Foxhall Stadium became Roll-Over City for a few hours as the Micro Bangers literally rolled in to the joint in spectacular fashion whilst the rod formulas were not to be outdone with some impressive over-taking and unscripted high-speed smashes for good measure, writes Kevin Wegg.

A fortnight ago the speedway shale and rain combined to render the outside line virtually unusable but there were no such problems this time although for the Lightning Rods in heat one the more pressing problem was the fence. An excellent entry of thirty-two cars including a sprinkling of visiting PRI and Incarace drivers ensured a busy track which exploded when first Darren Wells and then Ben Furness spun and hit the turn four fence. Both looked vulnerable but with most of the field past they appeared to have got away with it until Neil Allgood slammed in to Furness at high-speed bringing out an instant race stoppage. Whilst all drivers were thankfully OK, the Furness car was written off with severe front and rear damage. In the restart Jimmy Rix and Diggy Smith had a lively squabble over the lead which the former won. Impressive white grader Jordan Spavins outdragged Stephen Warren from the outside in heat two to lead in to turn one. Rix was black-crossed for spinning third-placed Dan Murray and then later Murray went again with Rix and Paul Brown again on his tail, the latter this time collecting one of many crosses generously dished out by the Race Steward. Spavins’ lead was whittled away by Brown who then decided to defend by racing with more caution thus allowing the pack to catch and join in the frantic scrap. Consequently Gary Legrice and Wayne Farrer both spun on the last lap whilst Mike Daniels tried the Steward’s patience too much and was disqualified from fourth for contact. Murray had got it together come final time and kept the lead from the start after eventually wriggling free. Spavins was having to contend with holding back Brown and Rix but the latter brilliantly took the outside to be followed soon after by Brown. Diggy went out with smoke billowing from the engine as Murray pulled further away leaving Rix to fight off Brown which he just did by half a car length.

A similarly impressive 2.0 Hot Rod entry saw a random grid for the first heat, reversed for the second as drivers qualified for positions in the East Anglian Championship final. William Reed made the most of his front row start to record an easy win after turn four claimed another batch of victims although thankfully surprisingly little damage after Tommy Miller and Paul Jones spun to set off a chain reaction. Paul Wright used the outside well to take second and was good value all evening as was Mark Cooper who repeated the move. Heat two saw another flag-to-flag with Scott Morgan taking the honours in another fast & furious race on a very welcome sunny evening. Jason Wilks and Danny Fiske enjoyed some panel rubbing if enjoy is the right word to use further down the field which didn’t stop Wilks – defending champion – making it on to row three for the title race. Once again the outside line afforded a lightning start this time for Mark Cooper who left Chris Crane floundering. Wilks made it add up to third quickly and was set to chase the leaders until Wright had other ideas and re-took him. Cooper meanwhile was long gone with victory just about sealed as attention focussed on the great scrap between Wright and Wilks which the latter finally snatched after diving up the inside.

Micro Bangers – small in size and entries as it turned out – placed a question-mark over how successful they would be but the twenty-three starters were big on value and treated the crowd to no less than five rollovers! They were surprisingly quick and naturally slightly unstable as a result which meant anything could happen and did! Race one brought us synchronised high-speed roll-overs courtesy of Tillio and Jake Stewart as they both flipped spectacularly on the home straight. On the restart Lee Basham rolled before he’d even crossed the line then Kieran Cannell did the same at the very end of heat two. Basham wasn’t content with just the one roll mind and so did it all over again (literally!) in the final. Michael Lane was intent on having fun in this one as he kicked off a DD with Andrew Rosson before crabbing around entertainingly with a rear wheel that was hanging on by what appeared to be no more than a brake pipe! Dave Canham, Daniel Harvey and Simon Berry took the wins, the latter this time keeping the flag and acknowledging the large Team Simple posse on the terraces in the process after he’d been penalised in the final last time.