National Bangers Lightning Rods Supreme Championship Qualifying Round 2 Street Stocks

National Bangers
The warring Banger teams continued their battle at Arena Essex on July 9 in their National guise. From the first racing moment, you knew that as Karl ”Blacknuts Douglas dummied Phillip Smith on the start line. You knew it also from some of the people that turned up, including Sonny Sherwood who has had a running argument with the Colchester folk for some years now, while the Bad Company team turned out mob-handed to take on anyone that fancied it. Sherwood blooded well as he finished Lewis Price, while various black cars converged on Simon Smith. By the final, both teams, or what was left of them, were jumping the start just to get at each other, the pit bend littered with dead cars. Meanwhile, as far as the actual racing went, the day belonged to Malcolm Fuller, who beat out 1300 Stock man Paddy Palmer and long time leader Stephen Hale in the closing stages. Hale had a pretty good day of it, second behind Palmer in the first heat, with the second heat going to Paul Hunter ahead of Fuller. Hale was second again in the Rawlins 2000 qualifier, this time behind Dave Seymour before Blacknuts finally finished off the last Gladiator for the last car award.

Street Stocks
The Street Stocks appeared at Arena Essex in a PRI meeting for the first time on July 9. Run by the Fleet Motor Club, they were described by Gary Reynolds as a class "made up of 1.6L, 1.8L and 2L Ford Sierras with standard engines and suspension, with the 1.8L CVH being the most popular engine choice". Generally, the ethos behind the formula is to have a cheap stock formula with the minimum amount of modification necessary to bring a competitive car to the circuit. What certainly made a few older fans take notice was the number of banger stars that seemed to be taking part in the formula. The first win of the day went to Dave Driscoll in a fairly tame race, possibly where some of the drivers were still getting used to the circuit. This seemed to be the case as racing got tougher in the second heat, Driscoll spun down the order as car 31 (name not supplied) took the second heat ahead of Robert George, who would go on to win the main final of the day ahead of Geoff Priestly and Joe Parker.

Lightning Rods
Richard Norman managed to win the final of the second Supreme Championship Qualifier for Lightning Rods at Arena Essex on July 9 in a heavily contested race that saw him hold off concerted attacks from Gary Madgwick, Bruce Wilcox and Mark Mackenzie through much of the race. These four broke away from the field and spent much of the race after the stoppage - caused when Lee Morrow crashed along the home straight — fighting for the front. Further back, Darren Cardy was holding the rest of the field at bay, leaving the front four to fight it out. Earlier in the day, Chris Chao had continued his run of form following his victory at the Festival by winning the first heat which set the tone for the day, much of the action being nearly half a lap behind Chao and most of the action being heavy, contact being unavoidable as every driver tried to get through. Tony Gordon had more of a fight on his hands in the second heat as he had to fend off Pat Kenneally and Chao to win, the race going right to the line. Wilcox would take the third heat in a race that saw crashes at both end; Trevor Drayner at one end, Kenneally and Lee Parsons at the other.

Last car: 552 Blacknuts Douglas

© 2006 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways