Team EA won the Bragging Rights Banger team event.
Saloon Stock Cars
A decent turnout of 39 cars for the English Championship featured a quintet of visitors from the West Country region plus two from the north of England. The entry was split such that each driver could contest two from three qualifying heats before the main event.
Spalding-based yellow top #214 Tom Yould led the majority of Heat 1 before hometown man #341 Austen Freestone took over in the closing stages. Freestone went on to win from Yould, #120 Luke Dorling and #161 Billy Smith, who was at the wheel of a Ryan Santry car. His father Diggy (#116), the defending champion, was turned around while on the fringes of the top 10.
Yould went one better in Heat 2 as he won from Yorkshireman #422 Martin Taylor and local man #404 Harry Wickens, earning himself pole position for the English Championship race in the process. Smith Sr had a better run to fourth, just ahead of his son and in-form brothers Simon (#570) and Rowan (#370) Venni.
A lively Heat 3 was punctuated by a couple of caution periods which cost #137 Shaun Chaplin a healthy lead. Chaplin got ambushed and then spun out as Suffolk’s #399 Cole Atkins took the win from Diss driver #238 Alfie Aldous and Somerset-based #902 Brad Compton-Sage, who was fresh off success in the Irish Open eight days earlier.
Allied to sixth in the opener, it was enough for Atkins to secure a front-row start alongside Yould. Freestone and Billy Smith formed row two, with #171 Adam O’Dell and Simon Venni on row three.
Though Yould made the initial jump, he was half-spun by Atkins as the latter moved ahead, with Billy Smith taking second. Smith then got inside to take the lead, only be turned fencewards in the process, which allowed Freestone to take up the running with Atkins and Yould slotting into second and third. But Yould then spun out, and Aldous worked his way into second which allowed him to seize the advantage when Freestone was caught out in backmarking traffic.
The frantic action continued as Atkins hit the front, followed by Dorling who was then spun out by world champion #389 Ryan Santry, up from row eight of the grid. But when Wickens was fired up the wall and onto his side, the race was halted for the first of four times.
Santry pushed in front on the resumption, but Atkins responded by flooring it around the fence to move back ahead just before another stoppage, this time for an air filter fire on the #261 Dom Davies machine.
Assisted by Diggy Smith on his rear bumper, Santry again moved ahead on the restart. He was still in front when yellow flags reappeared quickly to assist #291 Charley Tomblin who had taken a heavy fencing courtesy of Devon driver #577 Harry Darby.
This time the lead pair of Santry and Smith broke clear as the race resumed but, yet again, they were pegged back by a caution after #677 Warren Darby heavily collected Freestone’s car which was trapped behind the spun Aldous.
There were now just six laps remaining, with Santry leading from Diggy Smith, Billy Smith, O’Dell and #156 Darren Goudy. Santry might be his son-in-law, but Diggy wasn’t going to give his title up easily for anyone. He moved ahead with three laps remaining but wasn’t able to get out of reach. A big last-bend lunge from Santry was inevitable and they both went heavily into the wall.
It was Santry who managed to scramble out of the bend quickest to snatch victory from Smith. Hometown man #329 Kegan Sampson was later confirmed in third to complete an East Anglian 1-2-3. O’Dell was fourth ahead of Billy Smith and Freestone as the bank holiday crowd certainly got their money’s worth from an action-packed affair.