Arena Essex - ae0603

Arena Essex Raceway - Meeting 06/03 Sunday, March 26, 2006

Crashnet > Reports Index > PRI 2006 Index > Meeting 06/03

2l Bangers
Lightning Rods
Outlaw Hot Rods

Lightning Rods
The Lightning Rod faithful gathered at Arena Essex on March 26 to pay tribute to one of its star drivers, Dave Meningen, who died on January 26, 2006. One of the first drivers to compete at Arena Essex following its opening nearly three decades ago, Dave commenced his driving career at Crayford at the tender age of 17, racing in a number of formulas before starting in the Sierra based Lightning Rod formula in partnership with Pat Kenneally. He died following a short illness. A special memorial trophy was commissioned and awarded at this meeting which also featured a minutes‘ silence before the start of racing.

Pat Kenneally it was that took two of the three heats, the first race featuring quite a few crashes behind the leader including the tribute 170 car and rather a big collision between Jai Summers and Gary Greenland on turn four close to the end. Alfie Smith took second place ahead of Chris Reeve. Kenneally had a rest in the second heat, a much quieter event which was easily won by Ray Harris, though this heat featured the second of the battles between Terry Shelvey and Dale Atkins. Shelvey, the winner of the 2005 Drivers‘ Championship and Atkins, who had come close to winning the title during that season, had battled for position in the first heat, and Shelvey would come out on top on each occasion, an ongoing challenge that may prove interesting as the season progresses. Meanwhile, the third heat saw a masterful win by Kenneally, taking advantage of a hole left when Harris failed to pass outside Reeve. Bruce Wilcox also came through to grab second place.

It was the other Harris, namely Paul Harris, who would win the memorial trophy as he ran around the outside (where else?) of early leader Reeve, Kenneally unable to make it back to the lead pack following a crash when Mark Mackenzie put him into the fence, earning the former World Champion a disqualification. Lee Morrow ended a moderately successful day in second place with ex-SuperBanger champion Nigel Carroll in third spot, his best position of the day.

Outlaw Hot Rods
Tony Moss won the first final of the year for the Outlaw Hot Rods at Arena Essex on April 26 following a mighty battle outside defending drivers‘ champion, Stu Hammond. Moss spent most of the meeting trying to pass Hammond but only succeeded in the final, Dick Burtenshaw and Wiz Farazmand following for second and third ahead of Hammond, who had been the pole sitter for the final following reasonable finishes in the heats which had both been won by their respective pole sitters; Farazmand won his first ever race in the first heat whilst Chris Rabbitt took the second.

Bangers
The April 26 meeting for the 2l Bangers at Arena Essex started off as though it would be a repeat of the rather sedentary racing of the previous week, the first race won by Shane Collins in a rather quiet race. Something must have been said to the drivers at that point, however, as the second heat was a little more lively, the recipient of much of it being Paul Seymour who was slowly crushed in stages by the pit gate. Billy Standing, Brian Anderson and Graeme McNichol also made some impression on the bridge bend wall, the race going to Paul Standing. They were saving the best contact for the final, which had to be stopped following a multiple incident featuring a rollover for Sam Rigby along with a massive head-on between Kirk Bodnar and Steve Wilson, all by the pit gate. The restart was short and didn't feature much more as Jason Jackson won the race ahead of Matt Fuller. Nathan Roberts took the Rawlins Qualifier win, whilst Rigby finally finished his car off in style, taking it head-on into team mate Simon Smith's wreck, killing both cars, thus getting a dead-heat last car award following a battle of attrition with Roy Laybourn and Gary Brown.

Result

1. Lightning Rods Heat 1	201 Pat Kenneally	280	237	187	288	218	272	133	122	81
2. Bangers Heat 1	369 Marshall Bowmaker	49	74	323	549	24	227	264	273	507
3. Lightning Rods Heat 2	224 Ray Harris	131	196	161	225	187	192	288	182	240
4. Outlaw Hot Rods Heat 1	637 Wiz Farazmand	27	39	350	479	8	92	100	28	296
5. Bangers Heat 2	104 Paul Standing	456	330	331	60	399	128	567	552	296
6. Lightning Rods Heat 3	201 Pat Kenneally	131	237	161	267	224	218	81	280	272
7. Outlaw Hot Rods Heat 2	68 Chris Rabbitt	8	92	100	28	296	39	350	479	639
8. Bangers Final	331 Jason Jackson	188	74	456	49	60	549	369	550	227
9. Lightning Rods Final	225 Paul Harris	240	182	239	133	218	272	81	224	187
10. Outlaw Hot Rods Final	92 Tony Moss	100	637	8	350	479	28	27	296	285
11. Bangers Rawlins 2000 Qualifier	456 Nathan Roberts	74	60

Last car: 323 Sam Rigby/589 Simon Smith

Crashnet Photos

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Also see Matthew Bull Photographic for more photos from this meeting.