Volcano meet is a smashing night

THE latest motor sport event at Foxhall Stadium pulled in a very good crowd for what turned out to be one of the most entertaining meetings of the year.

The big, unlimited cc National Bangers were the main draw, with this year's Volcano meeting carrying £2,000 in prize money. Obviously the winner of the main event received a sizeable proportion of this, but with other awards for the rarest car, best paint job, wrecker of the meeting and so on, there was something for

everyone to go for, be they best known for winning, crashing or just turning up in something unusual.

Most of the top local stars raced, as did several of the leading Southerners, while World Champion Danny Hunt made the long journey up from Newton Abbot, his prize money eventually leaving him with a small profit on the night, having made third in one of the heats and second in the final.

Both heats were relatively quiet, but the final itself was a lively affair, with at least a dozen cars involved in a big pile-up which virtually blocked one of the bends for the second half of the race, during which time the lead changed hands several times.

Chris Reed had led from the start, but he was eventually overhauled by Woodbridge driver Nutty Wheyman, only for Reed to get back in front when Wheyman got held up in some heavy traffic, Nutty also losing out to Hunt over the closing stages as they struggled to find a way past all the action going on around various parts of the circuit.

A well-subscribed Destruction Derby brought the evening to a hard-hitting end when Dave Vincent's big old Rover landed a heavy blow on Karl Totham's Granada to leave him as the last car left running.

Other awards on the night went to Yarmouth's Mark Smith for the Best Paint Job, Fakenham's David Faiers whose 1966 Ford Thunderbird just got the verdict over Colin Dicken's Vauxhall Carlton limo as the rarest car, while Yarmouth's Martin Brunson picked up the Wrecker of the Meeting award.

The Lightning Rods English Championship shared top billing, and after all the damage at Arena Essex the previous weekend at the World Championship everyone was half expecting more of the same.

As it turned out, there wasn't a single controversial incident all evening, leaving the crowd to concentrate instead on some very fast and exciting racing – exactly as the rule book originally intended.

Romford's Karl Wheeler rounded of the best week of his career by adding the championship to the World title he'd won just six days earlier and while his win was fairly comfortable it was less comfortable just behind him where five cars had a race long duel for second place, Dorset's Mark Cooper just holding on although he was subsequently dropped a place for impeding Paul Harris, who eventually finished fourth, when the battle was at its height.

This promoted Ipswich stadium regular Richard Boulton to second, but otherwise it was a disappointing night for the locals with Brent Tillow from Saxlingham their next highest finisher, down in eighth place.

Three lively Mini Stox races, where the Jones brothers had the most success, and a very good fireworks display rounded off a well presented evening, with plenty of variety, plenty of speed and lots of action.

Results

Bangers: Heat 1: 1 Nutty Wheyman (Woodbridge) 2 Steve Mayes (Diss) 3 Danny Hunt (Newton Abbott).

Heat 2: 1 Chris Reed (Southampton) 2 Sonny White (Sherwood, Thurrock) 3 Shayn Winsor (Wymondham).

Volcano: 1 Reed 2 Hunt 3 Wheyman.

Destruction Derby: 1 Dave Vincent (Mildenhall) 2 Karl Totham (Tiptree).

Lightning Rods: Heat 1: 1 Karl Wheeler (Romford) 2 Paul Harris (Romford) 3 Mark Cooper (Poole).

Heat 2: 1 Colin Coupland (Sawston) 2 Stuart Place (Woodbridge) 3 Brent Tillow (Saxlingham).

English Championship: 1 Wheeler, 2 Richard Boulton (Bedford) 3 Cooper.

Mini Stox: Heat 1: 1 Murray Jones (Carshalton) 2 Todd Jones (Carshalton) 3 Terry Elce (Dunstable).

Heat 2: 1 M Jones, 2 David Polley (Heathfield) 3 Gavin Payne (Trunch).

Final: 1 T Jones, 2 Polley 3 Willie Skoyles Jnr (Heacham).