GARY Byrne won a thrilling Stock Rod final at Arena Essex on Sunday, resisting race long pressure from a succession of challengers, finally taking the win by a matter of inches from Tony Perfect.
The novice graded racer, resolutely stuck to the inside line around the race track, offering the outside as the only route around him. Paul Haralambou got alongside on several occasions before the pack relegated him. Heat winner Carl Shackleford then tried to sneak up the inside where there was no space and found himself spearing across the track, launching the other heat winner, Dean Kitchen into the air and sending Jordan Morgan and Richard Haines into the wall. Dale Atkins settled into second place but didn’t seem interested in trying the outside line, which allowed Perfect to make a prolonged charge around the outside of both of them which only just failed to get him the win.
Grays racer, Dave Palmer, won all three races in the 2 Litre Stock Cars. Despite the headline domination, there was some superb racing further down the field with the battle between Brian Jarvis, Matt Fuller and Phil Wise in the final seeing each driver going in so hard with the bumpers on each turn that Palmer was able to lap them all as they battled on the last lap and nearly found himself getting a little too involved as all three tripped over each other.
After the controversy of recent weeks, the Lightning Rod class showed just how good it can be without the need to resorting to illegal contact. Richard Norman was clearly the fastest in the field and made good use of the outside line to get good places in the two heats won by Steve "Peanut" Moore and Connor Reeve. In the final Norman was soon onto the bumper of race leader, Lee Hall, and with Hall keeping to the same inside line employed successfully by Byrne earlier, Norman just had too much pace to hold back and he was soon clear.
A not entirely unexpected small entry of MPV (People Carrier) Bangers provided plenty of entertainment. The first race was unusually run five laps in one direction and then fine laps in the other. Despite running third after a fluffed start, Andy Reynolds was the only one who correctly calculated the number of laps and won by default! Georgie Lee won the remaining races whilst the Destruction Derby saw a rollover for Andy Reynolds whilst Steve Collings and Georgie Lee tied for the win after a series of collisions.
The next action at Arena Essex in on Bank Holiday Monday 25th May when contact motorsport is the order of the day. PRI Bangers, Junior Bangers and Mini Stox have all had very lively seasons so far, whilst for the purist race fan, the Stock Rods get their second outing in as many weeks. Start time 1pm.
