You wouldn’t normally expect a big bank holiday crowd basking in glorious sunshine to be too chuffed when a hurricane rumbles in to town but this annual National Banger version was a very welcome and hugely entertaining spectacle, writes Kevin Wegg.

With world qualifying points also on offer it was perhaps no great surprise that their opening heat was more like a gentle summer breeze with most content to save their cars for the big money final to come, that was until Lee Clarke took a sudden dislike to a debut-making and slowing Paul Golden and dispatched him so hard in to the armco that he promptly rolled over. Former world champion Jason Jackson looked to be in blistering form as he powered his way to victory and looked to be a good bet for the title however he was one of many to be ultimately blown away as the hurricane continued to gather momentum. Any thought of saving cars or collecting points was gloriously despatched out of the window along with what seemed like the kitchen sink as Foxhall exploded in to life in heat two. For shear metal-mashing mayhem it went down a real storm with the crowd with smashes and crashes galore including a spectacular high-speed roll-over for Tom Farren. The back straight was treated to a car-crunching frenzy as one after another pilled in with the car of top performer Shane Davies totally destroyed as too that of Sean Parratt, whilst the back end of Darren Nash was lovingly reshaped by the now resident front end of Shaun O’Donnell. Foxhall regular Michael Allard landed two mighty blows right at the end, first hitting the already stranded Steve Bailey against the armco and then burying himself in the back end of Charlie Callard – the former almost certainly earning him some gardening leave.

Top marks for effort go to Carl Gould and his crew who actually managed to change engines after his second place in this one, which incidentally mirrored his opening race effort, but sadly their efforts were in vain as the hurricane final blew just about everybody away including race two winner Dan Weeks – accept that is for the family that continues to dominate this formula. Chris Wilcock made the impressive early running and had a good lead when the race was stopped after Carl Overy hit the fence backwards at speed. With just a handful of laps to go as the cars restarted Jason Jackson sensationally pulled out with a flat tyre and then second-placed Kieran Cannel made his move to push the leader in to a parked car. With just two to go Lee Hughes was on his tail and slipped past easily after Cannell entered the corner with two much haste and thus retained his title in some style, even without the help of Dale who retired early with mechanical problems.

Former stars Mark Willis and Andy Harris made a trumpeted return to the formula, whilst Gary Goodswen debuted an immaculate and probably the first new-shaped Corsa. Understandably all three were unable to trouble the lap scorers as they bedded their cars in but then again the established stars also struggled as some of the lesser lights took centre stage. Even Danny Fiske was unable to match his memorable efforts of just two weeks ago, his best result being a solitary fourth place. Lewis Shelley took the opening heat and was never out of the top three places in all his races whilst Mark Constable’s record was even better with a heat two victory and the all-important victory spoils in the final from a big field of cars. The other heat winner, Robert Ashman, had somewhat more of a “mixed bag” mind when he created a bizarre piece of history in heat two. He was looking good in second place when he exited turn two just a shade too quick, caught the armco and then all of a sudden part of his door was lying across the track. With the race brought to a halt attention soon turned to a piece of metal sticking out of the armco near to where he originally hit it. Amazingly the armco had acted like a tin opener and sliced the door off tucking and wrapping half of it round the bottom piece of armco! It clearly wasn’t his race as the engine blew before the race could be restarted then poor Charlie Jowers was dealt the cruellest of luck when his engine also gave way when he was just one and a half laps away from a maiden victory.

Classic Hot Rods from yesteryear brought the memories flooding back and their final saw race one winner Dave Fry produce an impressive burst around the outside of the leading two to record a courageous victory in his ageing Escort. Stuart Wright meanwhile evened the score up so to speak with a win in the other race behind the wheel of a wonderful-looking Ford Anglia, whilst sadly the equally stunning Vauxhall Viva of Lee Wood expired in a cloud of vintage steam having previously looked remarkably competitive against the more familiar marques.