Top Southern stars join field at Foxhall

THE annual Hurricane meeting for National Bangers pulled in a good entry for Saturday evening's motor sport at the Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich, with several of the top southern stars joining the locals in a 39-car line up.

The opening heat was a very lively affair - perhaps the best banger race of the night - but Norwich's Carl Gould was untroubled by all the mayhem going on around him, taking a good win ahead of the much more experienced Mark Welland and Sonny Sherwood.

The main event was next, which featured a race-long duel between two of the leading locals, Dean Mayes and Lee Clark, and though they swapped places a couple of times it was Mayes who was in front when it mattered.

Michael Alton was third for his best result in a major race at Foxhall, picking up the place when southern driver Dave King went out after getting involved in a big crash with a group of back marking cars.

Mayes rounded off a successful evening by winning the Allcomers as well, his cause being helped with both Clark and Gould pulling out when well placed.

A hard-hitting Destruction Derby rounded off proceedings in spectacular fashion, Alan Hunt taking a deserved win as a reward for the aggression he had shown in stopping other cars in their tracks with his own brand of very fast and heavy hitting.

In the Two Litre Stock Cars, a whole host of big names travelled up from the south and one of them, Steve 'Cecil' Anscombe took the opening heat after a last bend assault on Billy Wood.

The pair struggled to regain their line, and hurtled towards the flag side by side, Anscombe getting the verdict by inches.

Ipswich promoter Deane Wood made up for his son's narrow defeat in that race by winning heat two; the crowd were desperate for local favourite Diggy Smith to catch him after Wood had dumped Smith on his roof at Eastbourne a couple of weeks ago, but he could never get quite near enough to either extract revenge or take the win.

Another of the Smith family, John, won the final for his first win since joining the adult formulas, but once again, the Deane Wood and Diggy Smith showdown didn't happen after Wwood got spun out in a pack of other cars early on.

Smith finished fourth and local driver Bruce Wilcox was fifth, which was pretty good going for someone who spent most of the race in the thick of the action.

Thirty-five of the non contact Stock Rods produced three good heats, the first of them going to Eastbourne's John Wood, who had a hat trick here last time out.

The first three in the next heat were all penalised, which promoted Scotsman Billy Hardy to the win. A big crash in heat three briefly halted proceedings, but when they got going again, Scott Billman led all the way for his first ever win.

The final was a classic, although not for Wood and one of the top locals, Paul Frost, who crashed out heavily while, up front, Rob Sore was coming under increasing pressure from Andy Sturt.

They raced the last two laps side by side, and even when the chequered flag fell, they couldn't be separated resulting in a very rare dead heat.

This was a good result for Sore, a leading light some years ago who has only just returned to racing, and to hold on against one of the best in the world was no mean achievement.

Foxhall results

Stock Rods

Heat One: 1 Jon Wood (Eastbourne), 2 Tim Lusher (Kings Lynn), 3 Graham Moreton (Bassingstone).

Heat Two: 1 Willie Hardy (Cowdenbeath), 2 Michael Madden (Yarmouth), 3 Moreton.

Heat Three: 1 Scott Billman (Felthorpe), 2 Mark Shinn Jnr (Guilford), Rob Sore (Icklingham).

Final: 1 Dead Heat Sore & Andy Sturt (Leatherhead), 3 Billman.

Stock Cars

Heat One: 1 Steve Anscombe (Eastbourne), 2 Billy Wood (Aldershot), 3 John Smith (Dereham).

Heat Two: 1 Deane Wood (Aldershot), 2 Diggy Smith (Dereham), 3 John Smith.

Final: 1 John Smith, 2 Anscombe, 3 Billy Wood.

Bangers

Heat One; 1 Carl Gould (Norwich), 2 Mark Welland (Guildford), 3 Sonny Sherwood (Thurrock).

Hurricane Race: 1 Dean Mayes (Scole), 2 Lee Clark (Wisbech), 3 Michael Alton (Mildenhall).

Allcombers: 1 Mayes, 2 Luke Parfitt (Hempnall), 3 Sherwood.

Destruction Derby: 1 Alan Hunt (Bracknell), 2 Mitchell Mills (Southampton).