Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 05/30 Sunday, September 4, 2005 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2005 Index > Meeting 05/30

Ladies Banger Championship Final Plastengrave Non-Ford Bangers Group A Hot Rods Supreme Championship Qualifying Round 3 1300 Stock Cars

Ladies Bangers
Most of the qualifiers for the Ladies Banger Championship final at Arena Essex on September 4 turned up, though there were a couple of dropout including Lynda Beaumont who had to miss the race due to injury. In fact, the race almost ended in tragedy itself as Sue Davies managed to roll her car onto its roof midway through the race, which meant an ordered restart which favoured defending champion Kelly Wilson who had managed to get to second place from the very back, challenging early leader Stacey Smith. The challenge didn't last long as Kelly shot past Stacey shortly after the restart and, though Stacey stayed in touch to the very end, she was unable to get close enough to make any difference to the result as Kelly Wilson retained the Ladies title, Stacey Smith settling for second with Claire West in third.

Non-Ford Bangers
Billy Standing showed that he is certainly a good prospect for the future as he managed a double in the Non-Ford Banger meeting at Arena Essex on September 4. Standing, who moved up to Bangers from the Ministox formula this year where he was a former drivers' champion, took the curtailed second heat which had to be stopped after one two many meetings head-on between Harry Rawlins and Gary Brown caused a flame up on turn two, then he won the final which was also interrupted, the crashes of the first section causing a complete restart which was much tamer, though Gary Greenland, Mark Ruskin and Ian Greatrex did provide some wrecking action on the back straight. The first heat was a fairly quiet win for RDC visitor Colin Boswell, whilst Lightning Rod Supreme Final pole sitter, Stuart Ruff, took the consolation race and Phillip Smith took another Rawlins 2000 Qualifier trophy, Dave Osborn just grabbing the last car award to make it into the final the hard way.

Group A Hot Rods
After his triple win over the bank holiday, only a brave man would have betted against Dave Lamb to win most of the trophies at the last Supreme Championship qualifier for the Group A Hot Rods at Arena Essex on September 4 though, as the meeting went on, it appeared that more than one driver was keen to make a mark on the meeting and grab as many points towards getting a good grid position on the big day.

One such person was veteran Group A driver Alan Thorndyke who had managed to get a maximum points haul at the previous qualifying round in his distinctive Citroen AX conversion. He came close to another win in the first heat of the day, latching onto the tail of Lamb as the pair swept past the early leaders for a convincing finish, Steve Gooch taking third in the distance.

Thorndyke was even closer in the second heat as he challenged Mark Nicholls for the lead only to find Chris Smith slipping past them both to take the win, Thorndyke having to take second again, though he did beat Lamb home.

The third heat proved to be a classic battle between team mates Clinton Groom and Steve Gooch, the pair battling fiercely through the field from the back of the grid, even second heat winner Smith unable to get the better of the pair as they came home, Groom ahead of Gooch.

Groom seemed a likely winner as he got to the front of the final, only to be black-flagged due to the way he managed to get to the front, which left a cluster of red tops at the front, each bent on getting the final twenty points. It was left to an inspired passing technique by Thorndyke followed by a determined effort to stay ahead that got him his win, Jason Griffiths unable to pass in second place with Smith in third, Lamb settling for fourth.

Griffiths had managed to get his place in the final following a revision of an earlier decision from the second heat where he, Andy Beverton and a number of other cars including Gary Rouse, had all come together around the pit bend, Griffiths originally disqualified for deliberate contact but, after some investigation and a number of protests, Griffiths was reinstated to sixth place in that race, Beverton judged instead as the guilty party and disqualified.

1300 Stock Cars
Terry Reynolds got his first 1300 Stock Car wins in the September 4 meeting at Arena Essex in a meeting that featured a somewhat disastrous appearance in that formula for former World Champion banger man Dennis Whiteman. Reynolds pulled down a win in the warm-up race with a classic white top dash, leaving second place Paddy Palmer with too much distance to make up. Reynolds repeated the feat in the main event, again leaving Palmer too much to do. Palmer got his revenge, however, by taking the helter-skelter race, Reynolds having the privilege of starting at the back of the field and getting a lofty tenth place by the end. Whiteman only managed to finish one race, that being the helter-skelter where he came in sixth. He was driving Lee Palmers' car, Palmer Jr. unable to race due to injuries sustained the previous day, but the car seemed to be missing its normal pilot as it conked out short of the finish on two occasions.

Last car: 174 David Osborn

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

© 2005 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways