THE National Banger World Championship took place at Arena Essex on Sunday and Track Championship leader, Georgie Lee, took advantage of a last corner crash, instigated by brother Alfie, to take a dramatic victory in the last few yards of the race.
The early laps of the championship race saw the lead see-saw between James Steele, Jack Tuffen and Ricky Korpiela before Tuffen was spun out of the equation and Lee Clarke took up the lead having come through the pack. Alfie Lee was half spun by a wayward Adam Hitchcock and Steele crashed out after a tangle with Ben Raby and a shunt from PJ Collins. Korpiela was the next to strike trouble with his chances disappearing when he was shunted by Scott Cornish and got caught up with the spinning Mick Maskell.
Sonny Sherwood was gaining ground on Lee Clarke when he was delayed by Jack Tuffen, but Clarke had his own troubles with a lap down Alfie Lee trying to spin him out. Clarke avoided this threat but with half a lap to go he was held up on the back straight by Wayne Byrne and this allowed Sherwood to get close enough for a strike into the last corner. With Alfie Lee latching onto the back of both cars, Clarke and Sherwood went fencewards. Georgie Lee ducked underneath the melee to go on to take the chequered flag with Dave Bull next up, just beating George Goodearl and Dale Hughes to the runners up spot – Goodearls result was particularly notable as he had started at the back of the grid as one of the last chance qualifiers.
The allcomers race after the World Final gathered the biggest grid of the day and started with Tony Hutton following Joe Barrett into the pit bend fence with Mark Marchant following up with another hit to Barrett. The race was brought to a brief stop when Jack Ansell hit Mark Foster and his estate was destroyed by a revenge hit from Tom Foster. At the restart there was much hilarity when John Small received a bump start from Tony Hutton, with Hutton then sitting on the bend and taking a huge head on from Small just a lap later! Jamie Harding then attacked Small with Charlie Daniels joining in the crash fest. Dean Goodearl avoided the crashers to take the win.
The Destruction Derby saw Shaun O’Donnell wrecked on the pit bend by a series of hits, Liam Read getting up onto two wheels as he joined in. Adam Hitchcock then took on a starring role as he fought against the odds against a trio of local drivers, a head on with the returning Nathan Roberts being the pick of the crashes. Eventually he wasn’t able to overpower Wayne Byrne who ended up as the last car running.
The supporting Essex Championship for the Stock Cars saw Brian Jarvis win the main race for the second year running. He struck early and shifted double heat winner, Matt Fuller, out of the way to take up the lead, Fuller then also getting a big hit from Steve Davies which dropped him to third by the races end.
Controversy struck in the Stock Rod formula with a red flag stoppage for a stranded car on the back straight leading to a chain of clashes which ended with the unfortunate Robert Taylor and Matt Rowling crashing hard – Taylor taking the brunt of the impact and rolling onto his roof – an unfortunate early end to Taylor’s best ever season in the class. Gary Byrne and Alex Martin were the heat winners whilst Stuart Langridge drove a superb race in the final to take the win whilst his closest pursuer, Carl Shackleford, attempted to cut back in after an outside passing attempt and was tagged into a spin by the chasing pack with a lap to go.
A Banger racing legend, Terry Skeef, is remembered at the next event at Arena Essex on 4th October. The annual memorial event for the PRI Bangers, traditionally gathers one of the biggest entries of the season and every racer paints their car Orange in the same style as the popular racer. The Stock Rod English Championship, Lightning Rods and Mini Stox provide the support at the usual start time of 1pm.
