Festival of Speed 2007

Festival of Speed 2007

The 38th annual Promotasport Raceways Festival of Speed was held at Arena Essex on June 24th in somewhat changeable weather that affect some of the formulas, especially the Group A Hot Rods who ended up racing on a completely soaked track in their main event, only serving to dry the circuit for the next formulas to race and not reaching their best until much later in the meeting. The main formulas, the Group A, Lightning and Outlaw Hot Rods, plus the 1300cc Stock Cars, all raced for the Chick Woodroffe Memorial trophies, awarded again this year in memory of the circuit founder who died in 2000.

The 1300cc Stock Car trophy for the Chick Woodroffe Memorial was won easily by Phil Wise who, having started on the front row, was given little trouble in a race little bothered by incident, though a jumped start cost Billy Kavanagh places and recent Ministox upgrade Jack Wheelwright took on the fence inside the last lap. Neal Gardiner took second spot ahead of Derry Monk, a former champion at this formula. The later support race was taken by Mark Browne in a somewhat scrappier race which was partly dominated by an ongoing fight for second place between George Heath, another comparatively new driver from the Ministox ranks, and Darren Pratt which saw neither able to shake the other off until, at the last, the pair locked together and spun off the circuit onto the centre, both having to be content with minor places in the result with Monk elevated to second spot ahead of Kavanagh.

A big smash by the pit gate started the Lightning Rods off in their version of the Chick Woodroffe Memorial, with Vic Bilkey and Rick Pannell both taking the fence in a front of the grid scramble for the pit bend which left Maldon's Lee Morrow in the clear to make off with the trophy almost from the start, though Dave Imber had the early advantage until he and Bilkey were given their marching orders for deliberate contact. The race was left as a three way battle for the front between Morrow, Terry Shelvey and Gary Greenland. Though the three stuck together right through the race, they finished in that order. Shelvey would again feature in the top three in the support race, taking third behind Bradley Jones, the win going to Paul Strawson of Clacton.

Chris Smith took yet another trophy in the Group A Hot Rod event, easily running in as the winner ahead of Rob West who took Sussex visitor Mike Collins in a sodden race, a shower soaking the circuit shortly before the race started which led to a number of incidents including the fencing of last year's winner, Dave Lamb, close to the end of the race. A promising scrap for second place in the support race came to nothing as a back marker collision between Scott Pinder and Bill Witherall obstructed the racing line, Terry Bearman stopping hard to avoid hitting the prone cars and allowing Lamb, who took a wider line and avoided the scrapheap, to get second uncontested at the line behind eventual winner Mick Gola of Grays.

It was not totally unexpected that Dick Burtenshaw would take the Memorial trophy for the Outlaw Hot Rods given his habit of winning combined with a front row starting position, though Richard Simmons kept him company all the way to the line, even putting in an attempt or two at going past as te pair sped off into the distance, eventually even leaving Philip Young behind as a distant third place speck. Waine Souter, Burnham's sole claim to Outlaw fame, left it until the later support race to finally get his first win of the year, a distant winner from the antics of the race for second place where veteran driver and banger sponsor Roy Rawlins was holding his own against the attempts of Salvo Falcone who had earlier been punted into the air during the abortive first start attempt in the final. Simmons would claim fourth after Stu Hammond took his Audi TT conversion into the fence late in the race.

PRI Bangers Essex vs. Kent Team Challenge IV

Essex won the fourth annual county team challenge against Kent in a typically heavily fought meeting, only four cars scoring over the three races.

With Kent two to one against, Essex needed to win badly, and seemed to be going in the right direction as South Ockendon regular Sonny Sherwood, a former track and British Champion by lately more involved in the ongoing team wars, fought his usual urge to hit things and wormed his way through for a win in the first heat, Kent's Dean Goodearl taking a more direct but somewhat more destructive route to the line in second for his team's only points of this year's battle. If anything, the second heat was even harder fought as Danny Gardiner desperately tried to stop Wayne Byrne from extending Essex's slender lead, holding Byrne up on turn four in the wreckage on the penultimate lap but, with Byrne's car in better shape to go on, one dodge was all it eventually took and Gardiner was left on the centre, unable to pursue. The final was also a one car finish, though Essex had pretty much sewn up the meeting by this time, turn four again littered with debris as Billy Standing raced home for the final Essex points.

© 2007 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways