IN A not entirely unforeseen result, the Midnight Runners dominated the Banger Team racing at the Chick Woodroffe memorial meeting at Arena Essex on Sunday. In fact, such was their dominance, their A and B teams tied on points at the top of the charts, the A Team just getting the nod due to Jason “Boxer Jack” Jackson’s victory in the final.
Team Cheeseburger briefly looked although they might challenge the Midnight Runners domination, Alfie Lee’s heat two win came despite Jason Jackson trying to push a parked car into his path on the pit bend and Scott Cornish acted quickly to destroy Danny Wade’s chances in the same heat by ending his day with a big pit bend crash.
The crashing on the day was largely provided once again by the Gladiators and the Cream Team. Tom Keep went head to head with Wayne Byrne in heat one, with Keep then getting trashed by Andy Shipp. Craig Oliver hit Jim Harding head on and then had Byrne destroy him. A similar story in heat two saw Lewis Price hit head on by Karl Douglas and Sam Trim destroyed by Jamie Harding. Martin Lawton took a T-Bone from Ricky Hutton whilst Phil Smith took hits from Danny Brown and then Hutton. The Gladiators then had a victory of sorts as a botched attack from Jamie Harding on the wrecked car of Smith ended with Harding rolling onto his roof.
The sheer weight of the opposition was always going to leave the Gladiators with no real chance of surviving the day, heat three seeing Craig Oliver taking the most damage on the pit bend whilst Martin Lawton didn’t particularly enjoy his heat four experience. After crashing Hutton and losing a wheel he was attacked by at least three Cream Team, leaving his car destroyed and himself shaken.
With no wars to play out in the final, that raced proved the most processional of the day with no-one willing to take the fight to the Midnight Runners, who’s A Team of Jason Jackson, Billy King, Lee Hughes and Marty Eighteen, duly took the win.
The Destruction Derby saw a big head on between Craig Jackson and Charlie Taylor, their two teams, the Gigglers and the Shunters, having had a simmering fued all afternoon. Predictably the Midnight Runners and Cream Team members were all that were left to dispute the final stages and after a few fast laps trying to catch each other, last man standing for the Runners, Scott Cornish, eventually succumbed to a series of hits from Nathan Roberts and Stephen Hackett, the latter eventually finishing off his team mate to take his second DD win in succession.
Steve Gooch won the Stock Rod Chick Woodroffe memorial trophy, his closest challenger Luke Oliver beating the smart new car of Paul Hunter for the runners up place.
The Lightning Rods saw a bit of a family affair as a returning Richard Norman beat brother Stephen into second place with a strangely subdued Gary Greenland, perhaps with an eye on next weeks European Championship, taking third place.
A seemingly nailed on victory for Lee West in the SuperBangers came to nothing as gearbox troubles afflicted his second heat race. This allowed a delighted Tommy Parker to take the win with a tie for second between Tony Warwick and Lee West.
The Mini Stox saw a double race win for Connor Reeve assuring him of his biggest success in the sport to date. Ryan Polley and Dan Newman were next up, with current points leader Harry Steward having a day largely to forget.
The next action at Arena Essex sees the incredibly popular Caravan Race the main feature of the National Banger action on 14th July. The Stock Rods and SuperBangers provide the support. Start time 1:30pm.
