WAYNE Cottrill Jnr won a dramatic Junior Banger final at Arena Essex on Sunday as the remnants of Hurricane Bertha seemed to skirt the stadium.
After heat wins for Bradley Lee and Joe Parsons the final kicked off with Jamie Hopkins sending Charlie Morphey for a spectacular trip across the speedway track and back onto the tarmac racing surface. Both drivers would go on to provide much of the action, with Morphey putting himself hard into the fence whilst avoiding a subsequent attack from Hopkins.
Although the car was badly damaged Morphey continued crabbing his way around the track, bouncing off armco and other cars as he did so! Samuel Voller put Bill King hard into the armco on turn one whilst Joey Holmes was spun on the home straight by Cottrill. Morphey continued on his chaotic way until rolling over completely on the pit bend, watched by brother Will, already sitting wrecked on the turn. This incident accounted for the race leader Bradley Lee who ground to a halt against Will Morpheys car.
Hopkins turned Charlie Murrell into a spin on the home straight whereupon Murrell took a heavy hit from Holmes, removing a front wheel in the process. Another wheel went astray on the Jayden Anderson car after a clash with Joe Parsons as Cottrill took the flag.
The National Bangers were very low in numbers and the Essex Championship race turned into a demonstration run for Jason "Boxer Jack" Jackson. Fellow heat race winner and front row starter, Karl Douglas, fell back down the order, allowing Jack Tuffen and Sonny Sherwood to fill out the podium positions.
There wasn’t a lot of crashing to be had throughout the afternoon, although David Smith was very game and took some heavy damage from Ricky Hutton and Scott Cornish. Hutton eventually outlasted the handful of cars that contested the Destruction Derby.
A small but select entry of Mini Stox saw Will Morphey in dominant form taking a heat and final double, with Ben Nicholls winning the other heat. Jointly leading the points with Morphey coming into this meeting, Lauren Overy was unable to launch a last bend attack on Morphey in the first heat, Morphey riding the brakes on the back straight to prevent Overy pushing him wide. Overy deliberately fell back a car length or two to get a run on Morphey out of the final corner of heat two, but failed to unseat him. In the final Will Morphey drove away into the distance whilst a circumspect Overy instead followed in his brother Charlie’s wheeltracks, Charlie himself unable to shift Aaron Totham out of second.
The Lightning Rods saw success at last for Nigel Carroll, who won all three races despite having so far had a season to forget in the Sierra based class. Dan Guidotti earned a disqualification from the meeting for a masterpiece of over-reaction to a racing incident with Kiereen Thomas. Anthony Lawrence was generally the best of the rest, although he could not make it past Roy Rawlins in the final, Rawlins clinging onto second place by a hairs breadth.
The next action at Arena Essex sees a double header over the Bank Holiday weekend with Sunday featuring the Stock Rod World Final, Rookie Bangers and SuperBangers. Monday features the Big Van National Bangers, Junior Bangers, Mini Stox and Lightning Rods. the start time for both meetings is 1pm.
