Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 05/31 Sunday, September 11, 2005 Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2005 Index > Meeting 05/31

Lightning Rods Sierra Supreme Championships Rising Stars Bangers Outlaw Hot Rods

The meeting began with a tribute to Reg Thomas, who died the previous week. Reg, once known for his racing at Crayford amongst other places, was more recently connected with the building and maintaining of various lightning rod cars, including Brian Thomas and John Christie's cars, both on show during the minutes' silence before the Sierra Supreme Championship 2005. Reg had been suffering from cancer.

Lightning Rods
This years' Sierra Supreme Championship at Arena Essex, September 11, saw an unpredictable race which eventually gave victory to Trevor Draynor. With some of the fancied drivers out of the running, including Terry Shelvey and Richard Norman - both serving bans, as well as Garry Deacon and Jai Summers, both race winners in previous meetings, the race was fairly open, though it didn't seem beyond the capability of either front row driver to make it to the end but, with roughly half the race run, and having spent at least two laps trying to brush off Richard Anderson at the start, Stuart Ruff was unceremoniously spun off the lead, allowing Draynor to get through whilst Paul Harris was left to suffer the wrath of the steward after a promising start to the race on the outside, as usual. It also allowed time for Mark Mackenzie and Dale Atkins to catch up from their less favoured positions on the start grid, leading to a very close end to the race with Draynor eventually coming under pressure from Mackenzie and Atkins, whilst outside front row man Anderson stayed up with the front runners, occasionally threatening to pick off a place but never quite managing to hold on.

Mackenzie would later take a win of his own in the first support race, picking his way inside Sonny Sherwood to win a race that saw quite a few mishaps, whilst Alfie Smith would double the meeting with the second support race falling to him after early leader Andy Oliver ended his run early physically stuck to the side of challenger Darrell Smith, then Smith took the allcomers' race and the order to paint the roof in a race made relatively slow by a mid-meeting rain shower.

Bangers
With rather changeable weather throughout the meeting and a fair amount of missing experience, it came as no surprise that the Rising Stars meeting at Arena Essex on September 11 was more about the crashes than any particular racing exploit, especially the final which saw forty-five cars start but only two finish. Indeed it was difficult to know where to look with so many crashes going on, both ends filling up with wrecks to the point that the bridge bend looked blocked as the two last cars tried to get through. The race was eventually decided as Lee Callis provided some extra emphasis on Buzz Kelseys' attempts to clear a path on the tarmac, which meant that he cut one less corner than Darren Fuller, Kelsey not getting much further than that. Wayne Byrne denied Paul Cadwallader the win in the first race, stealing the win inside the final lap, a similar story in the second race which was fairly pedestrian until the line when Lee Hackett was stopped in the dross, which let Kevin Lee through for his first ever win. Steve Wilson won the bedraggled but still surprisingly well attended Rawlins 2000 qualifier with Jim Harding just surviving the destruction section by firing up and moving just a couple of inches in a multiple pile-up on the home straight.

Outlaw Hot Rods
The Outlaw Hot Rod meeting on September 11 at Arena Essex was spoiled by the weather, a mid-meeting downpour slowing the racing down, though the first race did go off in the dry, Tony Moss jetting past Stu Hammond on the outside to win comfortably. Chris Wood took this second race, delayed when the rain started so that the Rods could change the running gear for wet weather, allowing the bangers out for an early final, but with the track soaked, there was little real action as Simon Smith won the main event, Moss holding Hammond off at a safe distance.

Last car: 249 Jim Harding

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

© 2005 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways