Unlimited CC National Bangers hit town on Saturday with the usual 6.45 start time as promoters Spedeworth run the annual Volcano Big Banger Bash, over 30 cars are booked in to try for a place on the grid for Banger racing’s biggest night of the year when the World Championship returns to Ipswich late in October. Unlimited CC means big cars and we can expect to see a good mix with the big Foxhall track suiting models such as Jaguars, Volvos, and maybe the odd car from across the Atlantic, but still the good old Mk2 Ford Granada is the tool for the job and they will be in abundance in the Foxhall pits on the night. It really does make you wonder if all those years ago a man sat down at Ford and set out to design the perfect Banger. With its 2.8 V6 power, trusty Ford handling and sheer strength and size the Granada Mk2 is still the most sought after car by the top Banger drivers, and somehow they just keep on finding them.

Former World Champion Dale Hughes (Ashford) is booked in along with top East Anglian star Carl Gould. Charlie King makes the journey up from the South coast along with Readings Alan “Jethro” Hunt who is always sure to get stuck in at these unlimited cc meetings. Regular Great Yarmouth pair Michael Allard and Danny are racing and would love to take some silverware back up the A12 in the middle of the busy summer season which will see them racing three times this week. Ever smiling Shane Davies will be in town and the bigger the crash the more he smiles! Shane took part in the Van Banger meeting at Aldershot last Sunday and typically ended up on his side...but still smiling and back for more in the next race.

Making a rare trip to Ipswich are the MASCAR racers, these are 2/3 scale rear wheel drive Winston Cup replica cars which are powered by the Yamaha FJ1200 or XJR1300 (1250cc) motorcycle engine. The cars have a choice of slightly different body styles but underneath are close to identical, this ensures plenty of side by side action and overtaking. Last time out the MASCAR racers were at Great Yarmouth Stadium and the action came thick and fast including a monumental crash in the opening heat which saw Steve Dakin’s car on top of the 23 machine of Wayne Galloway, both drivers were unhurt although the crash put Dakin out for the night, Galloway however was not going to be beaten and made it out onto track for his next heat to the applause of the crowd with his car body held together with countless rolls of tank tape. 16 cars are booked into to Foxhall including the two above and although the race style will probably be different to the smaller Great Yarmouth track these cars and drivers have a habit of providing hard close non contact racing, given the wide open expanse of Foxhall the speeds will be higher which should provide a good spectacle on the night.

Back to the contact and the 2.0 Stockcars return to Ipswich with a good mix of Southern and East Anglian drivers to do battle in round 7 of the Wealden Services Challenge Series. The points chart looks close and the top four are at Foxhall this weekend with just a handful of points separating them so it’s still all to play for. Billy Wood (Fleet) heads up the points but he cannot relax for one lap because he has local star George Morphey (Peasenhall) right on his back bumper and ready to pounce, and pounce he probably will as he looks to take the top of the series points away from Wood. Father and Son pairing Diggy and Billy Smith from Diss are top men in this class although they are both lower in the points than they would like to be at this stage in the series, that’s probably an indication of how tough this class is, too much time crashing and not finishing races leads to a suffering in the points. Steve “Cecil” Anscombe is another feared driver never far away from the action and there will be a few local drivers trying to stop him among them Hethersetts Robert “Spud” Gamble who is having a busy season racing in his Stock Car as well as his Lightning Rod and he is still not old enough to drive on the road!!