Unlimited Bangers Shootout VI 2l Saloon Stock Cars Essex Championship

Bangers
Boxer Jack pulls off a third title win of the Shootout in torrential rain at Arena Essex.

Atrocious weather conditions greeted the fans at Arena Essex for the sixth annual Shootout meeting on May 13. Such hardy souls saw plenty of heavy metal although there was little unusual tin to be seen. There was also a good representation from the European promoter, CAMSO, though some of the group threw its lot in with the Colchester based Gladiator team and, as a consequence, spent much of the meeting hitting, or being hit by, Bad Company, though the few Condom members that turned up also tried their hand at Eurobashing, something of a shock considering their usual tendency to rod.

The first race, therefore, saw much of said Eurobashing, with a good lead for Dale Hughes resulting in a win, well ahead of Sonny Sherwood who had actually managed to stay in one piece for a change. The biggest car of the meeting, however, was out in the second heat; a stretch limo driven by Simon Smith which, though it never managed to get into the result, could not be stopped despite a number of attempts. This race went to Matt Fuller who decided to impersonate Top Gears' "Stig", most likely in an attempt to keep dry as the rain continued to pound the circuit. There was no improvement either in the consolation as Spedeworth visitor Kieron Carten led a meagre handful home through the wreckage, Smith's limo breaking down before anyone could bring it to a stop. The final, which Jason Jackson won, saw seven cars squelching home with the Midnight Runner team dominating the result, only Trackstar's Annette Nichols and Romford based driver Ian Beaumont getting a finish besides. The race was restarted early after a crash on the home straight involving Mark Marchant and day licence driver Bill Foot, though injuries were few that day. The final was, however, not totally crash free, with the two pink cars including earlier heat winner Hughes and coathanging ex-Ministox champion Billy Standing going after Marchant.

As usual, the meeting was ended by a qualification heat of the Rawlins 2000 event which was also taken by Jackson ahead of Rochford's Stephen Hale and Karl "Blacknuts" Douglas who, surprisingly, had come out for the first time in the meeting for this race and, even more surprisingly, left the wrecking severely alone, even to the extent of pulling off following the race to save the car. No such action from Hale who kept going to take on the surviving Runners though he was eventually awarded the last car award as Jackson was removed from the last car result. A further "best wrecker" award went to Phil Milner, though I personally got quite a shock when the Granada Estate I was standing behind on the pit bend was attacked by the Smith limo!

Saloon Stocks
The 2l Saloon Stocks found it heavy going in the wet at Arena Essex on May 13 in the 2007 Essex Championship, and more than one driver was lost for a want of grip. The title was taken this year by Darren Goudy, with the defending champion missing from the meeting.

Unlike the meeting at the start of the season, this meeting was considerably slower as the rain pelted down right through the meeting, giving [227] a fairly easy task in the first race with Carl Crowson chasing hard but unable to get better than a quarter of a lap behind in second place. The finish in the second race, however, was very different with current World Champion, Dave Aldous, stealing the win from Todd Jones on the last lap while Ian Govier took ninth place in reverse! Goudy dumped Crowson early on his way to the win in the final with Ian Jarman in second following a one place penalty for Shane Brown following an infringement during a stoppage while Aldous, recovering from a tangle with Ashley Foulsam, took fourth. A last allcomers' race was won by Glenn Chalkley ahead of Goudy on a drying track with Ian Jarman in third.

Crashnet Photos

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

© 2007 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways