As grins go the one worn by the new National Unlimited Banger World Champion Shane Davies after a majestic drive at Foxhall will take some beating which is saying something for the ever-smiling Northfleet driver, yet former double champion Jason ‘Boxer’ Jackson threatened to wipe it away having already reeled him and taken a bite out of his tail with just six laps remaining……writes Kevin Wegg.
Davies had managed to wriggle off Jackson’s hook though and pull away slightly as Boxer Jack himself was slowed by Dovercourt’s Chris Wilcock only for Gladiator Craig Oliver to dramatically finish the job by spinning him out. Despite Davies fearing that “one of at least five of my enemies would try and take me out” the race was effectively in the bag and he roared home to record a hugely popular win by half a lap from Lee Hughes. Having already topped the qualifying points chart and once again presented a car worthy of any “best in show” award, the ‘hundreds & thousands’ were promptly add to the cherry already sat on top of his racing cake with an emphatic victory in his very next race when he took one of the “allcomers” events - even managing to smash rival Jack Overy out of the way in the process!
On the flip side, for East Anglians Carl Gould and Daniel Rose - second and third respectively in qualifying – there was to be nothing but heartache. Gould always brings out a truly stunning paint-job and this year was no exception but he was rewarded with a ghastly grid position fifty, although hopes for a sensational rostrum finish for eighteen year old college student debutant Rose blossomed considerably when he picked out ‘lucky 7’. Ironically there was to be nothing but bad luck and certainly no champagne ending, in fact, not even a start for the car was mis-firing terribly as the grid formed. With the car smoking badly and a faulty distributor quickly diagnosed he was tragically forced to look on helplessly with the team’s hard work and dreams having literally gone up in smoke.
Buried by Dutch Hearse
In a super-fast race on a beautifully dry evening with the crowd soaking up a truly magical atmosphere Mark Welland can consider himself unlucky after taking full advantage of pole position and roaring away only for the hearse of Dutchman Richard Steggles to bury Marc Blower thus bringing about the reds and a complete restart. Unperturbed he once again made a clean break of it and looked well set until he got held up temporarily allowing Davies through but fought back bravely to take fourth place despite having bent his steering in the process.
Defending champion Dale Hughes made a sensational attempt to retain his crown despite drawing grid forth-eight when he came home sixth and full marks too for Jack Foster Jnr for his third place, clearly set for even bigger things in the future.
With over two hundred and twenty cars in the pits and the stadium bursting at the seams with spectators, three last-gasp qualifying races kicked off proceedings in sublime fashion with winners Deane Mayes, Andy Newton and Davey Cox all securing sought-after places at the back of the golden grid. Banger racing would not be the thrilling spectacle it is though without a bucketful of drama behind those wins mind, the first heat of which saw young Matty High so nearly fulfil his life-long dream to make the grid when he led for three-quarters of the race only to perish at the hands of “Cecil” Anscombe who despite his charge simply couldn’t catch Mayes.
Track-blocking mega crash!
The biggest field of the night at sixty-five competed in the second heat and not surprisingly produced a track-blocking mega crash on turn two! With the car count already rising Gladiator Phil Smith in his stretch limo cranked things up a notch by blasting ‘Bear’ James Taylor with John Kirkbride, Wilf Speak and Lewis Harvey completely wrecked with a stonking seventeen cars in total all perishing! Not surprisingly the depleted field had little choice but to take up rally cross, being forced to drive around the speedway track as a result, with only nine cars finishing!
Northern Irish driver Davy Patton used his Yank tank to totally blitz Dean French in the final eliminator before emotions threatened to boil over on turn four with Ricky Hutton hitting Gladiator Marcus Sprawling on the shale after the race had already been red flagged.
‘Team Bears’ totally dominated the first of the Allcomers races with Shane Fry leading the charge and managing to crunch Tommy West hard in the process which caused a massive chain-reaction as turn two and the back straight became an impromptu breakers yard and then a bonfire as flames licked viciously from Gavin Perryman’s stricken car. From the restart another Bear Ash Riley took it up whilst team-mate Nigel Riley perished big-time. The baton was finally handed to Karl Day who finished the job and ensured the Bears entered victory lane with a very confortable win, just six cars finishing from nearly sixty starters.
To underline his class, Davies won the final allcomers race by another big margin as turn four started to emulate the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ with car after car sucked in to the wall or left paralysed on the speedway track.
An impressive field of twenty starters contested the curtain-falling demolition derby with the mystical turn four once again drawing cars in to their motorised death including a fire for Gladiator Paul Russell after a big hit by Irishman Davey O’Connor and in the end there was no separating Ash Riley and Steve McGrath as they perished together on a winning note. Shake, rattle and roll on next year!!