United Downs Raceway - Sunday 23rd July 2017

After a five week break, Stock Car action returned to the United Downs Raceway, St Day, with an enthralling day of action from the BriSCA F2 Stock Cars.  The National Micro Bangers were as lively as ever, and the youngsters in the Ministox were especially skilful as they contested the Cornish Championship.

BriSCA F2 Stock Cars

First up for the F2s was the annual Total White Out race, just for ‘C’ graders.  There were six cars in 2015, eight last year, and eleven this time around, to confirm the growing status of the event.  Despite a lowly grid position of ten, 740 Neil Langworthy made an outstanding start, swiftly moving through into contention.  In marked contrast, 241 Ginge Crook could barely have made a worse start, as he clattered off assorted other cars and the safety fence, before retiring with a puncture.  663 Bryan Lindsay, winner of the corresponding race two years ago, made the early running, but he could not hold off the advancing Langworthy.  A good late run by 572 James Lindsay saw him pip 460 Matt Weston for second, but Langworthy was the clear winner, to land the Ermington MOT Centre Trophy.  The rest of the F2 programme followed a 2 from 3 heat format.  Bryan Lindsay and track debutant 660 Becky Pearce tangled at the start of the first heat, and 468 Sam Weston tagged the 663 car, taking a rear wheel clean off.  Matt Weston was soon in the lead for the restart, but 542 Steven Gilbert hit the front by halfway, and won from 126 Jamie Avery.  After 762 Mike Cocks had led the early stages of heat two, 689 Joe Marquand took over.  The teenager, racing for the first time in almost two months, was charging towards the chequered when he was inadvertently spun around on the back straight by the errant Crook.  Gilbert inherited the lead, and the win, with 575 Tom Clark second.  Marquand recovered for a lowly eighth.  Marquand was in no mood to be denied in the third heat, which featured a clash on lap three between Matt Weston and 526 Marc Rowe.  A poor restart saw the luckless Langworthy bundled into the pits bend wall, before the green flag had been shown.  Avery blew his engine in a big way in the closing stages, whilst 979 Paul Moss benefitted when second over the line Sam Weston was docked for a jump start.  In time honoured fashion, the Silverline Trophy final had a clutch start, with severe handicaps for each grade.  All went well from the start, until 325 Ryan Sheahan rode up over 76 Chris Rowe, and Marquand subsequently spun and slid into the static Chris Rowe.  Gilbert had already retired with a broken rotor arm.  Langworthy led two more laps before another race suspension was needed with Clark stranded and facing the wrong way on the back straight.  Into the restart, 828 Julian Coombes and 418 Ben Borthwick swept past within a lap, and built up a bit of a lead, but by now 302 Dale Moon was coming into the reckoning.  Moon was right with Coombes by lap 14, when Crook bounced off the turn two fence, into the path of Sam Weston.  During the suspension, Chris Rowe inexplicably tried to pull the front bumper from fouling the front wheel of his brother Marc’s car, which resulted in an automatic disqualification for Marc Rowe.  Moon tracked Coombes and edged ahead.  Coombes had one chance to dive back at Moon, but did not connect with sufficient weight to shift the Cornish youngster, and thus Moon proceeded to regain the Silverline Trophy he won when it was last raced for at St Day.  Coombes was second, and Moss completed the top three.  Gilbert rounded out a good day, when he won the Grand National – his third victory from four races, after 342 Nigel Thomas had led for a long spell at the start of the race.

National Micro Bangers

The concluding round of the National Series for the National Micro Bangers was slightly short on numbers, but still the action came thick and fast.  160 Jamie Warr was by far the furthest travelled, as he made his first Cornish visit of the season – Warr On Tour.  Heat one included a hefty jacking train on the home straight, as 382 Tommy Hutchings blasted 621 Scott Kendall, and was then clobbered himself by 930 Jordan Lobb, who was duly bludgeoned by 648 Jamie Smith.  187 Stuart Cassidy was fired into the turn one fence, by 838 Jamie Peters, and then Cassidy committed the cardinal sin of exiting his car, during a race, for which he was subsequently reprimanded.  Despite being chased for most of the race by former World Champion 162 Brett Ellacott, 206 Matt Brewer stormed to victory, and then demolished Hutchings with a hit that was not overly popular with the recipient, having sat there for quite some time, untroubled.  Heat two included some ferocious crashing on the exit of the turnstile bend.  Kendall thundered into 205 Matt Cottle, and was then collected by 133 Terry Hill, after which Brewer ran Lobb around the plating and 196 Phil Chapman and Peters joined the turn four pile-up, which left Chapman wide open to a stunning shot from Smith.  Once away from the heap, Chapman weighed in on Lobb.  Ellacott won, having relieved 74 Adam Hitchcock of the lead, just before the midway point.  The final brought another win for Ellacott, who caught 451 Nigel Belfield at halfway.  Belfield held on for second, whilst Brewer completed the top three.  Ahead of the Destruction Derby, 45 Anthony Croshaw gallantly gave a taste of some Caravan Chaos type fun, ahead of the following week’s caravan race, as he flew through a static caravan, to huge applause.  A lively DD followed, which included Hutchings, who had worked wonders to get his disfigured wreck back out again after the first heat.  Finally, Smith battered Hutchings into submission, and waved in by Brewer, Smith landed a last blow on the stationary 206 car.

Ministox

Ahead of racing, the annual Fancy Dress Parade produced a mixture of effort; some teams having gone to great lengths, whilst others simply did not bother at all.  901 Jacob Hale raised some eyebrows with his controversial “Does my bomb look big in this?” ensemble, but it was 914 Callum Faulconbridge, complete with camouflage and army flares, who was a clear winner.  The 17 youngsters then contested two graded heats ahead of the Cornish Championship final.  Hale got out front in the first heat, but when 619 Max Langmaid and 870 Stella Farrell tangled in turn one, Hale’s evasive actions saw him strike the fence, and he was collected by 943 Hannah Esau.  The race was suspended, and once restarted 911 Harrison Bryant made a good late run to claim the win from 677 Warren Darby.  Despite assorted spinners around the circuit, including 667 Tommy Farrell, 972 Jack Soby and Stella Farrell, there was a first ever win for Hale in the second heat.  The front row of the title race was shared by Robbins and Darby, with 980 Charlie Lobb and Bryant on row two, and what a stunning race the young stars served up.  There was lots of passing, lots of sensible bumperwork, and at the end of 16 wonderful laps, Bryant had sped to victory, from Langmaid and Robbins, with Darby in fourth.