HOT WEATHER greeted close to 100 National Banger drivers for the 2 Litre World Championship at Hednesford on Sunday and 190 Steve Bailey took his second 2L World title in the main event.

The field included drivers from all over England plus one driver each from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the shape of 153 Shaun Buckley, 880 Neil Naismith and 388 Steve McGrath, the latter pair one of a large number present who had raced at King’s Lynn the previous evening.

Two last chance races began the day with Trackstar’s 399 Jonny Atkin leading from flag to flag in the first which saw one or two good hits, the winner’s team mate 392 Sam Baines winning the entertainer prize, before the second qualifier proved livelier despite a smaller grid, a team of Stinkbridge young guns taking on everyone else with 211 Jak Hall winning the entertainer award for big hits on a pair of Levellers, 123 Rob Smith leading the race all the way.

The top six from each of the last chance races joined 42 seeded drivers for the big race, the event preceded by a parade of all 54 of them with 74 Adam Hitchcock and 531 Toby Tropper drawing the front row. Disaster struck for 880 Naisy and 116 Nat Cohn whose cars expired during the two rolling laps as Tropper led the first couple of laps before 190 Pikey, who had started fourth on the grid, shot away at the front. On lap four the race was stopped when 433 Ben Smith shed a wheel with Pikey again pulling away in front on the restart, most of the action taking place on turns three and four although no big hits stood out at this stage. 331 Jason Jackson was making good progress from mid-grid and reeled in Pikey despite clipping a backmarker, the Midnight Runner lunging for the lead at turn four but half a lap later Pikey’s tailgunner 341 Andy Jones hooked Boxer out and Pikey was back in the lead just as the reds came out for 203 Russ McBain who had been stuffed into a dead car at turn three. On the restart Pikey’s arch rival 247 Lee Clarke tried on two occasions to stop him but the DWO man found a way through each time, 247 Bro then resorting to blocking tactics on the exit of turn four just as he did in the 2012 event. Pikey was wise to him though and took his second 2 Litre World title, the recovering 331 Boxer Jack passing 682 Paul Sparrow for second and the RDC man third. Top Incarace finisher was 138 Ant Timmins in sixth while 341 Jonesy got the entertainer award.

Just under 50 cars came back for the Allcomers which was the highlight of the day. The first running was stopped when the spun 815 Daz Ainsclough took a huge hit over the back wheel from Buckley but the Bad News man exited OK, the restart seeing a succession of massive hits on the West bend with the Scrapyard Screamers, Mad Hatters and DWO all involved, Jonesy pulling off several shots to earn another entertainer award as did Atkin, 427 Dean McPhilimey and 999 Scott Hill in an awesome wreck-up. Just two cars went the distance with 86 Alec Savage following up fourth in the main race with the win here from 766 Andy Armstrong. The DD saw 18 cars return including 388 Little Stevo who had done well to repair, the event seeing a few decent hits before the action sadly spilled onto the infield and was red flagged, Atkin awarded the win.

The Rebels raced in support with 25 Anthony Masters taking heat one but the rest of the day belonged to the Joyce brothers. 656 Adam led home 156 James in both the second heat and the Feature before they finished one-two again in the GN but Adam was docked four places for jumping a restart giving James the win.

There was plenty of other entertainment with lots of passengers on Incarace’s pace cars before start time plus another star turn from Timmy the Tyre who didn’t stop dancing and running around the infield all day.