Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 05/28 Sunday, August 28, 2005 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2005 Index > Meeting 05/28

Outlaw Hot Rods British Open Championship Lightning Rods English Championship Group A Hot Rods Groom Motorsport Millenium 50

Group A Hot Rods
Maybe there was a jinx on the Group A Hot Rod formula as they turned out for the unexpected running of the Groom Motorsport Millennium Trophy meeting at Arena Essex on August 28, as more than one race ended up in tatters following somebody's misfortune, though it worked out just right for Dave Lamb who managed to triple the meeting with a double heat and final win to become this years' holder of the title.

Indeed it wasn't long after Lamb wrested the lead from Mark Nicholls close to the end of the first race that it all started to go wrong, a pile up on turn three bringing the race up short of its full length. Nicholls had been under some pressure from James Newins until Dave Hutchins caught up and shunted in his efforts to take the lead, causing both to drop from the front before Lamb came forward to take the lead and the subsequent trophy. Ian Jardine made a valiant attempt to hold on to the second heat, but eighteen laps in front just wasn't enough as Lamb swept through again for another victory, leaving his charge a little late after a log jam of red tops at the start of the event. Nicholls and Hutchins would be at each other all day, and the final heat was no different as Hutchins caught and passed Nicholls, though his spell at the front was brief indeed as Chris Smith shot past him to take the only winners' trophy of the day in the Group A formula that Lamb didn't get a hand on.

The final was coming down to a classic battle as Jason Griffiths took the lead, Dave Lamb chasing hard and catching with five laps to go. Then the jinx came in again, this time courtesy of the Paul Smith car which blew up spectacularly on turn four, causing a number of cars to spin. All this right in front of the lead cars! Griffiths ended up spinning into the wall, though he managed to recover quickly enough, but Lamb sailed through to take the main trophy of the day. Chris Smith, who last held this trophy in 2003, came home in third spot.

Outlaw Hot Rods
With a good turnout of visitors to supplement the regular Outlaw Hot Rod drivers, the August 28 British Open Championship turned out to be one of the best Outlaw meetings this year at Arena Essex, with the title going to Stu Hammond this year in his distinctive Audi TT conversion.

The day seemed to favour Tony Moss, especially after his emphatic win in the first race ahead of Chris Wood in a race that had been dominated by Rod Brewer following a messy start. Sixth place was all Moss needed to grab pole position in the final from a more pedestrian second heat. However, the messy start of the first heat was just a prelude to the turn two pile up of the final which saw visitor Donna Spratt retire from the race with the back end of her car totally destroyed, whilst Moss would also have to drop from the race with mechanical problems. This left Hammond in control of the race from that point until the end, last years' champion Fred Smith unable to close on him with Phil Dicker, winner of the second heat, in third place.

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

© 2005 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways