The second of the two days over the weekend, unfortunately saw the second wet Bank Holiday Monday in succession. However, as always the show went on and it certainly had its moments as the theme of the day was “pink” for the cancer research charities that we support.
Many were dressed wearing pink, and all the music played over the PA for the day was either by an artist with pink in their title, or with pink in the song.
The afternoon kicked off with the first ever Pink Ribbon Charity Bike Race for the Tour de Mendips trophy, and there were almost 40 takers for the challenge. This included some highly amusing contraptions and costumes, all in great spirit. Unfortunately the weather did not behave as it was run during a huge downpour of rain, which really did include “thunder in the hills” but at the end of it all it was judged that Neil Hooper was the winner, and a young man called Billy was the victor in the under 12’s version that preceded it.
In the racing itself it was a very busy programme of 16 races, headed by the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars for the second running of the Pink Ribbon Trophy. 290 Jay Tomkins took heat one and then 886 Chris Bradbury won heats two and three, all of which were run in a variety of track and weather conditions.
The Final saw two early yellow flags and when the race got going 476 Ryan Wadling was the leader until he was passed by 464 Matt Linfield. Bradbury was always two to three car lengths behind, but appeared unable to make headway to the leader. However this changed in the closing stages when the battle for third place between 522 Chris Mikulla and 935 Nathan Maidment ended with Mikulla against the plating to necessitate a yellow flag. Bradbury seized the opportunity at the re-start and passed Linfield and went on to complete the hat-trick of wins. Linfield was second and Tomkins third. Linfield then went on to make up for the disappointment of missing out on the Final by winning the Grand National.
The entry was National Bangers under 1800cc was disappointingly low, and whilst there were good reasons – not least the rotten weather of late hampering the car building process, even so. Never the less those that were present put on a great show, none more so that 262 Rob ‘Rooner’ Buglar who won both heats and then the Final too, to back a large helping of World Championship qualifying points.
80 Matt Nutley and 9 Adam Elias were his nearest challengers all day long, but Mavis crashed out in the later laps of the Final which left 162 Mike Cocks to complete the trophy places. A straight DD was a popular choice to round out the afternoon and after finishing them all off, and it ending in a head-on with Nutley, Buglar went on to complete total domination with the win in that too!
The Junior Rods faced wet weather conditions for the second meeting in a row, and unfortunately unlike Easter Monday there were incidents and accidents, some of which were unavoidable and others the Steward felt were not so. Heat one was won by 273 Zoe Cambridge after first across the line 87 Barry Richards was docked two places for jumping the start and then heat two went the way of 510 Sid Harrison. 16 Dan Milverton was the leader in the Final until 24 Sam Crane crashed which brought out the yellow flags. Harrison and 404 Macauley Mills moved past him soon after the re-start and the pair had an exciting dice which lead to them heading to the finish line side by side and Mills just pipped Harrison at the flag in an almost photo finish. 796 Dan Steads came home third in the classic A40.
The Reliant Robins again saw a great entry of cars including the unique “back to front” Robin for 78 Mark Bowskill. Again there were thrills and spills throughout with extra points added for entertainers and rollers. 499 Lee Charles continued his winning run in heat one, but he was one of the rollers in the second heat which saw 444 Mark Loader as the winner. He was the long time leader of the Final but was caught and passed by Charles and he went on to take his fifth win of the year. 444 Loader was second and 445 Nikki Loader third.
Junior Rods:-
Heat 1 - Zoe Cambridge 273,39,404,87,362,761,16
Heat 2 - Sid Harrison 510,796,25,24,224,313
Final - Macauley Mills 404,510,796,16,25,87,362,273,224,761
A/C - Callum Richards 87,61,362,25,224,273,51,404,39,796
Robins:
Heat 1 - Lee Charles 499,437,144,444,33,266,26,264,364,644
Heat 2 - Mark Loader 444,3,499,445,33,201,144,437,264,266
Final - Lee Charles 499,444,445,3,364,264,33,437,144,26
F2:-
Heat 1 - Jay Tomkins 290,676,522,254,189,990,605,797,616,808
Heat 2 - Chris Bradbury 886,522,954,430,935,105,605,797,464,315
Heat 3 - Chris Bradbury 886,290,676,464,990,935,954,126,254,719
Final - Chris Bradbury 886,464,290,935,990,605,105,476,189,797
G.N. - Matt Linfield 464,290,676,476,990,886,189,126,734,544
Bangers:-
Heat 1 - Rob Bugler 262,9,80,270,162,517,129
Heat 2 - Rob Buglar 262,80,517,9,129,162,4
Final - Rob Buglar 262,80,162,517
DD - Rob Buglar 262
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With thanks to Dans Pics
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