PRI Banger Team Championship Head to Head Final & 3rd place playoffs Lightning Rods Sierra Supreme Championship SuperBangers

Banger Team Playoffs
This years' PRI Banger Team Playoffs at the October 7 meeting at Arena Essex was taken by the Gigglers, though second place team, YPP2K, possibly had more reason to celebrate.

The first heat went well, especially for the wrecking fans, as the feud between the Bad Company and the Gladiators continued with collisions right around the circuit, especially for Dan McCormack who took several hits to the side and back end on turn four. Andy Reynolds took the race for Team YPP2K, something of a singular feat considering that he was the only member of the youth project team to turn up for the playoffs!

Lewis Price, known to many at the circuit as Noddy, returned from his trip abroad to take up the cudgels for the Gladiators in the second race, going for a quick run for the side after getting wrecked by the pit gate. The race saw the Gladiator affiliates wiped out for the second time, while the race went to Mark Want, a one time Cream Team member but these days running for the Gigglers, who were in a commanding lead in the playoff points by this point in the meeting.

Sonny Sherwood was taken head on by Noddy at the start of the final, the fued swinging to the Gladiator teams after their wipeout in the heats, while the Midnight Runners resumed their old fued with the Gigglers in an attempt to kill their chances. It didn‘t work, however, with Lee Woodards giving the eventual team playoff winners their last boost in second place while Andy Reynolds capped his solo effort for the YPP2K team with a final win, bringing the team to second overall! The efforts of the outgoing team champions, such as there were, was not enough to stop the Gigglers from taking the playoff.

The meeting ended with the usual Rawlins 2000 qualifier in which, following a third win for Reynolds, Dave Palmer and Lee Hughes tried to take on Phillip Smith but, try as they might, with multiple head ons, they couldn't quite get him to stop, Smith taking the last car running award.

Banger Team Final
The PRI Banger Team Championship final at Arena Essex on October 7 was taken by the Gravesend Condom team.

Cream Team captain, Nathan Roberts, and Condom captain, Shane Davies, came on after the first heats of the playoff, the coin toss going to Roberts who chose the inside line for the grid front for his team. Although Shane Davies crossed the line for the Condom team to officially win the title, it was Dave Palmer in his crippled Sierra that eventually took out the last two running Cream cars on the pit bend; first he took Ian Phillips out at the apex of the pit bend before getting Roberts in a similar way on turn three. After the race, veteran driver John Harding, the last member of the classic Cream Team from the last decade, announced his retirement from the formula. Ginger John was a member of the team when they last won this championship.

SuperBangers
The October 7 SuperBanger meeting at Arena Essex saw James Avison carry off a heat and final double in a meeting that saw more than one temper fraying by the end.

The first heat was taken on the last lap as Roger Trickett took the inside line from Avison into turn two, son Chris following through a few yards later. Lee Morrow was making some progress until he fetched up with Chris Worthington on the exit to turn two in the wall, both unable to rejoin the race. Avison took the eventful second heat, though it was the collisions and the eventual fallout that caught the attention as Alec Mortimer ended up blowing a tyre after getting tangled in a spinout inside turn four. Bob Sterling was loaded for retaliation after he was sent to the wall on turn one; he had gone three-quarters of the track the wrong way before, as the race ended, he hit Tubbs Butler into the wall on the back straight. Graeme Jacobs grabbed the early lead in the final from Bob Dunn while Tubbs Butler was spun out early by Chris Trickett in one of a number of crashes which also included a broadside from Billy King on Mark Riches on the home straight into the wall. Avison would eventually catch and pass Jacobs to take the final trophy.

Lightning Rods
Terry Shelvey made up for missing out on the Lightning Rod World Championship last month by winning the Sierra Supreme Championship at Arena Essex on October 7.

The first attempt at the Supreme Final was brought to a halt when Mark Collins went into the pit wall, one of a number of crashes that plagued the opening laps including a scrap for second when Gary Greenland and Mark Mackenzie collided down the home straight and Brian Smith, a on- qualifier at the back, spun out on turn one and collected Chris Reeve. The race was restarted from scratch at that point.

As with the first start, Terry Shelvey capitalised on his pole position, getting into lead position on the first corner, though with a lot less challenge from the outside pole as Lee Morrow now had Mackenzie to contend with. The race was further held up when Alfie Smith crashed on the back straight in traffic and Terry Rollings crashed by the pit gate bringing out waved yellow but, despite pushing hard for a while, Mackenzie was unable to pass Shelvey and was gradually left behind, Shelvey breaking free through the tail end drivers, Morrow failing short three laps short of the distance leaving Paul Strawson in a surprise third place as he held off Rick Pannell in a close race for what was originally a race for minor places with Pat Kenneally and Dave Kingsmill.

The support race was also delayed early on after early leader Ben Murray met up with Tony Gordon out of turn four, leading to a crash in the home straight fence that brought out the waved yellows. The race never reached completion as Rollings was spun in traffic after Shelvey had taken the lead, Rollings bouncing off the inside kerb at the pit end, leading to a multiple pileup, the race declared at that point with Shelvey given the win ahead of Chris Reeve and Mark Mackenzie.

© 2007 Chris Johnson (Crashnet) / Promotasport Raceways