The first of the two day Easter weekend at least brought a dry afternoon and the sun even shone from time to time and those present were treated to a spectacular afternoon from the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars and Rookie Bangers, as well as the high speed racing from the Hot Rods.
For the F2 Stock Cars, it must be said that the entry for the World Championship qualifying round was disappointing at 33 cars, and this reduced further when two failed to make the start of the meeting. However, it was enough for the traditional ‘full format’ to be deployed and as well as the locals and regulars there were some fine travelling efforts including 641 Dennis Middler from Scotland and 305 Colin Gregg and 768 Tom Adcroft from the north of England.
The first heat looked got off to a spectacular start when the yellow grade tripped over each other and 302 Dale Moon rolled, and slid most of the back straight upside down!
At the re-start it looked like being a runaway win for 835 Matt Westaway, but in the closing stages 921 Jack Aldridge suffered a stuck throttle and went thundering into and round the plating in a large crash to bring out the yellow flags.
Thankfully the 2011 Novice of the Year was all okay, but his car did not fare so well and his afternoon was run. To his credit Westaway held off 676 Neil Hooper over the two lap dash for the win.
Heat two saw multiple track champion 886 Chris Bradbury come through to win and then in the consolation 783 James Rygor took the victory.
The Gerry Dommet Memorial trophy Final did not get very far at the first time of asking as 105 Ross Rowe crashed on the first lap along with fellow blue graded drivers Rygor and 990 Paul Rice and none were fit to re-start. 245 Paul Milsom lead the early laps of the second attempt until he was passed by Westaway. He was starting to pull clear when there was a big coming together on the back straight.
It started with 305 Colin Gregg’s car breaking a half-shaft and then 254 Richard Beere and 76 Chris Rowe ploughed into him and each other in the aftermath, and the result was Rowe right on top of Beere’s car in a spectacular coming together.
At the re-start 797 Dan Moss seized the opportunity and bundled Westaway out wide to lead, but the gaps being closed had made 886 Chris Bradbury’s path to the front that much easier and he moved ahead a few laps later and went on to win the Gerry Dommet Memorial by quite a margin. 676 Neil Hooper was second and Westaway recovered for a handy score in third. 522 Chris Mikulla ran home the winner in the Grand National.
There were 45 Rookie Bangers, with all sorts of different cars and colours which is what we like to see, and also of note that the vast majority were not what would be classed as visiting drivers which is another good sign for the further meetings planned for them in the season ahead.
The first heat saw 458 Kenny Dalton move past long-time leader 9 Adam Elias on the very last lap whilst in a somewhat action packed second heat 475 Ben Sealey came through to win. One of the smartest cars on the day was that of 149 Lee Norman and he came through to win the consolation after a good battle with track debutant 56 Rikki Stevens.
It was Stevens who was the early leader in the Final, but only after a complete re-start after 9 Mavis and 121 ??? both rolled separately on the opening lap. 384 Scott Benjafield moved ahead of Stevens to lead and held off a closing 458 Dalton over the closing laps. Dalton went in with a deep last bend attack, which Benjafield fended off, but then ran wide on exiting the very last turn and Dalton literally pushed and smashed him across the line in a spectacular finish. Sealey was third.
The Allcomers unfortunately had to be curtailed when 272 ??? crashed heavily into the inner Armco whilst before that 187 Stuart Harrap landed himself in hot water with two follow-ins which are strictly taboo in Rookie Bangers. 27 Dean Quinn ran out the winner.
The Hot Rods failed to make double figures which is surely frustrating, but never the less there was some good racing to be had.
718 Colin White caught and passed long time leader 258 James Griggs in the closing stages of heat one to win and then 904 Wilson Hamilton ran out the leader in the second heat after leading from flag to flag.
The CWS Mears Trophy was led away by 578 Rick Lee until his car parted company with a wheel which brought the race under suspension. 282 Steve Hunt inherited the lead and held sway all the way. He did come under pressure from White, until a car failure saw him go spinning out of contention and then Hamilton pressured Hunt all the way to the flag, but he held on for the win with 18 Larry Langmead third.
RESULTS - 08.04.12
Hot Rods:-
Heat 1 - Colin White 718,258,117,904,282,18,578,35
Heat 2 - Wilson Hamilton 904,718,18,282,117,258,35,578
Final - Steve Hunt 282,904,18,258,117,35
F2:-
Heat 1 - Matt Westaway 835,676,522,126,990,76,254,935,605,616
Heat 2 - Chris Bradbury 886,315,105,768,189,797,954,641,245,305
Cons - James Rygor 783,464,596,605,305,302,734,616
Final - Chris Bradbury 886,676,835,522,768,641,126,76,797,464
G.N. - Chris Makulla 522,797,676,768,302,315,935,189,596,886
Rookie Bangers:-
Heat 1 - Kenny Dalton 458,9,209,133,444,176,386,112,384,503
Heat 2 - Ben Sealy 475,744,12,13,6,129,175,866,364,121
Cons - Lee Norman 149,56,109,331,54,29,721,440,121
Final - Scott Benjafield 384,458,475,109,13,364,744,175,129
A/C - Dean Quinn 27,309
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