Gala Night at Foxhall Stadium is always a spectacular occasion and this year it was even more special for locals with Suffolk winners on and off track together with a very special Banger racing debut for a sprightly fifty-eight year old Dad from Felixstowe, writes KEVIN WEGG.

A healthy entry of 1300cc Stock Cars saw Clive Herve riding the wall of death on the back straight as several cars set about each other with gusto including new world champion Barry Radcliffe who was spun out which kicked off a big first bend pile-up. Luke Morphey was another to hit the armco very hard indeed but he was set for better things later in the evening. Newcomer Jason Nicholls from Ipswich in the ex-Simon Berry car was looking good until he was overhauled, then Gary Aylward pushed Dean O’Dell aside to take a text-book win. Nicholls made no mistake in race two and claimed his first-ever win despite a gutsy drive from Pete Beldom who pushed three cars wide in consecutive laps at the same spot to take a classy third place. Nicholls promptly doubled his tally with the meeting final as well which saw Aylward spun out of the pack early on. Julian Smith Diss looked like he was on a mission to spin anything that came within his sights and James Radcliffe delivered two huge punts in a vain attempt to catch the leaders. Jason Scopes tried a little too hard and rolled in the closing stages whilst Luke Morphey was deservedly runner-up after his earlier smash. The Thomas Wolsey School(Ipswich) benefitted with generous cheques from every race sponsor with pupil and big racing fan Jack Phipps from Leiston on hand to receive them.

The popular Ipswich racer Robert Rose was fondly remembered by family and friends alike on the tenth anniversary of his passing with a special race and trophies presented by his younger brother Pete together with former competitors still racing today. Dave Canham and Jason Thurlow played a cat and mouse game to continue their on-off rivalry with Canham eventually getting the upper-hand as another race winner on the night from Ipswich stepped up in the shape of Jake Stewart. Kevin Thurlow was one of the trophy presentation party and had great reason to smile at his own good fortune later on in the final but before that fifty-eight year old John Waller from Felixstowe had an equally big grin as he fulfilled a lifetime ambition by taking to the track in heat two. Driving a car supplied by his son and regular racer Matt he showed the composure of a regular campaigner despite it being his first-ever race to dodge the chaos that ensued. He could not have chosen a harder race in which to debut with a dozen or more cars all piling in to a turn one smash on the first lap including another debutant, female racer Eiliidh Dodd. Such was the wreckage that many cars took to racing on the speedway track despite the marshalls instructions which played in to John’s hands for when the result was reviewed he inherited a thoroughly deserved second place as those guilty of corner cutting were penalised. There were more big hits in the third heat with Jamie Hadley and Matthew Cornell dishing it out as Jason Smy took it and also the final which was another bruising affair including roll-overs for Barry Arnold and Cornell. After review however the result was amended and that’s when veteran Kevin Thurlow had the last laugh by picking up a popular win. Great credit goes to Liam Reach who was using the sledgehammer like it was going out of fashion to get his car in to some sort of shape for the DD and he changed a flat tyre as well. Fittingly Pete Rose won after showing how it should be done after chasing down heat two winner Dean Rook and then stuffing him in to turn three armco in clearly an early rehearsal for the festive turkey stuffing season to come…..