COMPARED to last week's All Rod non-contact meeting, this week's motor racing at the Foxhall Stadium was completely taken over by the contact formulas, where pushing and shoving is all perfectly legitimate and definitely considered to be an important part of a driver's armoury.

COMPARED to last week's All Rod non-contact meeting, this week's motor racing at the Foxhall Stadium was

completely taken over by the contact formulas, where pushing and shoving is all perfectly legitimate and definitely

considered to be an important part of a driver's armoury.

But as with most things, there is a skill to it. Merely bashing and crashing will not win any races.

The Superstox were well on course for round two of the Daytona Series, and with world champion Mark Eaton having a prior engagement, former champion Gary Sparkes went into the meeting as the favourite. Even though the entry included the Daytona

champion Chris Bradbury and British champion Geoff Bridges, the latter being one of three drivers out in a brand new car.

The others were Newmarket's Dave Madgwick and Ipswich star Titch Gardner, whose self-built and very

radical machine raised a lot of

eyebrows. It has taken him four months to complete, and while this meeting was more of a test run for him than anything else, it ran well enough to suggest that there could be plenty of wins to come from it over the coming months.

As expected, Sparkes justified his position as favourite by winning both heat two and the final, but he was

narrowly beaten in the opening heat when 19-year-old Barry Randall from Diss took his first ever win in the

formula, after just over a year of

competing.

Matthew Carberry from Bury, was a very close second in this race, likewise in heat two, but an early crash in the final put an end to his chances of

another top-three finish.

Rob Perry, also from Bury, won the all-comers event at the end of the evening. However, Sparkes elected not to race in this one, having got the

necessary point to keep him near the top of the Daytona series – the winner of which ultimately gets a trip to Florida next February to watch the Daytona 500 race.

An unexpected high entry of stock cars also provided some entertaining racing. Ipswich's Noddy Robinson lined up for his first outing in some months. Sadly, it wasn't a particularly successful return, but it was good to see him back, particularly at a time when the East Anglian drivers are not

dominating the formula in the way that they used to.

Mark Bloss was the only driver who scored consistently well, with two good results in the heats, before falling back to seventh in the final. The second heat provided its own little bit of history when two of the top 10 places were tied. This is believed to be unique, as there are maybe only two or three ties during the whole season, and to get two of them in one race is incredible.

Fourth place and seventh place were the positions in question, with even video technology unable to separate the drivers.

The Rookie Bangers completed the evening in their usual knockabout style. Once again there were over 50 of them and, as last time, there was another win for the Clacton boys in the shape of Simon Fennell, and Nicky Bloomfield, another Essex racer.

Fortunately, there was a bit more

success for the local boys this time, with surprise wins for Adam Latham and Jamie Melia. Robbie Nicholls also had a string of good results. He led both heat three and the final for some time before losing out.

Results

Superstox

Heat One: 1 Barry Randall (Diss), 2 Matt Carberry (Bury St Edmunds), 3 Gary Sparkes (Felsham).

Heat Two: 1 Sparkes, 2 Carberry, 3 Simon Mallett (Staines).

Final: 1 Sparkes, 2 Steven Jackson (Harleston), 3 Stuart Thompson (Felixstowe).

Allcomers: 1 Rob Perry (Bury St Edmunds), 2 Jackson, 3 Thompson.

Stock Cars

Heat One: 1 Barry Staples (Ringwood), 2 Mark Bloss (Woodbridge), 3 Samantha Holland (Brighton).

Heat Two: 1 Bloss, 2 Holland, 3 Nick Rogers (Shefford).

Final: 1 Gary Fitch (Croydon), 2 Derry Monk (Horley), 3 George Boult (Walton on Thames).

Rookie Bangers

Heat One: 1 Nicky Bloomfield (Wickford), 2 Tony Kingsnorth (Woolpit), 3 Shaun Bassey (Lowestoft).

Heat Two: 1 Simon Fennell (Clacton), 2 Julian Buck (Fressingfield), 3 Jason Langley (Braintree).

Heat Three: 1 Adam Latham (Ipswich), 2 Robbie Nicholls (Ipswich), 3 Robert Spall (Dallinghoo).

Final: 1 James Melia (Ipswich), 2 Marcus Gridley (Stowmarket), 3 Nicholls.