points for the first time, though the biggest race was for the trophy as Darren Jones went wide on turn four but just managed to hold off Shane Collins on the line by a nose. The third heat started with a real bang, although it didn't really go much as far as hits went, Stephen Carter pinning one unlucky soul on the home straight for Ian Smith to charge straight through from the wrong end of the home straight. There were a few other hits but little more after that as Karl Douglas took the race trophy and the Condoms extended their lead, which was further extended in the final when Rob Farrington inexplicably found his way to the front towards the end of the race after Douglas had been in control early on in a relatively crash free race.

The final was a runaway success for the Condoms as the EastEnders seemed to fail as the race went on, either through direct intervention or, so it seemed, by just plain bad luck as cars fell apart. Farrington bettered his score in the final, taking the trophy away and picking up the lions' share of the massive points haul to make the Condoms the winners of round one. The race itself was fairly unremarkable, most of the cars preferring to rod for points. The same could not be said of the final event of the day, however, as the remaining cars amassed on the circuit including Ian Smith who had managed to appear in every single banger event that day, providing some of the best crashes and picking up his place in the Rawlins final in October in a manner befitting such an achievement, as one of the two last cars, Smith finalling coming to a stop in a head on by the pits, taking Danny McCormack along for the ride following a race win by Paul Hunter.

SuperBangers
The first meeting of the year for the SuperBangers at Arena Essex, March 28, started with a win for Keith Wildman ahead of former Banger World Champion Vince Wolf, making his first appearance for some time at the circuit. In fact, the pairing of Vince Wolf and Steve Davies in the second sprint heat provided for plenty of interest as the pair fought it out for the minor places behind Nigel Weeks and Roger Trickett, whilst Wildman ran away with the race, getting a promotion to yellow grade after winning both of the heats. It was only a matter of time, however, before former Banger World Champion Wolf found his way to the front, leading the cars home in a fast and furious final.

1300 Stock Cars
Picking up where he left off the previous week, Clark Wells won two of the three races for the 1300 Stock Cars at Arena Essex, March 28, in a meeting somewhat bereft of cars due to the actions of various drivers in that same meeting before Easter. A new name took the trophy in the final as Billy Kavanagh overtook Chris Hunt early on and held out for the win, father and son Paddy and Lee Palmer running through from the back to get third and fourth, unable to do better as the race ran out.

Last car: 336 Ian Smith/457 Danny McCormack

Team points

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Also see Matthew Bull Photography for official photos of this meeting.

© 2005 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways