Group A Hot Rods Supreme Championship Qualifying Round 2 BriSCA F2 Stock Cars 2l Bangers

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars
Following their soaking at the last meeting at Arena Essex, the June 11 BriSCA F2 Stock Car event was fast, well contested and, above all else, dry! Neil Smith took the main event trophy, getting past the first heat winner Carl Buckle at the front of the red top charge which also saw first time visitor Geert Jan Keijzer come home in second place, his best finish of the day. Carl Buckle ran away with the first heat, Matthew Deeble in hot pursuit but took late to catch up by the end. Deeble managed to catch and pass Buckle far quicker in the second heat, the red tops stuck midfield in something of a battle for what were minor places by the end. Possibly the best race of the day was the Grand National qualifier which had Buckle leading right to the end until Chris Roots slowly overhauled him on the last lap.

Bangers
The Gladiator led team war continued to rage at Arena Essex at the June 11 meeting, the opening heat leaving much scrap on turn four as the Colchester based team met with their various rivals. This included an opening jacking for Blacknuts Douglas courtesy of Sam Rigby out of turn four, Roy Laybourn and Lewis Price wading in after as various cars ended up tangled in the mess. This first event was won by Wayne Holton ahead of Gary Brown and Mark Woolner. Heat two featured more of the same, though the race had to be restarted after Kelly Wilson had to be pulled from her car following some overexuberance by the pit gate. This race also featured a tribute car driven by Dan Reid. The car, painted up for the long absent Clockwork Orange team, was a tribute to Bob Kitchener, long time racer at Arena Essex, who passed away just before Christmas last year. Unfortunately the car didn't finish the race as Joe Warner, a neighbour of Bob's, picked Reid up on the back straight and put him so hard into the pit wall that the car bounced back, leaving its bonnet behind. It seems that nobody told Warner about the tribute! The race itself was the first part of another heat and final double for Jason Jackson with only eight finishers overall. The all-in final meant that all the rolling wounded returned to bite at each other's wounds as turn four was again blocked by the ongoing war, collecting many other cars in the crossfire. Boxer managed to take the trophy but still needed to fight off wreck attempts including one from Lee Hughes, one of his own team! Only six cars survived this wrecking session. The Rawlins qualifier was taken by Michael Clarke, Ricky Korpiela making something of a speciality of getting the last car award in these events, this time by taking on his team mates, notably Jason Jackson and Jimmy Randall, through the wrecking session that had blocked turns one and two.

Group A Hot Rods
June 11 at Arena Essex started a little badly for the Group A Hot Rods with a crash between Darren Pratt, one of a few 1300 Stock Car drivers trying the non-contact formula this year, and Michael Outen, former Ministox driver now a Banger regular, came together around the first bend and into the wall. The restart turned into an easy victory for Nicky Parris, though Dave Hutchins had to work hard for second place after holding off Pip Brookes and Lee Hall for a number of laps, though Hall faded in the last few laps before pulling off with engine problems. Brookes, a relative newcomer to this formula, went one better in the second race, keeping in tight as Parris tried to dominate again but losing out as the lead started hitting the back markers. Brookes managed to find his way past, then used the back markers to his advantage to take the second heat win. The defending champion, Dave Lamb, hadn't really been heard off this day until, in the final, he managed to catch the lead group. When Parris made a blunder by hitting the kerb on the inside of turn one, Lamb struck, pulling through the group to win with laps to spare, Brookes in second while Parris recovered to third.

Last car: 242 Ricky Korpiela

Crashnet Photos

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

© 2006 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways