United Downs Raceway - Sunday 29th May 2011

A large crowd gathered at the United Downs Raceway, St Day for the annual Bus & Coach racing event.  The BriSCA F2 Stock Cars made their third St Day appearance of the season, and over 50 Bangers contested this year's Cornish Championship.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

676 Neil Hooper and 315 Justin Fisher took the lion's share of the spoils as the F2s raced at St Day for the third time this season.  Hooper won both of his heats, whilst Fisher scored his first race win of the season in heat three.  The final featured a selection of crashes and incidents, which all aided Hooper's cause in getting from the back of the grid to the front.  In the final portion of the race, Hooper was able to overhaul Fisher, before securing a second St Day final win of the season.  290 Jay Tomkins completed the top three.  After 31 Simon Bassett had led much of the Grand National, Fisher edged past to score his second win of the day.

Bangers

There were more than 50 Bangers for this year's Cornish Championship.
Defending Champion 246 Ryan Sparks won the opening heat, and 321 Mark Johns was more than a little fortunate to be awarded heat two, having been caught up in a tangle at the very start of the race.  In a chaotic consolation race, 654 Mark Pope swept to victory, and that inspired Pope to produce the drive of his career in the title race.  The first four laps were led by newcomer 847 Andy Whatley, and then 320 Dan Abbott took over for a few laps.  In turn, he was overhauled by 947 Luke Purdy, but two laps from home, Pope timed his run to perfection, to nip past Purdy to grab the Championship.  Youngster Purdy was second, and Abbot was third.
The day ended with victory in the Allcomers race for veteran 194 Alistair Buchan.

Buses & Coaches

A trio of Hoppa buses/similar sized vehicles, joined with three full length coaches.  141 Toby Tiddy maintained his flawless attendance record, with another appearance.  The VRC coach, which raced for the CLIC Sargent charity had three different drivers.  854 Hannah Sear did well to blast the coach around the track in the first race, which was won by 210 Mike Johns.  In the second race, 054 Sarah Sear took to the wheel of the charity coach, and after a brief spell trapped behind "Old Smokey" 605 Liam Rowe, she also went the distance, as Johns won again.  354 Mark Sear was the charity coach's driver in the final/DD, in which Rowe was finally able to get a few laps done in his troublesome coach.  The 142 James Herman bus collected some impressive damage in the DD section, and after a period when it would not moved, 998 Martin Knowles belatedly got his coach running and tried hard to batter the Rowe coach into submission, before time was called on the prolonged contest, with Rowe victorious.  Great fun all round for all concerned.