A PLACE on the National Banger World Final grid was up for grabs at Arena Essex on Sunday. With the final winner, Sonny Sherwood, already assured of a place on the grid for the big race on 21st September, the Wild Card place instead went to second placed Jamie Harding.
Harding dished out the biggest hit of the day too, finishing the hopes of Sean Campbell, the latter in his very first National Banger outing. In fact this was not a day for irregular racers, the usual antics of Ricky and Tony Hutton putting paid to several, including Stuart Clarke and Steve Shaw. Tony Hutton himself took a hard hit from Dave Bull in the final, this hit coinciding with Georgie Lee losing a wheel, both incidents bringing the race to a temporary halt.
But this was of little diversion for Sonny Sherwood, with Harding slotting happily into second, content that the result would be enough. The allcomers and Destruction Derby at the end of the day was a Lee benefit, Georgie winning the race with Alfie the last car running.
The Stock Rod Supreme Championship was the race of the day with Pole Position man, Jamie Collins, heroically hanging onto the lead throughout. Fellow front row starter, Matt Rowling, bogged down a little from the standing start but was still able to slot into second place on Collins bootlid, where he was to stay for the rest of the race.
Wayne Shackleford eventually held onto third place despite the best efforts of Richard Haines and the rest. A mid race caution was caused by a huge crash which befell the unfortunate Jamie Akehurst. After half spinning and collecting the inner kerb, he was caught by the following pack and spat out head on into the armco on the exit of turn two.
Thankfully Jamie recovered sufficiently to walk away, although his previously immaculate car was a write off. In his first meeting in a senior class after moving on from the Junior Mini Stox, Daniel Newman did not disappoint with a win in the first allcomers race that followed the Supreme. Unfortunately his motor blew up whilst leading the second heat, Matt Rowling taking a just reward for his earlier patience with the win.
Lauren Overy took full advantage of the non attendance of Mini Stox points championship leader, Will Morphey, to not only take a heat and final double, but also move into the lead of said championship. Overy was the class of the field, although the pick of the races was the heat she didn’t win, Dan Santry pushing Conner Sheldrake wide on the last corner of heat two to take the spoils, Sheldrake doing well to keep out the wall and salvage third place behind Luke Dorling. Dorling was the only racer able to challenge Overy in the final – the two swapped places on a couple of occasions before Overy spun Dorling with a couple of laps to go, dropping Dorling down the order. Lauren’s cousin, Harry Overy inherited second place with Santry in third.
Steve Norman took a heat and final double in the Lightning Rods as the star pairing of Anthony Lawrence and Chris Reeve struggled to make inroads from the back, although Reeve’s reward for persistence was a trio of runners up places. Roy Rawlins was the other race winner. A couple of new drivers made their debut, Mini Stox graduate, Connor Reeve had his first outing in father Andy’s car, although he struggled with reliability all day. Meanwhile Mick Harden had an accomplished first outing, holding the lead for a while in each race before keeping out of the way of the pack and following them home on each occasion.
The next meeting at Arena Essex is the National Banger World Final on 21st September. Competitors from all over the country will descend on the Thurrock venue to see if they can unseat local favourite and defending champion, Jason "Boxer Jack" Jackson. 2 Litre Stock Cars and Mini Stox provide an all contact support programme and the racing kicks off at 1pm.
