WHILST Georgie Lee and Jason Jackson shared the wins and continued to dominate at the top of the National Banger Track Championship, there were plenty of crashes to keep the fans entertained at Arena Essex on Sunday. A ballistic first heat saw a huge head on collision between Billy Standing and Lewis Price kick off a chain reaction series of shunts, which saw David Osborn smash into Standing, Jacob Roff destroy Osborn, Phil Milner attack Roff and finally Karl Douglas crash into Milner.
Unsurprisingly fewer cars made it out for the second heat, but Douglas was again on the attack with a massive hit to Nick Bell, Roff then going in on Bell a few laps later too. The final was perhaps the quietest race of the day, although Jason Jackson took plenty of cars out of contention on his way to the front.
The Destruction Derby was very lively with the Vauxhall Cavalier of Osborn somehow making it all the way through to the end, despite some very heavy rear damage. Charlie Daniels was on hand though to deliver the killer blow to the Cavalier, his hit to the front wheel eventually stopping Osborn.
A massive grid of 2 Litre Stock Cars provided their best meeting yet with the novice grade race at the beginning of the day providing veteran 60+ racer, Bob Dunn, with his first win in the class.
It was difficult to keep track of the first ‘proper’ heat of the day with Steve Davies spinning and causing carnage at one end of the home straight, whilst a series of collisions resulted in Michael Wiseman collecting a marker tyre at the end of the straight, causing the tyre to spear across the track, collecting more cars as it went! The race was brought under caution to allow a clear up operation, but the restart was only a few laps in before a spinning Steve Davies collected the parked car of Vince Stone, Stone requiring a bit of recovery time. At the resumption of the race Phil Wise took the win whilst Leigh Hussey and John Harris fought over second place, their battle so fierce that Dave Palmer and Ade Clifton drove past both of them.
The second heat featured a superb battle for the lead with Matt Fuller taking control after a series of shunts on the pit bend. The final needed a restart after the stationary car of Michael Wiseman was collected by Alfie Smith. Bob Dunn lead but was leant into the fence by Nick Glover, Dunn’s stranded car then causing another stoppage. Fuller raced away at the restart with Clifton bumpering his way into second, followed by Brian Jarvis.
A good turnout of Junior Bangers contested three lively races with the first featuring a big crash for Brian Stanney, who spun to the infield and collected the parked up Jo Perisco car. First time racer, Jak Phillips was then in the wars towards the end of the race when Wayne Cotterill Jnr put him hard into the armco. Bradley Lee took the win. The second heat saw Patric Hughes win by inches from Lee with Phillips once again taken out at the end of the race, this time by Charlie Randell. Jo Persico lead the final but his ill handling car was quite a handful and he eventually dropped down the order. Alfie Cornish, who up to this point seemed to be having handling issues of his own – tipping his car onto two wheels in one particularly spectacular moment on the pit bend – came good with victory when it mattered, ahead of Bradley Lee and Alfie Jones.
Dan Guidotti and Jamie Lee Callis shared the Lightning Rod heats before Guidotti narrowly defeated Dave Imber and Richard Norman in the final.
The next action at Arena Essex is this Bank Holiday Monday, a day which features the return of the Reliant Robins to the venue. This contact class of racing unsurprisingly results in a high number of rollovers during the day. PRI Bangers – no stranger to rollovers themselves – will feature the biggest grids on the day whilst the Stock Rod ORCi Championship will bring plenty of visitors, contesting one of the most prestigious titles for the hot hatchback class. Finally the Junior Mini Stox class, for racers between 11-16 years old, will complete the programme with Luke Dorling intent on keeping his lead at the top of the Track Championship.
