On the night when the England football team failed to press home their one goal advantage against their American opponents there were no less than two English hat-tricks at Foxhall Stadium one of which was in an all-American V8 powerhouse too boot! Writes KEVIN WEGG.

Richard Poulter was first to press home his advantage in the 2.0 Hot Rods (29 cars) with a fine blast around the outside in the first which nearly ended disastrously after Danny Fiske and Kevin Randell clashed prompting the latter to charge in to the field going in to turn one only to spin and send cars scattering everywhere. Fiske was again in the spotlight when he and Southerner Mark Cooper almost lost it before Cooper pulled away only to get it all wrong when attempting a pass on Paul Trimmer causing Trimmer to spin out. Cooper was duly dropped two places but he was no match for Poulter who blasted past Graham Fulker. After having already been dropped a place in heat one for contact Kym Weaver then received the football-equivalent of a straight red when he was disqualified during the final after pushing his way past Fulker whose own chances similarly went out of the window. Damon Wellman gleefully inherited the lead and in an exciting five-way train Poulter was all over his back-end as he tried to pass speedway-style with thrilling cut-backs. Eventually the pressure told with just two laps to go and the race was then on for second which climaxed in style with a three-abreast finish that saw Daniel Smith and Fiske take the well-earned places only for poor Wellman to just miss out in fourth.

Gary Ellis secured the other non-contact hat-trick in the visiting European Late Model V8 cars (12) in his American Chevrolet Impala. A former Superstox driver he used his track knowledge to great effect with a series of overtaking passes that underlined his vast superiority on the night although it was still no mean feat in these very powerful and big motors. The truly international field with drivers from France, Belgium and Holland was certainly quite a thunderous sight although for Stuart Whalley the night will hold painful memories as he t-boned the stricken Andrew Knight in the final and did considerable damage in the process.

World championship qualifying points were on offer in the under 2100cc Bangers and with a dry track the actual racing was remarkably quick and largely incident-free despite a large contingent of drivers from the Essex-based Gladiator team. Matt High entertained with both front and rear damage in the first (36 cars and 3 non-starters) as did Terry Scruton whose car might as well have had a target on the back such was the number of hits it received. Michael Allard took an easy win. Gladiator Philip Smith landed a big hit on Chris Wilcock in the second which brought a race stoppage before Sean Parratt completed a spectacular roll-over after only one lap of the restart. Lee Hughes hit the front at the third time of asking and usually dominates once his nose is in front but James Bulley slipped past on this occasion. He could do nothing next time out though as Hughes out-dragged them all to make it count when the big money was on offer in the “Hurricane”. Best action of the night though came in the DD which featured some big crashes and the always-to-be-relied upon Gladiators at the centre of most if it. Unfortunately one of their posse Mark Munson had a head-on with Parratt and with the car on fire he promptly jumped out of his seat only for the car to be hit at high-speed by another spinning car which literally hurled him in to the air. He landed very badly on the speedway shale and with the event instantly stopped there was concern as the expert St. Johns Ambulance staff rushed to treat him. A broken left wrist and possible cracked vertebrae were later diagnosed but thankfully he was in good spirits after coming round and was soon talking about a booking for the Spede Weekend – that’s assuming the cast has come off by then! Get better soon Mark - see you there!