Arena Essex favourite, Jason “Boxer Jack” Jackson, won the latest National Banger final at the Thurrock venue, in a photo finish with Wayne Cottrill. Cottrill tried to get around the outside of Jackson on the last corner but Jackson smeared him along the home straight barrier enabling him to grab the win by inches. Cottrill then spun Jackson on the slowing down lap with Jackson spearing across the speedway track in an attempt to get Cottrill back. He missed, but saved some of that pent up frustration for the Destruction Derby where he made his crippled car dish out some particularly fierce hits to Scott Bourne and to Cottrill, although it was the latter who outlasted everyone to take the win.
Wins earlier in the day went to Jack Deacon, Georgie Lee and Steve Ashdown. Ashdown, and team mate, Steve Rose, were out raising funds for the Shenstone School in Kent, which caters for pupils with complex educational needs. Neither driver made it as far as the Destruction Derby, both getting destroyed in the final, but both did well indeed, not a surprise for former racer, Ashdown, but Rose – at his first ever Banger meeting, did not disappoint either.
The Junior Mini Stox provided us with a spectacular rollover for the second meeting in succession. Although David Rogers had a degree of assistance from Sam Dace, he performed his home straight stunt very much as a solo effort, unlike the Dan Newman and Connor Reeve double act last time out. Thankfully, although the crash lasted the entire length of the straight, most of the time the car was just sliding on its side, so Rogers was only a little shaken, mainly from the final roll as the momentum finally took it all the way over.
Ryan Polley was unbeatable, taking all three races fairly comfortably, although Reid Murray gave him a good run for a while, until Polley was able to break clear. Murray held off Will Morphy for the runners up spot in the final whilst novices Alfie Jones and Bradley Lee put in some stellar performances, but just failed to break into the podium positions all afternoon, whilst also tangling with each other on a couple of occasions.
The SuperBanger final looked to be going the way of Brian Jarvis until he unexpectedly went out of his way to crash Wayne Barling and ended up trapping himself against the stricken Barling and the spun Darren Parker machines. This allowed Lee West to take the final victory. Steve Davies was the double heat winner in the class.
Finally drivers from across the country made for very packed grids contesting the Lightning Rod English Championship. Rather ironically it was a Scottish driver who bases his racing in the Midlands, Frankie Cunningham, who won the title, following the retirement due to a mechanical problem for Diggy Smith. Current World Champion, Romford’s Gary Greenland, led for some distance before falling back behind Cunningham and former Arena Mini Stox champion, Ben Murray.
The next action at Arena Essex comes this Sunday with the second visit by the West Country based Autospeed promotion. A World Championship qualifying round for the Brisca F2 Stock Cars will hit the headlines with the mighty Saloon Stock Cars and Rookie Bangers in support, the latter contesting their inaugural Essex Championship. Start time 1pm.
