When everyone arrived for the penultimate meeting of the season at Mendips Raceway, it looked very much as if there was a chance it could fall victim to the elements of nature as thick hill fog surrounded the venue. This caused pre-meeting practice to be cancelled. But, almost as if by magic, just as the senior officials were about to make a decision on what to do next it literally disbursed and from then on the Autumn sun shone throughout and those that did make the trip to come and see were treated to a good afternoon of racing from the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars, National Bangers under 1800cc and the annual visit from the Rebels.
There was a much improved entry of F2 Stock Cars on the previous meeting, which was good to see and featured a few first time visitors to the track. The Final of the Rookies Reward was first up, and the decision was made to allow non-qualifiers to be part of the race, but they were not permitted to win any of the prize money or tyres from Yokohama that were on offer. 954 Jamie Beere did just as he did last year and took the victory and whilst 916 Luke Thomas was second on the road, he was one of the afore mentioned non-qualifiers and therefore it was 14 Mike Priddle who took the second prize and 707 Jeremy Moss third. The meeting proper saw 921 Jack Aldridge with a very slim outside chance of taking the track championship. But, with 886 Chris Bradbury winning the first heat at a canter the shield was to be his to keep for the fourth year running. 954 Beere then continued his good afternoon by winning heats two and three. The Final featured an early yellow flag when Aldridge and 522 Chris Mikulla crashed. 430 Simon Edwards then lead until he retired and at that point Bradbury took over and went on to win. 676 Neil Hooper was runner-up and 315 Justin Fisher third. The Grand National saw victory for 24 Jon Palmer, which was actually his first of 2011.
The Bangers reached the last of their World Championship qualifying rounds for the year to determine who will represent Mendips at the big race at Ipswich next month. A good turnout of cars saw several from the south-coast and the return of the Devon drivers, who as ever, played a large part in the afternoon’s proceedings. The first heat with 30 cars on the track saw a large pile up on the exit of the bottom bend end up in a track blockage. This saw several cars end up damaged beyond repair for the rest of the day. 517 Scott Weldon went on to win the re-started race, and with it booked his place in the World whilst 40 Pete Stanley’s third place was enough to likewise see him through. The second heat saw 54 Tom Davey lead until he went out in a pile up whilst 27 Dean Quinn finished up on his side and 162 Brett Ellacott earned himself an ‘early bath’ for the day after attacking the stationary car of 262 Rob Buglar, which was against the ORCi ruling that is on the news page of this website. 714 Paul Smaldon went on to take the win. There was a depleted field for the Final and 224 Dale Edwards lead right until the Final corner when he slid wide under pressure from 190 Steve ‘Pikey’ Bailey who thus nipped through for the win. 446 Jason Burt was third. Pikey then made it a second win in the Allcomers race before outlasting them all in the Destruction Derby.
The Rebels certainly played their part in the day, with many of them having had a long journey to come and race, so suffice to say they were extra pleased to see the weather take a turn for the better when it did. 41 Ali Topley made light work of the field to win heat one and then 81 Lyndon Rushby did the same to take heat two. The Final featured the traditional two-three-two starting format, which was also for the Stuart Smith Memorial trophy. With the points from the heats determining the grid line up, front row starter 156 James Joyce turned that into the lead on the opening lap and from then on was never headed. Rushby held down second throughout, but did have trouble with back marking traffic which allowed 656 Adam Joyce to challenge him. This also allowed 156 Joyce to pull clear even further and he took the win with Rushby second, having successfully fended off 656 Joyce.
RESULTS - 25.09.11
F2:-
Rookies Reward - Jamie Beere 954,14,707,544,550,245
Heat 1 - Chris Bradbury 886,676,921,522,315,76,189,916,14,544
Heat 2 - Jamie Beere 954,76,676,916,677,315,189,24,783,744
Heat 3 - Jamie Beere 954,886,522,14,921,990,254,783,126,797
Final - Chris Bradbury 886,676,315,24,189,76,797,120,14,990
G.N. - Jon Palmer 24,676,921,954,189,315,14,990,254,126
Rebels:-
Heat 1 - Ali Topley 41,156,656,81,385,35,5,234,44,1
Heat 2 - Lyndon Rushby 81,156,656,41,35,170,5,269,1,25
Final - James Joyce 156,81,656,41,170,1,385,35,24,269
Bangers:-
Heat 1 - Scott Weldon 517,190,40,133,162,714,54,446
Heat 2 - Paul Smalden 714,190,446,891,239
Final - Steve Bailey 190,224,446,452,40,239,714,891,517,27
A/C - Steve Bailey 190,452,234,714,239,891,721,263
DD - Steve Bailey 190
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