Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 05/22 Sunday, July 17, 2005 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2005 Index > Meeting 05/22

PRI Banger Team Championship Round 4 1300 Stock Cars Outlaw Hot Rods

PRI Banger Teams
An extra heat was added to the preliminary rounds for the PRI Banger Tem Championships and, seeing as they had won the other three, it would be interesting to see if anyone would attempt to stop the Gravesend Condoms from completely white (or pink) washing the series. It was also crunch time for the teams around tenth place, with four teams in the running for the last two places.

The first race was a decided victory for Gary Brown, getting the Creams off to a good start, though the Menace managed to snatch an early lead courtesy of Skippy Holton and Ray Layton, whilst the wrecking was mostly about the continuing saga of the Ratwar as Ricky Korpiela and Darren Nash decided to give Roy Laybourn a squashing on the pit turn after Laybourn turned to take on Korpiela. The second race was fairly straightforward with Paul Russell winning for the second time in as many weeks, whilst Ivan Clarke must have been gutted as he led most of the third heat only to clip Phil Pratchett on the pit bend right at the end, droppng him down to tenth, Mark Woolner and Chris Worthington taking maximum points for the Menace.

The final started with a real bang as Layton turned on turn one then took the whole home straight to wind up for a head on, taking Stuart Clarke out. With the various spoiler teams such as the Gigglers and the Rats out of the way, the race was wide open with everyone a target, but with Woolner taking the win to put the Southend Menace in third spot, Matt Fuller leading home the Runners, the only team to get all six cars into the final, pulling up to get a respectable second, the Condoms inexplicably making up the points to grab a fourth successive win, although Rob Farrington spent quite some time in the fence on turn one courtesy of Jason Jackson and Andrew Davies decided to stir up his hot rod image a little too.

With the Messers and Bursta Bloodvessel teams failing to score (or even show up in some cases), the Ant Hill Mob and the Wrekin Krew consolidated their points to take the ninth and tenth places. The qualifiers for the Final Eliminator on August 21 are; Condoms, Cream Team, EastEnders, Menace, Bad Company, Midnight Runners, Gladiators, Dregs, Wrekin Krew and Ant Hill Mob. The first reserve team will be Messers, followed by Bursta Bloodvessel, with Team Lovely being the only other team scoring during the series.

The Rawlins Qualifier turned out to be another show event for the defending team champions, the Gladiators, as Phillip Smith jetted home first before most of the other cars pulled out or just stopped working, the last car running award split between Danny Oliver and Paul Dobson following one last - and somewhat fiery - head on by the pits.

1300 Stock Cars
If James Radcliffe had a triumphant return to the Arena Essex circuit in the first race on July 17, brother Barry certainly had the opposite after being carried into the first turn in a fence-breaking shunt before getting a stewards warning for htting the stationary Clark Wells car on turn two. Paul Griffiths also had mixed fortunes, leading at one point, finishing without his bonnet in third behind Gavin Griffiths in one of the liveliest races this year. Griffiths P and G were two of many that ended up dropping out of the main event as Brian Davidson won by some distance from James Radcliffe, Butch also ending up in trouble again over on turn two. A reduced field came out for the helter-skelter, but there was still plenty to see as Lee Palmer took the win ahead of Gavin Griffiths, with Barry Radcliffe getting his best run of the day in third whilst Neal Wells went for a two point roll on the centre green, saluting the crowds as he walked away from his upturned car.

Outlaw Hot Rods
A very hot day for the Outlaw Hot Rods at Arena Essex on July 17 saw a promising start for Tony Moss end in catastrophe as the day wore on, als providing some startling action for all concerned. Tony Moss won a flag to flag victory in the first heat, new bug Billy Wood pushing all the way but unable to find a viable line past. Wood was one of a number of cars that would drop out of the second race, in his case due to engine trouble in the heat of the day, others such as Ross Ayling getting caught up with Alan White to hit the fence. Paul Simmons also getting into trouble as his battle with Moss got a bit too close on the inside of the pit bend, only eight cars surviving to the race end, led by Simon Smith ahead of Warren Farazmand. Everything seemed to go wrong as Moss, having managed to grab pole position, dumped his sump around the entire circuit, leaving Smith to restart as pole leader. He did well until the closing stages when he also suddenly dropped out, leaving Chris Wood to hold Stu Hammond off for the final trophy, only seven cars finishing.

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

© 2005 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways