David Smith made the long haul from Hampshire pay handsome dividends by comfortably taking both Superstox heats however by the end of the day it became clear that the ‘only way is Essex’ as Nick Smith from Aveley snatched victory in an all-action final, writes Kevin Wegg.

Former World Champion Tony Roots sadly passed away recently with cancer and he was remembered fondly with an immaculately observed minute’s silence prior to race one which aside from Smith’s win featured a superb effort by white tops Phil Proctor and Ben Stacey who despite a fast, dry surface, still managed to hold on to second and third respectively. They had their own battle for the lead in heat two which Alex Meadows finally brought to end but he couldn’t hold back Dave Smith and was then bumpered wide out of second place on the very last corner by Nick Smith.

Dave Smith’s chances of a hat-trick in the final were handicapped with the rulebook dictating he start from one grade further back which gave Proctor a chance to race away in to the distance. He was well set until a race stoppage bunched the grid with Smith looking very menacing in third place. Meadows was the first to swoop past Proctor though, who in turn was picked off by Smith. Mark Smith was on the receiving end of a huge crash at Yarmouth recently and it was his turn to upset the applecart with a hard hit when challenging for third, with the after-shock causing several cars to get out of shape including Proctor who hit the second bend armco square-on at speed and was then clipped in almost slow-motion by Jack Hughes who landed on his roof. Thankfully both were okay although Proctor’s car will need substantial repairs. Bumpers were swiftly applied from the restart by Mark Smith and Colin Aylward to move up a place each in to the top three but then the challenge for honours behind Aylward was whittled down somewhat bizarrely as Ben Marjoram was shown the technical disqualification flag for a damaged wheelguard however Steven Jackson thought it was for him and promptly pulled off! New British champion Brett Wesbroom made his presence felt late on scattering Phil Burksfield, Ben Munford and Ryan Eaton, with the latter sustaining considerable front end damage.

In the non-contact Stock Rods it was their opening heat which featured their biggest crash of the day and it involved most of the star men. Yellow grader Keith Conlon clipped the fence coming out of turn two; became stranded in the middle of the straight and was missed by everyone until the very rear of the pack tried to get past. Aside from what looked like a write-off for Conlon, the car of Pat Smith Jnr. suffered considerably, whilst Stuart Smyth and Andy Sturt also collected damage – only the latter re-appeared later in the final. White top Daniel Barkham looked impressive in both this and the second heat only to pull up with problems both times. Tyler Collison tried all he could to get round the outside of eventual opening heat winner Lee Ribbans and Luke Oliver but couldn’t make it stick. Daniel Bennett pulled out all the stops with a complete engine change prior to heat two and scored a creditable seventh for his efforts as Collison made no mistake this time. Barkham got it altogether to put up spirited resistance in the final with no fewer than eleven cars queued up behind at one stage with Wayne Leedell finally blasting past on the outside and he broke away with Collison to take the spoils.

Split heats for the Bangers featured a roll-over back on to all fours and away again for Andy Hill in the opener whilst their last all-in heat was particularly lively with Simon Rose knocked from pillar-to-post bringing out the red flags. With just one lap to go former Hot Rodder Kieran Murphy was half spun by Daniel Harvey to lose what would have been a maiden victory. A big pile-up on the exit from turn two caught several out as early leader Kelvin Banthorp tried in vain to re-take Stephen Hewitt only to delay himself spinning a back-marker.